[Hidden-tech] Verizon: the only game in town?

[Matthew Crocker]

On Dec 5, 2013, at 3:46 PM, Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com> wrote:

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> After much Googling, it appears that for analog phone service (POTS) in 
> Western Mass, Verizon is the *only* option?  Does anyone know if ANY of the 
> CLECs in Mass offer analog phone service (POTS)?  Or do they only offer 
> services like DSL or VOIP or PBX services?

We have ADSL2+/POTS service off our own DSLAM in Northampton.  

The entire DSL industry is dead.  DSLAMs, DSL modems etc are all legacy and running into End-of-Life product issues.  I don’t see much innovation happening in the DSL product space.

Everything is EFM (Ethernet in the First Mile) mostly geared towards business class high bandwidth Ethernet service over copper.

> Googling gets me pages for services like Lingo which offer Digital Phone 
> services for as little as $10/month, but need existing broadband internet 
> serice.  The only other option is Verizon at $60+ per month.
> 
> I know there *used* to be alternitive providers -- have they all gone away at 
> this point?

Verizon and the FCC has pretty much killed off legacy POTS competition.

CLECs operating in the valley are (I’m sure I’m missing some):

Crocker Telecommunications, LLC (Business Internet, VoIP, Hosted PBX)  ** Hey,  I’m LOCAL **
Earthlink (they bought ChoiceONE, CTC, Lightship, One Communications)
AccessPlus (mostly Berkshire County but they do have a presence in Pioneer Valley)
BroadView (Northampton, Springfield)
DSCI (Business Internet, VoIP, Hosted PBX)

There are a couple others in the Springfield CO but I don’t know their names.


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