This is uh....odd. We've gotten so used to
FiOS TV creeping into new areas that we've had to create a weekly roundup just to keep track, but today the company announced it is pulling out of rural areas in 14 states, turning over operations to Frontier Communications. The transition should take place over the next year, and includes around 69,000 FiOS TV subscribers in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin, plus some in California (Note: FiOS wasn't yet available in all the areas affected by the switch, so this only applies where it was.) Fiber to the premises and video will still be provided after the merger, and the 11,000
Verizon employees in these areas will transfer over as well. The real questions is if affected subs can expect the same packages and level of service they've come to expect, but really it seems we'll just have to wait and see.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gt1racer47 @ May 13th 2009 8:59PM
wow no love for southeastern Massachusetts, Still stuck in a rut here in Fall River,Ma.
FIOS i will be waiting whenever you decide to come!
magicvash @ May 13th 2009 9:10PM
Man..I wanted Frontier to die quickly so Rochester, NY can get some FIOS love!
Ivan @ May 13th 2009 9:30PM
Is that upside down picture supposed to be a pun on Verizon turning on its head in those areas?...Admirable...
CentralIllinoisJoe @ May 13th 2009 10:07PM
Verizon is selling all their landlines in parts of 14 states, to Frontier.
Verizon does NOT offer FiOS in all 14 of the states being sold to to Frontier
Only 3 metros/states by my count:
1) Ft. Wayne, Indiana
2) suburban Portland, Oregon
3) suburban Seattle, Washington
Believe me, we would know if FiOS was available nearby. Only 240 miles to Ft. Wayne, from my house.
Richard Lawler @ May 13th 2009 10:35PM
Thanks for the heads up, I edited a bit to clarify that.
Garst @ May 13th 2009 10:13PM
I have a theory. It is that Verizon is selling off those areas so they don't have to roll out FiOS to them. I suppose it would be better that way, that way they don't string along those areas' hope to get FiOS eventually when Verizon likely never had any plans to deliver.
CentralIllinoisJoe @ May 13th 2009 10:25PM
Sir, you are more correct than you know.
dch @ May 13th 2009 10:25PM
This makes it pretty obvious that Vz just wants out of the landwire business in lower-density areas: http://investor.verizon.com/news/20090513/20090513.pdf
Cody @ May 13th 2009 10:23PM
Wait, just a second.... They had Verizon Fios in West Virginia? Why is it that they can put Fios in West Virginia and then take it out all before bringing it here. I mean I love DirecTV but come on (I would at least like to have the option).
Cody @ May 13th 2009 10:24PM
What I meant to say was that I love MY DirecTV but I would at least like to have the option to switch to Fios if I so choose.
dch @ May 13th 2009 10:27PM
No, in the fourteen states that are being sold off, only three had FiOS service: OR, WA, and IN.
Vz @ May 14th 2009 10:18AM
And to add to this as a former Verizon employee, Verizon is made up of the former 13 state northeastern Bell Atlantic (NYNEX and C&P Telephone) and the "western" GTE/Contel. The states/areas that are being sold off are part of the GTE/Contel acquisition, and were always treated as stepchildren to the northeastern region. The writing has been on the wall for many years for a sell-off of the non-northeastern states. Not to mention that Verizon last year completed the sale of their customers to Fairpoint in NH, ME and VT...all three being more rural, and having a much smaller customer base than NY, PA, MA, DC, MD, etc. I don't see the sale of these western states as a way to avoid rolling out fiber in particular, but rather as a way of streamlining operations. The western states have never really fit it well with Verizon 'corporate'. CA and TX are exceptions, as they are way more profitable/have more concentrated hives of customers.
John Thacker @ May 14th 2009 11:52AM
"Western" does belong in quotes, as quite a few of the GTE territories were in the Southeast as well, like in NC and SC. For example, for some reason Durham, NC was a GTE territory, never AT&T/SouthernBell/BellSouth/AT&T again. Durham isn't rural either, but it is a small pocket of service in the middle of a big swath of AT&T.
But yeah, this is basically divesting a lot of the old GTE locations.
ben @ May 14th 2009 11:51AM
69,000 subs and 11,000 employees thats a pretty high ratio. I employee for every 6 subscribers can't be very profitable.
John Thacker @ May 14th 2009 11:55AM
That's 69,000 FIOS TV subs, but it's really misleading as only a very small part of these territories even have FIOS. Those employees are mostly to service phone and DSL lines. This consists of various isolated and sometimes rural former GTE areas that Verizon wants to get rid of.