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ReVeLaTeD
Premium Member
join:2001-11-10
San Diego, CA

ReVeLaTeD to Anon

Premium Member

to Anon

Re: [FiOS] No online signup? Are you serious bro?

Tim, maybe you can just confirm that FIOS is indeed not available in the Bothell area. I got a flyer indicating it was, however I saw another post from yesterday indicating it wasn't.

EDIT: and just to curveball this thing, the screwed up infrastructure of Washington State has created, in my case, a situation where I apparently am bordering King and Snohomish County, yet the address is considered Snohomish. I have yet to see any Frontier trucks around here which leads me to believe it's not available; but the fact that my XFINITY speeds frequently exceed what I've paid for, leads me to think that very few have gone that route.

wavztech
@frontiernet.net

wavztech

Anon

Effective Thursday, former Verizon territories in Oregon and Washington and other states began a BLACK OUT period for new orders. They are converting all of the old Verizon systems to their own.

There can be no new orders created for awhile.

Frontiertim is acutely aware of this, I'm sure. You can give him your information but he won't be able to do anything with it for awhile. Right Tim?

I've heard up to a month until new orders can be taken.
frontiertim
join:2012-02-22

1 edit

frontiertim

Member

That's incorrect...we can take new orders now but installation times may be a bit long depending on the area. We can't schedule any new installs till March 8th unless the conversion is completed sooner.

wavztech
@frontiernet.net

wavztech to ReVeLaTeD

Anon

to ReVeLaTeD
If you are in a single family dwelling in Bothell there's a very good chance fios is available.

there are almost always more cable that phone company trucks putzing around. cable cos are constantly connecting and reconnecting physical connections outside. Aside from jumper runs at distribution boxes, phone company guys don't monkey around with their plant as much.

as far as your xfininty speeds being "exceeding" what you've paid for, learn a little about their "SpeedBoost". Xfinity temporarily uncaps their modems during the first few megs of a large download. therefore when you run things like online speed tests, it appears that you are getting much faster speeds overall. what you don't see is your speeds dialing back to normal shortly after the few second speed test. it's great smoke and mirrors trick, really.

frontier's fios speeds are pretty much rock steady. and longtime fios user will tell you that.

are your utilities servied overheard or underground?
wavztech

wavztech to frontiertim

Anon

to frontiertim
said by frontiertim:

That's incorrect...we can take new orders now but installation times may be a bit long depending on the area. We can't schedule any new installs till March 8th unless the conversion is completed sooner.

so assuming all goes well, installs are a go from march 8th on? But the dates will be pushed out pretty far because of backlog i would think.

it was my understanding that indiana was out for a month. was that not the case?

ReVeLaTeD
Premium Member
join:2001-11-10
San Diego, CA

ReVeLaTeD to frontiertim

Premium Member

to frontiertim
said by frontiertim:

That's incorrect...we can take new orders now but installation times may be a bit long depending on the area. We can't schedule any new installs till March 8th unless the conversion is completed sooner.

So...is Bothell, WA covered? Is that a yes or a no?

darcilicious
Cyber Librarian
Premium Member
join:2001-01-02
Forest Grove, OR

darcilicious

Premium Member

As was posted above:

If you are in a single family dwelling in Bothell there's a very good chance fios is available.

However, without an exact address, it can't be definitively confirmed or denied.

ReVeLaTeD
Premium Member
join:2001-11-10
San Diego, CA

ReVeLaTeD

Premium Member

Thank you. But I'm looking for frontiertim, who I assume must be an employee, to give a straight answer to what should be a simple question about coverage.

He replied to another thread and said that Bothell wasn't covered, same as Issaquah, since Issaquah is King County. I want confirmation of whether Bothell is covered or not, since part of Bothell is King County.

It's a simple question. Possible answers:

"We have no coverage in Bothell, WA"
"We have partial coverage in Bothell, WA"
"We fully service Bothell, WA"

wesm
Premium Member
join:1999-07-29
Seattle, WA

wesm

Premium Member

said by ReVeLaTeD:

Thank you. But I'm looking for frontiertim, who I assume must be an employee, to give a straight answer to what should be a simple question about coverage.

