With the problems faced by Fairpoint and Hawaii Telcom after integrating Verizon's unwanted DSL networks, Verizon's even more ambitious plan to offload an even bigger chunk of rural customers to Fairpoint is getting added scrutiny. The $8.5 billion deal, if approved, would infuse Frontier (which currently has 2.3 million customers) with 4.8 million new residential and small-business phone lines across 14 states, 1 million broadband connections, and 11,000 former Verizon employees.

Unions, who obviously don't want the new company to fail or cut back on infrastructure investment or jobs, have started pushing harder to get the deal scrapped. The Communications Workers of America is running this ad in West Virginia that complains about Verizon's favored tactic of using Reverse Morris Trusts.

The tactic allows Verizon to offload networks to smaller companies willing to eat a heaping spoonful of debt, while Verizon gets huge tax write offs worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Frontier, meanwhile, is busy trying to convince people they're not Hawaii Telcom or Fairpoint:Of course Fairpoint said many of the same things, and is still saying the same things as they're teetering toward bankruptcy. Whatever the result, consumers are getting the short end of the stick in these deals. Either they stay with Verizon, who has no interest in upgrading rural America to better service, or they get acquired by a smaller company so loaded by debt that it can't afford to upgrade rural America to better service.

Regulators could force Verizon to sell these properties the old fashioned way -- but then Verizon could just choose to hold on to them and decide to treat them as second class markets unworthy of investment.