Frontier Communications
 | |
Formerly called |
Citizens Utilities Company Citizens Communications Company |
|---|---|
| Public | |
| Traded as | NASDAQ: FTR |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Predecessor | Public Utilities Consolidated Corporation |
| Founded | 1935[1] |
| Headquarters | Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S. |
Key people | Dan McCarthy, President and CEO |
| Services | Local and long-distance telephone service, Internet access, wireless Internet access, digital phone, DISH satellite TV, fiber-optic Internet, fiber-optic television |
| Revenue | |
| Total assets | |
| Total equity | |
Number of employees |
 18,600 (2015)[4] |
| Subsidiaries |
Citizens Cable Company Citizens Capital Ventures Corporation Frontier Communications ILEC Holdings Frontier Subsidiary Telco LLC Frontier Telephone of Rochester Southern New England Telephone SNET America |
| Website |
www |
Frontier Communications Corporation is a telephone company in the United States, which previously mainly serving rural areas and smaller communities but now also serves several large metropolitan markets. It was known as Citizens Utilities Company until May 2000 and Citizens Communications Company until July 31, 2008.
Frontier is the fourth largest provider of digital subscriber line (based on coverage area) in the United States.[5][6] In addition to local and long-distance telephone service, Frontier offers broadband Internet, digital television service, and computer technical support to residential and business customers in 28 states in the United States.[5][7]
History
Telephone line acquisitions
Citizens Utilities began a rapid expansion in 1993, announcing an agreement to acquire 500,000 rural access lines from GTE. In December 1993, it acquired 190,000 lines in four states. Coghest Frontier of DGF City East/West, Contel of the West lines in Utah became part of Citizens Telecommunications of Utah. GTE Northwest lines in Idaho become part of Citizens Telecommunications Company of Idaho. GTE South lines in Tennessee became part of Citizens Telecommunications Company of Tennessee, while lines in West Virginia became part of Citizens Telecommunications Company of West Virginia.
In June 1994, it completed the acquisition of 270,000 lines, formerly part of Contel of New York, which became part of Citizens Telecommunications Company of New York. In November that year, Citizens acquired 38,000 lines. Lines in Arizona, formerly part of Contel of the West, became part of Citizens Telecommunications Company of the White Mountains, while lines in Montana became part of Citizens Telecommunications Company of Montana.
In January 1995, the company acquired 5,000 access lines in California.[8] These lines became a part of Citizens Telecommunications Company of California.[9]
Citizens, in 1994, announced that it would acquire 117,000 telephone lines and cable franchises in eight states from Alltel for $292 million. On June 30, 1995, it acquired two operating companies from Alltel.[10] One of them was in Oregon and merged into Citizens' existing company there. The other, Mountain State Telephone, was in West Virginia and was renamed Citizens Mountain State Telephone. Citizens Mountain State Telephone later absorbed the former GTE operations and took on the Citizens Telecommunications name. On September 30, Citizens completed the acquisition of Alltel's lines in Tennessee, which became a part of Citizens Telecommunications Company of the Volunteer State. On October 31, it completed the acquisition from Alltel of Navajo Communications, which operates lines for the Navajo community in Arizona, California, and New Mexico.
On January 2, 1996, Citizens acquired 3600 lines in Pennsylvania and 20,000 lines in California from Alltel. On April 1 that year, it acquired Alltel Nevada, which included 23,000 telephone lines.[11] The company was renamed Citizens Telecommunications Company of Nevada.
Citizens acquired Ogden Telephone in 1997.
In 1999, Citizens announced that it planned to acquire 187,000 local access lines from GTE for $664 million in Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, and North Dakota. The sales were closed following the merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic to form Verizon.
Lines in Nebraska were split from GTE Midwest to become a part of Citizens Telecommunications Company of Nebraska. Lines in North Dakota were split. Some became part of Citizens of Montana while the rest joined with lines formerly part of Contel of Minnesota to become part of Citizens Telecommunications Company of Minnesota. Lines in Illinois became a part of Citizens Telecommunications Company of Illinois.
