Verizon has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire competing fiber Internet service provider Frontier Communications in a transaction valued at $20 billion, including $9.6 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close in about 18 months, pending Frontier shareholder and regulatory approval. Verizon says the deal will increase its fiber subscribers by 2.2 million customers and extend its network reach to 25 million households across 31 states and Washington, D.C. It is also expected to expand Verizon’s intelligent edge network for digital innovations like artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.

“Though Verizon offers nationwide wireless service, its fiber network is largely concentrated in nine states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic,” while Frontier has “about 2.2 million fiber subscribers in 25 states and several hundred thousand customers still using copper lines for now,” reports The Washington Post.

“Frontier’s customers are spread across several Midwestern states, with some dense pockets in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia,” WaPo adds.

The deal sees Verizon reacquiring some of the fiber-optic lines it sold to Frontier nearly a decade ago, The Wall Street Journal points out, explaining that folding Frontier into Verizon “would reach a combined 10 million fiber-optic customers in the Northeast and Midwest as well as in California, Texas and Florida — three markets that Verizon sold to Frontier in 2016.”

“The acquisition of Frontier is a strategic fit,” Verizon Wireless Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg said in a news release. “It will build on Verizon’s two decades of leadership at the forefront of fiber and is an opportunity to become more competitive in more markets throughout the United States, enhancing our ability to deliver premium offerings to millions more customers across a combined fiber network.”

The deal will see Verizon “potentially matching or surpassing that of rival ISP AT&T Fiber,” writes CNET, adding that it will substantially expand Verizon Fios “in the Northeast, particularly in the states of Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New York.”

Frontier’s fiber expansion has been a $4.1 billion investment that “now generates more than 50 percent of its revenue,” reports Variety, emphasizing that it represents a “relatively small” acquisition for Verizon, adding only about 4 percent to that company’s revenue and adjusted earnings.

WSJ writes that “Verizon’s share of cellphone customers is higher in regions where it offers its Fios fiber broadband,” adding that “preventing customer defections has been a priority for the company as it” competes with other providers such as AT&T and T-Mobile.