Verizon Nearing Deal for Frontier Communications (msn.com) 23
Verizon is in advanced talks to acquire Frontier Communications in a deal that would bolster the company's fiber network to compete with rivals including AT&T, WSJ reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: An announcement could come this week, granted the talks don't hit any last-minute snags, the people said. A deal would be sizable, given Frontier's market value of over $7 billion. The company, cobbled together by several deals over the years, provides broadband connections to about three million locations across 25 states.
Verizon, the top cellphone carrier by subscribers, has faced increased pressure from competitors and from cable-TV companies that offer discounted wireless service backed by Verizon's own cellular network. Verizon has its Fios-branded fiber network, and AT&T has focused on expanding its fiber network since shedding its WarnerMedia assets in 2022. Fiber M&A has heated up as telecom companies and financial firms pour capital into neighborhoods that lack high-speed broadband or offer only one internet provider, usually from a cable-TV company.
Verizon, the top cellphone carrier by subscribers, has faced increased pressure from competitors and from cable-TV companies that offer discounted wireless service backed by Verizon's own cellular network. Verizon has its Fios-branded fiber network, and AT&T has focused on expanding its fiber network since shedding its WarnerMedia assets in 2022. Fiber M&A has heated up as telecom companies and financial firms pour capital into neighborhoods that lack high-speed broadband or offer only one internet provider, usually from a cable-TV company.
Verizon literally sold their network TO Frontier.. (Score:2)
In Texas we were Verizon FIOS for a decade until Frontier bought out their fiber footprint and made it twice the price. Now they want to buy it back?
https://www.fierce-network.com... [fierce-network.com]
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price to increase soon.
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Came here to say this!! In the Northeast, Verizon sold FiOS to Frontier and now they want it back!!
Back then, Verizon said they wouldn't see any profit from FiOS for 20 years so they sold off huge FiOS plants to Frontier, stopped their New York City rollout (for which NYC sued them and won), and also stopped the Washington DC rollout.
(Checking calendar) I guess 20 years is finally up.
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In Florida, we were Verizon FIOS until they sold it off to Frontier, which offered the same service at much lower prices.
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WTF (Score:5, Informative)
So wait... Verizon... which sold its wireline assets, including FiOS to Frontier, is in the process of buying up Frontier... in order to get access to Fiber?
https://www.verizon.com/about/... [verizon.com]
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Yes, this is very confusing.
I wonder if VZ is making a profit or loss on the deal to buy back the assets they sold.
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In my neighborhood, Frontier turned around and sold the (practically brand new) fiber system to Ziply. Which seems to work just fine.
I wonder if Frontier held on to (or got stuck with) the unfixable crap. If so, Verizon might be buying back a pig in a poke.
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This old info from a telco expert shows telcos were or are on the hook for billions. [https://newnetworks.com/bookofbrokenpromises.htm]. I'd assume a few sales like this has made any corporate liability for screwing over fiber promises a thing of the past?
Frontier was extra nasty. To get business DSL in a small area they required a 3 year service contract, that auto renewed.
Sure, tell me another one (Score:2)
Fiber M&A has heated up as telecom companies and financial firms pour capital into neighborhoods that lack high-speed broadband or offer only one internet provider, usually from a cable-TV company.
Only new competition I've noticed in my neighborhood is that AT&T now offers a 5G internet plan to compete with Spectrum. It's $60/mo, which is actually more expensive than Spectrum for worse service (there's a long list of issues related to using a cellular connection which aren't worth getting into). T-Mobile's 5G home broadband plan also used to be available, but that hit some sort of customers-per-tower limit and now you just get put on a waitlist (which according to Reddit, you'll be on until the
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I'm not seeing Verizon gobbling up a competitor as something that's going to ever improve this situation.
You nailed it. They're just making the fiber monopoly footprint bigger. They aren't adding any competition.
What we need is more choices, not a bigger company offering a single choice. For example, in areas where AT&T and Spectrum both offer service AT&T offers 1Gb, 2Gb, and 5Gb speed levels. In most areas where AT&T is the only provider they offer 300Mb, 500Mb, and 1Gb. No competition, no need to offer anything better.
In other words (Score:2)
Less competition. I would say with luck this will be blocked, but I'm sure a certain group will whine the administration is stifling "innovation".
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It's only less competition if VZ and Frontier have overlapping footprint. Since most of Frontier's fiber miles were built by VZ, I doubt this is the case.
Fraudtier - goodbye and good riddance (Score:3)
Competitive arguments aside for a moment - here in rural Minnesota, it would be near impossible for Frontier Communications to provide shittier, less competitive service options than virtually any other provider on the planet.
Verizon fixed 4G/5G service is an order of magnitude (or in my specific case, two or more orders of magnitude) faster than the *best* Frontier has to offer - at 30% lower cost.
Here at least, Frontier's idea of "innovation" is being forced (by the PUC) to install fiber-fed remote DSLAM'
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That said, Frontier has mismanaged their territories so badly that even Verizon going back to managing them would be an improvement. Their customer service is atrocious, their installers rarely show up when scheduled, and many of their regions are still using VDSL service when the rest of the world has upgraded to fiber.
The wired industry is weird (Score:3)
In 2016, Verizon sold a bunch of assets to Frontier. MAny of those assets were cooper lines, but included the "critical right of way" rights so you could rip the cooper and lay fibre, and also included all those oh-so-tasty customers.
Before that, frontier had many assets (and rights of way, and customers) in places where Verizon did nor have any footprint, and aftewr that, Frontier purcharsed many more assets in many more areas.
Fast foward 3 years to 2019, and along comes 5G, and guess what? 5G needs a Fibre-rich diet to work properly, doubly so if you have mm-wave spectrum (like Verizon).
Fast forward 5 more years, Frontier is cheap, Verizon needs "moar" fibre...
Hence this deal.
Do you think this is done to bolster Verizon's wired ISP bussines? Think again, that is only a nice side effect of the real deal, which is getting more fibre for Verizon's Cell-Towers.
Frontier sucks ass (Score:2)
Kind of like saying I prefer salt in my wounds over battery acid, I'd rather have Verizon back than deal with Frontier.
No!!! (Score:2)
We do not need yet another telecom mega-merger in the US.
Wait what???!! (Score:2)