FiOS from Frontier
Frontier FiOS, also known as FiOS from Frontier or simply FiOS, is a bundled Internet access, telephone, and television service that operates over a fiber-optic communications network in 7 states, including California, Texas, Florida, Indiana, South Carolina, Oregon, and Washington. Service is offered in some areas of the United States by Frontier Communications in areas built out and formerly served by Verizon, using the same infrastructure as its Fios service and continuing to license the FiOS name from Verizon. Other service providers often use fiber optics in the network backbone and existing copper or coax infrastructure for residential users. Frontier's service began in 2009 with the acquisition of portions of Verizon's network, and networked areas expanded through 2015 through similar acquisitions, although some areas do not have service or cannot receive TV and phone service because of franchise agreements.
History
In May 2009, Frontier announced that it would acquire Verizon Communications' 4.8 million landlines leased to residential and small business customers in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, for $8.6 billion. In addition to the purchase of copper lines, Frontier also acquired the fiber-optic system built by Verizon in Fort Wayne, around Portland, and in some eastern suburbs of Seattle. These operations would continue to operate under the FiOS branding used by Verizon.Frontier initially stated that it had no plans for changes after the transition. However, the company later attempted to institute a $500 installation fee for new television subscribers, backed out of franchise agreements in some cities in Oregon, and increased rates by 50% in Indiana. Frontier later retracted the rate increases and installation fee but has not reclaimed franchises in the cities that it relinquished and not before losing FiOS TV subscribers.
On February 5, 2015, Frontier announced that it would also acquire Verizon's wireline assets in California, Florida and Texas for $10.5 billion. The transition took effect April 1, 2016; technical issues with the integration resulted in a disruption of service for many FiOS users in the markets, which continued for some in the weeks that followed. In May 2016, California assemblyman Mike Gatto announced a hearing over the matter, stating that "there has been an alarming rate of telephone and Internet outages in Southern California and consumers are frustrated with the lack of a solution to this months-long ordeal".
During the hearing, Frontier West president Melinda White stated that most of the issues were caused by incomplete customer data provided by Verizon for importation into its systems. White stated that less than 1 percent of its customers were affected, and that it would provide service credits to affected subscribers while it finished addressing the issues. Republican assemblyman Jim Patterson accused the California Public Utilities Commission of not placing enough oversight on the transition, deeming it a "failure of the fundamental role and responsibility" of the commission.
Technical details
As described in 2007, like Verizon FiOS, Frontier FiOS services are delivered over a fiber-to-the-premises network using passive optical network technology. Voice, video, and data travel over three wavelengths in the infrared spectrum. To serve a home, a single-mode optical fiber extends from an optical line terminal at a Fios central office out to the neighborhoods where a passive optical splitter fans out the same signal on up to 32 fibers, thus serving up to 32 subscribers. At the subscriber's home, an optical network terminal transfers data onto the corresponding in-home copper wiring for phone, video and Internet access. Some Fios installations use an Ethernet cable for data and coaxial cable for video, while others use the Multimedia over Coax Alliance protocol for both data and video over a single coaxial cable. Voice service is also connected to the ONT and carried over telephone cables already in the house.One of the three wavelength bands is devoted to carrying television channels using standard QAM cable television technology. The other two wavelengths are devoted to all other data, one for outbound and the other for inbound data. This includes video on demand, telephone and Internet data.
This allocation of wavelengths adheres to the ITU-T G.983 standard, also known as an ATM passive optical network. Verizon initially installed slower BPONs but now only installs GPONs specified in the ITU-T G.984 standard. These bands and speeds are:
- 1310 nm wavelength for upstream data at 155 Mbit/s
- 1490 nm wavelength for downstream data at 622 Mbit/s
- 1550 nm wavelength for QAM cable television with 870 MHz of bandwidth
FiOS is also compatible with CableCARD technology allowing FiOS TV subscribers to receive encrypted and premium cable channels on CableCARD-capable devices.
