Dear Clients:

I was on top of this story in December when it happened and now it’s a done deal.
http://www.frontierct.com/

Frontier has taken over ATT’s lines in Connecticut. This includes internet, TV, and phone service. The takeover is applicable to business and residential accounts.

Very few of my Connecticut clients use ATT for Internet, the only service I care about. Both Comcast and the new Frontier employ a lot of people in Connecticut. Comcast seems to make more headlines because they are such a huge company; Comcast owns NBCU (NBC Universal, MSNBC, etc). I still believe that Comcast is better on technical merits. Comcast allows its customers to buy their own cable modem and set up a separate router. I like keeping the modem and router separate. With ATT Uverse internet, it is possible to use a separate modem and router but not convenient.

FYI — DSL was the older Internet service from the phone company. Uverse is their new, faster fiber optic internet service. They will still offer both. ATT’s plan was to convert as many people to the new service as possible; Frontier may have the same aims. Please let me know if you get any confusing notices in the mail.

If you have Frontier for internet, call them. Talk to their technical support. Let me know how it goes. http://www.frontierct.com/

I have no strong guidance on the Frontier phone service or TV service. However, I still think there is a value in having a traditional landline phone. Frontier will keep offering this, while at the same time selling a fiber optic U-Verse phone line. The U-verse phone requires a battery backup. If you are over 60 years old or send a lot of outgoing faxes, keep a traditional landline.

Other than having a different name on your bill, Frontier is promising no changes. Let me know if anything different occurs in reality. Some of you had a combined home phone bill with ATT Wireless and ATT landline. That is a thing of the past. There are no more combined discounts. ATT Wireless will remain in Connecticut. Your bill should have been separated already.