our local telephone company is being sold - question

 

   I got a letter in the mail from Verizon, which provides our local
telephone service, saying that service in about 12 states is being sold
to Frontier.  I looked up Frontier, and they have a really lousy history
of customer service, including not putting any money into their high
speed internet systems.

   What is intriguing in the letter is this:

"unless you elect to use a service provider other than one of the
Verizon Companies prior to the closing date, Frontier will automatically
become your service provider for any services you currently receive from
Verizon, including local and long distance.."

"You always have the right to select another provider for your local and
long distance services, if you wish to do so and another provider is
available.  This decision is entirely up to you..."

   I've never heard that I had a choice in my local telephone service
before - I thought there was simply one choice, and that was it -
monopoly service.  How do I find out if there is actually a choice?

 

   Oh, and look at this:

http://www.connecttofrontier.com/index.html?mrc=ps-ctf-g-b-frontier+phone+ohio

   Notice the prices for DSL and local telephone service.  Yowza!

 


Depends where you are.

Here in Toronto there are a number of choices.

Bell Canada owns the telephone lines to the houses, but other
companies can buy access to them at wholesale rates. So I actually pay
Primus for my local, long distanace and DSL, but Primus buys the
rights to use the lines from Bell. I pay substantially lower, but if
there is a problem, there can be finger pointing between Primus and
Bell.

I could also go to our cable provider and get local phone service over
cable.

James

 





I'm in Southern Ontario and my cable company Cogeco provides our phone
service using VOIP.  They provide a free internet/phone modem cable,
batteries for 911 emergency etc.  you can buy as many or as little services
from them as possible.  You can still buy long distance elsewhere as well.
You can also buy cable internet from a 3rd party.  BTW  our home alarm
system works with the cable phone.  basically Our Television, internet, and
phone services are with one company on one bill and we find that saved us
enuf money each month to get HD television programming on 2 TVs.

To Ohio Guy.   Simply Google or look into your local yellow pages for
telephone and DSL/Internet providers in your zip code.  Some area's are more
competitive that others.   Pick one for local calling and another for
internet if you have to.  My understanding, and I'm Canadian so I may be
wrong, is that the US does not allow phone monopolies and hasn't since the
early or mid 1980's when they broke up ATT.  Verizon or Frontier may own the
lines but the law should should be (FCC?) that whomever owns the lines HAS
to allow access to competitors and 3rd party sales.  All that depends is
whether there are other compies that will compete for your business in your
zip code.


BTW in the USA you can get Television thru your phone line now.
 

 



CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) have been around since 1996. Look
in your local yellow pages or search on the internet for providers in your
area.