Frontier Communications Files for Bankruptcy

[Foxbat]

With many people working from home, you'd think that would be boon times for most ISPs. Not Frontier, apparently.

Press Release

investor.frontier.com

The EFF's take on it:

Frontier’s Bankruptcy Reveals Why Big ISPs Choose to Deny Fiber to So Much of America

Even before it announced that it would seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Frontier had a well-deserved reputation for mismanagement and abusive conduct. In an industry that routinely enrages its customers, Frontier was the literal poster-child for underinvestment and neglect, an industry leader in...

www.eff.org

 

[KE4EST]

Frontier is a joke and has been for years.

 

[navychop]

This could be interesting to watch. Why would anyone think that management team could fix the mess they created? Methinks their main concern is their own fat paychecks.

 

[Don in CT]

Let's say Frontier goes dark, what happens next? Would they just auction off the network?

 

[EmCommSat]

Let's say Frontier goes dark, what happens next? Would they just auction off the network?

ZiplyFiber purchased the Froniter assets in OR, WA and I believe ID too. They will be launching in the spring of 2020.


Sent using Tapatalk

 

[Foxbat]

My in-Laws who live in an old GTE region got FIOS from Verizon when it was first introduced a few decades back. Verizon sold off their region to Frontier about ten years ago, and their TV pricing increased since Frontier had fewer TV subscribers than Verizon, and thus less effective bargaining with the content providers.

The service is good when it works, but Frontier’s customer service is spotty at best.

 

[harshness]

With many people working from home, you'd think that would be boon times for most ISPs.

While it seems logical, I think we're going to find that many who weren't working at all (perhaps a much larger population) were forced to choose between their broadband and their phones and they chose their phones.

 

[harshness]

ZiplyFiber purchased the Froniter assets in OR, WA and I believe ID too.

The Oregon service area was perhaps under 50 square miles when I last looked. Frontier got the dregs for the most part in Verizon's divestiture.

 

[Juan]

Let's say Frontier goes dark, what happens next? Would they just auction off the network?

Well the Verizon parts go back to Verizon...dunno about the att pieces

 

[Don in CT]

Well the Verizon parts go back to Verizon...dunno about the att pieces

AT&T didn't want the SNET plant in Connecticut so who knows what will happen to that.

 

[Juan]

AT&T didn't want the SNET plant in Connecticut so who knows what will happen to that.

Its hard to explain but frontier is basically a joint venture between att and Verizon ( probably others)... so when it disolves..the pieces go back to the original owners...in other words Verizon and Att kinda sorta own Frontier..frontier was used to dump a bunch of pension debt in low performing areas...until Verizon threw in Tampa, Dallas and a big chunk of LA about 10 years ago..gonna be interesting to watch

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[Don in CT]

Its hard to explain but frontier is basically a joint venture between att and Verizon ( probably others)... so when it disolves..the pieces go back to the original owners...in other words Verizon and Att kinda sorta own Frontier..frontier was used to dump a bunch of pension debt in low performing areas...until Verizon threw in Tampa, Dallas and a big chunk of LA about 10 years ago..gonna be interesting to watch

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I was under the impression that Frontier got all the table scraps the big guys didn't want to deal with.

 

[rad]

Its hard to explain but frontier is basically a joint venture between att and Verizon ( probably others)... so when it disolves..the pieces go back to the original owners...in other words Verizon and Att kinda sorta own Frontier..frontier was used to dump a bunch of pension debt in low performing areas...until Verizon threw in Tampa, Dallas and a big chunk of LA about 10 years ago..gonna be interesting to watch

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Do you have a link to a site that says Frontier is kinda owned by AT&T and Verizon, first I ever heard of that. What I did hear was that the old baby bells wanted to dump smaller locations what wasn’t worth their time and money upgrading or supporting. So they sold the bits off to Frontier that saw itself becoming a big boy telephone company. Too bad people don’t really need/want a phone company that just is selling copper facilities. Frontier Communications - Wikipedia


Sent from my iPad using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[harshness]

Do you have a link to a site that says Frontier is kinda owned by AT&T and Verizon, first I ever heard of that.

