<P> Citizens Communications stockholders approved changing the corporate name to Frontier Communications Corporation at the annual meeting on May 15, 2008 . The name change became effective on July 31, 2008, and the company's stock symbol on the New York Stock Exchange changed from "CZN" to "FTR". On December 2, 2011, Frontier announced trading of its stock would move from the New York Stock Exchange to the NASDAQ stock exchange . The stock began trading under the same "FTR" symbol on the NASDAQ exchange at the start of the December 16, 2011 trading day . </P> <P> In May 2009, Frontier announced the signing of an $8.6 billion agreement with Verizon Communications to acquire Verizon's 4.8 million landlines leased to residential and small business customers . The deal meant Frontier would acquire all wireline assets in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin, placed into a holding company called New Communications ILEC Holdings . Also included were several of Verizon's exchanges in California, including those bordering Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon . In all states other than West Virginia, this takeover primarily involved rural exchanges that were formerly a part of the GTE system when Verizon Communications was formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE . However, in West Virginia, Frontier acquired Verizon West Virginia, formerly The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia, a former Bell System unit . When combined with its existing subsidiary Citizens Telecommunications Company of West Virginia, Frontier became the local incumbent telephone company for all but five exchanges in the entire state . The CEO at the time was Maggie Wilderotter who has since taken another position stated "These properties align with Frontier's disciplined strategic focus and enhanced our footprint with rich fiber - based assets . After acquiring the new states, there were some challenges and some loss in revenue and employees, but Frontier has a great plan in action to have a better year this year and exceed all expectations and rely solely on customer's retention and satisfaction . </P> <P> On July 1, 2010, the change from Verizon to Frontier took place . In some states, Frontier was required not to raise rates, and in others, broadband access was to be expanded . Ninety - two percent of people in Frontier's existing service area had access to broadband, while just 65 percent did in the newly acquired areas . The goal was 85 percent in three years . </P> <P> Previous companies like FairPoint Communications and Hawaiian Telcom went bankrupt after incurring a large amount of debt as a result of similar landline deals with Verizon Communications . </P>

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