Frontier Communications is a step closer to becoming a new household name in a number of states as the FCC approves the deal to buy phone, internet and TV lines from Verizon.

Federal regulators are giving Verizon Communications Inc. the green light to sell nearly 5 million phone lines outside of its core service areas to Frontier Communications Corp.

Friday’s approval by the Federal Communications Commission marks the final step for the $8.6 billion deal, announced more than a year ago. The transaction has already been cleared by antitrust regulators at the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission, as well as by state regulators and local officials.

Verizon is selling 4.8 million residential and small business phone lines and 1 million broadband connections in rural and smaller urban markets to Frontier. In return for FCC approval, Frontier has pledged to make significant investments in high-speed Internet networks.

This will include Verizon Fios Internet, Phone and TV services. The deal will affect 14 states including Oregon, West Virginia and Ohio among others.

Union members are not happy with the sale and have been fighting the transaction arguing that Frontier is not financially stable enough to continue to provide the same level of services and service that Verizon does.

Showing 3 comments

  1. Dr. Schaefer at 9:34am 24th May 2010 Dr. Sidney Schaefer: You know, one thing I learned from my patients... they all hate the phone company. It's interesting; even the stock holders of the phone company hate the phone company!
    V.I. Kydor Kropotkin: I know. Bedouins hate the phone company. Matter of fact, I've never been in a country where everybody didn't hate the phone company.
  2. Sam at 12:10am 22nd May 2010 I looked up frontier online and there are a ton of upset customers with this company.
  3. Island Dude at 8:18pm 21st May 2010 If the union is correct, then it will likely mean that Frontier will have to sell some of the lines to independent telephone companies that are adjacent to their lines.
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