Elected Officials Meet With Frontier Over Service Complaints

Following several complaints, a group of elected officials have challenged Frontier Communications to improve local services.

Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said his constituents deserve better than what they’re receiving from the telecommunications company.

“With Frontier, they’re having really slow internet speeds and telephones being out of service for a week or two weeks at a time,” Porter said. “We had one instance where an elderly lady’s phone service was out for a week. She lived by herself, walked with a walker and was totally dependent on her Life Alert with the hospital, which goes through her telephone.”

Porter and Cumberland County Mayor Allen Foster organized a meeting with Frontier executives last week. Congressman John Rose, State Senator Paul Bailey, Representative Ryan Williams, Cookeville Mayor Ricky Shelton, and Crossville Mayor James Mayberry also took part in the meeting.

Each official took time to share numerous complaints they receive about Frontier’s services. Porter said company executives appeared sympathetic, but did not have an immediate fix for the problems.

“They said they would work with us to try to address some of the issues,” Porter said. “But at the same time, they said they were having a lot of problems with folks swapping to other services and not using their service.”

Frontier reportedly plans to file for bankruptcy within the next two months, partially due to $16 billion in long-term debt the company has accumulated. Porter said the group of local officials encouraged Frontier to move swiftly to address the local service concerns.

“Senator Bailey is filing a bill that would make it a $5,000 penalty for telecommunication companies not providing the services that they’re advertising,” Porter said. “We’re also looking at filing some FCC complaints to see if we can do something on the federal level.”

Porter and his colleagues also asked the company about a possible sale of its Tennessee property to another communications company. Porter said Frontier agreed to listen to any offers put on the table. In the meantime, the elected officials will meet with Frontier later this week for a follow-up meeting.