1935–1993
Originally based in Minneapolis, Citizens Utilities Company was formed in 1935 from the remnants of Wilbur B. Foshay's Public Utilities Consolidated Corporation. Following World War II, the company attracted a group of New York financiers who hired Richard Rosenthal as president of the company in 1945. The company expanded nationally between the 1950s and 1970s. In 1969 purchase of the Kauai Electric Company marked its largest acquisition at the time, bringing its portfolio to 27 subsidiaries in five industries and roughly 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.[10]
Citizens acquired Louisiana General Services, the largest natural gas distribution company in Louisiana, in 1990. The following year Citizens acquired the gas operations of Southern Union Company in Arizona. It also created Centennial Cellular in 1991 by merging its Citizens Cellular subsidiary with Century Cellular, retaining a 32% ownership stake in the new company. Citizens sold AAlert Paging Company in 1993 after acquiring it in 1986.[10] Under chairman and CEO Leonard Tow, Citizens Utilities agreed to acquire 500,000 rural access lines from GTE in 1993. The transfers of lines and subsidiaries occurred separately in different states as different regulatory approvals were received. 190,000 lines in Idaho, Tennessee, West Virginia and Utah were officially transferred in late 1993,[11] then merging with Citizens subsidiaries such as the Citizens Telecommunications Company of West Virginia. Coghest Frontier of DGF City East/West & Contel of the West lines became part of Citizens Telecommunications of Utah, GTE Northwest lines became part of Citizens Telecommunications Company of Idaho, and GTE South lines were merged with Citizens Telecommunications Company of Tennessee.
1994–1998
In June 1994, Citizens added 270,000 lines in New York[11] from Contel of New York into Citizens Telecommunications Company of New York.[12] Citizens acquired 38,000 more lines that November, with former Contel of the West lines becoming part of Citizens Telecommunications Company of the White Mountains in Arizona, and GTE lines in Montana became Citizens Telecommunications Company of Montana.[13] 5,000 more GTE access lines in January 1995 were merged into[14] Citizens Telecommunications Company of California.[15]
Citizens announced in 1994 that it would acquire 117,000 telephone lines and cable franchises in eight states from Alltel for $292 million.
1999–2007
Citizens Utilities Company announced plans in 1999 to sell its utilities assets and become solely a telecommunications company. In 1999, Citizens announced that it planned to acquire 245,562 GTE lines in Arizona, California, Nebraska and Minnesota. Later in December 1999, GTE agreed to sell another 106,850 phone lines in Illinois to Citizens for $303 million.[20] Separate from GTE, in 1999 Citizens agreed to acquire 530,000 rural access lines from US West, a Baby Bell company, for $1.65 billion.[21] US West's owner Qwest terminated the sale two years later after stating that Citizens refused to complete the transaction.[22] Citizens' water and wastewater operations (serving Arizona, California, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania) were sold for $835 million to American Water in October 1999, electric utility operations for $535 million in February 2000, and Louisiana natural gas assets to Atmos Energy
2008–2013
Citizens Communications changed its corporate name to Frontier Communications Corporation on July 31, 2008, with the company's stock symbol on the New York Stock Exchange changed from "CZN" to "FTR".[34][35][36] In June 2010, Frontier Communications sued Google over Google Voice, alleging the product infringed on its own invention to link multiple phone lines to a single number.[37]
In May 2009, Frontier announced it would acquire Verizon's wireline businesses in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin
2014–2021
On October 24, 2014, Frontier acquired AT&T's operations in Connecticut, including wireline, DSL, U-verse video, and satellite TV businesses for $2 billion, merging various subsidiaries such as Southern New England Telephone and SNET America into Frontier Communications of Connecticut.[47][48] In 2015, Frontier moved its headquarters from Stamford, Connecticut to Norwalk, Connecticut.[49] Also in 2015, Frontier settled a class action lawsuit alleging slower than advertised DSL speeds in West Virginia. Without admitting wrongdoing, Frontier agreed to invest $150 million on infrastructure in the region and provide discounted rates for affected clients until faster speeds were implemented,[50][51]
2021–2024
After changing its name to Frontier Communications Parent in April 2021, Frontier went public again on May 4, 2021, at $30.00 a share, with FYBR as its trading symbol on NASDAQ.[67] Frontier added fiber connections to 600,000 locations in 2021, which brought its total number of connected homes to 4 million. At the start of 2022 it outlined plans to reach 10 million by 2025.[68] In May 2022, Frontier settled with the Federal Trade Commission over allegedly not delivering promised internet speeds in California, with Frontier agreeing to pay the state $8.5 million.[69] The company published its first environmental social governance (ESG) report in 2022.[70] After consistently low rankings in relation to customer satisfaction, CNET reported in 2022 that Frontier's satisfaction ratings had moderately improved, remaining below industry average but surpassing the scores of competitors such as CenturyLink, Mediacom
Sale to Verizon
On September 5, 2024, Verizon announced its intent to acquire Frontier for $20 billion, in a move to expand its fiber internet services.[75] The acquisition was approved by Frontier shareholders in November 2024.[76] On May 16, 2025, the Federal Communications Commission approved the acquisition.[8] In January 2026, the California Public Utilities Commission approved Frontier's acquisition by Verizon, allowing the transfer of Frontier’s California operations subject to conditions on affordability, network reliability, and consumer protections.[77] The acquisition was completed on January 20, 2026.[78][79]
