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Spin off to be the nations eighth largest phone company

This week Verizon Communications announced big plans to spin off part of its successful telephone and DSL business. The new spin off will be merged with FairPoint Communications to create a larger presence in New England which contains Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

The move is expected to create one of the largest phone companies in the U.S. Verizon will control roughly 60-percent of the new spin off while FairPoint controls the remaining 40 percent. Currently, FairPoint has a slightly larger presence in rural areas of New England, of which Verizon has a very high interest in. The venture will end up serving nearly 2.5 million users: 1.6 million land lines, 600,000 long distance customers and 234,000 high-speed access customers.

Verizon's expansion into New England also follows its move to expand its Fios network -- a high-speed fiber optic-to-the-home network that delivers access speed unheard of in the cable and DSL world. Verizon is currently working on bringing more FiOS acces to the New York area and is expected to carry out the same plans with FairPoint Communications.

Details about the spin off such as the new company name are currently under wraps, but Verizon has revealed that the deal is expected to be completed by 2008. FairPoint told reporters that the spin off would help it save roughly $60 million to $75 million USD annually. Verizon expects to generate more than $1.6 billion annually from the spin off.

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By RamarC on 1/17/2007 9:49:12 AM , Rating: 3
IMHO, Verizon has the worst customer service on the planet. I've had issues cancelling service (4 months of bills after my cell phone was supposedly cancelled). More issues adding new service (my apt number isn't on their list, therefore it doesn't exist and they won't do the install). And issues with DSL (your wiring's faulty -- no, i just had dsl from another vendor using this jack -- still, your wiring's faulty...).

Most recently, it took me 3 hours to pay my dad's phone bill. Why? Because I only had a 9 digit account number, whereas they needed a 12 digit number for customer service and a 14 digit number for phone payment. (???) Of course, none of the voice robots would accepted the 9 digit number, but the first human rep refused to help me at all and then refused to switch me to a supervisor. Later, after wading through voice robot hell, I got another human rep and guess what... he was smart enough to look at the screen and see that my number was only missing the leading zeros!




By retrospooty on 1/17/2007 10:01:21 AM , Rating: 2
hmm... I would have said they are by far the best. I have never had an issue with them, and always get fast friendly and quality service from their tech and customer support for the past 7-8 years. I guess it depends on your region, remember Verizon is composed of several regional pieces of previous companies.



By ScythedBlade on 1/17/2007 10:51:43 AM , Rating: 3
as with everything, there are good parts and bad parts. Usually, people have the bad parts about anything in their mind the most.


By mastermindg on 1/17/2007 3:21:43 PM , Rating: 2
The problem is that the support has moved overseas. FIOS support will remain local for the next 3 to 5 years, but then, it too, will be moved to some 3rd-world country as well. If you want your support scripted by "Bob" then more power. In my experience Verizon support is a whole lot more bad than good.


By djcameron on 1/17/2007 11:43:15 AM , Rating: 2
I've always found their customer service to be great. Even the tech support was helpful.


By AlexWade on 1/17/2007 1:27:43 PM , Rating: 2
I always heard Verizon cell had good service. Then again, "good" in cell terminology is still terrible service overall. You want bad service, try Sprint. If the dropped calls and dead zones in big cities don't get to you, customer service will.

I have Cingular, now AT&T. And with their customer service, I ran into a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing. I talked to one higher-level technician, and they stated they do unlock phones. I talked to a lower-level guy who stated they don't. Go figure.


By Emraith on 1/18/2007 4:10:33 PM , Rating: 2
got to agree with the horrible customer service. I had dsl service, fios became available, so I jumped on the offer(3 months@29.99, $44.99 after. free install for existing dsl customers). Install went great, service is awesome, but the billing...

The billing for the dsl service wasnt stopped, was charged for 2 additional months of dsl after realizing and calling to cancel it a second time. Finally had to dispute the charge with my credit card to get verizon to stop charging me.

The fios also charged me at the normal $44.99 rate, along with a $19.99 install fee. I had to end up speaking to a supervisor, and faxing in a copy of their website, to even get this corrected.

I have since cancelled my verizon wireless phone, and cancelled my landline and went to vonage.. I cant wait for FiosTV though..


FiOS rocks
By phil126 on 1/17/2007 9:57:12 AM , Rating: 3
If anyone has the abilty to check out FiOS they should. In the Syracuse NY area it is $29.95 for 12Mbps/2Mpbs. Usually the servers I connect to are the bottle neck. It is nice to watch video and rarely ever have it do a buffer recovery during playback. I have reached just over 10Mbs on many occasions.




RE: FiOS rocks
By therealnickdanger on 1/17/2007 10:03:56 AM , Rating: 1
It sucks so bad that Verizon has no access to the Minnesota area, we'll never see FiOS. Qwest, SBC/ATT, and Comcast own everything around here and it blows. Comcast has a complete monopoly for cable since taking over for TimeWarner and it is unlikely that Verizon will be able to move in against the incumbent TelCos...


RE: FiOS rocks
By bplewis24 on 1/17/2007 1:17:07 PM , Rating: 2
Unfortunately it's not available in my area. I spent the last month researching it only to find out I'll never have access to it (sacramento, ca).

Brandon


RE: FiOS rocks
By Oregonian2 on 1/17/2007 3:30:11 PM , Rating: 2
Wish I could. They're teasing me. The installation of the FIOS conduits underground stopped about 100 yards from my house last fall and the workers turned up a side street and didn't come back.

Sigh....


RE: FiOS rocks
By Bryf50 on 1/17/2007 5:48:50 PM , Rating: 3
Im getting it installed tomorrow 20 down 5 up. Im also getting directv along with it. With everything together it came out to about 50 dollars less a month and faster then cable.


By borowki on 1/17/2007 7:30:41 PM , Rating: 3
This deal smells fishy to me. For all intend and purpose, it would appear that Verizon is acquiring FairPoint. DailyTech is certainly interpreting it as such. The sole purpose of the arrangement seems to be to stiff FairPoint shareholders out of a buy-out premium.




NYNEX, is that you?
By UNCjigga on 1/17/2007 9:51:22 AM , Rating: 2
How about calling it "NYNEX" or "New England Bell"?? :)




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