He replied to another thread and said that Bothell wasn't covered, same as Issaquah, since Issaquah is King County. I want confirmation of whether Bothell is covered or not, since part of Bothell is King County.

It's a simple question. Possible answers:

"We have no coverage in Bothell, WA"
"We have partial coverage in Bothell, WA"
"We fully service Bothell, WA"

The issue is not by county, it is by city. Verizon wasn't able to buy lobby for a statewide video franchise in Washington and Oregon like they did in other states so they had to do the same thing as Comcast and get approved on a city-by-city basis. Complicating matters, in Washington (so far as I can tell) there isn't an implied utility easement going from the street into every building in an apartment complex so whether or not an apartment dweller can get FiOS--and what kind, be it direct-run fiber or the unwieldy MDU service--is up to the property owner.

That said: Yes, FiOS is available throughout the City of Bothell, whether in Snohomish or King though some apartment complexes did not allow installation of the necessary equipment. Houses are a go, however. I posted in the other thread you are referencing. Issaquah is a CenturyLink/Qwest-incumbent city and Verizon never overbuilt (that is, built a secondary network in addition to the current carrier) in that city, so Frontier obviously can't provide service on facilities that don't exist. To my knowledge, the City of Redmond is the only city contained entirely within King County which can receive FiOS service; that's where the distinction between Snohomish and King came up.

To answer your other questions:

- I don't pay a modem fee. In fact, the Internet only price page specifically says "No modem or wireless router fees unlike cable." Frontier, like Comcast, waives the installation fee if you take a contract or bundle services. They didn't run a credit check on me nor did they require a deposit, but it's possible they didn't because I previously had FiOS with Verizon. I ordered my service back in September (prior to Frontier fully changing off of Verizon's system) and I was asked if I had moved from my prior address in Texas when I ordered. If Frontier follows what Verizon used to do--granted, not a guarantee--Internet service doesn't carry a deposit. TV does because of the expense of the equipment being installed and phone because you can rack up long distance/900 number charges.

- I'm in Redmond, not Bothell, but I've not run into the speed slowdown others have mentioned. I did have higher-than-expected latency to the Central time zone for a couple weeks early in February but that has gone away.

ReVeLaTeD
Premium Member
join:2001-11-10
San Diego, CA

ReVeLaTeD

Premium Member

That's helpful. Thank you.

Regarding the modem fee there is a lengthy thread right here on DSLR - that I'm too tired to track down - about this fee. Something about the fact that they charge you the fee regardless of whether you buy your own or rent from them. That bothers me. If I choose to buy a modem I expect no fee, which is exactly why I bought my own DOCSIS 3.0 for XFINITY.

I've never been a Frontier or Verizon customer - California transplant - thus I'm almost assured to be nailed with a deposit as I won't be opening my credit. XFINITY charged me only the installation fee, but I think that was a fluke for customer desperation or something.

Verizon FIOS shows as available, but since it's no longer Verizon, it's difficult to know what exactly to trust. Frontier's web page (I did eventually find the form buried) lets me add FIOS to the order, but when I decline their annual programs, it removes it and sends me to HSI. I don't know if that means anything though because I haven't even put my address in yet, only the zip code (98021). So either the form is broken or the zip code isn't covered.

Frontiertim can you confirm that?

wesm
Premium Member
join:1999-07-29
Seattle, WA

wesm

Premium Member

Just for grins, I went and tried to order FiOS for my next door neighbor. The web site shattered into a million pieces when I got past the first page, and I know for absolute certain that FiOS is in my apartment complex. (If it's not, my Internet service is magic.) Therefore, I conclude that the main frontier.com site is broken for FiOS, which isn't really surprising given that FiOS-capable markets comprise something like 2% of Frontier's footprint. (Funny anecdote: Verizon's website is similarly broken for non-FiOS markets. Trying to order Verizon DSL for my cousin's house is impossible and he can't get FiOS.)

The modem fee thread you mention is for DSL, not FiOS. For FiOS, they don't even bring a "modem," as such, just a wireless router which--according to the tech who installed mine--is yours to keep from day one. The router is even pretty good, with 802.11n and works as a MoCA bridge so you can do coax networking if you can get another MoCA cable device (like a newer TiVo or a second bridge).

From what I've seen, there's no deposit for Internet service since you can't rack up any additional charges beyond the monthly cost of the Internet and if you don't pay your service just gets turned off.

