After months of fighting for regulatory approvals and union acceptance, Frontier Communications has closed its $8.6 billion takeover of Verizon Communications Inc. landlines in 14 states.
Frontier now is the largest rural operator in the United States, serving 4 million residential and business users in 27 states.
Many consumer advocacy groups and union leaders fear Frontier will go the way of FairPoint Communications, which declared bankruptcy after buying Verizon phone lines in New England. But the companies are different. FairPoint, already troubled in terms of finances and service reliability, took on more debt to purchase the Verizon properties, and didn’t appear to plan as thoroughly for the cutover as Frontier has done. Indeed, if all goes as planned, Frontier’s systems cutover should be smooth.
"This is my third system cutover of similar scale and scope, and I'm confident this will be the best we've done," Ken Arndt, president of Frontier's Southeast region, told The Charleston Gazette. "We don't expect any issues or problems. We believe we have all the Is dotted and Ts crossed."
Just in case, though, Frontier has set up nine command centers in Charleston, W. Va., the state where unions and consumers were most outspoken against the Frontier-Verizon deal – opponents say job cuts and customer service stand to suffer.
Meanwhile, Verizon is freed up to focus on its fiber and wireless products. The carrier became the largest mobile services provider in the country with the acquisition of Alltel Corp.
Shares of Frontier were trading 2.18 percent higher about 30 minutes before Wall Street's close, at $7.27.
