Commitments and Contingencies	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2011
Commitments and Contingencies [Abstract]
Commitments and Contingencies	(16) Commitments and Contingencies: We anticipate capital expenditures for business operations to be approximately $750 million to $780 million for 2011 related to our Frontier legacy properties and the Acquired Business. Although we from time to time make short-term purchasing commitments to vendors with respect to these expenditures, we generally do not enter into firm, written contracts for such activities. In connection with the Transaction, the Company undertook activities to plan and implement systems conversions and other initiatives necessary to effectuate the closing (Phase 1). The Company continues to engage in activities to enable the Company to implement its “go to market” strategy in its new markets and to complete the conversions of all the remaining systems into one platform (Phase 2). Subsequent to September 30, 2011, the Company converted the systems in four states of the Acquired Business to our legacy systems. In addition, the Company converted all of the remaining Acquired Business onto the Company's legacy financial systems. For the full year of 2011, the Company currently expects to incur operating expenses for integration costs of approximately $120 million, including $100.9 million incurred during the first nine months of 2011, and capital expenditures related to integration activities of approximately $70 million, including $62.6 million incurred during the first nine months of 2011, related to these Phase 2 initiatives. In addition, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and certain state regulatory commissions, in connection with granting their approvals of the Transaction, specified certain capital expenditure and operating requirements for the acquired Territories for specified periods of time post-closing. These requirements focus primarily on certain capital investment commitments to expand broadband availability to at least 85% of the households throughout the acquired Territories with minimum speeds of 3 megabits per second (Mbps) by the end of 2013 and 4 Mbps by the end of 2015. To satisfy all or part of certain capital investment commitments to three state regulatory commissions, we placed an aggregate amount of $115 million in cash into escrow accounts and obtained a letter of credit for $190 million in 2010. Another $72.4 million of cash in an escrow account (with a balance of $62.8 million as of September 30, 2011 and with an associated liability of $30.7 million as of September 30, 2011 that is reflected in Other liabilities) was acquired in connection with the Transaction to be used for service quality initiatives in the state of West Virginia. As of September 30, 2011, the Company had a restricted cash balance in these escrow accounts in the aggregate amount of $161.1 million. As of such date, $26.6 million had been released from escrow. In addition, as of this date, the letter of credit has been reduced to $100.0 million. The aggregate amount of these escrow accounts and the letter of credit has decreased and will continue to decrease over time as Frontier makes the required capital expenditures in the respective states. We are party to various legal proceedings arising in the normal course of our business covering a wide range of matters or types of claims including, but not limited to, general contract, rights of access, tax, consumer protection, trademark and patent infringement, employment, regulatory and tort. Litigation is subject to uncertainty and the outcome of individual matters is not predictable. However, we believe that the ultimate resolution of all such matters, after considering insurance coverage, or other indemnities to which Frontier is entitled, will not have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations, or our cash flows. We sold all of our utility businesses as of April 1, 2004. However, we have retained a potential payment obligation associated with our previous electric utility activities in the State of Vermont. The Vermont Joint Owners (VJO), a consortium of 14 Vermont utilities, including us, entered into a purchase power agreement with Hydro-Quebec in 1987. The agreement contains “step-up” provisions that state that if any VJO member defaults on its purchase obligation under the contract to purchase power from Hydro-Quebec, then the other VJO participants will assume responsibility for the defaulting party's share on a pro-rata basis. Our pro-rata share of the purchase power obligation is 10%. If any member of the VJO defaults on its obligations under the Hydro-Quebec agreement, then the remaining members of the VJO, including us, may be required to pay for a substantially larger share of the VJO's total purchase power obligation for the remainder of the agreement (which runs through 2015). U.S. GAAP rules require that we disclose “the maximum potential amount of future payments (undiscounted) the guarantor could be required to make under the guarantee.” U.S. GAAP rules also state that we must make such disclosure “… even if the likelihood of the guarantor's having to make any payments under the guarantee is remote…” As noted above, our obligation only arises as a result of default by another VJO member, such as upon bankruptcy. Therefore, to satisfy the “maximum potential amount” disclosure requirement we must assume that all members of the VJO simultaneously default, an unlikely scenario given that all VJO members are regulated utility providers with regulated cost recovery. Despite the remote chance that such an event could occur, or that the State of Vermont could or would allow such an event, assuming that all the members of the VJO defaulted on January 1, 2011 and remained in default for the duration of the contract (another 5 years), we estimate that our undiscounted purchase obligation for 2011 through 2015 would be approximately $474.2 million. In such a scenario, the Company would then own the power and could seek to recover its costs. We would do this by seeking to recover our costs from the defaulting members and/or reselling the power to other utility providers or the northeast power grid. There is an active market for the sale of power. We could potentially lose money if we were unable to sell the power at cost. We caution that we cannot predict with any degree of certainty any potential outcome.

