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Frontier All Set to Take over Verizon’s Landline Assets

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Frontier Telecom is all set to acquire all of Verizon’s landline related assets in California, Florida and Texas in the coming month. Clearly this acquisition doesn’t include Verizon’s wireless cell phone services but includes Internet, video and phone services. The transfer is scheduled for April 1.

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Verizon officials have already announced that it will solely focus its business efforts on the wireless service although it continues to hold the landline operations in the northeast industry, said Les Kumagai, Verizon spokesperson. With this move, the home phone services will be exceptionally be affected.

Landlines are expected to be obsolete in the coming years, and other telecommunication networks are aiming at wireless assets, said Jay Prag, professor of economics and finance at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Frontier Communications officials state that they plan to maintain the existing products and services including internet, voice, video, and online security. The company also announced that it will honour Verizon’s previous promotional pricing via their advertised deadlines. “We’re excited to be in this business and to be the new service provider for these customers, welcoming them into the family, and we are 100 percent focused on creating a great experience for the new customers,” said Cameron Christian, Frontier Communications vice president of marketing for the West region.

Stamford officials said they were unable to break down the number of employees or customers it will acquire regionally but as per state they are welcoming approx. 5000 Verizon employees to Frontier. Plus, the company is absorbing 3.7 million new customers throughout the states. Other cheap home phone services will have to pull up their socks so as to be competitive enough to defeat the clever move made by Frontier and Verizon telecommunications. New Frontier customers can expect that their bills will be sent out in April with the instruction on some payment options available to them.

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Hold Hearings on Verizon Landline Service Problems, Lawmaker tells BPU

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verizonIn response to Verizon’s landline service problems, Senator Jeff Van Drew has requested the Board of Public Utilities to hold a hearing in South Jersey to hear directly from customers who are disturbed with the poor service.

“These problems are not only an inconvenience, they are causing public safety and quality of life issues and require action,” Van Drew wrote in a letter sent to BPU President Richard Mroz. The senator also is drafting legislation that would permit the Legislature to participate in legal action taken by Cumberland County and filed with the BPU regarding problems with Verizon’s service.

“Municipalities in Cumberland and Atlantic counties have reported serious problems with landline telephone service that has proven unreliable and created major telecommunications issues for residents, business owners and emergency personnel. The failure of Verizon to properly maintain its copper lines in this region of the state has led to telephone interference and, at times, completely inoperable landline and Internet service,” wrote Senator Van Drew.

He further added, “The inability of a resident to reach emergency personnel by phone or for emergency officials to communicate effectively could literally mean the difference between left and death. For students, in adequate telephone and Internet service could mean the inability to access educational materials and, for a business owner, it could result in lost production and revenue.”

While Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-1st Dist., the main focus is on Cumberland and Atlantic countries — the areas he represents — the problems with Verizon service extend into Salem and Gloucester counties, officials there say. “I respectfully request that BPU hold a public hearing in the First Legislative District to hear directly from residents, emergency personnel and public officials about the communications problems they are experiencing. I would also request that Verizon participate,” Van Drew wrote to Mroz.

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Falls Church Copper Customers to Get Fiber Network from Verizon

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adtVerizon has transitioned its Falls Church customers from copper to their fiber network. With this, it has taken a major leap in its goal to retire more of its aging wireless facilities. Verizon has already planned on replacing copper distribution and its loop facilities with FTTH at a few of its locations in the Falls Church Central office.

Once the process is completed, Verizon has promised to provide services over the fiber network. Similar to various other marketers were coppered has been retired, the service providers complained that it is unable to provide the IP-based FiOS services but will provide traditional POTS services over FTTH network architecture.

“Following the transition to fiber, Verizon will continue to offer these customers the same POTS service over fiber at the same or better price as they received on copper facilities, with no change in the underlying features and functionalities in their service,” Verizon said in an FCC filing. “There are no wholesale customers at these locations at this time.”

It also appended that if a wholesale provider is willing to provide service at any of the affected locations, they will be eligible to buy services over a more reliable network as they have done the same in other areas where copper fiber has deployed.

Over years, Verizon has made steady progress in transforming from copper to fiber, meeting it’s migration goals for 2015. By the end of this year, it has set a goal of converting a total of 200000 customers from copper to the fiber network. Despite its constant efforts and potential to provide reliable speed services like FiOS, Verizon’s copper retirement efforts have been previously fraught with controversy. It has battled accusations from the Communications Workers of America union that is in the negotiating process of a new contract.