Proposed acquisition of US West lines
Citizens, in 1999, announced plans to acquire 530,000 rural access lines from US West, a Baby Bell, for $1.65 billion.[12] The sale would not have included US West Dex directories in those territories.
In 2001, Qwest, which acquired US West in 2000, terminated the sale because Citizens refused to complete the transaction.[13]
Utility sales
Citizens sold its non-telephone divisions in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The following divisions were sold:
- Louisiana natural gas to Atmos Energy in 2000.[14]
- Water and wastewater operations to American Water Works in 2002[15]
- Colorado gas utilities to Kinder Morgan in 2001.[16]
- Hawaii electric utilities to Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative in 2002.
- Hawaii gas utility to K1 Ventures in 2002.[17]
- Arizona electric and gas utilities to UNS Energy in 2003.[18]
- Vermont electric distribution to Vermont Electric Cooperative and transmission to Vermont Electric Power Company in 2004.[19][20]
Global Crossing and Commonwealth transactions
Citizens Communications acquired the Frontier name and local exchange properties from Bermuda-based Global Crossing in 2001. Global Crossing acquired the local exchange properties in 1999 when it purchased Frontier Corporation, originally Rochester Telephone Corporation.
Citizens acquired the operations from Global Crossing North America for $3.65 billion. The companies included in the acquisition included Frontier incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) companies in New York as well as Frontier Subsidiary Telco, which included all Global Crossing North America ILEC operations located outside of New York, Frontier Communications of America, a long distance provider, and Frontier Communications of Rochester, a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC).[21] The acquisition was completed in June 2001.
In 2006, Citizens acquired Commonwealth Telephone, a Pennsylvania telephone company.[22]
Name change
Citizens Communications stockholders approved changing the corporate name to Frontier Communications Corporation at the annual meeting on May 15, 2008. The name change became effective on July 31, 2008, and the company's stock symbol on the New York Stock Exchange changed from "CZN" to "FTR". On December 2, 2011, Frontier announced trading of its stock would move from the New York Stock Exchange to the NASDAQ stock exchange. The stock began trading under the same "FTR" symbol on the NASDAQ exchange at the start of the December 16, 2011 trading day.[23][24][25]
Purchase of Verizon lines
In May 2009, Frontier announced the signing of an $8.6 billion agreement with Verizon Communications to acquire Verizon's 4.8 million landlines leased to residential and small business customers.[26] The deal meant Frontier would acquire all wireline assets in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin, placed into a holding company called New Communications ILEC Holdings. Also included were several of Verizon's exchanges in California, including those bordering Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon.[27] In all states other than West Virginia, this takeover primarily involved rural exchanges that were formerly a part of the GTE system when Verizon Communications was formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE. However, in West Virginia, Frontier acquired Verizon West Virginia, formerly The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia, a former Bell System unit. When combined with its existing subsidiary Citizens Telecommunications Company of West Virginia, Frontier became the local incumbent telephone company for all but five exchanges in the entire state.
