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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 21 2020, @09:59AM   Printer-friendly
from the routine-bankruptcy dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Frontier Communications is planning to file for bankruptcy within two months, Bloomberg reported last week.

The telco "is asking creditors to help craft a turnaround deal that includes filing for bankruptcy by the middle of March, according to people with knowledge of the matter," Bloomberg wrote.

Frontier CEO Bernie Han and other company executives "met with creditors and advisers Thursday and told them the company wants to negotiate a pre-packaged agreement before $356 million of debt payments come due March 15," the report said. The move would likely involve Chapter 11 bankruptcy to let Frontier "keep operating without interruption of telephone and broadband service to its customers."

Frontier reported having $16.3 billion in long-term debt as of September 30, 2019.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by fliptop on Tuesday January 21 2020, @01:34PM (10 children)

    by fliptop (1666) on Tuesday January 21 2020, @01:34PM (#946324) Journal

    And I can't say I'm surprised. The only good thing I can say about them is when I call customer service, I usually get through to someone quickly and they're a native English speaker. Other than that, they seem to cut corners whenever possible. Their voice service is terrible (I have called at least a dozen times due to excessive static/noise on my landline), their DSL internet sucks (I don't have it but my neighbors have done nothing but complain and I've switched all of them over to one of my clients that provides wireless), and where I live they were sued [fiercetelecom.com] for taking millions in USC funds and not delivering on their promises.

    I guess this doesn't mean things will get better for me though. Unless not having my landline completely cut off could be considered "better."

    --
    Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 21 2020, @05:29PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 21 2020, @05:29PM (#946421)

    I'm sure Comcast will treat you as a respected customer once the buyout of Frontier is finished.

    • (Score: 2) by fliptop on Wednesday January 22 2020, @02:57AM

      by fliptop (1666) on Wednesday January 22 2020, @02:57AM (#946645) Journal

      Comcast

      Not available where I live, too far from town.

      --
      Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
  • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday January 21 2020, @06:08PM (7 children)

    by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday January 21 2020, @06:08PM (#946448)

    Landline? Copper? If so, do they own it, or lease from someone like Verizon, who is trying to disconnect all copper and refuses to fix it due to ridiculous labor union laws. IE: copper "linesmen" are under CWA union, but fiber are cheap scrubs, and Verizon tries very hard to not repair copper problems.

    I recently learned of a simple product that seemed obvious that it should exist anyway: a landline hotspot. It connects to cell network, and has POTS RJ-11. I like the idea of 1) using existing infrastructure, and 2) many phones around the house so you don't have to carry cell in pocket, leave it laying somewhere, etc.

    Cell reception used to be very weak outside of my house, and house has aluminum siding, so inside phones would cut off unless you stayed at a window. So the above product would have been great, but cell reception is good now.

    • (Score: 2) by fliptop on Wednesday January 22 2020, @03:00AM (3 children)

      by fliptop (1666) on Wednesday January 22 2020, @03:00AM (#946648) Journal

      Landline? Copper? If so, do they own it, or lease from someone like Verizon

      In my state, Frontier bought out Verizon. Frontier owns the copper.

      I recently learned of a simple product that seemed obvious that it should exist anyway: a landline hotspot. It connects to cell network

      I barely get a cell signal where I live, hence the necessity of having a landline.

      --
      Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday January 22 2020, @06:00AM (2 children)

        by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday January 22 2020, @06:00AM (#946726)

        > In my state, Frontier bought out Verizon. Frontier owns the copper.

        That's interesting. Well, not sure what's going on besides Frontier profiteering.

        Have you looked into satellite? IIRC, isn't Space-X, or Amazon or someone putting up more Internet satellites?

        Have you looked into cell repeaters and high-gain Yag or planar antennas? Might be a very good investment.

        • (Score: 2) by fliptop on Wednesday January 22 2020, @01:04PM (1 child)

          by fliptop (1666) on Wednesday January 22 2020, @01:04PM (#946806) Journal

          Have you looked into satellite?

          I had Dish for a spell some time ago but they limit bandwidth and the latency makes using SSH very difficult. Plus when the weather is bad it doesn't work at all.

          One of my clients provides wireless internet, and I get 5 down and 3 up, which isn't great but it's better than DSL. Since they're my client I get it for free. No complaints.

          --
          Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
          • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday January 22 2020, @03:37PM

            by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday January 22 2020, @03:37PM (#946848)

            Good deal!

            Again, I get Xfinity through a client, so many WiFi hotspots to be found. With one of my USB WiFi adapters I can connect reliably well, over 30 mbps, at > 300'. Aiming it is touchy though; someday I'll get a high gain antenna.

            Yeah, satellite latency is a problem. Years ago one of them (Dish?) had you use a dial-up + satellite and the latency wasn't so bad. The newer ones being deployed- I think it's Space-X (??) will be in a much lower orbit so the latency will be minimal.

            I still think you might look into cell repeaters for your home- some are quite inexpensive.

    • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday January 22 2020, @04:57AM (2 children)

      by Pino P (4721) on Wednesday January 22 2020, @04:57AM (#946706) Journal

      I recently learned of a simple product that seemed obvious that it should exist anyway: a landline hotspot.

      I switched from Frontier POTS to "wireless home phone" service on the AT&T network because I was tired of paying for long distance. But I doubt it'd be compatible with a fax machine in a U.S. state whose health department prefers that applicants for health insurance fax in their supporting documents.

      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday January 22 2020, @05:55AM (1 child)

        by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday January 22 2020, @05:55AM (#946724)

        There are services, like efax.com, srfax.com, and many more if you do a web search, which will convert an email to fax and then they send the fax for you.

        • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday January 27 2020, @03:50AM

          by Pino P (4721) on Monday January 27 2020, @03:50AM (#949172) Journal

          I'm aware of them. But the services you mention also charge a fairly substantial monthly fee, which I admit can still be less than the $1.00 per page that the local public library charges or $2.00 per page that a copy shop charges.