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Frontier Communications files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

Frontier Communications is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in an effort to cut down its debt load by more than $10 billion and provide more financial flexibility.

Word of the expected filing first came in January ina report from Bloomberg News.

On Tuesday night, Frontier announced it has entered in a restructuring agreement with its bondholders. Frontier says that it expected to continue “providing quality service to its customers without interruption.”

Frontier CEO Bernie Han said that with the agreement, “We can now focus on executing our strategy to drive operational efficiencies and position our business for long-term growth.”

Also, Frontier announced that it intends to go ahead with the sale of operations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana to Northwest Fiber for about $1.3 billion in cash.

As of earlier this year, Frontier employed more than 700 people in the Rochester area and more than 1,500 in New York state.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.