Frontier Communications says the company is testing new fixed wireless broadband services the company intends to aim at more rural subscribers. Sure, the company may be hemmoraghing DSL subscribers frustrated by a lack of upgrades, and fending off rumors of potential bankruptcy largely thanks to this upgrade apathy, but Frontier continues to insist it's working very hard to expand broadband availability courtesy of $283 million in CAF-II subsidies from the FCC, which Frontier says will help it expand broadband to 650,000 rural locations it previously claimed weren't economically viable.
“We are already well on our way, with a deadline to reach 40 percent of those homes and businesses -- over 500,000 -- by year-end 2017,” Frontier said in a recent FCC filing. “We also continue to explore all possible avenues for further expanding broadband in high-cost rural areas, including through the CAF Phase II Auction.”
While some of those users will see slightly faster DSL, others will apparently be seeing a fixed-wireless service. Said service will use 3.7-4.2 GHz band spectrum for rural fixed point-to-multipoint deployments, but the company has yet to state how much it will cost, whether it will be capped, and at what speeds it will be delivered.
That said, companies like Frontier and Consolidated Communications are pushing the FCC to modify rules allowing for these kind of point-to-multipoint deployments.
“While our companies continue to evaluate the specifics of this plan, at a minimum it focuses the Commission upon the correct goal: ensuring that the spectrum is not locked into large mobile wireless geographic licenses that do not allow for fixed wireless use,” the companies said. “Simply put, BAC’s proposal offers a straightforward path to unleashing this spectrum, and it may be the best way to start ensuring this spectrum starts paying dividends to rural America.”
Meanwhile, Frontier is busy trying to put out numerous fires at once, from
low employee morale due to executive mismanegement, to lingering customer frustration at the company's
bungled acquisition of Verizon's unwanted networks in Florida, Texas and California.