Why is Frontier Communications Filing for Bankruptcy

The internet service provider for Mattawan, MI as well as cities around the nation is failing big time.

Full disclosure, I moved out of Mattawan in 2015 because I could not take the slow, crappy internet.  When I lived there the only internet provider available was Frontier Communications.  I was constantly on the phone complaining about outages or very slow internet speeds.  In fact, there was a website dedicated to nothing but complaints about the terrible Mattawan internet.  That site no longer exists.

With all of that being said, the news of the Frontier bankruptcy from Bloomberg.com is not a big surprise to most,

Frontier Communications Corp., the provider of telecom services in 29 states, 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.

The company that has a bad reputation for failing networks and very poor customer service can't pay the $356 Million in debts that are due by March 15th.  That's nothing compared to the ISP company's long-term debt according to arstechnica.com,

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

The service provided by Frontier is more than likely partly responsible for the company going from 422,000 to 381,000 customers in one year.  Another culprit would be their inability to maintain their network.  While other ISP's are using fiber for rocket fast broadband speeds.  Frontier is still using poorly maintained copper phone lines.

What does this mean if you are using Frontier Communications?  The company is trying to sell their operations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana to WaveDivision Capital.  As of right now, there's not a big change in sight for people using Frontier in Michigan.  We'll keep you updated.