Fairpoint files for Chapter 11

Gerry Hull gerry at telosity.com
Tue Oct 27 20:44:01 EDT 2009


Do you guys know that Fairpoint does not offer an SLA on Business DSL? Not
in NH, Not ever.  Can you imagine that?

My local ISP has been (temporarily) buying a bunch of DSL from Fairpoint.
When a (large) number of DSL lines went down, FairPoint could not find the
customer data on the ISP!!!
After a week of no service, they finally got hold of a manager, who said he
was unaware of any open tickets ! ! !

"Terabit Switch"   I doubt many of Fairpoint's people would know one if they
fell on it.

Fairpoint's play for the Northern New England market was a pure business
play when borrowing was cheap.   They are no better technically managed than
any other regional provider.
With the cost of money these days, as well as the state of the economy, I
doubt they will make it even with bankruptcy protection.

Verizon did a terrible job updating Northern New England's land lines.  Yes,
DSL can reach many localities, but there are many, many more which just do
not have the copper.

Verizon, love it or hate it, is managed well financially.   Those bean
counters won't come back to NNE, even at 10c on the dollar -- that's my bet.

My bet (and hope), is that if we have another nameplate change, it will be a
healthy regional baby bell, who understands rural markets, and who is
technically savvy and well managed.  Perhaps this is too much to ask for.

Thank Goodness I get my dial tone from a VOIP provider!

Gerry


On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 8:11 PM, Jon 'maddog' Hall <maddog at li.org> wrote:

> > My personal opinion is this would be a good time for Verizon to come
> > in and buy back the lines. They will get it cheaper than what they
> > sold it for.
>
> Verizon would not want the lines back if you gave them to Verizon.
> Verizon does not want the rural land-line business.  They have been
> selling it off as fast as they can.  It costs too much and they can make
> more money just by putting up towers and selling wireless services.
>
> >Fairpoint didn't roll out any fiber I don't believe.  They just
> >rolled stuff out using where Verizon had already rolled it out to the
> >poles I'm pretty sure.
>
> I went to a presentation the other night where a person from Fairpoint
> said that they had just put in a new Terabit switch as one of three they
> had installed in New Hampshire.  They are going after the broadband
> business, and will probably lump "POTS" on top of that.  They indicated
> that Verizon had not done much in the way of real improvement to rural
> areas (as opposed to Nashua or other cities) for a long time.
>
> Nope, I really can not see Verizon coming back in, unless you looked at
> massive raises in customer rates.
>
> md
>
>
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