https://www.channelfutures.com/wp-content/themes/channelfutures_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Technology Solutions Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2023 MSP 501 Application
    • 2022 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2022 NextGen 101 Rankings
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2023 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501
    • Channel Influencers
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Technology Advisor 101 (TA 101)
    • Channel Leaders Lists
  • Events
    • Back
    • 2023 Call for Speakers
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
Channel Futures
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Technology Solutions Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2023 MSP 501 Application
    • 2022 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2022 NextGen 101 Rankings
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2023 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501
    • Channel Influencers
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Technology Advisor 101 (TA 101)
    • Channel Leaders Lists
  • Events
    • Back
    • 2023 Call for Speakers
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
    • Newsletter
  • REGISTER
  • MSPs
  • VARs / SIs
  • Agents
  • Cloud Service Providers
  • Channel Partners Events
 Channel Futures

Telephony/UC/Collaboration


Shutterstock

One Way Sign

Bankruptcy Likely ‘Only Way Out’ For Frontier Communications

  • Written by Edward Gately
  • January 23, 2020
Yet Frontier says its business and operations are solid.

Frontier Communications, the provider of telecom services in 29 states, reportedly is moving closer to filing chapter 11 bankruptcy as it struggles with a $17.5 billion debt load.

Frontier is asking creditors to help craft a turnaround deal that includes filing for bankruptcy by the middle of March, according to Bloomberg, citing people “with knowledge of the matter.” Company executives including Bernie Han, Frontier’s new CEO, met with creditors and advisers, and told them the company wants to negotiate a prepackaged agreement before $356 million of debt payments come due March 15, it said.

Javier Mendoza, Frontier’s vice president of corporate communications and external affairs, tells Channel Partners his company’s business and operations are “solid and serving our customers remains our top priority.”

Frontier's Javier Mendoza

Frontier’s Javier Mendoza

“As we have said publicly, Frontier is evaluating its capital structure with an eye to reducing debt and interest expense so as to be able to better serve our customers,” he said. “Our customers should expect no changes as we remain focused on providing quality communications services.”

Mike Sapien, Ovum’s vice president and chief analyst of enterprise services, said Frontier has multiple operations and customer-service issues compounded by large acquisitions from AT&T and Verizon. These acquisitions brought scale issues and new regulatory concerns, he said.

“Given their debt, it seems likely that bankruptcy is the only way out of their current state,” Sapien said. “The March due date seems like to force them into bankruptcy unless they can negotiate something with their large creditors, which is very difficult to manage. Threatening bankruptcy is the only way to get the large creditors to seriously negotiate better terms for Frontier. But there are many moving parts, including managing regulatory pressure from the various state public utility commissions (PUCs). Layer on numerous complaints from customers or outages, or poor service, and this looks like a recipe heading toward bankruptcy for Frontier.”

Ovum's Mike Sapien

Ovum’s Mike Sapien

Frontier’s customer service reputation has been “very poor,” and PUCs requiring improvements and additional investments will further strain Frontier’s budget, Sapien said.

“Given their situation, new services and complex business services become almost impossible to support,” he said. “And it seems like in many of their larger markets, they are competing with the cable companies who are doing very well with business services, and also improved their customer service with consumers and business customers.”

For its third quarter, Frontier reported a net loss of $345 million, compared to a loss of $426 million in the year-ago quarter. The losses were primarily due to $276 million in goodwill impairment charges, as well as an additional $30 million loss on the sale of operations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana to WaveDivision Capital with Searchlight Capital Partners.

Tags: Agents Cable Mobility & Wireless Telephony/UC/Collaboration

Most Recent


  • Making Waves
    8 Channel People Making Waves This Week at T-Mobile, Kaseya, Google Cloud, Atlassian, More
    How much did Ryan Reynolds actually come away with from the T-Mobile-Mint Mobile deal?
  • Diverse party-goers
    Don't Be Late to the Party: The Channel Needs to Kick-Start the Move to All-IP, or Lose Out
    Channel companies need to start now to help PSTN customers switch to VoIP early to win – and keep – business.
  • Jay McBain at NerdioCon 2023
    Jay McBain's Top Trends for MSPs the Remainder of 2023
    Canalys analyst Jay McBain presents his top trends, opportunities and warnings to MSPs.
  • Equity
    Lumen Partners with Syndio to Advance Pay Equity Goals
    Syndio’s analytics platform will help Lumen ensure workplace equity and transparency for their employees.