(16) Commitments and Contingencies:

We anticipate capital expenditures for business operations to be approximately $750 million to $780 million for 2011 related to our Frontier legacy properties and the Acquired Business. Although we from time to time make short-term purchasing commitments to vendors with respect to these expenditures, we generally do not enter into firm, written contracts for such activities.

In connection with the Transaction, the Company undertook activities to plan and implement systems conversions and other initiatives necessary to effectuate the closing (Phase 1). The Company continues to engage in activities to enable the Company to implement its “go to market” strategy in its new markets and to complete the conversions of all the remaining systems into one platform (Phase 2). Subsequent to September 30, 2011, the Company converted the systems in four states of the Acquired Business to our legacy systems. In addition, the Company converted all of the remaining Acquired Business onto the Company's legacy financial systems. For the full year of 2011, the Company currently expects to incur operating expenses for integration costs of approximately $120 million, including $100.9 million incurred during the first nine months of 2011, and capital expenditures related to integration activities of approximately $70 million, including $62.6 million incurred during the first nine months of 2011, related to these Phase 2 initiatives.

In addition, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and certain state regulatory commissions, in connection with granting their approvals of the Transaction, specified certain capital expenditure and operating requirements for the acquired Territories for specified periods of time post-closing. These requirements focus primarily on certain capital investment commitments to expand broadband availability to at least 85% of the households throughout the acquired Territories with minimum speeds of 3 megabits per second (Mbps) by the end of 2013 and 4 Mbps by the end of 2015. To satisfy all or part of certain capital investment commitments to three state regulatory commissions, we placed an aggregate amount of $115 million in cash into escrow accounts and obtained a letter of credit for $190 million in 2010. Another $72.4 million of cash in an escrow account (with a balance of $62.8 million as of September 30, 2011 and with an associated liability of $30.7 million as of September 30, 2011 that is reflected in Other liabilities) was acquired in connection with the Transaction to be used for service quality initiatives in the state of West Virginia. As of September 30, 2011, the Company had a restricted cash balance in these escrow accounts in the aggregate amount of $161.1 million. As of such date, $26.6 million had been released from escrow. In addition, as of this date, the letter of credit has been reduced to $100.0 million. The aggregate amount of these escrow accounts and the letter of credit has decreased and will continue to decrease over time as Frontier makes the required capital expenditures in the respective states.

We are party to various legal proceedings arising in the normal course of our business covering a wide range of matters or types of claims including, but not limited to, general contract, rights of access, tax, consumer protection, trademark and patent infringement, employment, regulatory and tort. Litigation is subject to uncertainty and the outcome of individual matters is not predictable. However, we believe that the ultimate resolution of all such matters, after considering insurance coverage, or other indemnities to which Frontier is entitled, will not have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations, or our cash flows.

We sold all of our utility businesses as of April 1, 2004. However, we have retained a potential payment obligation associated with our previous electric utility activities in the State of Vermont. The Vermont Joint Owners (VJO), a consortium of 14 Vermont utilities, including us, entered into a purchase power agreement with Hydro-Quebec in 1987. The agreement contains “step-up” provisions that state that if any VJO member defaults on its purchase obligation under the contract to purchase power from Hydro-Quebec, then the other VJO participants will assume responsibility for the defaulting party's share on a pro-rata basis. Our pro-rata share of the purchase power obligation is 10%. If any member of the VJO defaults on its obligations under the Hydro-Quebec agreement, then the remaining members of the VJO, including us, may be required to pay for a substantially larger share of the VJO's total purchase power obligation for the remainder of the agreement (which runs through 2015). U.S. GAAP rules require that we disclose “the maximum potential amount of future payments (undiscounted) the guarantor could be required to make under the guarantee.” U.S. GAAP rules also state that we must make such disclosure “… even if the likelihood of the guarantor's having to make any payments under the guarantee is remote…” As noted above, our obligation only arises as a result of default by another VJO member, such as upon bankruptcy. Therefore, to satisfy the “maximum potential amount” disclosure requirement we must assume that all members of the VJO simultaneously default, an unlikely scenario given that all VJO members are regulated utility providers with regulated cost recovery. Despite the remote chance that such an event could occur, or that the State of Vermont could or would allow such an event, assuming that all the members of the VJO defaulted on January 1, 2011 and remained in default for the duration of the contract (another 5 years), we estimate that our undiscounted purchase obligation for 2011 through 2015 would be approximately $474.2 million. In such a scenario, the Company would then own the power and could seek to recover its costs. We would do this by seeking to recover our costs from the defaulting members and/or reselling the power to other utility providers or the northeast power grid. There is an active market for the sale of power. We could potentially lose money if we were unable to sell the power at cost. We caution that we cannot predict with any degree of certainty any potential outcome.