OT, I guess. What happens with FIOS

[mm]

A friend tells me tonight that if you subscribe to FIOS from Verizon, at least when you use it for everything you have (tv, internet, phone, or any subset) when they install the optical cable, they take out your copper.

So that you can never go back.

He says that even if you sell your house, the new owner can't get simple copper phone or DSL line, unless he pays someone privately to reinstall the copper wires.

That's why my friend kept a simple phone line, and didn't get VOIP.

That's what he says, and he's no dummy. Does anyone think he's wrong?

Is Verizon only in the mid-atlantic, or the northeast?

(Missa, this would explain why it is worth it to dig those trenches and holes to run lines where there are few or no subscribers. Talk to me later.)

[willshak]

on 9/13/2007 10:48 PM mm said the following:

I would think that the telephone and cable tv companies would have something to say about who can remove their equipment.

[hallerb]

its true, verizon is spending billions, and pushing to convert everyone to fibre. once you get fios you can never go back to copper.

I am very sorry I supposedly upgraded from DSL to FIOS, the internet portion is great but I have had serious long lasting bad phone troubles, and they really dont care about poor phone service.

If I had to to do over again i would of kept with DSL

after weeks of calling at the end multiple times daily they finally had a network tech troubleshoot and fix the problem that effected our central office, a noisey bad T1 router.

it shouldnt of taken over a month to fix it and I am so pissed I have thought about dropping that line altogether.

their service sucks:(

[mm]

Around here, Verizon IS the owner of the phone lines. Verizon is the phone company. (TPC in "The President's Analyst" a movie that could have been great, but iirc wasn't.)

No one is taking out cable. If my use of "copper" seemed to include cable, I apologize. But the only phone service avaialble on cable is VOIP iiuc, and not everyone wants that. Not me.

[Mikepier]

If I am buying a house, the last thing on my mind would be whether or not it has a copper phone line. It's not going to make or break a sale.

[bigjim]

If you avoid the ripoff bundled services and keep standard phone line you will still have copper. I would only get internet and TV over FIOS,

[Nancy Young]

"mm" wrote

They aren't supposed to do that without your permissioin. Verizon has gotten into trouble for doing that in central Jersey. If I was to get FIOS, I would make damned sure they didn't pull a fast one like that.

nancy

[Seth Goodman]

Step 1 of *any* Verizon FIOS install is to move your phone line(s) from copper to fiber, even if you're not changing your phone service. I've read reports that a few people were able to convince the installer to leave the copper in place, but I don't think that's official Verizon policy.

Another reason not to go off copper:

If you have FIOS, during a power outage, the battery in your network interface box is your only backup. Two hours or so in, you'll lose phone service. The old copper lines are mostly backed up by generators at the central office. I've never lost phone service during a power outage.

[Frank]

I hear they like to take out the copper but everything in your house is yours so you just tell them not to. I have Comcast cable and internet but still have old Verizon phones. I had choice of Comcast or Verizon but was reticent to hook up with the "phone company" who has always had atrocious service. Also don't want all my eggs in one basket.

Frank

[newman]

I converted everything to fios (TV, internet, phone) some months ago.

the installer left the copper in place and said I should leave it because I might want to change phone companies later.

So that you can never go back.

He says that even if you sell your house, the new owner can't get simple copper phone or DSL line, unless he pays someone privately to reinstall the copper wires.

That's why my friend kept a simple phone line, and didn't get VOIP.

That's what he says, and he's no dummy. Does anyone think he's wrong?

Is Verizon only in the mid-atlantic, or the northeast?

(Missa, this would explain why it is worth it to dig those trenches and holes to run lines where there are few or no subscribers. Talk to me later.)

[George]

I am no fan of phone companies but I don't see the point. FiOS is fiber to the premise. They can run anything on it including phone service. So there is little point for them to maintain a dual plant system of both fiber optic and copper cabling.

As a subscriber you buy a service. If you buy dial tone service I don't see why it would matter if it were provisioned on copper or fiber. Or in the case of DSL you are buying broadband data. Why would it matter to you if it came via DSL on copper or over fiber?

[George]

They don't touch the interior phone wiring except for disconnecting it from the old NID and connecting it to the new adapter they install.

I have Comcast cable and internet

[Chris Friesen]

Power outage.

Copper phone lines provide electrical power (driven by central generators) so you can still use simple phones when the power goes out.

Fiber to the home means you're relying on battery-backup.

I lived on the East coast during the big blackout, had no power for a few days. Some people were without power for multiple weeks....I'm guessing their battery backup won't power the phones for that long.

Chris

[ng_reader]

-The President's Analyst was a very clever movie. If you haven't seen it you should.

As for OP, once copper or fiber enters your space, it's yours. Not theirs.

I can't imagine any provider physically removing anything, anyhow. Except for some termination device, maybe.

[Uncle Monster]

Correction, the main backup at phone company central offices is banks of batteries. There are generators but the battery banks can keep the phone service up for days. If anyone wants to know about storage batteries, the phone companies have a great deal of knowledge and experience. The battery rooms at at phone company central offices would astound you. An example of what is in them is here:

They have some BFB's, (Big Freaking Batteries)

[8~{} Uncle Monster

[larry]

Back in Green decision and deregulation, ma bell tried that (it's OUR cable and devices).

But changed their mind real fast when the lawsuits rolled in for damages to the building, both inside and out ;-)

walls, wallcoverings, flooring, siding, walkways etc...

If it's attached to your property, it's yours. but if it's attached to a surface they provided, it's their's except for the surface- which you get to keep. think plywood or synthetic mounting board.

-larry / dallas

[George]

You can address that but adding your own UPS. The phone company pretty much has to do what they are doing and it is a good thing. If they don't build out fiber and add services the cable companies will take their core business away because they can offer VoIP over their existing cable system.

Consider what sort of (non) competitive situation it would be if cable companies were the only providers.

[Mark Lloyd]

I got to see the (phone co. battery room) in Fort Worth about 25 years ago. They had a lot of big batteries, some of which came out of old submarines.

[Mark Lloyd]

The phone here is with Verizon, in east Texas. We don't have FIOS available yet (not overpopulated enough).

The cable system does offer phone, although I decided against it for similar reasons.

[snip]

[trader4]

It's not clear to me that you can add a UPS with FIOS. You can do it with with some of the cable VOIP solutions, where they essentially give you a kit that has the VOIP hardware and you just plug it in to AC and coonect to the cable. With FIOS, where is the box located that converts the traditional phone signal into VOIP? If it's in some box under Verizon's control, then you may not be able to hook a UPS to it. Anyone know what Verizon's position is on what happens when the AC goes out in your neighborhood?

Plus, a UPS is just another level of complexity and eqpt to worry about. Like, do you think grandma wants to deal with it?

The phone company pretty