12 comments

  1. Avatar Earlene Eno January 24, 2020 @ 3:14 pm
    Reply

    What happens to current customers. Do I have to find a new internet service.

  2. Avatar James Flores January 25, 2020 @ 2:07 am
    Reply

    Good riddance, this company has poor customer service. But likely to continue as Frontier will likely pass bad data to new buyer.

  3. Avatar Greg Upshur January 26, 2020 @ 9:12 am
    Reply

    “As we have said publicly, Frontier is evaluating its capital structure with an eye to reducing debt and interest expense so as to be able to better serve our customers,” he said. “Our customers should expect no changes as we remain focused on providing quality communications services.”
    What a joke, just look at all the complaints on line about these territorial bullies! They don’t deserve to exsist

  4. Avatar MM January 26, 2020 @ 9:44 pm
    Reply

    Extremely poor service at Shawano office on Division St. I ended service last year because I was treated rudely while attempting to pay my bill. Shawano Wisconsin

  5. Avatar FTR CREDITORS ALLIANCE January 27, 2020 @ 11:35 pm
    Reply

    “You can beat Bloomberg’s fake news by Bloomberg system. These Bloomberg reporters probably don’t even use Bloomberg system to search.Only 19.78% shares of the top 100 shareholders have FTR debt at the same time.
    It is absolutely impossible for shareholders to vote for a suicide prepackaged bankruptcy.
    More than own 0.01% debt of FTR have 155 creditors, they only account for 27.48% of the total debt. (Source from Bloomberg’s system), how can the FTR be sure to get 2/3 creditors to support their restructuring plan in court?
    Why does FTR take risk of Ch11 failed & liquidation under sufficient cash and FCF?
    Why enter Chapter 11 without completing sale of assets?
    Why does FTR take risk of abandon this 1.35B income ?
    Is BK possible in March?”

  6. Avatar Sharon Dotson February 2, 2020 @ 5:16 am
    Reply

    Frontier has been good to me I had to get my number changed and took my internet promotion off they promised me it took them four months to get it line out but they made it right with me you know what nobody perfect. Some people have change to different company but you know what they went back to frontier.

  7. Avatar Pete Hetterle February 3, 2020 @ 11:09 pm
    Reply

    Its amazing , ive been trying to get my phone line replaced for 6 months! They have sent out 3 tech. Different times . Marked my line with spray paint on my land scaping. Sent a subcontracter to do the dirt work then they all dont who and what and when stuff might get done . Still not done. No follow up phone calls . What a joke ! If i could get a hold of one of these colledge educated big shots i would love to give them a peice of my mind. No wonder there having problems. And you no what ? It starts at the top. They need to pit the shovels in the big wigs hands and make them work ans see whats going on down in the trenches. There sitting in there big shot offices and trying to make policies and not getting the picture. I hope they read this and they schould be flat embarressed. .a frontier customer

  8. Avatar GrandmaX6 February 5, 2020 @ 5:44 pm
    Reply

    I’ve had good luck with my service for 2 years now. And customer service has always been good. I do most of my customer service on their chat system.
    I have no service interruptions but when I had much more expensive cable (Spectrum), service was always going out.
    I have frontier tv, internet and phone.

  9. Avatar Patricia Eddy February 18, 2020 @ 1:25 pm
    Reply

    We have had a lineline with Frontier since they bought out Verizon.
    We have had no bad service to date from this company that wasn’t addressed immediately and I would hate to think that they will no longer serve our West Virginia area.
    The Verizon company formerly that served our landlines cared nothing about their customers.

  10. Avatar Bill February 29, 2020 @ 6:18 pm
    Reply

    Horrible company. Have had numerous problems ever since the took over. The majority of the reps I communicated with to resolve my various problems CLEARLY struggle with their job. Cant switch to Direct TV because I dont use AT&T. Dish does not offer there own Internet. Would end up with Frontier Internet even if I went with Dish.
    Frontier has no business doing thisbusiness. Horrible,horrible services

  11. Avatar Sandi Jackson March 1, 2020 @ 7:32 am
    Reply

    Congratulations on your 17.5 billion in debt load! If you treated other customers like we were treated I can understand them saying goodbye. We have been customer
    Since Verizon left. Never missed a payment, credit score of 800. We upgraded our internet service and when we got our first bill it was twice as much as it was suppose to be. We worked out an agreement after 3 months of hassles. Thought everything was fine then they decided to back out of the agreement. Needless to say we told them what they could do with Frontier.

