Frontier Fiber Progress

Last week I was very encouraged to see Frontier's contractor trucks working their way up our road to install fiber. I knew that Frontier would be building at least to a point where they have grant award locations, but was not sure if they would build any farther than there at this time. I was pleasantly surprised to see them continuing up the road beyond the grant locations, meaning that they will be bringing fiber service to more homes in our valley.

Like many parts of Macon County, we live in an area that was awarded to Charter Communications (Spectrum) through the FCC RDOF program. Though we have seen a few “Spectrum Internet Coming Soon” signs here and there, the Broadband Committee has been told that Charter will not begin building in Macon until after the first of the year. Since Charter has the FCC RDOF award, no other provider can receive federal or state grant funding to build in these areas, and Charter has until 2028 to complete the build - assuming choose to build all locations. The good news is that any provider can build in RDOF awards areas using their own funds, and this is exactly what is happening today with Frontier.

Frontier told the County that they planned to build fiber to many locations beyond just their grant obligations, but until it started happening we had no way of knowing how much of this would actually occur. We do know that Frontier is spending far more to build fiber throughout the County than they are receiving through grants, and it is great to see Frontier making good on that promise in some areas.

The Frontier contractors that we have all seen around the County since last fall are installing what the company refers to as “feeder" fiber, which are the fiber cables that extend from two primary Frontier wire centers out into the community. The contractor like the one installing near our home will only run the primary “feeder” fiber cable down the road. Another contractor or Frontier directly will come back later to run drop fiber extensions to individual homes. If the fiber has been run passed your home, it is highly likely you will be offered fiber service. It is in Frontier’s financial interest to connect as many homes as possible to help the business case for their investment. Prior to Frontier connecting homes, those affected should see an advertising blitz to get connected.

Many that have or have had Frontier DSL service continue to voice concerns about less than ideal experiences with DSL and/or Frontier. However, dealing with Frontier will only be required in the short term, as Frontier is merging with Verizon and that merger is expected to become final before the end of the year. So, those accepting fiber service from Frontier will ultimately be Verizon customers. It will remain to be seen what changes come as Verizon takes over, but for those with Verizon mobile service it is likely that bundling options with phone and internet will become available.

Great to see actual progress in our county!