Frontier is a publicly traded company (I got some stock in a Verizon spin-off). Almost 60% of the stock is held by institutional investors.

 

[rad]

Frontier is a publicly traded company (I got some stock in a Verizon spin-off). Almost 60% of the stock is held by institutional investors.

I knew that, also used to have some of that dog but dumped it years ago. I just wanted Juan to back up his statement.

 

[SamCdbs]

With all respect, Frontier is not a joint venture between AT&T and Verizon, nor will its bankruptcy result in a return of its assets to those companies.

History time. Back in the day, every place had one and only one telephone company. Prior to the AT&T break up, only about 80% of the country was served directly by a Bell company (AT&T). The rest, mostly but not exclusively rural areas, were served by independent telephone companies. Of those GTE was the largest, but there were several more, including Allied Telephone (AllTel), Central Telephone (CenTel), Continental Telephone (ConTel) and dozens of others, including Citizens Telephone and Rochester Telephone, which are the predecessors of Frontier.

Following the AT&T break-up, and with the advent of alternatives to POTS (plain old telephone service) a complex series of mergers occurred, between the seven "Baby Bells", GTE and the other telephone companies.

AT&T and Verizon between then owned all but one of the Baby Bells. Verizon also owned GTE, which had previously bought several of the other independent companies. They both (correctly IMHO) figured that there was no real future in POTS, and started selling off lots of places, mostly by the state. The buyers were companies such as Windstream, Iowa Telecom, Hawaiian Telephone, and, most aggressively, Frontier. Starting in the 1990s, it bought what ever Verizon and AT&T wanted to sell, mostly in what others would call "fly over country".

It just has not worked. The previous owners left the systems in bad shape, the workers made and make insane above-market wages, and less and less people have POTS every day. Attempts to expand into other things like internet and TV pretty much did not work.

So now Frontier becomes, by my count, the fourth buyer of old Bell or GTE lines to go bankrupt.

The future? Depends on finding someone interested in POTS. Cincinnati Bell? Windstream? Carlos Slim?

 

[harshness]

I just wanted Juan to back up his statement.

There does seem to be a distinct lack of reasoning or fact to back up his statements.

 

[dare2be]

I just wanted Juan to back up his statement.

 

[StanDarsh]

While I don't live in Frontier area...I do see a similar thing here in my little shanty town. (town is a stretch...a couple of stop signs, a DG (DOB 2015), and 2 gas stations)...all within a mile of each other. 18 years ago, AT&T came through and ran fiber to the POTS Slick that's directly next to my home. So, from the CO to Slick96 is fiber. Then, they continued running fiber to an area of the county which my FD does serve, but it's called "Hidden Valley"..and it's called that for a reason. It's STILL dirt road to get to this area..they drive 35-40 minutes for the basic necessities..and they even have problems when they call 911 because of their location (sometimes it rings my county, sometimes the neighboring county because they live on the county line)
So, all of this fiber is ran..but not in-use 18 years ago. Fast forward about 5 years...another fiber line being ran under my driveway...since I knew the Slick was fiber-fed, I asked what the new fiber line was...apparently, 1 mile back towards the CO, AT&T was placing a cell tower and needed a fiber run to it. I thought to myself..."wow...we surely will get something from this in a few years"...
At the time, a DSLAM had been installed inside the hut where this Slick was..which gave DSL to the 12,000 ft around the slick. So, I'm still thinking..something would come along...
FF another few years (10-11 years) and here I sit. I dropped the stupidly slow and declining DSL service. It had become unusable..and I wasn't willing to keep paying for AT&T with their yearly price hikes on DSL. Was at $68.00 in March of 2019 when I turned it off. I had gotten word that fiber was on the way because of what I had done in my area.
remember when the fiber was brought to this area by AT&T to the Slick? well, at that time, a fertilizer company in town decided to move back to this area..because this was where the owner had grown up. He built a HUGE resort and golf course here..it's about 4 miles from me...but he paid, out of pocket, to have the Utilities board in town bring him a fiber line. 9 miles of fiber, paid for 15 years ago by this company..and I was 1-mile from the junction where it runs.
So, back in 2018 I went around to all my neighbors between me and the fiber (1 mile away). I got signatures. I got contact info. Then I turned that in and hoped the best would happen.
Last year, when I dropped DSL...I had heard rumor that the utilities board was starting work..but I just couldn't do AT&T anymore and decided to buy a Microtik LTE antenna with an AT&T/Tmo SIM..and I did LTE internet service for about 4 months until the fiber came to me. In October of last year, Fiber knocked on my door and said "i'm here, do you want me"..and I gladly said "this room"...
And I haven't looked back.

