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Review by kuzzle 
UPDATED: 56 days ago
member for 2.3 years, 204 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Richmond,Sagadahoc,ME
 $39 per month
 "Stable connection"
 "Only 1.5mbit, lousy tech support/billing"
 "Only if your desperate"
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Originally I had Verizon DSL then Fairpoint bought the lines. The connection is stable, and the pros end there. After 7 years I'm still only at 1.5mbit/384kbit, just like Verizon, Fairpoint doesn't want to do anything about it. Its not my line, my line is able to receive their highest tier (7.2mbit) according to a lvl 2 tech that checked the line.
Before ordering Fairpoint, I would suggest looking at some of the other DSL or Cable providers in the area, for me it would be cheaper to get DSL though GWI. and it would be at the higher sped (3mbit).
Edit: I finally dropped Fairpoint and got Earthlink cable through Time Warner;1.5mbit to 7 is a huge jump, and it's only $4 more then what Fairpoint was charging me.
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Review by delphtile
Posted: 99 days ago
member for 2.3 years, 53 visits, last login: 36 days ago
Sugar Hill,Grafton,NH
Contract price not specified.
"Sales, Service, price"
"They are not doing what they are supposed to be doing"
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Said that I would have a 3Mbs Connection before I movedinto new apartment.
The truth is they dont offer anything faster than 1.75
The modem came on July 29th supposedly provisioned but it was not
I was not able to get online until the 6th of August.
Very disappointed with all aspects of Fairpoint Communications or lack there of...
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Review by egeddes
UPDATED: 184 days ago
member for 9 years, 258 visits, last login: 16 days ago
Freedom,Waldo,ME
$80 per month (12 month contract)
 about 21 days
"None really - only reason we have it is because we have no other choice."
"Uncoordinated install - took weeks to resolve. Same thing if there is a problem with the service. Very unprofessional."
"Avoid and use another provider if at all possible."
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Install: Everything for voice and DSL service was setup incorrectly. Fairpoint representatives lacked empathy and did not demonstrate any ownership to correct the issue.
Service: Unreliable. We had a disconnect problem that went on for months - we would keep opening trouble tickets only to have tech support close them without any resolution. Finally a tech noticed we had *thousands* of disconnects over the span of the past few weeks. Even he was shocked that his peers had not recognized the severity of the issue nor had they taken any action to correct the issue.
Support: Horrible! Representatives are not educated/trained well, and there appears to be a severe lack of quality control. No empowerment or ability to diagnose or correct the issue.
Bottom line: We have no choice right now - no other wired providers in our area. HughesNet, StarBand and Wildblue do not have very good reviews, so we're avoiding that route. We'd like Time Warner to begin servicing the area, but given that we are rural do not know if, or when, that will happen.
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Review by FredFredrick
Posted: 286 days ago
member for 355 days, 40 visits, last login: 56 days ago
Laconia,Belknap,NH
$55 per month (month by month)
"Fastest internet available in Central New Hampshire"
"Slowest internet in the world"
"It's not a great price, it's not a great speed, but it's your only option"
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I've had verizon in this area for a few years, it was always ok, not great. Living in central New Hampshire, there are very few options for internet. Either Metrocast (which is crap, always slow and laggy with a latency issue), or Verizon. Now that it's fairpoint, it's the same game with a new name. Catch is, for $10 more, you can get the 7 mbps service. Still lightyears below other areas. Comcast advertises 16 mbps - 50 mbps. All I can get? 7. I'm paying the same price as comcast subscribers for half of their lowest teir of service.
It's what it advertises, and it works, but I'd rather not be stuck in the stone age.
I estimate the $49 service to be about $55 with tax.
Followup comments:  | 
tenpin784
I Went To The Dark Side?
join:2001-03-30
New Durham, NH
| Metrocast When was the last time you tried Metrocast?
I have been working like crazy to fix some of the problems out of the Laconia area, and I know that most of them are fixed.
Just curious.
--
Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.
Disclaimer: These are MY comments, my employer cant be held responsible. | |
| 
Whatever
@equant.net
|  Comcast Speed vs Fairpoint Speed
DSL vs Cable-modem threads are all over the net, and DSL almost always wins. | |
| FredFredrick
join:2008-12-04
Laconia, NH | Comcast and Metrocast I don't have access to comcast this far north, and Metrocast's highest option is just around fairpoint's. I use Metrocast at work though, and even though the "speed" is the same, the latency is killer. Couldn't play games on that. | |
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 Review by mouseferatu
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 5.6 years, 2539 visits, last login: 7 days ago
Im not sure
$49 per month
"The jury is out but it leans against FairPoint- I haven't found many yet."