ReVeLaTeD
Premium Member
join:2001-11-10
San Diego, CA

ReVeLaTeD

Premium Member

Seems to be a wash. According to a rep, after a 11-minute hold,
"...the ordering system has been down since February 29th and will be down through March 9th"

That's a fairly large outage. If planned, it was poorly so.
Cyberian75
join:2004-03-16
Beaverton, OR

Cyberian75 to ReVeLaTeD

Member

to ReVeLaTeD
said by ReVeLaTeD:

Regarding the modem fee there is a lengthy thread right here on DSLR - that I'm too tired to track down - about this fee.

That's only for DSL; in fact, there's no modem involved with FiOS.
Cyberian75

Cyberian75 to ReVeLaTeD

Member

to ReVeLaTeD
said by ReVeLaTeD:

That's a fairly large outage. If planned, it was poorly so.

Current customers were notified in advance. They're redesigning their billing system, probably converting from Verizon's.

wavztech
@frontiernet.net

wavztech to ReVeLaTeD

Anon

to ReVeLaTeD
said by ReVeLaTeD:

Seems to be a wash. According to a rep, after a 11-minute hold,
"...the ordering system has been down since February 29th and will be down through March 9th"

That's a fairly large outage. If planned, it was poorly so.

As I stated clearly in about the third or fourth post in this thread, Frontier in WA and OR and a number of other states is in a massive conversion process - not just billing but over 400 back end former Verizon systems.

If you're asking for help, you should read what people post in response, bro.
rifleman69
join:2006-04-12
Beaverton, OR

rifleman69

Member

said by wavztech :

said by ReVeLaTeD:

Seems to be a wash. According to a rep, after a 11-minute hold,
"...the ordering system has been down since February 29th and will be down through March 9th"

That's a fairly large outage. If planned, it was poorly so.

As I stated clearly in about the third or fourth post in this thread, Frontier in WA and OR and a number of other states is in a massive conversion process - not just billing but over 400 back end former Verizon systems.

If you're asking for help, you should read what people post in response, bro.

Shouldn't this have been done right after the conversion?

darcilicious
Cyber Librarian
Premium Member
join:2001-01-02
Forest Grove, OR

darcilicious

Premium Member

Dunno but it was never the plan to do it back then.

wavztech
@frontiernet.net

wavztech to rifleman69

Anon

to rifleman69
said by rifleman69:

said by wavztech :

said by ReVeLaTeD:

Seems to be a wash. According to a rep, after a 11-minute hold,
"...the ordering system has been down since February 29th and will be down through March 9th"

That's a fairly large outage. If planned, it was poorly so.

As I stated clearly in about the third or fourth post in this thread, Frontier in WA and OR and a number of other states is in a massive conversion process - not just billing but over 400 back end former Verizon systems.

If you're asking for help, you should read what people post in response, bro.

Shouldn't this have been done right after the conversion?

It's been going on for a year. A phased process. You don't convert 400 plus systems that run 2/3s of a new company overnight.

Ask West Virginia how things went during their conversion? They were the only former Bell Atlantic area so they converted overnight. A nightmare, from what I've heard.
woodway1
join:2002-09-25
Woodinville, WA

woodway1

Member

Let me tell you, calling for support here in WA during this conversion is a nightmare. Reps unable to find my account...I been asked multiple times for my account #, which I read off my bill..."no that's your old account number, what's your NEW account number?" (how the heck am I supposed to know that?)..."Are you a FIOS customer?"..."I cannot seem to find your account"...hours on hold. Hopefully the promised repair guys shows up today to fix my video which has been out for a week...

cdru
Go Colts
MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN

cdru

MVM

I left Frontier about a year ago. Several months ago I found an unopened letter that was a notice from a collections agency for around a $100 that I allegedly owed Frontier. My records showed I paid my final bill so I called the agency to dispute it or at least try to figure out what it was for. They said that Frontier pulled the claim back so they were no longer involved. I called Frontier and asked about, and they said that they had no records of anything prior to when Indiana was converted. I'm not the type of guy to argue if they are going to tell me I don't owe anything. I just can't imagine that they just "lose" all the previous billing records and account balances either.
Expand your moderator at work

NOYB
St. John 3.16
Premium Member
join:2005-12-15
Forest Grove, OR

NOYB to Cyberian75

Premium Member

to Cyberian75

Re: [FiOS] No online signup? Are you serious bro?

said by Cyberian75:

said by ReVeLaTeD:

Regarding the modem fee there is a lengthy thread right here on DSLR - that I'm too tired to track down - about this fee.