Television
Video Service
Frontier FiOS's broadcast video service is not IPTV, unlike AT&T's U-verse product and CenturyLink's Prism product. However, video on demand content and interactive features, such as widgets and programming guide data, are delivered using IPTV-based technology. The majority of content is provided over a standard broadcast video signal that carries digital QAM content up to 870 MHz. The QAM system is identical to HFC cable TV, but is only one-way, and is not interactive, with no VOD or SDV content going over the QAM. The 870 MHz QAM system was primarily done to satisfy franchise agreements that required a basic channel packaged with unencrypted, no STB required/cable-ready TV, channels. This broadcast content originates from a Super Head-End, which sends the signal to a Video Hub Office for distribution to FiOS TV customers.From the Optical Network Terminal at the subscriber premises, the RF video is typically delivered with a coaxial connection to a FiOS set-top box that handles both RF and IPTV video. Interactive services such as VOD and widgets are delivered by IP and are only accessible through use of a FiOS set-top box and a Verizon/Frontier-supplied router. The router supports multimedia and provides the set-top boxes with programming guides and all SD channels, but high definition content requires HD equipment like a FiOS HD set-top box/DVR or a CableCARD-supporting device, such as TiVo. In 2008, Verizon ceased carrying analog television signals in parallel with digital channels, meaning televisions without a QAM tuner or a set-top digital adapter received no signal.
FiOS TV Plans include:
| Name | SD Channels | HD Channels |
| FiOS TV Local | 20+ | 5+ |
| Preferred HD | 245+ | 70+ |
| Extreme HD | 325+ | 95+ |
| Ultimate HD | 435+ | 140+ |
FiOS Spanish TV Plans include:
| Name | SD Channels | HD Channels |
| FiOS TV Mundo | 200+ | 35+ |
| FiOS TV Mundo Total | 205+ | 40+ |
Quantum TV
In early January 2013, Verizon introduced Quantum TV service, to help expand the functionality of the conventional set-top box offered by Verizon FiOS. Frontier began offering Quantum TV across its FiOS territory after its 2016 acquisition of Verizon systems where Quantum TV had already been introduced. One VMS can also record up to six TV shows at the same time, can be deployed in a paired configuration to record twelve TV shows at a time, and it allows the customer to pause and rewind live TV. It also has up to one terabyte of internal storage which equates to 100 hours of HD content.The older Quantum boxes have Motorola branding on them, but the newer Quantum boxes have Arris branding on them, as a result of Arris' acquisition of Motorola's Home business.
As of January 6, 2017, Frontier's Quantum TV does not yet support FiOS TV Quantum Mobility which would allow subscribers to watch their DVR recordings remotely. A service note in the 3.1.2 iOS app dated November 22, 2016 states "coming soon to qualified subscribers in CA, TX, and FL".
Internet access
FiOS offers several service tiers that are available individually, but are offered at discounts when combined in a bundle. The tiers are distinguished by data transmission speed measured in Mbit/s downstream and upstream.On June 18, 2012, Verizon announced FiOS Quantum. The new release doubled every Internet tier of Verizon FiOS subscriber packages. This release also introduced the 300 Mbit/s download speeds to the available service packages.
In July 2013 Verizon FiOS announced its highest speed tier at 500/100 Mbit/s for home and small businesses.
In July 2014 Verizon FiOS announced it would increase customer upload speeds to match download speeds for new and existing customers; however, existing customers need to sign up for a promotional program called "My Rewards+" if they wanted to receive it before January 2015. As of January 2015, all FiOS customers, regardless of their enrollment in My Rewards+, have received the speed match.
Frontier has discontinued the Verizon My Rewards+ program, but offers the following symmetrical speed tiers over FiOS:
| Download/Upload Speed |
| 50/50 |
| 75/75 |
| 100/100 |
| 150/150 |
| 300/300 |
| 500/500 |
Frontier FiOS Internet Availability By State
| State | Percentage of State's Population With Access to Frontier Fios Internet |
| Oregon | 17.9% |
| Florida | 13.8% |
| California | 12.7% |
| Washington | 10.6% |
| Texas | 5.8% |
| Indiana | 4.8% |
| South Carolina | 2.5% |
Telephone
Traditional telephone
Verizon offered plain old telephone service. There have been reports in various markets that Verizon physically disconnected the copper lines at the time that FiOS was installed, and that Verizon customer service talked customers into upgrading from copper with false promises of no changes in service rates.Verizon sold landline operations in the markets of northern New England to FairPoint Communications in March 2008. Fiber to the premises projects in those markets was renamed as FAST. In June 2010, Verizon sold landline operations scattered throughout 13 states to Frontier Communications. Some of these areas already had FiOS service availability, for which Frontier became responsible. In 2015, Verizon sold Texas, California, and Florida landline and FiOS operations to Frontier.