Frontier Communications history

In 1950 Rochester Telephone earned $1.05 million on operating revenues of $12.2 million and had 184,322 telephones in service.

Rochester Telephone installed its 500,000th telephone in service in 1970. Its operating revenues for the year totaled $76.3 million, and its net income was $11.6 million, although there had not been a general rate increase since 1958.

In 1959 it became the only independent, unaffiliated telephone company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1960 Rochester Telephone enjoyed its best earnings yet, with net income of more than $3 million on revenues of nearly $27.8 million.

In 1961 the ratio of telephones in service to the number of employees--the mark of efficiency in the telephone industry--increased to 121.2.

The 400,000th telephone in service was installed in 1966.

Beginning in 1969, Rochester Telephone took responsibility for handling all long-distance telephone calls originating in its territory, including long-haul toll traffic that had historically been in the hands of New York Telephone Co.

Rochester Telephone installed its 500,000th telephone in service in 1970.

During a six-and-a-half-month strike in 1974-75 Rochester Telephone put 600 management employees to work doing the jobs of the 1,200 workers who had walked out.

The company acknowledged that, despite an outstanding record in profit margin, its average annual revenue growth of 8.6 percent during 1976-80 compared poorly to the average annual growth in the industry of 12.2 percent.

Rochester Telephone created a subsidiary called Rotelcom Inc. in 1978, with divisions for marketing telecommunications systems, distributing equipment and supplies, refurbishing telephone sets for resales, and providing consulting services for telephone companies and commercial organizations.

In 1980 the company created a new subsidiary, Rotelcom Data Inc., to sell computer services and hardware to businesses.

By the end of 1981 it had customers in 24 states, plus Bermuda, and accounted for 15 percent of the parent company's total revenues.

The breakup of the AT&T Bell System ordered in 1982 offered new opportunities for expansion.

Rochester Telephone had total revenues and sales of $600 million in 1990, with consolidated net income of $49.7 million.

By early 1991 it owned 33 telephone operating subsidiaries providing telephone services to customers in 14 states.

Citizens, in 1994, announced that it would acquire 117,000 telephone lines and cable franchises in eight states from Alltel for $292 million.

In August 1995 Frontier Corp. merged with ALC Communications Corp. in a transaction valued at $3.8 billion in stock.

On January 2, 1996, Citizens acquired 3,600 lines in Pennsylvania and 20,000 lines in California from Alltel.

Citizens acquired Ogden Telephone in 1997.

Citizens, in 1999, announced plans to acquire 530,000 rural access lines from US West, a "Baby Bell", for $1.65 billion.

Citizens Communications acquired the Frontier name and local exchange properties from Bermuda-based Global Crossing in 2001.

In 2006, Citizens acquired Commonwealth Telephone, a Pennsylvania telephone company.

In May 2009, Frontier announced that it would acquire Verizon Communications' landline assets in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin for $8.6 billion.

The transition was finalized on July 1, 2010; in some states, Frontier was required not to raise rates, and in others, broadband access was to be expanded.

The stock began trading under the same "FTR" symbol on the NASDAQ exchange at the start of the December 16, 2011, trading day.

On October 24, 2014, Frontier closed its acquisition of AT&T's wireline, DSL, U-verse video and satellite TV businesses in Connecticut.

On February 5, 2015, Frontier announced that it would acquire Verizon's wireline assets in California, Florida and Texas for $10.5 billion.

In February 2018, Frontier started with an 8 percent year-over-year decline in revenue, outpacing attempts to cut costs.

On May 29, 2019, Frontier announced that it had agreed to sell its operations in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington to WaveDivision Capital (led by former Wave Broadband CEO Steve Weed) and Searchlight Capital Partners for $1.352 billion.

The company filed for bankruptcy in April 2020.