General Discussions

For those looking to upgrade to fiber, I wanted to provide a couple of comments / guidance based on my experience.

Vacation Hold:

If you have your line on Vacation Hold, like we did, this must be removed prior to registering for fiber. Before the can schedule it and assign it to a tech, it has to be an active service.

Router:

You can use their wireless router (it's actually a really good router) that provides WIFI 7 support (not a lot of devices support WIFI 7 yet, but good future proofing) or supply your own.

If you already have one and your happy with it, go with that. Also, I did some testing this past weekend and you may be able to use the existing Frontier DSL modem. There is an ONT port (the red one) on the back and you should be able to plug an ethernet cable from the ONT that they will provide to the Frontier DSL modem. No promises and while I got mine partly working, there is still more work to do here.

Myself, we're using our existing router as it's part of our larger network supporting cameras, VPN servers, etc.

Phone Service:

If you have an existing phone and want to maintain it for gate access, this is where there are a few unknows. If you are planning on not signing up for fiber, I'm not sure if you can maintain your existing copper based phone line. I've heard mixed reports on if that will be supported. One thing for sure, that gear around Snowline, is in a bad state and not sure if they will maintain it, I suspect no.

If you plan on moving to fiber and want to maintain a phone, you have two options; go with their solution or supply your own.

If you plan on going with their solution, it does require using their router @ a cost of $15/month. The phone line is another $20/month on top of that. I have no idea of that $20 includes an IP phone or if they will supply a digital to analog box so you can use your existing phone. At a minimum though, the cost is the router and the phone so, $35 / month.

Another option is to "build your own" solution. This is not for the faint of heart and you need to have a router that supports this. Additionally, you need to subscribe to someone who provides the phone service, aka a SIP.

This will be the route we will be going, if we decide to keep a phone. Since we will be suplying our own router which is on Ubiquiti, I can run their phone service on my router (I also run our camera system). Ubiqiti offers their phone service @ $10/month per line. I can either get an analog to digital converter or simply add an IP phone (they also sell them @ $200). Both Ubiqiti and Ziply offer similar features per line. Given I already plan on sticking with my existing router and this service is available, that will be the way I go. If I didn't already have the router and knowledge of the system, I'd probably just keep it simple and go with their router and phone service.

Apologies for the long post but wanted to share some suggestions for the community.