Frontier Communications Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Frontier filed for bankruptcy to implement a prearranged $10 billion debt-cutting proposal backed by the telephone and internet-service provider’s bondholders. The telecommunications company is the country’s No. 7 broadband provider by subscribers and the No. 4 incumbent telephone company after AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon Communications, a legacy of the 1984 breakup of the Ma Bell monopoly. Frontier grew quickly over the past two decades by scooping up phone networks that other companies were eager to unload. Executives later shifted their focus to newer fiber-optic networks that could wean the company off its aging copper phone lines. But they struggled to integrate new customers, especially those gained from a costly 2016 deal with Verizon that gave Frontier a wide base of superfast fiber-optic service in California, Florida and Texas. Customers in those states complained of poor service, driving more business to cable providers that gained a bigger share of the broadband market at Frontier’s expense.