Verizon sells its land lines but doesn’t expect many job losses in Everett

Published 10:22 pm Thursday, May 14, 2009

The pending sale of Verizon phone lines in Washington isn’t expected to result in a high rate of job losses at the company’s regional headquarters in Everett, but Verizon officials said Thursday that specifics of the sale likely won’t be clear for another year.

The telecommunications company announced Wednesday it plans to sell land lines in 14 states to Connecticut-based Frontier Communications for $5.3 billion in stock, pending the approval of state agencies and shareholders.

As part of the deal, Frontier is expected to absorb Verizon’s Washington-based employees and infrastructure, including fiber-optic Internet and television services.

“The employee situation — we don’t have any information on that yet,” spokesman Kevin Laverty said. “We don’t expect changes to be major.”

About 700 employees work out of Verizon’s Everett hub. Some employees may stay on with Verizon; most will likely transition to Frontier, Laverty said.

Verizon serves roughly 518,000 customers in Washington, most north of Seattle. That includes Snohomish County.

Officials said the pending sale is in line with Verizon’s long-term strategy of narrowing its focus on land-line service while expanding the company’s wireless, broadband and global IP sectors. Verizon sold phone service in several New England states last year to Fairpoint Communications for $2.3 billion.

Frontier has historically served more rural areas, and will triple in size if shareholders approve the deal.

“This is a truly transformational transaction for Frontier,” the company’s CEO, Maggie Wilderotter, said Wednesday. “With more than 7 million access lines in 27 states, we will be the largest pure rural communications provider of voice, broadband and video service in the U.S.”

The sale would bring Frontier’s customer count up to nearly 5 million nationwide.

Verizon has convened a “transition team,” Laverty said. Since the sale isn’t yet approved, it isn’t clear when customers will see signs of a new provider.

“Customers should see no difference in their services,” Laverty said.

But unions representing more than 8,000 Verizon employees say they have grave concerns about the sale and that they’ll be bringing concerns to management at both companies. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America said yesterday that Frontier will take on $3.3 billion in debt if the sale is finalized, and union leaders aren’t convinced the still-small company can keep investing in high speed broadband deployment while saddled with debt.

The Washington state Utilities and Transportation Commission must approve the sale before it can be completed.

According to the pending agreement, Frontier also will take over phone lines in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin, along with some services in parts of California.