West Virginia Executive Summer 2018 | Page 52

A Commitment to Connectivity Frontier Communications has made a commitment to West Virginia. A commitment to invest, improve, and expand access to broadband. Throughout the state, we're working to help connect thousands of rural West Virginians through our own private investment and the Connect America Fund (CAF) program. Under this initiative, Frontier is building new broadband infrastructure and offering high- speed Internet service to people in the most underserved parts of the state. The Federal Communications Commission established the CAF program in 2011 to facilitate broadband deployment to the millions of Americans living in rural areas without access to broadband. On paper, it means tremendous private- public investment to West Virginia. In our communities, in means more than 89,000, newly-enabled broadband connections by 2020 in our State. During the past two years, Frontier has built 200 Connect America Fund projects in 36 counties throughout West Virginia. These projects provided new and upgraded broadband service to more than 74,000 households. The largest number of these locations were in rural counties, such as Greenbrier, Preston, Mineral and Hampshire Counties. unserved households, as well as improvements in broadband speeds and services. This is about investing in our future, our network, the communities we serve, and Frontier is committed to helping ensure West Virginia is equipped to succeed in the 21st century. Frontier is committed to this mission. We look forward to our continued work with the Connect America Fund and our continued commitment to West Virginia. “Broadband connectivity is critical, Frontier is committed to helping ensure West Virginia is equipped to succeed in the 21st Century.” - Greg Stephens Senior Vice President of Operations Frontier Communications Midwest Region And, there are more improvements slated for 2018. Investment and upgrades in more than 100 rural locations of our state are planned during the next 12 months and beyond. Improvements are planned in Clay, Paw Paw, Levels, Clendenin, Gauley Bridge, Fayetteville, and Romney—just to name a few. The CAF program and investments by Frontier are enabling broadband access to previously frontier.com