The map tracking outages for Frontier Communications Corp. on DownDetector.com, which logs service interruptions in the connected world, shows a swath of red signaling a spike in problems encircling Los Angeles.
From downtown Los Angeles south through Norwalk and Cerritos and back up through the beach cities, residents and businesses have been seeing red as the handoff to Frontier from Verizon Communications Inc. has been beset by problems.
Garth Sheriff, a Manhattan Beach architect, said his design studio has had to stall multiple big projects because the work is internet-based.
“My work involves constant back and forth between the drawings and the internet,” he said. “In the last week alone, we’ve lost 15-20 manpower hours.”
His wife, Lauren, a real estate agent with Re/Max Estate Properties in Manhattan Beach, cited similar experiences.
“My work is heavily reliant on searching for properties online and communicating with clients,” she said. “Without internet services, we’ve had to be tethered to our cellphones to get any work done.”
The interruptions come in the wake of the April 1 closing of Frontier’s $10.5 billion acquisition of Verizon’s broadband, video, voice, fiber-optic, and landline operations in California, Florida, and Texas. About 1 million residential and business customers in California saw their services transferred in the deal.
Among the annoyed customers is Santa Monica event management company RLS Agency, whose client list includes Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and MGM Studios.
“It isn’t right, it isn’t fair,” said RLS owner Richard Solsberg. “We are at the mercy of Frontier technicians … who never show up.”
Hordes of residential customers have taken to Facebook and Twitter to vent about the service interruptions they have had after the transition to Frontier.
Melinda White, Frontier’s regional president, insisted the problem is not as dire as some on social media would have people believe. According to White, less than 0.2 percent of its subscribers in the state have been affected.
“For eight years, I’ve lived in Los Angeles. These are my neighbors that I’m taking care of and we have a plan,” she said.
Pressed for details of that plan, she said extra staff had been taken on and increased training was underway.
Meantime, customers said calls to Frontier’s customer service operations have been long excursions into waiting music, phone transfers, and frequent disconnects along with missed technician appointments. The loss to businesses in the meantime is consistently rising, along with an erosion of corporate trust.
Big deals
With 28,600 employees and operations in 29 states, Stamford, Conn.-based Frontier is the fourth-largest provider of digital subscriber line service in the United States. The acquisition of Verizon’s business more than doubled the company’s revenue and coverage area.
Yet less than a month into the transfer, technology glitches lasting weeks have seriously affected the efficiency of operations, security systems, download speeds, and phone lines.
“The general sense is that these guys are completely overwhelmed running a telecom operation of this size. They bought Verizon’s stakes, but they know nothing about it,” said Wayne Craig, a Realtor in the El Segundo office of Shorewood Real Estate, who said his business is getting impossible to manage without access to the internet.
Frontier is no stranger to big acquisitions.
It bought Verizon’s landline services in 14 states in an $8 billion deal in 2010. After that purchase, it spent billions to modernize Verizon’s technology.
It picked up AT&T’s landline services in Connecticut in 2014 and was forced to hand out $10 million in credits to customers to compensate for technical difficulties.
After this month’s technical problems in Los Angeles, a similar fix might be needed in California where, according to various press reports, Verizon’s landlines have been neglected for years.
