(19)	Commitments and Contingencies:

We anticipate total capital expenditures for business operations of approximately $725 million to $775 million for 2012 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). In the fourth quarter of 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, human resources and engineering systems. The Company incurred $143.1 million of operating expenses for integration costs and $76.5 million in capital expenditures related to integration activities during 2011. The Company currently expects to incur operating expenses and capital expenditures of approximately $80 million and $40 million, respectively, in 2012 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 $115.0 million in cash into escrow accounts and obtained a letter of credit for $190.0 million in 2010. Another $72.4 million of cash in an escrow account (with a cash balance of $62.9 million and an associated liability of $14.3 million as of December 31, 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 December 31, 2011, the Company had a restricted cash balance in these escrow accounts in the aggregate amount of $144.7 million. As of December 31, 2011, $43.0 million had been released from escrow. As of December 31, 2011, the letter of credit had 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 conduct certain of our operations in leased premises and also lease certain equipment and other assets pursuant to operating leases. The lease arrangements have terms ranging from 1 to 99 years and several contain rent escalation clauses providing for increases in monthly rent at specific intervals. When rent escalation clauses exist, we record annual rental expense based on the total expected rent payments on a straight-line basis over the lease term. Certain leases also have renewal options. Renewal options that are reasonably assured are included in determining the lease term. Future minimum rental commitments for all long-term noncancelable operating leases as of December 31, 2011 are as follows:

($ in thousands)			Operating
			Leases

Year ending December 31:
2012			$ 66,000
2013			18,156
2014			15,861
2015			6,726
2016			4,325
Thereafter			17,434
Total minimum lease payments			$ 128,502

Total rental expense included in our consolidated statements of operations for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009 was $70.2 million, $48.5 million and $25.9 million, respectively.

We are a party to contracts with several unrelated long distance carriers. The contracts provide fees based on traffic they carry for us subject to minimum monthly fees.

At December 31, 2011, the estimated future payments for obligations under our noncancelable long distance contracts and service agreements are as follows:

($ in thousands)

Year		Amount
2012		$ 27,488
2013		24,739
2014		603
2015		603
2016		259
Thereafter		-
Total		$ 53,692

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, 2012 and remained in default for the duration of the contract (another 4 years), we estimate that our undiscounted purchase obligation for 2012 through 2015 would be approximately $316.1 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.

At December 31, 2011, we have outstanding performance letters of credit as follows:

($ in thousands)

Public Service Commission of West Virginia	$ 100,000
CNA	43,409
State of New York	1,042
Other	705
Total	$ 145,156

CNA serves as our agent with respect to general liability claims (auto, workers compensation and other insured perils of the Company). As our agent, they administer all claims and make payments for claims on our behalf. We reimburse CNA for such services upon presentation of their invoice. To serve as our agent and make payments on our behalf, CNA requires that we establish a letter of credit in their favor. CNA could potentially draw against this letter of credit if we failed to reimburse CNA in accordance with the terms of our agreement. The value of the letter of credit is reviewed annually and adjusted based on claims history.

None of the above letters of credit restrict our cash balances.