| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as | NASDAQ: FTR |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Predecessor | Public Utilities Consolidated Corporation |
| Founded | 1935[1] |
| Headquarters | Stamford, Connecticut, USA |
| Key people | Maggie Wilderotter, Chairwoman and CEO |
| Services | Local and long-distance telephone service, Internet access, wireless Internet access, digital phone, DISH satellite TV |
| Revenue | US$3798 million (2010)[2] |
| Operating income | US$772 million (2010)[2] |
| Net income | US$156 million (2010)[2] |
| Total assets | US$17890 million (2010)[2] |
| Total equity | US$5210 million (2010)[2] |
| Employees | 14800 (2010)[2] |
| Subsidiaries | Citizens Cable Company, Citizens Capital Ventures Corporation, Frontier Subsidiary Telco LLC |
| Website | www.frontier.com |
Frontier Communications Corporation is a telephone company in the United States, mainly serving rural areas and smaller communities. It was known as Citizens Utilities Company until May 2000 and Citizens Communications Company until July 31, 2008.
Frontier is one of the nation's largest rural local exchange carriers and offers local and long-distance telephone service, broadband Internet, digital television service, and computer technical support to residential and business customers in 27 states in the U.S.
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Citizens Communications acquired the Frontier name and local exchange properties of the former Frontier Corporation from Bermuda-based Global Crossing in 2001. Global Crossing acquired Frontier in 1999 after a bidding war with Qwest for Frontier's nationwide fiber optic network that Rochester Telephone built throughout the 1990s before changing its name to Frontier Corporation in 1995.
Citizens acquired the operations from Global Crossing North America for $3.65 billion. The companies included in the acquisition included Frontier 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 CLEC.[3] The acquisition was completed in June 2001.
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 became "FTR". As of 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.[4][5][6]
In May 2009, Frontier announced they had signed an $8.6 billion agreement with Verizon Communications to acquire Verizon's 4.8 million landlines leased to residential and small business customers.[7] 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.[8] In all states other than West Virginia, this takeover primarily involved rural exchanges that were formerly a part of the GTE system when Verizon 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 new areas. The goal was 85 percent in three years.[9]
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