Yesterday, Verizon and the FCC met to discuss divestiture issues. As devotees of this soap opera may recall, the Department of Justice required Verizon to divest itself of certain cell licenses in order to complete its purchase of Rural Cellular/Unicel. (From the 6/11 letter: "Verizon Wireless has agreed to divest certain cellular licenses and related network assets and subscribers in six markets: Burlington, VT MSA; New York RSA 2 – Franklin; Vermont RSA 1- Franklin; Vermont RSA 2 – Addison; Washington RSA 2 –
Okanogan; and Washington RSA 3 – Ferry. These assets will be transferred to a court-appointed management trustee upon consummation of the transaction.")
Are we coming to the end? Will there be cheers from one end of Lake Champlain to another when July 11 comes and the iPhone is for sale in the North Country? (July 11, of course, is the date for the release of the new iPhone and Apple's MobileMe.)
Yesterday, Verizon and the FCC met to discuss divestiture issues. As devotees of this soap opera may recall, the Department of Justice required Verizon to divest itself of certain cell licenses in order to complete its purchase of Rural Cellular/Unicel. (From the 6/11 letter: "Verizon Wireless has agreed to divest certain cellular licenses and related network assets and subscribers in six markets: Burlington, VT MSA; New York RSA 2 – Franklin; Vermont RSA 1- Franklin; Vermont RSA 2 – Addison; Washington RSA 2 –
Okanogan; and Washington RSA 3 – Ferry. These assets will be transferred to a court-appointed management trustee upon consummation of the transaction.")
Are we coming to the end? Will there be cheers from one end of Lake Champlain to another when July 11 comes and the iPhone is for sale in the North Country? (July 11, of course, is the date for the release of the new iPhone and Apple's MobileMe.)
Okanogan; and Washington RSA 3 – Ferry. These assets will be transferred to a court-appointed management trustee upon consummation of the transaction.")
Are we coming to the end? Will there be cheers from one end of Lake Champlain to another when July 11 comes and the iPhone is for sale in the North Country? (July 11, of course, is the date for the release of the new iPhone and Apple's MobileMe.)
posted by Jesse at
7/01/2008
6 Comments:
You'll hear a cheer from the end of Macomb St.!
I second the party here. I am typing this on my iPod touch hoping I can do this on a new iPhone quite soon.
Also I talked to my friend from unicel and everything about them getting paid by AT&T is not true. We should here something soon cause I would think people are going to get sick of waiting and are going to switch phone providers I'm tired of using my blackberry and not being able to use the data,just able to SMS and talk. Boring.
Michael's point "people are going to get sick of waiting and are going to switch phone providers" is right on. Verizon, AT&T, Rural Cellular, the FCC, and the wireless industry in general are starting to look quite oblivious to their customers' concerns.
There are two sticking points for consumers:
1. In Vermont and many parts of the NY North Country, no AT&T coverage at all (which affects current iPhone users who don't want to use too much off-network - "Partner" service for fear of having their accounts canceled as AT&T has made clear will happen).
2. In areas such as NY North Country where there is AT&T coverage, local number portability is not available. The coverage is determined by the actual location (street address), but I have been told portability is governed by ZIP code. 12901 (Plattsburgh and environs) has coverage in the city, but no AT&T coverage down towards Peru and in the wonderful open fields. So you can have AT&T coverage but you can't port your number (which means you get to pay two monthly bills--for me, coverage from AT&T was available 2 months ago, so thats 2x$70 wasted...and counting).
Who is hurt by this delay and lack of communication? People waiting on local number portability clearly are hurt because they have to pay for an account just to keep the number active until it can be transferred. People who are interested in shopping for phones and contracts are hurt because some of them (presumably existing Unicel customers) do not know what will be offered when they are automatically transferred to another vendor. Will there be special "sweeteners" on upgrades and contracts? Will you be a chump to buy or sign now?
My guess is that there is no one "evil-doer," but rather that a lot of people are involved and no one has rapped knuckles to say that this has to be resolved and the public--much less the customers--need to know what's going on.
Apple has proudly announced that the iPhone will be available in 70 countries around the world. There's an asterisk that should be appended to that statement: *and 49 of the 50 states in the US.
I have already sent out feelers to some of the senior people who seem to be actively working on this project, and have received nothing back. If anyone who can speak definitively to these issues wishes to do so, this forum is open--just post or email me at jfeiler@northcountryconsulting.com.
I'm just catching up on my VT iPhone news, and this little tidbit is giving me some panic:
Burlington, VT MSA; New York RSA 2 – Franklin; Vermont RSA 1- Franklin; Vermont RSA 2 – Addison; Washington RSA 2 –Okanogan; and Washington RSA 3 – Ferry.
Does that mean Rutland County isn't part of the deal? Are there maps that show the RSA/MSA boudaries?
The end of Lake Champlain is down here in Poultney-VT/Whitehall-NY. If so there won't be any cheering down at this end, only sad, wimpering sobs.
The FCC map is at http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/data/maps/CMA.pdf.Unfortunately, they seem to be using a different numbering scheme--we'll see if we can track it down.
Wow thanks Jesse! That map does really put my mind at ease. Here's my interpretation:
http://l4ec.org/CMA.gif
Or to put it verbally:
CMA Map Code
248 = Burlington, VT MSA
679 = VT 1- Franklin (all NE VT)
680 = VT 2- Addison (all SW VT)
560 = NY 2- Franklin (most NE NY)
If my interpretation is right then VT is all set!
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