Verizon-Frontier deal enters the show-me phase

　　When Verizon announced its acquisition of Frontier Communications 16 months ago, the company was led by Hans Vestberg and the focus of the transaction was to bulk up Verizon's fiber base and amp up its ability to offer a mobile-fiber broadband convergence bundle.

　　Today Verizon has a new CEO, Dan Schulman, and the company has a different set of priorities under the brand-building executive, including a bigger focus on fixing Verizon's critically important postpaid business.

　　Schulman, who inherited the Frontier deal, put a good spin on it via this welcoming message posted yesterday.

　　"Our combined strength immediately creates an unparalleled fiber network. By seamlessly integrating Frontier's lightning fast network with the award-winning Fios we instantly expand our reach to approximately 30 million fiber passings," Schulman explained. He is expected to elaborate on future plans when Verizon announces Q4 2025 results on January 30.

　　Verizon tees up new mobile offers to Frontier subs

　　Verizon wasted little time extending a set of convergence-focused offers to the Frontier customers it has acquired.

　　On Thursday, Verizon revealed that existing Frontier fiber customers can get four mobile lines for $20 per line per month, or a single line for $40 per month (with the Unlimited Welcome plan and with Auto Pay). Verizon is also offering a new iPhone 17 "on us" with each new line, with no trade-in required. Verizon is offering to pay off current phones (up to $800) when Frontier fiber subs switch to Verizon.

　　Verizon has also teed up new offers for Frontier business fiber customers, including "My Biz" plans starting at $20 per line per month, with a 5G phone and mobile hotspot included. Existing Verizon Business mobile customers are in line to get a free six months of Frontier Business Fiber service.

　　Broader reach

　　The combination of Verizon's ongoing, organic Fios network buildouts and Frontier's aggressive fiber expansions during the transaction process (Frontier had about 8.8 million fiber passings at the end of Q3 2025) has broadened Verizon's fiber reach and its ability to offer a home broadband/mobile combo. Here's how that footprint looked when the deal was first announced:

　　Verizon, which was on track to build about 500,000 new Fios locations in 2025, has been targeting 30 million-plus fiber passings by 2028, and the company has expressed interest in bumping that to 35 million to 40 million locations over an undetermined timeframe.

　　Verizon's acquisition of Frontier has endured a few rough patches. In addition to facing obstacles from shareholders, the deal also faced scrutiny from California regulators. Late last week, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) gave the deal the greenlight, albeit with a bevy of conditions.

　　Living up to the promise?

　　So, now comes the harder part: turning the deal into the convergence engine that was promised back in the fall of 2024. Some analysts are skeptical that the acquisition will make much of an impact at all, let alone deliver on its original promise.

　　The deal "is all about convergence... and yet, by any reasonable measure, the merger is much ado about nothing," MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett explained in a research note (registration required). That view reiterates what Moffett has been saying for months: that recent waves of fiber network expansions and fiber-related M&A are not nearly enough to enable the likes of Verizon and AT&T to build a true, national convergence strategy.

　　Frontier's fiber footprint (4.3% of the US) combined with Verizon's (9.2%) "simply doesn't yield enough national coverage to meaningfully compete with cable operators' collective 90%+ convergence coverage," Moffett wrote.

　　The analyst also argued that the Frontier deal doesn't address Verizon's pressing issues such as its postpaid business, and likewise he is not convinced that Verizon will keep up its fiber-building pace as Schulman looks to address the ongoing erosion of the company's postpaid subscriber base.

　　"The acquisition of Frontier does not offset the headwinds facing Verizon in the wireless industry," Moffett explained. "In fact, we would argue that convergence strategies only exacerbate deflationary forces to ARPU [average revenue per unit]. Verizon's move of adding fiber assets to their wireline business does little to change our view of wireless price compression going forward."