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And for more on Frontier, check out these articles:
· Frontier scales fiber customer base with 97K new customers in Q4
· Verizon’s CEO sees potential synergies from its pending Frontier acquisition
· Frontier sees broadband deployment savings potential in self-installs
Frontier, which is in the process of being acquired by Verizon, continues to extend its fiber footprint to more locations, a trend that continued into the first quarter.
During the first quarter, Frontier added 321,000 fiber passings to reach 8.1 million total locations passed with fiber.
By reaching over 8 million locations with fiber, Frontier is coming closer to its goal of 10 million locations, which it set in 2021 with an eye on areas that show positive revenue potential.
“As of March 31, 2025, we have passed over 8 million total locations with fiber,” the company said in its latest 10Q report. “We prioritize our activities at locations we believe will provide the highest investment returns.”
Frontier added that as it expands fiber into more areas, “we expect our business mix will shift significantly, with a larger percentage of revenue coming from fiber.”
Consumer legacy, fiber battles
Being a traditional telco, Frontier continues to see its fiber revenues increase amidst ongoing copper-based declines.
Frontier continued to make strides with its customer base, adding 107,000 fiber broadband customers, resulting in fiber broadband customer growth of 19.3% year-over-year in the first quarter.
Consumer fiber revenue of $589 million increased 16.6% year-over-year as growth in broadband was partly offset by declines in video. Likewise, it saw gains in consumer fiber broadband and APRU.
Driven by growth in fiber broadband customers and ARPU, consumer fiber broadband revenue of $471 million increased 25.6% year-over-year.
Fiber broadband revenue per customer ARPU rose $3.03, or 5%, to $68.21, up from $65.18 in the same period a year ago.
Frontier said “the increase in consumer ARPU for the three months ended March 31, 2025, was due to customer shifts to higher broadband speeds, customers rolling off promotional pricing, and inflation-related price increases, all partially offset by increased retention activity and autopay take rates.”
Consumer fiber broadband customer net additions of 103,000 resulted in consumer fiber broadband customer growth of 19.8% year-over-year. This was up from 85,000 net additions for the three months ended March 31, 2024.
Frontier noted that “customers who migrated from our copper base constituted a minor portion of these consumer fiber broadband customer net additions for the three months ended March 31, 2025.”
Likewise, consumer fiber broadband customer churn was 1.20% compared to 1.24% in the first quarter of 2024.
Overall, Frontier’s consumer revenue of $813 million increased 3.3% year-over-year as growth in fiber-based products was partly offset by declines in copper-based products.
As expected, Frontier said it “lost approximately 41,000 consumer copper broadband customers compared to a loss of approximately 51,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2024.”
Business, wholesale fiber factor
Like the consumer sector, Frontier’s business and wholesale segment was also driven by the growth of fiber-based services.
Business and Wholesale fiber revenue was $324 million, up 8.0% year-over-year.
With the addition of 4,000 fiber broadband customers, Business and Wholesale fiber broadband customer growth was 11.4% year over year.
Frontier reported first-quarter business and wholesale revenue of $682 million, which increased 3.5% yearly.
The company also saw Business and Wholesale fiber broadband ARPU growth and reduced fiber broadband customer churn. ARPU rose 1.6% year-over-year to $99.98, while Business and Wholesale fiber broadband customer churn was 1.53% compared to 1.32% in the first quarter of 2024.
Like the consumer segment, approximately 7,000 business and wholesale copper broadband customers, compared to a loss of roughly 6,000 in the same period a year ago.
“This increase was driven by increases in data and internet services, partially offset by decreases in voice services revenue, predominantly in business,” Frontier said. “The increase in data and internet services was due to unit price increases in network access services and the continued growth of our fiber broadband customer base with a shift towards higher broadband speeds.”
Voice services revenue declined $31 million, or 10%, to $290 million.
Frontier said the voice service revenue “decline was primarily due to net losses in business and consumer customers in addition to fewer customers bundling voice services with broadband as compared to the prior year period, all partially offset by higher voice services ARPU.”
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Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategies of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report across their websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products.