Nothing new...Verizon installed Fiber to the house is a good portion of their service area and then sold-out to Frontier.

Guess what?

Can you say price hike?

Sure glad I'm in Qwest. Oops, here we go again...
Here we go again

Well, I'll repeat that I'm still in shock that an RBOC fell into such disarray that they had to be bought out by an independent (Century). To make matters worse: A Bell territory being taken over by the former #5 independent?

Something is wrong with this picture. Financial mismanagement is the first thing that comes to my mind. Since that issue is already well-known, QWest pretty much did themselves in.

What a shame. Gone was the Bell System anyway, but I still can't believe that something like this could happen. Customers end up getting the shaft.

It used to be the other way around: Former Bell companies usually purchased independents, as in Bell Atlantic purchasing GTE. OK, it was a bit of a joke in my mind, since these companies operated at such opposite ends of the LEC spectrum. GTE purchased a myriad of dumpy independents' territories and their practices were even more of a joke.

I sat back thinking that this cannot possibly continue. Just the silly outside plant standards that GTE permitted seemed to be enough. I never thought that this would be something that a Bell company would adopt without a completely new build out. Oh boy, was I wrong.

Wrong was an understatement. It is all about money now. While the money part makes sense, it saddens me to see the Bell reputation of excellence become more of a distant memory. While we are 'fortunate' enough to retain Verizon in this area, I'm not sure how long it will be before this market is sold out to perhaps another independent. China Telcom? Who knows?

FIoS is a dead-end street for the typical end-user since by their committing to this service, they effectively eliminate their choices. Once one takes the dive, and since FIoS is not regulated, the customer loses many things. These include 'real' dial tone, options for LD service providers, etc.

I really need to stop here. Dollars are starting to make less 'cents'.

Does anyone foresee the return of the POTS copper loop over cell/broadband/string&can nonsense that passes for "telephone" service? I keep hearning about the demise of the landline (non-broadband), and all I can say is that if cell or mj is all that is available in the future, I will dig out the old CB radio for more reliable comms.

Joe

Seems like it might be time to take that 'HAM' test I've been "gonna do" for 40 years. Is 10 meters still the preferred band? Of course, my only experience with 10 meters was for access to a phone line from a non-service area, so that seems sorta redundant, or maybe the opposite (?) of redundant.

Frontier's prices have increased across the board. I have neighbor now [after being alone in the woods for years], and he got a better offer from Frontier than I got for bundled service. So, I went to their web site to see what they were offering... Yikes! The deal I have for POTS + DSL is no longer even offered. The "new" offers were much more expensive than what I have now. Inflation is back!

By the way, is there as up-to-date on-line resource that shows who owns what and where? I had thought that the Verizon territory in Lehigh County, PA [some of it former GTE] was not part of the Frontier acquisition, but I cannot verify this. The sites I have looked at still show my area as being Commonwealth Telephone Company territory [they don't exist anymore - they were acquired by Frontier 3+ years ago].

Ed, you get up early! 4 AM? Wow!

Jim
**************************************************
Speaking from a secure undisclosed location.

You can go with alternate LD providers with FiOS service....but....by doing that....you may have to go with ala carte pricing and not be able to select from a bundled plan.

IXCs are aware that they cannot subsist just by focusing on residential & switched access commercial markets. As a result, they have, pretty much, given those up to the RBOCs and cable TV providers.

The T1 circuit market is pretty much dead. Even T3s are becoming yesterday's news.

You now have to sell FastE, GigE circuits and offer various services like video conferencing to remain in business.

@Jim Bennett:

Frontier has pretty much everything on the "other side" of Lehigh river, including the Lehigh County itself. Some areas in the Poconos are still Verizon, but going towards Wilkes-Barre and Scranton is Frontier territory once again.

@dexman:

I guess a lot depends on where you are...in NYC, T-1s are still a very popular circuit...and hopefully will stay that way until my retirement...

Don't get me wrong, we still have a lot of T1 customers...many of whom use our Internet access.
Not too many companies (at least the ones our company is now targeting) want a T1.

Here in the eastern Massachusetts, there are a lot of high tech and R&D outfits. For them, Gigabit service is what they crave. They demand lots of bandwidth...even more than a DS3.

One of the most important things you mentioned Ed, was this business about the voice piece being unregulated. If someone put a gun to my head, I'd guess that most have absolutely no idea that once you encap voice into an unregulated data packet that all bets are off. VOIP is sexy until you realize that the tits are fake.

Actually, you would probably like 20 meters better. 10 meters is very sun-cycle sensitive... some days you can reach thousands of miles, other days, hardly across town. 20 meters, on the other hand, with just a decent vertical, good ground radials and a moderate amp (600 watt class), you can get reliable comms most of the time. Just be sure to do a good job of the ground radials, otherwise, things get screwy.

Joe

sad, real sad.... centurylink won't get my business until the prices fall back to the 1980's level... rediculous! $75.00/mo for a phone... and I'm working for min. wage! ya, right! fooey! close them down!

Just out of curiosity what does $75 a month get you?

I pay 40 a month for bundle containing my home line, unlimited North American LD, 3 calling features of my choice, and $2.50 more for outcall notification on my voice mail.

IF I include my internet and TV then the total bundled price comes to about $160 a month. A basic residential cell phone plan credit comes in free as part of the bundle if you have a cell with them.

The equivalent package in the UK would be about £19 a month (about US$30) including VAT (sales tax) at 20%, or £15 a month if you pay the line rental annually in advance. BT.com

Of course, we have to pay TV licence on top!

"VOIP is sexy until you realize that the tits are fake."

best line ever

The formula is simple. Buy out a struggling company, payoff the top brass of the struggling company with unjustified buyouts, then slash the benefits of the workers and retirees to pay for the buyouts.