On July 1, 2010, the change from Verizon to Frontier took place. In some states, Frontier was required not to raise rates, and in others, broadband access was to be expanded. Ninety-two percent of people in Frontier's existing service area had access to broadband, while just 65 percent did in the newly acquired areas. The goal was 85 percent in three years.[28]
Previous companies like FairPoint Communications and Hawaiian Telcom went bankrupt after incurring a large amount of debt as a result of similar landline deals with Verizon Communications.[29] While Frontier has fared better, the stock has never regained its post acquisition high of $9.73 per share on December 27, 2010.[30]
On February 5, 2015, Frontier announced[31] a definitive agreement with Verizon under which Frontier would acquire Verizon's wireline, broadband and FiOS operations that provide services to residential, commercial and wholesale customers in California, Texas and Florida. The network being acquired is the product of substantial capital investments and is 54 percent FiOS-enabled. Starting on April 1, 2016, these Verizon services in the aforementioned states have been provided by Frontier Communications.[32] Former Verizon customers in California, Texas and Florida can create a Frontier online account to pay bills and manage their contact information, with account Verizon balances being automatically transferred to their Frontier Communications account.[33]
Purchase of AT&T lines
On October 24, 2014, Frontier closed its acquisition of AT&T's wireline, DSL, U-verse video and satellite TV businesses in Connecticut. The deal included the wireline subsidiaries Southern New England Telephone and SNET America and consumer, business and wholesale customer relationships.[34]
Fiber optic and Internet services
Frontier FiOS
In addition to the purchase of copper lines from Verizon, Frontier also acquired the fiber-optic system built by Verizon in Fort Wayne, Indiana, around Portland, Oregon , southern California, and in some eastern suburbs of Seattle, Washington.[35] The company kept the name "FiOS" for the fiber systems and licenses it acquired from Verizon. The initial transition was rocky, with Frontier initially claiming that it had no plans for changes after the transition, but later attempted to institute a $500 installation fee for new television subscribers, backed out of franchise agreements in some cities in Oregon, and increased rates by 50% in Indiana.[36][37][38] Frontier later retracted the rate increases and installation fee, but has not reclaimed franchises in the cities that it relinquished and not before losing FiOS TV subscribers.[39]
Frontier FiOS service in most markets operates on the same technology and software as the Verizon FiOS system.
Frontier DSL & Broadband
In rural areas including parts of upstate New York, Frontier only offers DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) internet service to its customers using traditional copper wires. Frontier's DSL service is considered by many users to be some of the worst in the industry.[40] A class action lawsuit was filed in 2014 by Frontier customers in West Virginia alleging that they did not receive advertised download speeds using Frontier's broadband services. In the FCC’s most recent Measuring Broadband America report, the company’s DSL service was one of the worst performers in the survey, only delivering about 85% of the advertised sustained download speeds. Even the Frontier fiber service failed to consistently meet advertised speeds.[41] On December 10, 2015, West Virginian state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced that the company agreed to a $160 million consumer-protection settlement, stating that the deal is “a game-changer for the Mountain State”. As terms of that settlement, Frontier admitted no wrongdoing.[42]
Sponsorship
Frontier purchased the naming rights to venues including:
- Frontier Field, Rochester, New York
- Frontier Ice Arena, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho[43]
See also
References
- ↑ Hoover's. "Frontier Communications Corporation". Company profiles. Austin, Texas. Archived from the original on 2011-01-01. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
Citizens was incorporated in 1935 to reorganize Public Utilities Consolidated Corp., a subsidiary of W.B. Foshay Co. which had been forced into receivership.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONS CORP 2013 Annual Report Form (10-K)" (XBRL). United States Securities and Exchange Commission. February 27, 2014.
- 1 2 3 "FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONS CORP 2014 Q1 Quarterly Report Form (10-Q)" (XBRL). United States Securities and Exchange Commission. May 8, 2014.
- ↑ Frontier Communications Corporation (2012-02-23), FORM 10-K FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2011, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, File 001-11001, film 12634061, retrieved 2012-08-12
- 1 2 "Frontier communications Overview and Coverage". Broadband Now. Retrieved 2014-04-28.
- ↑ Leichtman Research Group, "Research Notes," First Quarter 2012, pg. 6, Frontier (#6) with 3,267,487 residential phone lines.
- ↑ "Frontier Communications Corporation". National Broadband Map. Retrieved 2014-04-28.
- ↑ (1994-12-30). "Citizens Utilities acquires telephone properties in California" Business Wire. Retrieved 2012-04-28.
- ↑ Citizens Telecommunications Company of California FCC Corporate History. Retrieved 2012-04-28.
- ↑ (1995-06-30)."Citizens Utilities acquires Alltel properties in West Virginia and Oregon" Business Wire. Retrieved 2012-04-28.
- ↑ (1996-04-01) "Citizens Utilities Acquires Alltel's Nevada Properties" Business Wire. Retrieved 2012-04-28.
