Businessweek

Frontier Communications Corporation provides communications services to rural areas and small and medium-sized towns and cities in the United States. The company offers various voice, data, and television services and products. Strategy The key elements of its strategy are to enhance customer loyalty through local engagement; apply the sales and marketing practices that it employed throughout its markets, including the sale of voice, data and video services as bundled packages and the use of promotions and incentives to drive market share; expand broadband footprint; and growth through selective acquisitions. Communications Services As of December 31, 2012, the company operated as an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC), with 3.2 million customers and 1.8 million broadband connections. It operated as an ILEC in 27 states. The company conducts business with both business and residential customers, and provides the last mile of telecommunications services to customers in these markets. As of December 31, 2012, the company had 1,787,600 broadband subscribers and 346,600 video customers. Services The company offers a portfolio of communications services for business and residential customers in each of its markets. These include services associated with local telephone companies, as well as other services, such as long distance, Internet access, broadband-enabled services and video services. The company offers these services both á la carte and, increasingly, as bundled packages which are purposely designed to simplify customer purchasing decisions and to provide the customer with pricing discounts. The company also offers incentives and promotions to influence customers to purchase or retain certain services. It also enhances customer retention by offering one-, two- and three-year price protection plans under which customers commit to a term in exchange for predictable pricing or other incentives and promotions. Data and Internet Services The company offers a range of wireline broadband services to its residential, commercial and carrier customers. Residential services include broadband, dial up Internet, portal and email products. Commercial services include Ethernet, dedicated Internet, multiprotocol label switching, and TDM data transport services. These services are all supported by a 24-7 help desk and an advanced network operations center. Such services are generally offered on a contract basis and the service is billed on a fixed monthly recurring charge basis. Data and Internet services are typically billed monthly in advance. The company also offers its Frontier Secure suite of products aimed at managing the personal computing experience for its customers and designed to provide value and simplicity to meet customers’ ever-changing needs. The Frontier Secure products and services suite includes an in-home, full installation of the company’s broadband product, 2 hour appointment windows for the installation, hard-drive back-up services, 24-7 help desk PC support and inside wire maintenance (when bundled). The company offers wireless broadband services (using unlicensed WiFi spectrum) in select markets utilizing networks that it owns or operates. Long-term contracts are billed in advance on an annual or semi-annual basis. End-user subscribers are billed in advance on a monthly recurring basis and businesses, colleges and universities are billed on a monthly recurring basis for a fixed number of users. Hourly, daily and weekly casual end-users are billed by credit card at the time of use. Local and Long Distance Voice Services The company provides basic telephone wireline services to business and residential customers in its service areas. The company also provides enhanced services to its customers by offering a number of calling features, including call forwarding, conference calling, caller identification, voicemail and call waiting. All of these local services are billed monthly in advance. Long distance network service to and from points outside its operating territories are provided by interconnection with the facilities of interexchange carriers. The company’s long dist