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Growth opportunity

by DAVID COLE/dcole@cdapress.com
| July 23, 2014 9:00 PM

COEUR d'ALENE - Melinda White, president of the west region of Frontier Communications, said the company has made significant investment in broadband infrastructure in North Idaho.

"Broadband was available to only 68 percent of the customer population, or the customer opportunity, in these areas" when the company started in Idaho, White said Tuesday in an interview with The Press. "Over the next almost four years, that number has become 86 percent."

In that time the company has almost entirely rebuilt the backbone of the broadband network between the U.S.-Canada border and the Coeur d'Alene area, she said.

"We see a lot of growth opportunity" in North Idaho, White said. "Small business is very prevalent."

In the past three years, Frontier invested $43 million in Idaho expanding broadband and making sure the network is updated, with much of that money being spent in North Idaho. In 2013, the total state investment was $12 million.

The investments have paid off, she said, with significant customer growth.

"Our market share growth across Idaho has been material," she said. The company doesn't provide specific market share numbers, she said.

"Idaho has definitely seen an upswing in broadband penetration and market-share growth," White said.

In addition to residential customers in North Idaho, Frontier specifically targets commercial customers in the education, health care, small business and real estate categories, she said.

Along with broadband, the company sells landline phone service, satellite video, wireless Internet data access, and data security products in 27 states.

Also in North Idaho, the company is rolling out a new service that allows customers to send and receive text messages on a landline.

"It allows a business at this time to leverage the fact that they have a landline and that their customers are trying to reach them and would prefer to text them on the landline," White said. "Also allowing a small business, medium or enterprise business to do group texting."

The service is taking off quickly for the company, White said. Landline texting soon will be formally launched in North Idaho, she said.

White was appointed to west region president last summer to oversee 2,000 employees and Frontier markets in five states, including Idaho, Washington, Montana, Oregon and California.

"We have 125 (or) 130 employees in the state of Idaho, many of them in this location," White said. She estimated nearly 60 of the state's employees are in North Idaho.