By Emma Orr and Scott Moritz
Some of the biggest landline phone providers in the U.S., from Connecticut to Arizona, are running headlong into a debt crisis after borrowing heavily to add more territory and then failing to escape the industry's decline.
CenturyLink Inc., Frontier Communications Corp. and Windstream Holdings Inc. -- the three largest rural phone carriers -- have lost 8 percent of their lines in the past year alone as people abandon home-phone service for more convenient wireless plans. The companies have merged with equally weak peers and drained dwindling cash reserves in an effort to pay dividends.
formatting link