Frontier Communications has been rather ungracefully trying to offload or otherwise scare away the 100,000 FiOS TV customers it acquired in its deal with Verizon because of high programming costs. First the company imposed a huge 50% price hike and botched DirecTV offer, then added a new massive $500 installation fee to frighten off new customers. Frontier can't afford to be a TV provider, doesn't want to be a TV provider, and has made life consistently annoying for TV customers -- yet when asked by the press about this they keep pretending it's a customer segment they actually care about:
"There are no truth to the rumors that were put out in the market through advertising through a competitor. That was just an opportunity for them to try to scare people to drop the service," Kelley said addressing the rumors. The gossip about whether Frontier will be going forward with its FiOS television product still lingers. "The future is bright, we're not going to disconnect or stop serving FiOS," Kelley said.
You'll note he said FiOS, not FiOS TV -- though Frontier can't afford to expand FiOS Internet service either.While Comcast did run some ads highlighting Frontier's decisions to jack up prices on FiOS TV customers, this is a bed Frontier made for themselves. Frontier's pretense that they still have any interest in these customers stems from the fact they're still locked into some video franchise agreements. The company also likely doesn't want regulators thinking too hard about the fact that Frontier knew they'd be letting acquired FiOS TV services die -- but "forgot" to mention it during the Verizon deal approval process.
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