Verizon cable service becomes Frontier Communications

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Change is on the way for hundreds of thousands of cable, phone and Internet customers in the Tampa Bay area. As of Friday, Verizon becomes Frontier Communications.

Some customers of Verizon's service, like Pat Donohoe, were surprised when they got an email Monday evening about the switch.

"We've been a Verizon customer for about 10 to 15 years," Donohoe said.
  
Up to this point, she had no reason to shop around, but she's now one of more than half a million Tampa Bay Verizon customers who will be paying their next bills to Frontier Communications.

"This will actually be the largest city we operate in," said Michael Flynn, Area President for the Southeast Region.

Last year, the Connecticut-based company bought Verizon's landline, cable and broadband networks in Florida, California and Texas.

So, if you're a customer, what does it all mean?

"Our concern would be continuation of the same quality of service that we have had in the past," Donohoe said. "We certainly know that not all cable companies are the same."
 
The top concern expressed to FOX 13 News is whether the price for service will go up. 

"No," Flynn said. "Our goal is to really have them see exactly what they've seen before. There may be a little bit of a modification depending on their billing cycle  for taxes and those types of things."

Flynn said the remote, DVR and other equipment will stay the same, as will Internet speeds. Also staying mostly the same is programming, channel lineup and Video on Demand.

"We are doing our best to make sure even if you have the high score on a video game, some of those things are kept," Flynn said.
 
And, what about customer care?

Though Frontier didn't fare quite as well as Verizon in a recent J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction survey, Frontier is keeping more than 3,000 current Verizon employees in the region. That includes the entire local customer care team.

Though Friday is the official transition day, customers might already be using Frontier services.

"We've moved literally terabytes of information data from the Verizon network onto the Frontier network," Flynn said. "And actually, that happened last Thursday and you probably didn't notice."

Verizon isn't the only local provider making changes. Brighthouse Networks was sold last year to Charter Communications. However, that deal is still going through the regulatory approval process.