Frontier Communications

Frontier Communications Parent, Inc. is an American telecommunications company. Known as Citizens Utilities Company until 2000, Citizens Communications Company until 2008, and Frontier Communications Corporation until 2020, as a communications provider with a fiber-optic network and cloud-based services, Frontier offers broadband internet, digital television, and computer technical support to residential and business customers in 25 states. In some areas it also offers home phone services. Incorporated in 1935 and based in Norwalk, Connecticut, the company began focusing solely on telecommunications in 1999, selling its natural gas assets and utility operations. The company subsequently acquired companies such as Frontier Communications of Rochester as well as assets from Verizon Communications and AT&T. After filing for bankruptcy in 2020 and emerging from restructuring in 2021, Frontier went public again on May 4, 2021 on the NASDAQ. The company had around 3 million broadband subscribers and 485,000 video subscribers in 2021, and currently has a fiber optic network of 5.2 million locations. History 1935-1993 Originally based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Citizens Utilities Company was formed from remnants of Wilbur B. Foshay's Public Utilities Consolidated Corporation in 1935. As the post-war years started, the company caught the interest of a New York investor. Richard Rosenthal was hired as president of the company in 1945, and by 1946, at thirty years old was the youngest company president in the industry. From the 1950s through the 1970s the company expanded nationally. In 1969 it purchased the Kauai Electric Company, marking its then largest acquisition, at which point it operated 27 subsidiaries in five industries in around a dozen states. While continuing to serve as CEO, Rosenthal was elected chairman in 1970. Ishier Jacobson succeeded Rosenthal as CEO in 1981 after first serving as president and COO, with Rosenthal also retiring as chairman in 1989. A year later Jacobson retired as CEO and president as well. After aggressively expanding the business and focusing on service quality, board member Leonard Tow was named chairman and CEO in 1990. Daryl Ferguson became Citizens' president later that year.