Frontier Communications Corp (NASDAQ:FTR) is still struggling with its customer transition issues. It needs to show if it can execute broadband marketing programs efficiently in bought territories. During company’s 2Q2016 conference call held in August, the CEO Dan McCarthy said that as they discussed on their first call, they have temporarily deferred acquisition marketing activities during the cutover period.
It resulted in an anticipated deceleration in gross additions. The company is now back to usual level of publicizing in the new assets and all client service calls are being handled locally. As a result, Frontier have recorded an improvement in its gross additions and project this to reach standardized levels as they move through this quarter.
The highlights
Unlike the CEO statement, it appears unlikely that normalized levels were achieved by the end of 3Q2016. Not only are transition issues present in the Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) zones, but there exists probability for hurricane-related problems in certain Frontier legacy areas. At the Deutsche Bank Annual Leveraged Finance Conference held in September, Frontier Treasurer and Senior VP John Gianukakis highlighted recent developments at the firm.
The tone of his notes appeared to suggest that marketing initiatives in the bought territories had to be yet fully executed. Equally significant are the number of client service concerns that seem to continue. It has been almost six months since Frontier took control of Verizon’s land-line businesses in California, including Internet, FiOS TV and phone services. And the firm is still struggling to recuperate from all the disruptions, screw-ups and outages amid one of the roughest telecom buyouts ever.
Frontier’s Facebook page pulls ongoing criticism of the firm’s client service. The big list of problems faced by company include unresolved billing errors, a lack of competitive products and FiOS outages. But possibly the most obvious public relations problem is this statistic. There were over 2,100 client complaints about Frontier submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission after the takeover took place. Apparently, many of these grievances have been fixed, but with the firm projected to continue ramping up marketing initiatives in 4Q2016, this type of advertising isn’t going to be helpful.
