All About Frontier Communications Lawsuits

Frontier Communications will have to invest at least $150 million over the next three years to increase broadband speeds in West Virginia as part of a settlement to lawsuit filed in 2014 by the state’s Attorney General Patrick Morrissey.

The lawsuit accused Frontier of promising broadband speeds of up to 6 Mbps but only delivering speeds of 1.5 Mbps or lower. Frontier has admitted to no wrongdoing but has committed to reducing its monthly rate for customers that were impacted by this to $9.99 per month, a savings of $10 to $20 per month. The reduced rate will be available until Frontier increases its network download speeds provisioned at 1.5 Mbps or lower to at least 6 Mbps, according to Morrisey’s office. The price decreases will start Jan. 25.

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Also as part of the settlement Frontier is required to pay $500,000 to the state’s Consumer Protection Fund. The payment will be used to offset investigative and monitoring expenses.

The city of Tampa is suing Frontier Communications of America and Verizon Florida for allegedly causing nearly $100,000 in damages to underground wastewater lines over a three-year period.

In a lawsuit filed last week, the city detailed 37 instances between 2015 and 2018 when cable and phone provider Frontier and its predecessor, Verizon, allegedly damaged wastewater pipes while installing fiber optic lines throughout the city. The lines provide faster cable TV and phone service.

CHARLESTON – A lawsuit filed in 2014 against Frontier Communications alleging violations of the False Claims Act will continue after a judge’s recent order dismissing several counts from the amended complaint.

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“The court agrees that Citynet has sufficiently set forth the who, what and when of the conspiracy with adequate particularity,” Copenhaver wrote. “The complaint alleges that defendants worked together to prepare the WVEO grant and prepared it containing a number of misrepresentations so that it would be awarded and with the knowledge that Frontier would become a sub-recipient of the grant.”

Once awarded, it is alleged that the defendants did not build the network that the grant stated they would build, but built substantially less miles of fiber because the network was already mostly built, and additionally worked together, with the Frontier defendants submitting and the state employees approving invoices containing impermissible invoice fees, so that the grant money would be expended and not given to other applicants who applied for grant funds, according to Copenhaver’s order.

[S]tarting in July 2010, Frontier began acquiring significant capital assets of Verizon—starting with wireline operations providing services to residential, commercial and wholesale communications customers. Subsequently, Frontier has purchased broadband and fiber optic assets in certain Western states.

According to the complaint, between July 2010 and December 30, 2011, the Frontier Communications 401(k) plan received and retained approximately $150 million in Verizon stock, at that time representing over 15% of the plan’s total assets. In April 2016, Frontier acquired additional Verizon assets, and the plan fiduciary defendants allegedly invested over $200 million of additional plan assets in Verizon stock.

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As a result of these breaches, plaintiff alleges, defendants caused the plan and the proposed class to suffer more than $100 million in losses.

A federal judge scheduled a June trial for a jury to hear a former Frontier Communications employee’s assertion the company paid her far below what men made to do the same job, with Connecticut enacting a law this year attempting to limit employers from maintaining such gaps in compensation.

Leigh Ann Marzano, of Rocky Hill, sued Frontier in 2016, claiming her complaints were not addressed by managers at Norwalk-based Frontier and predecessor company AT&T. Frontier acquired AT&T’s historic Southern New England Telephone operations in October 2014.