Chris Levendos, the former head of the network deployment and operations organization at Google Fiber, is joining Frontier Communications as EVP, field operations.
Levendos is succeeding John Lass, who is retiring. Levendos will report to Dan McCarthy, and Frontier’s president and CEO, and become a member of the company’s senior leadership team.
Frontier said Levendos’s work at Google Fiber, which spanned network planning, expansion and design, and his time at Verizon as region president and VP in the wireline transformation group, fit in well with Frontier’s plans for operations that cover 29 states.
Levendos is also making the move following a recent string of shifts and changes at Alphabet’s Access unit, which runs Google Fiber. In addition to the recent hiring of a new CEO of Alphabet’s Access division, Google Fiber has put expansion plans on pause as it explores wireless-focused broadband alternatives.
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Levendos is also coming aboard the year after Frontier closed its acquisition of Verizon’s wireline operations in California, Texas and Florida. Before joining Google, Levendos spent 26 years at Verizon, last serving as region president for its New York City wireline operations.
Frontier lost 107,000 broadband subs in Q1 2017, ending the period with about 4.16 million.
"I am confident Chris will further enhance the robust resources of our field operations teams and our network assets, allowing Frontier to continue to provide the bandwidth options that support advanced technology and connectivity,” McCarthy said in a statement. “We remain focused on providing homes and small, medium and commercial businesses with technologies that will help us lead in our markets, scale wisely, and create seamless network experiences."
Levendos is a graduate of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh and earned a Master's degree in Urban Planning from New York University and a Master's degree in Telecommunications Management from Stevens Institute of Technology.
