Frontier sells 350k lines in Pacific Northwest to private investors:
https://www.telecompetitor.com/frontier-to-sell-operations-in-four-states-for-1-3-billion/
Does this mean there's a market for ILEC operations? For some of Windstream's in particular?
Frontier is heavily indebted and has a poor quality reputation. On the other hand, I note that a lot of these are fiber subscribers, so the per-line value here is probably higher than what most Windstream territories would fetch.
"Does this mean there's a market for ILEC operations? For some of Windstream's in particular?"
There are plenty of smaller, better run companies with CEO's that have telecom knowledge that can acquire these lines - and most if not all have the funds to upgrade/maintain the network better than the original telcom company - not giving $20 million dollar 'motivational fees' for starters.....
PE firms don't play by the same rules as publicly listed companies. They can make moves without worrying about what investors think, because they are the investors. Frees them up to make drastic changes quickly. There's money to be made for those who can actually manage a company, not the rabble that passes as leadership at Frontier or Windstream.