Is it the cheapest option out there..nope. I pay for business class, 150mbps/150mbps at $100/month. I know it's a little high...but I don't care. They did it and brought a very rural area fiber..and I'll pay a little extra because it's worth it when I consider the alternatives. LTE sucked. Will Starlink suck too? Who knows..I doubt I'll even try it because the latency on fiber is, well, non-existent. I get consistent 0ms ping times. It's buried in the ground...not once has it gone out since installed back in October.
I still have the same IP that I got back in October and I don't pay for static. As long as I don't leave my modem off for 8 hours, the DHCP won't give me a different lease..and my IP won't change.
I have since added lots of network stuff that I really could do without...like a dual-wan router...and I brought my daughters fiber connection in as the backup. (using some Ubiquiti 5 gig antennas that I had laying around).. A netgear pro-safe 16port switch...and a ubiquiti 8XP POE switch. I have 10 ports open on the netgear, 1 port on the ubiquiti...and 32 devices connected to my network right now. All inside my home..nothing outside connects to me.
And I still get consistent speed tests of what I'm paying for.

Where has fiber been all my life!!!

but...this shows what the little guys will do, versus what the big guys dont do.

 

[Don in CT]

With all respect, Frontier is not a joint venture between AT&T and Verizon, nor will its bankruptcy result in a return of its assets to those companies.

History time. Back in the day, every place had one and only one telephone company. Prior to the AT&T break up, only about 80% of the country was served directly by a Bell company (AT&T). The rest, mostly but not exclusively rural areas, were served by independent telephone companies. Of those GTE was the largest, but there were several more, including Allied Telephone (AllTel), Central Telephone (CenTel), Continental Telephone (ConTel) and dozens of others, including Citizens Telephone and Rochester Telephone, which are the predecessors of Frontier.

Following the AT&T break-up, and with the advent of alternatives to POTS (plain old telephone service) a complex series of mergers occurred, between the seven "Baby Bells", GTE and the other telephone companies.

AT&T and Verizon between then owned all but one of the Baby Bells. Verizon also owned GTE, which had previously bought several of the other independent companies. They both (correctly IMHO) figured that there was no real future in POTS, and started selling off lots of places, mostly by the state. The buyers were companies such as Windstream, Iowa Telecom, Hawaiian Telephone, and, most aggressively, Frontier. Starting in the 1990s, it bought what ever Verizon and AT&T wanted to sell, mostly in what others would call "fly over country".

It just has not worked. The previous owners left the systems in bad shape, the workers made and make insane above-market wages, and less and less people have POTS every day. Attempts to expand into other things like internet and TV pretty much did not work.

So now Frontier becomes, by my count, the fourth buyer of old Bell or GTE lines to go bankrupt.

The future? Depends on finding someone interested in POTS. Cincinnati Bell? Windstream? Carlos Slim?

Don't forget that SBC bought out the parent in AT&T.