 
mouseferatu
Too many cats, Too many mice
Premium,MVM
join:2004-03-16
Im not sure
clubs:
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Fairpoint Communic..
 ·Comcast
1 edit | FairPoint offers the Northern New England consumer nothing I don't work for Verizon, I don't belong to a union, and I don't work for FairPoint. I have been hammering this issue, and am going to continue to, as I believe that FairPoint is sending a bunch of empty suits to sell New England a bill of goods.
The areas of New England that are already served by FairPoint certainly seem to be populated by unhappy and overcharged consumers- the rates that they pay for "innovative" and "modern" DSL are obscene.
We are finally at a point where we are beginning to see fiber in a number of the areas that are not just urban- I am rural- and the result is great HSI for the first time for most of us.
Now Verizon wants out, but wants to keep the lucrative Massachusetts and Rhode Island markets and drop off the Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine markets, despite the huge surcharges that *everyone* in New England has paid to Verizon to underwrite these areas.
FairPoint, OTOH, is trying to convince us that our universities and tech businesses, and of course, our homes, will be best served by being retro-fitted to their "innovative" DSL solution, the "wave of the future". That it is better than fiber. Bull.
I have been to the public hearings in both New Hampshire and Maine, and the "facts" presented are simply not correct. I do not gain a thing by going from Verizon FIOS to a virtual yet-to-be-created DSL network run by a financially iffy company that has more consumer complaints than Planters has nuts.
The Verizon suits need to get their act together and either put the whole (former) New England Telephone entity on the block to allow a reasonable player to come into the picture, or the Verizon Union employees have it spot on- FairPoint can't do it, won't do it, and the Northern New England States get nailed again.
An interesting question came up at a meeting recently:
FairPoint stated that they will "upgrade" the thousands of Southern New Hampshire fiber customers to a superior new DSL network to be completed sometime in the future.
I still haven't gotten any definitive answer to my question as to whether they intend to reinstall our old copper phone lines or just leave us without any phone service at all.
Since we are in a cell dead zone, it is a pertinent question, and it would seem unreasonable to assume that thousands of customers acquire satellite phones... 
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"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crispy and good with catsup." | |
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S_engineer
join:2007-05-16
Chicago, IL
·Comcast
| Re: FairPoint offers the Northern New England consumer nothing In Fairpoints engineering assessment...
"FairPoint's upgrades should provide a signal of up to 25 megabits per second through DSL, getting faster over time as technology improves, said Michael Brown, vice president of FairPoint's Access Network Engineering department. "
They are full of S***. If this goes through, these areas are leaping backwards. They plan on running fiber from the COs to carrier boxes, and then tap into your 100 year old copper lines....wow!
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Burn a tire, but make sure you buy that carbon offset! | |
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Publius
@comcast.net
| Re: FairPoint offers the Northern New England consumer nothing There is no way that a 25Mbps speed can be achieved over copper lines for even a mile from the Central office. And that is in a perfect environment without faults on the line, taps, reroutes, etc. I would love for Mr Brown to explain IN DETAIL just how they plan to roll out that service.
For Example: in Manchester, NH if they installed DSL in the Central Office which is located right downtown less than half of the 115,000 residents would be able to achieve 25Mbps speed. That speed is only accessible under 5000 feet from the Central office. After that distance the speed drops dramatically every 500 feet after that until at 3 miles it is at 3-5Mbps speed... That's a FACT!! | |
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anon101
@verizon.net | Re: FairPoint offers the Northern New England consumer nothing vdsl seems to be what they are looking to deploy | |
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Dr Droo
@1-x.net
| Re: FairPoint offers the Northern New England consumer nothing VDSL2 is all well and good, but again you still run into distance issues. It's value taps out around half a mile in line distance. They're not going to put remote COs or Pedestals in these rural or semi-rural territories.
Heck I doubt they'd do it for Bangor ME either, which is the largest metro market in Northern Maine and the 2nd largest in the state.
There is already a 20mbit ADSL2+ service from Great Works Internet. It competes directly with Verizon and would compete directly with Fairpoint, unless Fairpoint tried to kick them out. Fairpoint can't improve upon GWI's already great service, nor can they compete with it (their 1.5/1.0 DSL service is 80$ a month in their Maine markets). | |
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vz eng
@verizon.net
| So what did he address? As an employee, I have many reasons to be concerned, the biggest being loss of existing benefits. Fairpoint does not offer retirement medical or a pension, and I have a feeling that is just the start. And why would I take any of these executives for their word? Millions in pay and stock options for these folks regardless if this transaction works or not.
I just think that if Verizon actually wants out, they should sell to the best suitor. Our government representatives should be looking out for the consumers and the workers in these states, and not to the corporations who's only concern is the profit they can make from this transaction. | |
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FairPoint Addresses Verizon Union Concerns