That's only for DSL; in fact, there's no modem involved with FiOS.

Really?
MoCA is not modulated?

wesm
Premium Member
join:1999-07-29
Seattle, WA

wesm

Premium Member

said by NOYB:

Really?
MoCA is not modulated?

If you want to be pedantic, every signal carried over copper wire is modulated, including Ethernet (pulse-amplitude modulation). In the common vernacular, however, a "modem" is used for dial-up, DSL (digital subscriber loop, which uses different types of modulation depending on the "flavor") and cable system Internet connections. For FiOS, a "modem" in the common sense is not used unless you are on a shared/MDU ONT. Instead, a network address translation (if you want to be really pedantic, a NAPT, or network address and port translation) device is provided since most FiOS customers have a single globally-routable Internet Protocol address. This device has Ethernet and MoCA inputs to connect to the upstream gateway via the ONT--the only device in the chain which does not use modulation for its upstream interface; the fiber connection uses time-separated light pulses--and occupies the place of the "modem" in most other forms of connections.

tl;dr: Frontier doesn't charge a monthly fee to use a Frontier-provided wireless router when subscribing to FiOS. They do charge one for DSL circuits. Why? Who knows?

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
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Smith6612

MVM

said by wesm:

They do charge one for DSL circuits. Why? Who knows?

I'm pretty sure it dates back to that of the Frontier Legacy area. I'm really not sure why they still do...

ReVeLaTeD
Premium Member
join:2001-11-10
San Diego, CA

ReVeLaTeD to wesm

Premium Member

to wesm
said by wesm:

said by NOYB:

Really?
MoCA is not modulated?

If you want to be pedantic, every signal carried over copper wire is modulated, including Ethernet (pulse-amplitude modulation). In the common vernacular, however, a "modem" is used for dial-up, DSL (digital subscriber loop, which uses different types of modulation depending on the "flavor") and cable system Internet connections. For FiOS, a "modem" in the common sense is not used unless you are on a shared/MDU ONT. Instead, a network address translation (if you want to be really pedantic, a NAPT, or network address and port translation) device is provided since most FiOS customers have a single globally-routable Internet Protocol address. This device has Ethernet and MoCA inputs to connect to the upstream gateway via the ONT--the only device in the chain which does not use modulation for its upstream interface; the fiber connection uses time-separated light pulses--and occupies the place of the "modem" in most other forms of connections.

tl;dr: Frontier doesn't charge a monthly fee to use a Frontier-provided wireless router when subscribing to FiOS. They do charge one for DSL circuits. Why? Who knows?

And see, the key is the above. I don't want their wireless router. I want my Airport Extreme, because then I have greater control over my internal network since they can be directly administered by any of my computers without having to access a webpage to do so. I also have some rather advanced bridging going on to accomodate devices that aren't wireless enabled and simply don't belong cluttering up the living room where all of the jacks are (such as an Ethernet printer or NAS as well as my OBi). That's why from what I've read, they will attempt to charge you for doing so.

wesm
Premium Member
join:1999-07-29
Seattle, WA

wesm

Premium Member

I should have been more clear: Frontier doesn't charge you to use any device which can communicate with their network, provided you are on FiOS. They dropped off a wireless router when my service was installed (a rather capable Actiontec Rev F device with 802.11n, etc.) but I don't use it. There's no fee on my latest Frontier bill for the router and their web page even says, in two different locations:

http://www.frontierforhome.com/fios/triple.php:
Wireless Modem/Router included at no extra charge!

http://www.frontierforhome.com/fios/services.php:
No modem or wireless router fees unlike cable!
Cyberian75
join:2004-03-16
Beaverton, OR

Cyberian75 to ReVeLaTeD

Member

to ReVeLaTeD

ReVeLaTeD See ProfileThat's why from what I've read, they will attempt to charge you for doing so.

They don't charge me for using my own.