PUCO should deny Frontier, Verizon telephone merger without consumer protections

COLUMBUS, Ohio – August 18, 2009 – A proposed merger of two telephone companies should be rejected, the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) announced today. If the merger of Frontier Communications Corporation and Verizon Communications, Inc. is to be approved by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), conditions should be required.

In comments to be filed later today at the PUCO, the OCC will cite the lack of consumer benefits and potential pitfalls of a merger of the two companies’ traditional landline telephone businesses. The OCC is concerned over whether Frontier is capable of maintaining and improving Verizon’s Ohio residential local telephone service if the merger is approved at the state and federal levels...