Verizon's Hanging Up On Rural America > Verizon forgets the history of how Rural America was wired.

Verizon forgets the history of how Rural America was wired.

Mr. Matt,

Not sure about what % of rural phone companies were cooperatives, but I do know facts in my rural area of Central Illinois.

My old hometown(and nearby towns) had phone companies started/owned by small entrepreneurs in early 20th century. Companies were passed down through the family or friends. As the decades went on, more and more sold out to General Telephone, or other smaller acquiring companies. General Telephone expanded by buying hundreds/thousands of rural phone companies. In Illinois, AT&T had the big cities, but not the smaller cities/towns.

As of now, 1 owned by FairPoint, 1 by Verizon, 1 by Frontier, and other has a combo of owners(a N Carolina company, a Colorado investment partnership, and some local minority owners).

reply to Mr Matt
Actually, VZ itself was formed by a merger of Bell Atlantic (which had already acquired NYNEX) and GTE. The ILECs which formed the core of the Original Verizon were (northern to southern) New England Telephone (with the exception of SNET, which was never part of AT&T), New York Telephone, New Jersey Bell, Bell of Pennsylvania, Diamond State Telephone, Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone of Maryland (and, prior to that, Maryland Telephone), Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone of the District of Columbia, Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone of Virginia, and Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone of West Virginia.

The major inspiration for the formation of VZ had nothing to do with the future of local (or even long-distance) calls, but mostly to do with the Greater New York City Local Access Telecommunications Area. It is the largest LATA by area in the United States, and also one of the few that included multiple ILECs. Tthe merger talks started over straightening out rates for intra-LATA calls.

reply to Bob61571
And why did GTE become what it did? Because it found itself running into the behemoth that was (at the time) AT&T (while the Justice Department had filed suit, the trial was not even close to beginning), which was still all of a piece. GTE's problem was pretty darn simple - grow or die.

reply to Bob61571
Bob,

To add some color of the exchanges being sold in southern California, the Alpine (Markleeville/Woodfords) and Coleville exchanges are very remote from other areas that Verizon serves in California, namely Mammoth Lakes and Bishop. Air miles, they may look close, but with the mountains, Alpine and Coleville are really separated from the communities to the south on Hwy 395. Alpine and Coleville dovetail nicely with Verzon's small footprint in Nevada, covering an area on the south and west with California, and just south of AT&T's Nevada Bell footprint in Carson City.

Frontier already serves exchanges adjacent to Verizon's exchanges in Nevada.

In far eastern Riverside, San Bernardino, and the very northern corner of Imperial County, again, the Verizon exchanges are remote from Verizon's exchanges in the Palm Springs/Palm Desert/Rancho Mirage/Cathedral City/La Quinta/Indio areas.

Although this area is not as remote as Alpine and Mono counties, nonetheless, Verizon already has exchange service bordering these communities across the river in Arizona, such as Parker and Ehrenberg. (Lake Havasu City is not served by Verizon). Frontier serves exchanges that are next to some (but not all) the Verizon exchanges in Arizona.

I can tell you that Verizon for many years has wanted to leave Arizona (just too few lines, no growth potential, the costs of regulatory compliance outweigh the returns from regulated services, etc.), but Verizon has never really found the right buyer, and needed to sell the California exchanges along with Arizona, as they really are one central plant.

I do know that Blythe has DSL, but none of the exchanges has Fios. Verizon has not really put much of any significant investment in the operations in those areas.

Also, all of the areas that Verizon is selling in California are not only former GTE, but former Contel. In fact, it took over four years after GTE acquired Contel that GTE and Contel were allowed to merge in California, and by association in Arizona and Nevada.

The Arizona and Nevada exchanges have always operated as Verizon California and prior to that as GTE California.

Here are the exchanges that will be going to Frontier:

Markeleeville/Woodfords (Alpine County): 530-694
Blythe (Riverside County): 760-921, 760-922
Coleville: (Mono County): 530-495
Earp (San Bernardino County): 760-664, 760-665
Havasu Lake (San Bernardino County): 760-858
Palo Verde (Imperial County): 760-854 (not to be confused with Rancho Palos Verde near Los Angeles)
Parker Dam (San Bernardino County): 760-663