https://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Frontier-Buys-All-ATT-Landline-Operations-in-Connecticut-127049

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Frontier Communications has announced that the company will be buying AT&T's fixed-line networks in Connecticut in a deal estimated to be worth around $2 billion. According to the companies' press release, the deal will involve all AT&T residential (both DSL and U-Verse), commercial and wholesale customers in Connecticut. All told, Frontier should acquire around 415,000 broadband customers (including 245,000 U-verse users), 900,000 voice subscribers, and 180,000 residential video users.

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"We see an opportunity to enhance broadband capabilities in Connecticut," Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter said in a statement. "This transaction demonstrates our continued commitment to enhancing shareholder value by improving the sustainability of our dividend, increasing our free cash flow and building on our core product and service strengths."

Verizon, like AT&T, has been busy trying to back away from fixed-line customers in markets they don't want to upgrade in order to focus primarily on more profitable wireless service. AT&T has been shopping around a number of unwanted markets for several years. Where they can't sell, AT&T's attempting to gut unwanted regulations in order to simply walk away from unwanted users sometime in the next few years.

Frontier, meanwhile, continues to grow at an amazing rate as they gobble up the users AT&T and Verizon don't want. The company acquired 4.8 million access lines in 14 states from Verizon in a deal valued at $8.6 billion back in 2009. Verizon got the better end of that arrangement, not only getting a massive tax write off while shedding debt, but they then got to come back into those markets and sell fixed line LTE services to many still un-upgraded DSL users in those markets.

It wasn't clear Frontier was going to be game for another such deal after Verizon, but AT&T's all-cash offer and the ability to grow further, faster was clearly too tempting for Frontier.