how-to block ads
|
axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC | wow
I'm really glad I don't live in that area. | |
gaforces
United We Stand, Divided We Fall
join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA
| They must have some reason to think they can make the areas profitable that the phoenix doesnt know or account for.
Perhaps they havent accounted for tourists?
Or that they can upgrade x amounts of dial-up to dsl or fibre.
Or take into account growth of the areas.
Or that Fairpoint has much lower operating costs.
They dont know what kind of deals fairpoint has made with potential advertisers or partners.
10 years from now those areas could be booming. Take a loss now and profit in the future.
--
‘Do ye, quieting in your bosoms your strong hearts,
Who of many good things have had your fill even to surfeit,
With what is moderate nourish your mighty desire; for neither will
We yield, nor shall you have all else as you wish.’
Solon | |
publius
@verizon.com
| Gaforces,
A sane person would try to make sense of this and ask the very questions you have, but the truth is simple: Fairpoint is a grubby, money sucking company.
To touch upon each of your points.
Tourists? What in gods good name would tourists have to do with Fairpoint making any money?
Upgrades? They will have dial up customers cross over to DSL, that's a no-brainer, but they don't have any "fiber" technologies at all.
Growth? Every area has growth, but in order for them to make a profit Fort Kent would have to become a city overnight.
Operation costs? You can only reduce the cost of operating a business by so much. Verizon has reduced operating costs by over 40% the past ten years. They've reduced it so much that simple repairs are becoming very expensive due to them ignoring problems. Fairpoint, being a smaller company, can certainly reduce some costs, but lets be realistic... it can only go so low.
Advertisers and partners? what difference does it make if your advertising copper technologies? Ask yourself what you would want as an consumer. Do you want over expensive, faulty DSL, or at least the promise of something better?
Ten years from now Maine is not going to be much more populated than it is... Again, Presque Isle would have to become a new northern metropolis for Fairpoint to make money.
For more information visit:
www.verizonvsfairpoint.com go to the discussion board and check out the new post in the general discussion area.. your mind will be changed. | |
viperlmw
Premium
join:2005-01-25
 ·Qwest.net
| Someone please explain how being small means your costs are lower. I would argue the opposite, as economies of scale come into play. Eqpt., parts and supplies are cheaper if purchased in bulk or under a large contract. You don't have to have as much management for the same number of workers. You have more resources (fiscal, technical, etc.) available. Plus, each Independant telco has it's own senior management team making plenty of money. | |
Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA | The only way they can be lower is for labor costs (for both salaried and union employees) to be lower. | |
tschmidt
Premium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
 ·Hollis Hosting
·Verizon Online DSL
·Fairpoint Communic..
| reply to viperlmw
said by viperlmw  :Someone please explain how being small means your costs are lower. Not to defend FairPoint but there are pros and cons to being smaller vs large.
Salaries and retiree benefits may be different.
As mentioned may be able to operate with fewer levels of management and bureaucracy.
Being more nimble and able to take advantage of market opportunities.
I'd guess there is not a huge difference between what Verizon and FairPoint pay for capital equipment if the purchasing department is on the ball and aggressive. If anything they may be able to wrangle better deals for new technology on a small scale to demonstrate product maturity for the big players.
Having said all that there is tremendous fear FairPoint will not be able to raise needed Capital for extremely modest "promised" upgrades. On the data front the only thing they are promising is more DSL to rural areas. They have no plan to roll out fiber and become a serious player in the data arena like Verizon is doing.
/tom | |
gaforces
United We Stand, Divided We Fall
join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA
2 edits | reply to publius
Charge tourists 10$ a day for access, ADSL2+, VDSL, those states are not densly populated, plenty more room.
Advertisers and partners may be offering them wads of cash, the point is we dont know, some people like to invest in this kind of company, even for a tax writeoff.
Lower operating costs by hiring less lawyers, more illegal aliens.
Im not saying its right, just that they can do it.
Verizon doesnt want to do anything there, but fairpoint does, so I dont see much choices for those people.
The county I live in is not getting fios anytime soon either, and we have 285,000 citizens and around 2 mill non-citizens.
Havent heard one peep about any upgrades here, we usually get them 10 years after everyone else. Even though our streets are filled with fiber.
--
‘Do ye, quieting in your bosoms your strong hearts,
Who of many good things have had your fill even to surfeit,
With what is moderate nourish your mighty desire; for neither will
We yield, nor shall you have all else as you wish.’
Solon | |
droobie
Premium
join:2007-10-09
Bangor, ME
| reply to publius
I think you pretty much have the idea.
However, Presque Isle, Houlton, Caribou, etc. at least have cable and Cable Internet, usually in those areas that would be within the DSL loop limit. The problem (of course) is outside those limits but within city boundaries.
I do believe growth exists (more or less in spite of the state government) in several portions of the state that were still better off than Northern Maine. Unfortunately, it has taken a lot of time to trickle from Portland to Bangor, and will take even longer to trickle further north (to Lincoln/Millinocket or even further to Houlton, Caribou, Fort Kent, etc). It MAY happen in my lifetime, but I still have at least 60 years to go.
If it weren't for education (colleges), tourism (recreation namely), Canadian traffic, and some exports, I think Aroostook and Washington County would be significantly worse off. I do consider often at night what would be a great 'killer app' for those regions to generate population and jobs. Unfortunately, I'm dumbfounded, but impressed by those who do come in to exist in these regions.
Verizon made their thoughts known when they never upgraded to ADSL2+ technology and still claims 1.5mbit is max at 15000 feet. Of course, since Fairpoint's current offerings in their Maine markets are expensive AND slow (even compared to Verizon's offerings), I have no reason to believe that Fairpoint is the solution. If anything, they are just more of the problem.
Great Works went it alone and developed their own ADSL2+ offering in Maine. Being able to get 20mbit in Millinocket is an impressive feat, but is still unfortunately limited to the distance laws of DSL. My concern is that Fairpoint's acquisition will undermine the efforts of GWI (and any other DSL CLECs).
I do not believe DSL is 'faulty' though, just that some implementations are faulty. As it goes, my DSL service has been nothing but a great thing to have for years. I can't say the same for the state of cable here. | |
publius
@verizon.com
| reply to gaforces
Ga, are you high? Charge which tourists where for DSL? I know that I'm not going to go on vacation and pay for internet. I would hope that whatever hotel or Inn I'm staying at would have internet access.
and let me tell you, Fairpoint is going to have to hire a slew of lawyers to defend themselves against the myriad of cases they will have filed against them for crappy service, billing errors, and unfullfilled promises (just as happened in the past when they bought phone companies in MUCH smaller locales).
Don't fool yourself, Fairpoint doesn't want to provide you with DSL.. they want to suck as much money out of you as possible with 20 year old technology. | |
|