  12. Avatar Phillip May 6, 2020 @ 11:55 pm
    Reply

    Zipley Fiber bought Frontier Communications where we are at (Snohomish County … north of Seattle). They are even worse than Frontier. Horrible customer service and won’t waive late fees, even though they failed to send a bill. They expect me to remember to pay my bill on time even though they don’t bill me and I find out later that I’m overdue.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your Channel Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Welcome Mat
    Ex-Telarus Exec Scott Forbush Leaves Upstack for PPT Solutions After 5 Months
  • Woman with questions
    Should We Just Call Master Agents Distributors?
  • Benefit, Plus Sign
    TBI, Avant Add New Cloud, Security Suppliers to Lineups
  • CIO
    ScanSource Hires New CIO to Lead Global IT Strategy

Upcoming Events

View all

Channel Partners Conference & Expo

May 1, 2023 - May 4, 2023

Channel Partners Europe

June 13, 2023 - June 14, 2023

Channel Futures Leadership Summit

October 30, 2023 - November 2, 2023

Galleries

View all

VMware Partner Connect Now in Full Swing Worldwide

March 20, 2023

The Gately Report: Huntress to Double Down on MSP Partner Investment

March 20, 2023

8 Channel People Making Waves This Week at T-Mobile, Kaseya, Google Cloud, Atlassian, More

March 17, 2023

Industry Perspectives

View all

10 Strategic Smart Enterprise Drivers for 2023

March 16, 2023

Does Your Company Have a Virtual Water Cooler?

March 13, 2023

How Hybrid Work Poses Major Cybersecurity Risks

March 1, 2023

Webinars

View all

Equipping the Hybrid Workforce: What It Takes to Execute

March 28, 2023

Give Customers the Power: How MSPs Can Leverage Cloud Choice

April 4, 2023

DE&I Dialogue: How the Right DE&I Initiatives Can Propel Your Business

April 5, 2023

White Papers

View all

6 UCaaS Reseller Challenges and How Real World Businesses Solved Them

February 1, 2023

Frost Radar: North American UCaaS Market, 2022

February 1, 2023

The Complete Guide to White-Label UCaaS for Reseller Success

February 1, 2023

Channel Futures TV

View all

Real-Life M&A: Advice for a Successful Channel Deal

Coffee with Craig and James Episode 120: Ronnell Richards

March 3, 2023

XDR Technology: Latest Breakthroughs, How to Talk to Customers

March 1, 2023

Coffee with Craig and James Episode 119: Alliance of Channel Women

February 22, 2023

Twitter

ChannelFutures

.@HPE acquiring @OpsRamp to add capabilities to @HPE_GreenLake. #cloud dlvr.it/SlCFz9

March 20, 2023
ChannelFutures

The relationship between technology advisor (agent) firms, technology service distributors (TSDs) and suppliers is… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 20, 2023
ChannelFutures

.@citrix channel marketing exec Tricia Atkinson is joining @Equinix to lead global partner #marketing.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 20, 2023
ChannelFutures

.@bizITsolutions announced a partnership with New Charter Technologies. dlvr.it/SlBh09 https://t.co/xpqbQcKC6y

March 20, 2023
ChannelFutures

.@VMware has finalized #PartnerConnect and plans to keep it as-is (minus simplification changes) for years to come.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 20, 2023
ChannelFutures

Our latest #GatelyReport includes a Q&A with @HuntressLabs, massive ILS #databreach, new @SECGov cyber proposal,… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 20, 2023
ChannelFutures

Channel people making waves include: @MikeSievert, @TheFredVoccola, @Ichhpurani, @mcannonbrookes, @scottfarkas… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 17, 2023

MSP 501

The industry's largest and most comprehensive partner awards program.

Newsletters and Updates

Sign up for The Channel Report, Channel Futures Update, MSP 501 Newsletter and more.

Live Channel Events

Get the latest information on the next industry-leading Channel Partners event.

Galleries

Educational slide shows and images from live events.

Media Kit And Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • Channel Partners Events
  • Telecoms.com
  • MSP 501
  • Black Hat
  • IoT World Today
  • Omdia

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter

FOLLOW Channel Futures ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X