fairpoint fiber rates?

Frank DiPrete fdiprete at comcast.net
Tue Sep 16 07:57:22 EDT 2008



Bruce Labitt wrote:
> Just got a Fairpoint flyer for fiber.  (Nice alliteration.)  Anyone got 
> an idea on how much this actually costs?  All they give you is a phone 
> number to call.  Likewise on their website. 
> 
> Does the rate vary by location?  Why won't they post it?  The 'evil' 
> Comcast posts theirs.
> 
> My DSL is a bit slow for my taste nowadays.  I'd call, but I'm wary of 
> being talked into something I really would like but shouldn't buy 
> because of the monthly rate.  So does anyone happen to know, and would 
> you share the rates?
> 
> I would hope there are only 4 rates (5/2, 15/2, 15/15, and 30/15). 
> If it matters, I live in Nashua.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> -Bruce

Hello Bruce

I just went down this path less than a month ago.

Verizon sold it's business in NH ME VT to Fairpoint.
Everything but cell phones.
The deal was finalized recently.

Fairpoint does not offer FIOS as part of it's product offerings at all 
as of 3 weeks ago. The existing Verizon FIOS customers still have it, 
but no new customers and no new fiber is being installed at this time.
Fairpoint is spending some big bucks - as per the buy out agreement 
contract with the NHPUC in which they have to spend 50M - but so far it 
is to update and fix old rusting and abandoned Versizon stuff.

There is no information or eta as to if/when fios will be available 
again through Fairpoint. You can check again by calling them. The sales 
rep I spoke to was not pushy.

What Fairpoint has is a bundled service is phone over copper, DSL, and 
Direct TV. The package is cheaper than Comcast by a fairly significant 
margin depending n the hardware you get for TV. In my case $40+ per 
month. The package pricing, ie getting all 3 from one provider, is the 
only way it makes financial sense because if you split the services you 
lose the discount on both sides.

Fairpoint's database shows my home as 0 miles from the CO. There is a 
fiber terminal a block away. I could get 3M DSL. They can tell you this 
with a phone call. Without the fiber terminal, my DSL speed would suck 
wet bounty paper towels.

Here's where it gets bad.

I ordered the bundle and found out the hard way that I cannot get a line 
of site to the satellites (plural) for Direct TV so Comcast still has me 
by the gonads.

Fairpoint rolled the truck to cut my phone over to them before rolling 
the Direct TV truck and left me with a big problem. I had to cut my 
phone back to Comcast before being eligible for their bundle again.

Comcast sent me to Fairpoint to start the work order process and 
Fairpoint sent me to Comcast to do the same. Eventually a Fairpoint rep 
started a con call with Comcast to get them to put in the work order.

This took a day of my time to get straightened out and 2 weeks for 
Comcast to get going again - They dropped the ball repeatedly. (and sent 
out a contractor that installed the wrong DVR and had to come back again)

Comcast also refused to waive the phone "installation" fee to cut the 
phone back even though I had been a Comcast customer for 8 years and was 
ordering a package to the tune of $2,000+ per year. It took hours of my 
time to get the fee waived by someone with half a brain. A rare find at 
Comcast.

Short story - Fairpoint will not roll a truck to check your line of 
sight without an order. Fairpoint will not roll the Direct TV truck to 
check line of sight with an order until your phone is on Verizon copper.
This is part of their contract with Direct TV.

The catch-22 is very very bad.
Proceed cautiously ;)

Signed,
-Not drinking the Comcast kool-aid.

PS
If Fairpoint starts offering FIOS again I'd go for it in a second and 
let Comcast fudge their todlywankers,








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