Frontier California Landline Outages and Static Class Action

Telephone service has been around long enough that we expect it to be reliable. However, the complaint for this class action alleges that telephone service in California’s Coachella Valley provided by Frontier experiences “service interruptions and outages occurring on a weekly basis…” The defendants are Frontier California, Inc., Frontier Communications of America, Inc., and Frontier Communications Corporation.

The class for this action is Frontier wireline customers with the same telephone exchange area as the plaintiff in this case who have experienced service interruptions, errors, or outages between February 13, 2016 and February 13, 2020. Frontier customers who have received bill credits or other compensation for these are excluded from the class.

Plaintiff JCM Farming, Inc. has a ranch property in Riverside County, California. Its wireline (landline)services were originally provided by Verizon. In 2016, Frontier acquired Verizon’s wireline, FiOS, and broadband businesses in California, Texas, and Florida and is now responsible for providing JCM’s landline service.

Among the landlines JCM maintains is one that “is connected for medical purposes” and another that is “dedicated to fax use, including but not limited to transmissions for HIPPA purposes.” The complaint alleges that the landlines “frequently experience service outages and disruption, and poor connections.”

Frontier is the only landline provider in the area. As a public utility, the complaint says, Frontier owes its customers “a duty and an obligation to provide adequate and reliable wireline service.” However, the complaint says, instead customers like JCM get “service outages, service interruptions, dropped calls and roaring static.” The static is sometimes so loud, the complaint alleges, that the parties to a call cannot hear each other.

The service may be getting worse. The complaint alleges, “Before September 2019, Plaintiff called Frontier to report significant service interruptions or outages every two to three weeks. Since early September 2019, Plaintiff has had to call Frontier to report significant service interruptions or outages on a weekly basis.”

The complaint claims that “trained, technical personnel” from the ranch must use their own technical equipment “to prove to Frontier personnel that connectivity problems are related to Frontier’s wiring.” Otherwise, the complaint says, Frontier may refuse to make repairs. Even when Frontier does make repairs, the complaint claims it may take days to do so.

Nevertheless, Frontier bills JCM as if it had received full services for each month.

The complaint alleges that “the deterioration of Frontier’s wireline service quality in the Coachella Valley corresponds with Frontier’s effectively disinvesting in its wireline infrastructure overall and particularly in more rural areas of the State.” Also, the complaint claims, “Frontier has failed to incorporate foreseeable weather events into Frontier’s engineering, construction, and maintenance practices.”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Charges for Service Not Received, Unreliable Services