[Grovenet] Switch to Digital TV

Thu May 14 19:06:58 PDT 2009

This reminds me.  I see this digital thing is coming soon.  I have a little TV at the coffee trailer that I watch every morning so I can get the news while I start the coffee brewing, mixing up the biscuits and making the gravy.  I really enjoy it because it is generally the only quite time I have to myself to have my coffee with before I turn on the OPEN sign.
Now this is a little under the counter TV w/DVD player in it and I know that it is all digital and I have no problem with it now but the antenna is (without a doubt) 15 years old.  So does this mean that I am not going to have reception soon?  Yes, as soon as we get the Piano Bar Opened we are going to have all cable but that has been delayed by about 2 to 3 weeks now so does the switch mean I need a new antenna and a converter box or does my TV simply do it all?

> Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 13:53:52 -0700
> From: osubuckeye59 at yahoo.com
> To: grovenet at rdrop.com
> Subject: Re: [Grovenet] Here we go again ! ! ! !
> 
> Being somewhat familiar with fiber-optic service (FIOS) vs. cable modem vs. digital subscriber line (DSL), I'm going to wait awhile before I switch from Clear service to FIOS in the home.  Why?  Thought you'd never ask.  :-)
> 
> Fiber optic is the future.  No doubt about it.  I can easily foresee in my lifetime (I hit 50 this year!) where fiber optic  transmission will exceed plain old copper wire transmission.  There are multiple reasons on the advantage of transmitting via fiber vs. copper: bandwidth, distance (copper requires frequent refreshing of the signal), lower maintenance costs, and the biggest one: SPEED.  With fiber, you're transmitting light pulses vs. electrical impulses over copper, and we're talking gigabits of information transmission vs. megabits.
> 
> With all the advantages of fiber vs. copper, increased speed being a key selling point for consumers, why aren't all companies going all-out with fiber optic service?  The answer?  Cost.  Fiber optic transmission equipment and fiber optic cables are by themselves very expensive.  Even if the fiber optic cable network was well-established, the transmission (company office) and reception (customer home and/or office) costs are pretty high.  And remember, every time a company would want to deliver another 10 gigabit faster speed capability, it would require new equipment at both the transmission and reception ends.
> 
> For me, today, I'm okay with my current upload and download speeds.  I just don't need FIOS right now, especially since I just switched to Clear two months ago and am very, very pleased with the capability of continuous internet service just about anywhere in FG, not to mention service to/from Portland on the MAX (except in the tunnel).
> 
> Allen Warren
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: Bob Browning <rab at jurislex.com>
> To: Grovenet <grovenet at rdrop.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 9:20:57 AM
> Subject: [Grovenet] Here we go again ! ! ! !
> 
> I wish I knew if this was good or bad, but I was just about to make the jump to Verizon Fios, but now I am not sure ! ! ! 
> 
> bob
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 
>  
> Frontier to buy rural Verizon lines for $5.3B
> Verizon to sell rural phone lines in 14 states to Frontier for $5.3 billion 
> 	* Peter Svensson, AP Technology Writer
> 	* On Wednesday May 13, 2009, 11:08 am EDT
> NEW YORK (AP) -- Verizon Communications Inc. said Wednesday it reached a deal to sell scattered phone service areas outside its main Northeastern and Californian territories for $5.3 billion in stock.
> The buyer is Frontier Communications Corp., based in Stamford, Conn. The company focuses on serving small towns and rural areas and will triple in size with the deal.
> The deal continues Verizon's strategy of focusing on its core areas, where it is upgrading its phone lines to fiber optics, enabling it offer TV service and faster Internet access. It sold off its phone lines in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont for $2.3 billion last year to Fairpoint Communications Inc.
> The agreement would give Frontier 4.8 million phone lines to residential and small business customers and 1 million broadband connections. Frontier currently has 2.3 million customers.
> The sale includes all of Verizon's phone lines in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin as well as some assets in border areas of California.
> Verizon shareholders will receive one share of Frontier stock for approximately every 4.2 shares of Verizon stock, depending on the price of Frontier shares at closing, which is expected within a year.
> Frontier shares were up 39 cents, or 5.2 percent, at $7.96 in premarket trading Wednesday. Verizon shares gained 9 cents to $30.49.
> Verizon is also extracting $3.3 billion from the units before selling them off, by having them pay cash to the parent company and letting them assume debt.
> Frontier will issue so much stock to Verizon shareholders that they will end up owning 68 percent of the company.
> "This is a truly transformational transaction for Frontier," Maggie Wilderotter, Frontier's chief executive, said in a statement. "With more than 7 million access lines in 27 states, we will be the largest provider of voice, broadband and video services focused on rural to smaller city markets in the United States."
> Frontier also said it is cutting its annual dividend to 75 cents from $1, freeing cash to invest in the acquired areas, including for broadband buildouts. The cut takes its dividend yield to 9.9 percent.
> Analyst Christopher King at Stifel Nicolaus noted that buyers of Verizon phone lines have fared badly in the past -- Fairpoint is struggling with its debt load, and the buyer of Verizon's Hawaiian business is in bankruptcy. But Frontier will actually reduce its debt load relative to its earnings through the transaction, King said.
> The roughly 11,000 workers that support the local landlines will move to Frontier with union contracts intact, Verizon said.
> Verizon lines in Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia and most of California are not affected by the deal.
> Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
> Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. ------------------------------------------------------ 
> 
> 
> 
>       
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