Comments on: Consumers Worry About Frontier-Verizon Phone Swap

By: Mazakman

Mazakman — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:39:11 +0000

Joe. I just had Frontier DSL installed yesterday. You do not need a landline anymore from them. It is called standalone service. I did find out by accident that the phone number that has been assigned to my account can receive calls, but calls cannot be made.

So far , so good. The speed is adequate for what we do and the latency is low. I think that before the TW store closes tonight that my Roadrunner modem will be returned to them and Roadrunner cancelled.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:00:18 +0000

I too live in Gates and had DSL with Frontier. I was satisfied with the service until I wanted to cancel my landline telephone. I swear its easier to rebuild a car engine than get your landline disconnected. I got severe run around for months and was finally told that I could not have DSL without a landline. CANCEL IT ALL! I told them. I said they better get out of the stoneage or else go out of business. I went with RR and then the cap talk started, ugh! Cant seem to win but im glad TW halted the cap crap so far or else I would seriuosly think about going back to Frontier and having a landline even though we dont need it, just to get DSL.

By: Uncle Ken

Uncle Ken — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:01:22 +0000

I Agree Verizon is such a natural for this area so I have to think something else big is in the way now. There is nothing wrong with RR until they started the cap idea. Verizon as they grow could pull the same stunt as could anybody. ATT is about the only company big enough to think of coming here but I also think they do not want to get into a war with the Rochester area right in the middle of it. I do think we are in the eye of the storm as everyone tries to figure out what everyone else is going to do. For the most part things have got very quite. No doubt they all read this site everyday and found out it can make a difference and they also know this site can fight more then one war at a time and that scares them.

By: David

David — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:51:13 +0000

I had a very similar episode with Frontier when I lived in Gates and not all that far from their Long Pond Rd CO, when they could only get me a mind-numbing 56k down…yeah I did say 56k. As you can probably guess, I had an RR installation scheduled within milliseconds of that conversation. I also had zero resistance to canceling my service, which I was semi-surprised about, but with those speeds resistance would have been beyond futile. I would like to think at some point Frontier would gracefully bow out of Rochester and turn things over to Verizon and (hopefully) FiOS in the not too distant future.

By: Phillip Dampier

Phillip Dampier — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:38:38 +0000

I think yesterday’s news is a game changer. My personal thinking is that Frontier will, at some point, discard Rochester (but there is no assurance Verizon would be a buyer) to focus on its core rural business plan. They just jumped into first place, so I think it’s likely they are not going to be easy pickens for awhile, especially with credit markets still reluctant to hand out blank checks.

If I got more than 5Mbps, I probably would have kept DSL as a backup provider here, but 3.1Mbps is ridiculous, especially for the amount of money being charged. Considering the complete lack of resistance to my cancellation request, I suspect they felt it wasn’t really acceptable either.

As other technologies zoom ahead of DSL speedwise, this is going to be a product that will probably be irrelevant outside of rural areas where cable/fiber just isn’t going to happen.

By: Dan S.

Dan S. — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:28:36 +0000

So, I guess that means any hope for FIOS in the RTP region of North Carolina has just gone up in smoke.

By: Mazakman

Mazakman — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:23:11 +0000

The Frontier installer that was here this morning said that he thought that it could be more likely that Windstream acquires the local Frontier service area. And yes, I am on DSL at the moment. Seeing max speeds of about 5.8 mb/sec down and 380 kb/sec up, but excellent ping and tracert times. I was told to wait 24 hours for the circuit to complete and then check my speed again. I do know that I am seeing lower download and upload speeds than what I saw here last year from Frontier.

By: Uncle Ken

Uncle Ken — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:11:19 +0000

I do not think that Consumers have to Worry About the Frontier-Verizon Phone Swap. Our phone company has gone through how many name changes but the poles are the same the wires are the same the only thing that changed was the address on the bill. Worry from change is a natural feeling one I think and hope is unfounded.

By: Uncle Ken

Uncle Ken — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:58:19 +0000

Is rural service a real money maker Frontier must think so if they are willing to part with 8 billion. My comment will stay in this region as I do not know how the others work. When / if this happens Frontier will have the best of both worlds for the moment the rural and the denser city systems. For a moment lets assume I live south of Rochester on a big hill top with 5 other houses 10 miles from the closest gas station. If the studies prove true that in high tech areas 80 percent of the people have cell phones ok what service can Frontier provide me? A copper wire phone yes DSL no way no structures in place close enough. And what about TV I think TW has that covered. Frontier has provided copper phone service here for many years and their outside service is very timely given your nice to the service people on the phone as it is not their fault and that brings me to my final thought. Something more then we know is cooking behind closed doors and what is cooking may be a good thing.

By: Mazakman

Mazakman — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:23:50 +0000

Interesting segment. And yes, the question is … why indeed would Frontier wish to stay in Rochester because it sure does not fit in with their “rural” area service.
Thanks for posting the link to that Brion.