Frontier Clears Final Regulatory Hurdle to AT&T Acquisition

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Frontier Communications, a provider of communications services in 27 states, has cleared the final hurdle to its acquisition of AT&T’s wireline operations in Connecticut.

The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) has approved the $2 billion agreement, finding that it is in the public interest, the communications provider announced Wednesday.

Frontier, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut, anticipates closing the acquisition on Friday, Oct. 24. After the deal closes, approximately 2,600 AT&T employees will join Frontier.

Frontier on Wednesday said Paul Quick will lead its Connecticut operations as senior vice president and general manager. He will be based in Hartford.

Through the acquisition, Frontier is picking up 900,000 local access lines, 415,000 broadband customers and 180,000 video customers, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Of the 900,000 access lines, 60 percent are residential switched and VoIP while 40 percent are business customers, PURA said.

As of June 30, 2014, Frontier served 2.76 million residential customers, 264,200 business customers, 1.93 million broadband customers and 393,900 video customers. Through the first six months of 2014, the company posted a net loss of $77 million on revenues of $2.3 billion.