"Complete confusion surrounds this company and its takeover of N. New England Verizon"
"I wouldn't go there if you have a viable alternative HSI option."
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I was a Verizon FIOS customer for years with few problems, and am now a FairPoint/Verizon sub-contracted lost-in-the-shuffle customer.
FairPoint purchased all NH, VT, and ME Verizon assets last winter. At this point in time, I am not all that sure that they have figured out what they purchased yet, but it is my hope that they do so before Verizon backs out of their support role all together. That will be on Thanksgiving weekend in my locale if the NH PUC's current consumer information is correct.
Pre-Sales info really involved the sale of Verizon to FairPoint in this case. We we poorly informed, often uninformed, and sometimes misinformed.
Shortly after FairPoint took over, the ONT at my residence failed. The co-ordination in getting it replaced was difficult. FairPoint's residential customer service referred me to Verizon, and Verizon refused to deal with me because they said that I wasn't their customer, and didn't appear to know that they held the sub-contract for all fiber lines. Some several days and a dozen phone calls got me nowhere. It occurred to me that a trip to the local Duncan Donuts might, and it did- a Verizon truck was there and the guy told me how to deal with the mess.
The connection reliability is poor and the excellent Internet access that we were accustomed to with Verizon appears to be a done deal... We have had two new ONT's and are on the third router. The dropped connections are becoming tiresome, and the lousy Actiontec routers are as well. I always used a NetGear Draft N router, but some change in the configuration of the ONT will not allow it to recognize anything but the Actiontec. Tried a couple other brands to get a Draft N router. Nothing. Nada.
Sluggish speed is a new issue as well- we have always gotten at least 10/2, and now 3.5/1.5 seems to be more typical.
The most frustrating aspect of tech support is the number of calls and excessive hold time that it takes to get anything done. No one seems to know who should be responsible for a problem, asking for a manager gets you a promise that "someone will call you back" (they haven't thus far), and the foolish canned message that "you can access us on the web" is pretty useless when you have no Internet connection.
I give them a "two" for services, simply because they still beat dial up, and they are better than my local cable option in this specific location. They do not offer TV, or a "triple-play" type package. The phones are fiber, so they also go down when there is a major malfunction. This is a cell dead zone, so that is problematic for most people.
I give them a "two" for value for money, as they are up- even if it slower- most of the time. The local cable vendor was down more than it was up.
Essentially, I would recommend that you consider all options before going this route. As FairPoint is the only game in town for many folks, it is an inevitable choice, but there are areas in northern New England that are handled well by cable, alternate DSL options and satellite. I would consider them.
Also, check your bill carefully. We have had a number of weird charges that were not ours, mostly out of Nevada and the Islands, billed "for a third party carrier". I have never had problems with either slamming or cramming, so this was also new to me.
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Review by AaeronAtroph
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 1.2 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
Mckenna,Pierce,WA
$64 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
"It beats dial-up"
"Internet dies repeatedly, rape you on the price for speed"
"Dont go with this company"
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I moved in with my grandparents and they live in a rural area in Washington. We currently have Fairpoint's "High Speed", I can say that it is anything but, high speed. They advertise that I am to receive 3mb/s down and 512kb/s up. I have a speed touch modem, which is horrendous, it shuts itself off randomly throughout the day, it is consistently saying "DSL Line Disconnected please check phone line to see if connected" and at max speed when directly connected to modem, its 1mb/s . I have called them repeatedly to come out and check the line to see if there's a problem and to switch out my modem for a brand new one, that is not of the speed touch brand. They rarely show up, and when they do a person who barely has a high school diploma or any sort of formal training tells me there is nothing wrong with my line or anything. I was annoyed with the speed and how much i pay. I pay 65$ for 1mbs...And it is the ONLY company available in my area, I live just about 13 blocks outside of QWEST coverage, which is offering 7mbs DSL now. The people on the phone are rude and offer no help as to why my connection quite literally dies once every ten minutes.
At this point I would rather have AOL than Fairpoint, because at least I would know that my internet would be consistent, slow, but consistent.
