Verizon sent me a letter the other day stating that they are selling their landline business to Frontier Communications. It was a very terse letter and as a customer I don't know if it affects me. While stating they aren't exiting the Wireless business, I want to know which parts are being sold off. Just the copper lines, POTS, DSL, FIOS (TV, Internet, phone)? Some clarity would be great. I am a FIOS only customer. Can anyone recall if GTE was blocked from doing the same thing a few decades ago?
matthew black
california state university, long beach
I would love to see what a copy of the letter they sent out looks like.
They are selling all wireline in CA, TX, and FL. So yes, all the products
you described.
I am a CLEC operating in California west, and I collocate with verizon. Yes, Verizon is proposing to sell it's wireline assets to Frontier and become effectively an all-wireless carrier.
Frontier is going to get a patchwork of ancient switches and poorly maintained outside plant, in rural areas that would require tens of millions of dollars in upgrades for sparely populaed areas it could never turn a profit on. I seriously wonder about the viability of taking on the debt to get those areas and even just maintain them, vz itself has done a very poor job and it presently operates a network where E911 routinely fails along with pots for many, for weeks at a time. And somehow, Verizon has been allowed to skate along without being held to the fire for it's mandated utility / carrier of last resort obligations.
I worry that Frontier, with all the new added debt obligations, will not able to swallow this pill.
clec functions don't necessarily equate to 'verizon business' work
though... nor, typically, does 'wireline assets' (typically this
denotes "pstn" or it's equivalent these days).
I work on E911 systems and the infrastructure that monitors E911 call distribution and integrity. California E911 is part of a nationwide management system operated out of the DC area. California’s E911 exceeds all the mandated reliability requirements. The most problematic part of E911 is cellular call handling, because of geolocation factors that make calls more complex to dispatch. and that part of the system is staying with Verizon. So your claim that E911 “routinely fails…for weeks at a time” isn’t borne out by monitoring records, unless you have some unpublished data to share.
I ran a few Google searches and came across a trove of complaints against Frontier. Seems they are far worse than GTE/Verizon. On the few occasions I have called for FIOS support, always reached someone knowledgeable and helpful. Not looking forward to the changeover, as the new owners have to pay off debts from their acquisition. That can only be accomplished through rate increases. I see a Verizon tech outside my kitchen window every two to three days as he replaces two nitrogen tanks keeping copper trunks pressurized against water intrusion.
matthew black
california state university, long beach
though, on the positive side... maybe you'll see ipv6 on frontier fios
before the heat death of the universe? (*which is when vz fios folk
will see it, apparently).
That now explains why they were talking about ATM exchanges and DS3 international links...
Speaking of Frontier peering... does anyone have a contact over there? They haven't responded to my e-mail. I didn't send more than one (I think) because I didn't want to be annoying. Some may call that an impossible task.