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Northeast Mayors Ask Verizon to Build High Speed Network

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verizonMayors of 14 major northeast cities including New York, asked Verizon to fulfill its promise of building up a high-speed internet network and home phone services. On October 1st, a letter to Verizon’s CEO, Lowell McAdam, had been sent by the mayors and they have urged the company to provide a brief explanation for why it is unable to provide a high-speed network and why it has not completed its FiOS internet network across the northeast.

Defending the same, Verizon has stated that it has met all the requirements and the present situation has been misinterpreted by the mayors. Verizon feels there has been some kind of miscommunication amongst the mayors. The letter has come at a point when Verizon has continued to negotiate a 3-year contract which is comprised of 39000 unionized workers recognized by Communication Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

The unions of Verizon previously threatened that they will go on strike but later they decided not to do so when the contract expired. Regardless of this, neither party has been unable to agree on job security protection as well as an employee benefit. A million residents in the Northeast have been left without FiOS Internet service that was planned by Verizon, according to the letter sent by the mayor. Verizon failed to meet legislative and other deadlines and in some cases, to make the services available after which Verizon refused to build the network altogether.

In addition, the letter also says that Verizon has been abandoning its traditional copper-based network and has stopped providing needful services to its subscribers. In certain cases, it states, “traditional landline customers are experiencing frequent service outages, delays in repairs and installations, and forced migration to the inferior” products.

Defending their company, Verizon spokesperson, John J. Bonomo said, “Since Verizon started bargaining this year with the CWA, we’ve seen numerous half-baked and inaccurate letters and statements from union leaders regarding Verizon’s FiOS commitments and more. It’s all nonsense.” He also added, “The reality is that all of these misguided PR stunts are an attempt by union leaders to try and force the company to hire more union-represented employees which will, in turn, increase dues and revenues for the union. It won’t work.”

 

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According to State Advocate, Verizon Landline Transition is Puzzling Customers

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A state advocate who represents utility customers announced that Verizon is confusing its users while transitioning from copper wire landline to fiber optic broadband. The Division of Rate Counsel has ordered the FCC to temporarily suspend Verizon’s copper network transition.

Rate Counsel Director Stefaine Brand traced letters sent by Verizon to customers that are trying to force customers into FiOS and frightening them to disconnect copper-wire service if they are unable to accomplish Verizon’s deadline within 45 days.

Brand said, “I think the future is certainly with new technology, but the problem is you just can’t do it. You have to do it with the way that doesn’t leave the most vulnerable parts of the population out in the cold. If you are not providing copper service, you have to provide other services that maintain the ability of everyone else to have a telephone.”

Verizon’s spokesperson Lee Gierczynski stated that Verizon works closely with its users in such areas where the transition takes place to FiOS including letters, postcards, and automated phone calls. He also added “where Verizon has transitioned customers from the copper network to the fiber optic network we closely work with customers to communicate with them what Verizon is doing and why we’re doing it to ensure the transition is a positive experience for them.”

The FCC has proposed new rules regarding copper wire on August 6. According to those latest rules, providers ought to notify retail customers regarding the retirement of the plan within three months.

 

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Verizon’s New Jersey Legacy Phone Services Now Up for Deregulation

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The New Jersey state commission will increase pricing rules across residential telephone services that may get Version some relief and also make it possible for the carrier to increase its prices up to 36 percent or higher for POTS (plain old telephone service).

The agreement Verizon is getting into with the Bureau of Public Utilities (BPU) of New Jersey lets carriers raise rates to a fixed amount of $6, a service rate cap that will continue only for five years. However, after five years Verizon’s services will no longer be subject to regulation and will not require any BPU approval to set landline rates.

AARP New Jersey associate director Evelyn Liebman shared that this landlines telephone service is a necessity for all, but more importantly for people who are 65 years or older.

The New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel director Stefanie Brand told NJ.com that “deregulate” is just a word to reclassify Verizon’s services that would no longer require BPU approval to maintain and repair its landline phone lines.

Verizon stated that none of its competitors is compelled to get the BPU’s approval for rate changes. Verizon is not the only service provider in New Jersey and consumers, therefore, have the choice to switch providers if their expectations are not met, shared spokesperson Lee Giercynski.

In 2012, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the carrier rolled out Voice Link wireless service to the barrier island area and decided not to replace its legacy copper infrastructure in Mantoloking, N.J. Fire Island is a place where it took similar actions. However, with the attorney general filing for an injunction to stop the move, they planned to roll out Voice Link in the Catskills region, which set off alarm bells and attracted criticism. Finally, the carrier announced that Fire Island would get FiOS (fiber-to-the-home service).