CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- By combining the more than 6,300 miles of fiber infrastructure of the former Frontier and newly purchased Verizon telecommunications properties, Frontier Communications (NYSE: FTR) has created a robust fiber optic middle-mile infrastructure to bring high bandwidth or high speed/broadband services to the state of West Virginia. In addition, Frontier has more than 100 major fiber network upgrades planned over the next 12 months, which will significantly expand Frontier’s capability in West Virginia.
Frontier will leverage this fiber network by building a new Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) network in southern West Virginia to provide increased bandwidth up to 10 gigabits and redundancy in 12 markets throughout the state. ROADM technology offers a more flexible infrastructure, enables service to be deployed more rapidly, eliminates overlay technologies and provides a single platform to deliver multiple services and further reliability.
It utilizes a state-of-the-art optical multiplexer to remotely switch telecommunications traffic and provides much greater flexibility to make changes without affecting customer high speed broadband traffic already on the network. This network will be the foundation for a new Switched Ethernet network that will provide 10 Gigabit capacity for business customers and cell sites, and greatly enhance service reliability for all customers.
Data Network Enhancements:
Frontier is already increasing the Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructure in West Virginia. Its aggressive six-month plan includes upgrading four (4) state aggregation Points of Presence (POPs) by installing state-of-the art routers in Bluefield, Charleston, Clarksburg and Martinsburg. Each location will have Gigabit Ethernet connections to Frontier’s 20 Gigabit National Data Backbone POPs in Ashburn, Virginia; Atlanta, Georgia and Chicago, Illinois. The network’s scalable and flexible architecture will allow Frontier to exceed the demands of future IP traffic such as Web 2.0, Voice, Video, and other applications.
“These infrastructure investments will dramatically improve the Internet experience for our West Virginia customers and offer superior redundancy and scalability for future products and services,” said Ken Arndt, president of Frontier’s Southeast Region. “When complete, West Virginia will be a model for next-generation intra-state network design, providing robust IPV4, IPV6 and MPLS VPN services.“
Some of the new products and benefits enabled by this technology include:
1. Frontier Dedicated Internet service for both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols. IPv4 allows connectivity to legacy network devices while the new IPv6 “future proofs” Frontier’s network to accommodate new equipment and additional customers;
2. Increased redundancy and scalability for Frontier High-Speed Internet customers; and
3. Frontier’s Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Layer 3 Virtual Private Network (VPN) product, which combines enhanced Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) signaling, MPLS traffic isolation and router support for Virtual Routing/Forwarding (VRF) to create an IP-based VPN. Compared to other types of VPN, MPLS L3VPN is more cost efficient and can provide more robust services to customers. This product gives network operators more flexibility to divert and route data traffic as needed to keep the network operating and telecommunications traffic flowing in an appropriate fashion.
Frontier also plans to release its IP/VPN product. IP/VPN will be Frontier's nationwide carrier class private Ethernet network and will provide access to customers on the West Virginia statewide network to any access point in the national Frontier network.
“These products and initiatives are part of our three-year plan to strengthen the infrastructure and the customers’ reach to new technologies in West Virginia. It will provide a strong base for economic development and move the state closer to the top of national ranking for broadband connectivity,” Arndt said.
More information is available at www.frontier.com and www.frontier.com/ir.