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Review by bruper
UPDATED: 1.4 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 398 visits, last login: 4 days ago
Gretna,Pittsylvania,VA
$45 per month
"good Customer support"
"slow expensive"
"when no competition this is what you get"
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Price per Month download
$34.95 =128k
$44.95 =765k
$79.95 =1.5mb
download approx 600k actual
supplied with speed touch 546 4port dsl router
10 years ago i had optimum online with 10x the speed for the money.
this is what happens when there is no little competition but it beats satellite which i used to have till dsl came to town. now just waiting for cable to come the extra 3 miles to reach my house.
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Review by vileator
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 1.8 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago
Rainier,Thurston,WA
$64 per month
"Very reliable, happy to upgrade equipment"
"Complete rape on price vs. speed"
"Only solution in my area, but my back is starting to hurt from being bent over for so long.."
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Well, I've had their service since 1997 when it was first introduced in my area, however Fairpoint only recently took over my local telco. Comcast finally came to my street but wanted ~$6500 to run a line to my house, which was out of the question. As others have said, the price vs. the speed you get is horrid, and they are slow to up the speed. I started out at 320/120 in '97, and then got 768/256 around '01, and recently got upped to 1280/256 and then 1500/256 down with the takeover. They recently introduced a 3.0mbps plan which I just bought, but at $65 it really hurts, and I'm only getting about 2.0mbps down. My buddy down the street has Comcast and it's just ridiculously fast...he's only rated for ~6mbps down but is getting 25-30mbps (not a typo). On the bright side, they've always been happy to give me a newer modem, usually for free. I had to pay $30 for my last one, but it moved to ADSL2+ for television, and has integrated Wi-Fi, but they said it was for the servivce visit....I told them I didn't need anyone to come out, but they insisted, and wouldn't exchange it over the counter (something I had done 3x before). In the 11 years I've had this service, I can count the number of outages I've had on 1 hand, only one of which was over an hour, and I don't think I missed any...when I'm awake and home, I'm using my connection. Customer service doesn't always listen to me when I call them, they tell me to do all kinds of stupid things first, reguardless of my problem, but they never believe me when I tell them I'm not a computer retard. One other problem I've had is the latency. It's well within acceptable bounds, but it sure would be nice if it was better...the best I can get on game servers is about a 45-60ms ping, which isn't bad, but I'd prefer ~30ms. You shouldn't be able to tell a difference, but swear I can.
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Review by dszabo
Posted: 2 years ago
member for 3.9 years, 23 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
Pine Plains,Dutchess,NY
$50 per month
"Reliable connection"
"SLOW. HORRIBLE SUPPORT. VALUE = NO."
"Slow speeds for inflated prices, although reliable."
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I had Taconic until they changed to FairPoint. No change in the service.
I get 768/256k for $44.95/month. This is RIDICULOUS.
I saw that Optimum Online was available in my area and SPRUNG for it.
I made the change and never looked back.
I pay the same amount monthly yet I'm getting a 15/2Mb connection.
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Review by ekennard
Posted: 3.4 years ago
member for 3.4 years, 0 visits, last login: 3.4 years ago
Stockton Springs,Waldo,ME
$48 per month
about 9 days
"Offer T1 Service, once setup correctly has fairly good speed for DSL in the middle of nowhere."
"Tech support is horrible, takes them days to respond to most items."
"Only game in town, kinda stuck with them unless you wanna pay 80 a month plus equipment for satellite."
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Pivot.net (or Fairpoint.net for new customers) is a fairly decent service for people that are located in rural areas of Maine that are serviced by Fairpoint New England telephone service.
The setup is fairly easy, give them your phone number, and they see if they have a station near you. The technicians set up your modem for you and drop it off at your location, so if your savvy enough to plug in a couple of cables, your golden. The setup is pretty easy and they give you a quickstart guide to follow up with any questions.
Tech support is available 24/7 but sometimes getting someone with more than a week of experience is hard, to get a "Level 2" tech takes an act of god and thus requires you waiting usually 24-48 hours and most times the issue gets magically solved (which the Level 1 tech says can't happen) or they call you a little late. Rarely ever do they get right back to you.
The price is horrid for what you get, seeing the fact that for 30 something dollars you can get residential DSL from Verizon that gets speeds of up to 3mbps down. Pivot.net (Fairpoint.net) charges $48.00 a month for 1.5mbps/768kbps service.
Once it is actually configured correctly and you have called tech support at least 4 times, the service stays relatively reliable.
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Fairpoint Communications
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