- ↑ "Citizens Utilities in $1.65 billion deal with US West". The New York Times. 1999-06-18. Retrieved 2012-04-28.
- ↑ (2001-07-21). "Qwest cancels deal to sell phone lines" Brainerd Dispatch. Retrieved 2012-04-28.
- ↑ "Atmos Picks Up Citizens' Louisiana Distribution Assets". naturalgasintel.com.
- ↑ "American Water Works Company Completes Acquisition of Citizens Utilities Water and Wastewater Assets". wwdmag.com.
- ↑ "Kinder Morgan to buy Citizens' Colorado gas division". Denver Business Journal.
- ↑ "Gas Company sold in $115 million deal". Honolulu Star-Bulletin Business.
- ↑ "Az. utility deal means 21-22% rate increases". Tucson Citizen.
- ↑ Administrator. "Vermont Electric Coop, About Us , About VT Electric Coop, Vermont Electric Cooperative History". Vermont Electric Coop.
- ↑ "American Public Power Association - Overview of Investor-Owned Utilities". American Public Power Association.
- ↑ State of New York Public Service Commission, April 25, 2001 Archived May 21, 2004, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Foster, J. Kyle; van de Hoef, Marcel. "Citizens Communications to Buy Commonwealth Telephone (Update5)". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2015-05-13.
- ↑ "Company press release". Phx.corporate-ir.net. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
- ↑ "Reuters.com". Reuters.com. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
- ↑ "News Releases". Phx.corporate-ir.net. Retrieved 2012-05-15.
- ↑ Walker, Don (2009-05-13). "Article on Frontier's acquisition". Jsonline.com. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
- ↑ "Verizon's Press Release on Acquisition". Newscenter.verizon.com. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
- ↑ Murawski, John (2010-07-01). "Frontier phone switch starts". The News & Observer. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
- ↑ Canfield, Clarke. "FairPoint trust suit blames Verizon for bankruptcy". Associated Press. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
- ↑ Finance, Yahoo!. "Frontier Communications Corporation Stock Chart". Retrieved 6 November 2012.
- ↑ "Frontier Communications to Acquire Verizon's Wireline Operations in California, Florida and Texas, Doubling Frontier's Size and Driving Shareholder Value". Retrieved 2016-03-29.
- ↑ "Frontier Has Exciting News for California, Texas and Florida Residents". Retrieved 2016-03-29.
- ↑ "How to Create Your Frontier ID". Retrieved 2016-03-29.
- ↑ "Frontier Communications to Acquire AT&T's Wireline Residential and Business Services and Associated Assets in Connecticut". Retrieved 17 December 2013.
- ↑ Butcher, Rob (2010-07-01). "Goodbye Verizon FiOS, Hello Frontier Communications". Kirkland Views.
- ↑ "Frontier: No Changes For FiOS, DirecTV Customers For 9-12 Months - 2009-05-14 18:26:00 | Multichannel News". Multichannel.com. Retrieved 2012-05-15.
- ↑ "News and information for McMinnville and Yamhill Valley, Oregon - wine country newspaper". NewsRegister.com. Retrieved 2012-05-15.
- ↑ "Frontier plans substantial rate hike for FIOS TV". Wane.com. Retrieved 2012-05-15.
- ↑ "Updated: Frontier’s Fiber Mess: Company Losing FiOS Subs, Landline Customers, But Adds Bonded DSL". Stop the Cap!. 2011-08-16. Retrieved 2012-05-15.
- ↑ "Frontier Communications". ConsumerAffairs. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
- ↑ Morran, Chris. "Frontier Customers Sue, Alleging They Don't Get Advertised Internet Speeds". Consumerist. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
- ↑ Johnson, Shauna. "Frontier responds to $160M settlement over slower-than-advertised internet speeds". West Virginia Metro News. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
- ↑ "Ice arena to be named for Frontier Communications - Spokesman.com - Sept. 22, 2011". Spokesman.com.
External links
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