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Get this instead. 2Mbit upstream. Though I can't tell you if it works completely as advertised, because the installer out on the pole won't be done with my house for another hour...

FIOS Prices

$200/month for the 30 down/15 up.

but only $40/month for 5 down/2 up. And gee...since Verizon turned on my neighborhood, my Cable Internet bill droped 35% ($55 to $40).

Competition is a good thing (tm)

I seem to recall something about some other baby bell, can't remember right now but its name started with V?

AOL, MSN and Yahoo (via relationship with SBC) are all dialup providers. It's not surprising their portals are visited more often by the, erm, underprivileged.

> considering that Verizon is offering fiber net-connections to the home in Southern NH, perhaps this could lead them to becoming a TV provider.

It sure could!

http://www22.verizon.com/FiOSForHome/channels/FiOS TV/FiosTVHome.aspx

Wow! ADSL2 at 24Mbps. It's not like any US provider offers ADSL2 at 24Mbps.

Well, actually:

http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/52221

And if you want fiber to your house:

http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/channels/Fios /HighSpeedInternetForHome.asp

Trust me, insane quantities of bandwidth are overrated. I regularly get 50Mbps to Akamai sites (local mirror on campus), 30Mbps to other universities (Internet2) and around 10-20Mbps to everywhere else. In reality, the connection doesn't "feel" any faster than the 4Mbps Comcast service I had before.

ha! screw you guys im getting FiOS! (30mbit/sec) http://www22.verizon.com/FiOSforhome/channels/FiOS /root/package.aspx

A Verizon subcontractor has been laying fiber in front of my house this week. When it goes live, an install crew will bring fiber up to the side of my house and install an Optical Network Terminal (ONT). From that, I'll get a Cat5/100Mbit cable to a router inside.

I have a choice of packages:
5 Mbps/2 Mbps for $40/month
15 Mbps/2 Mbps for $50/month
30 Mbps/5 Mbps for $200/month

http://www22.verizon.com/FiOSforhome/channels/FiOS /root/package.aspx

However, I'll probably go for a business package that includes static IPs and 15 Mbps/2 Mbps for $100/month.

http://business.verizon.net/pands/fios/features.as p

The ONT also provides standard POTS service, and eventually cable TV:

http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/Channels/fios /FiosTV_comingsoon.aspx

A Verizon subcontractor has been laying fiber in front of my house this week. When it goes live, an install crew will bring fiber up to the side of my house and install an Optical Network Terminal (ONT). From that, I'll get a Cat5/100Mbit cable to a router inside.

I have a choice of packages:
5 Mbps/2 Mbps for $40/month
15 Mbps/2 Mbps for $50/month
30 Mbps/5 Mbps for $200/month

http://www22.verizon.com/FiOSforhome/channels/FiOS /root/package.aspx

However, I'll probably go for a business package that includes static IPs and 15 Mbps/2 Mbps for $100/month.

http://business.verizon.net/pands/fios/features.as p

The ONT also provides standard POTS service, and eventually cable TV:

http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/Channels/fios /FiosTV_comingsoon.aspx

like this? i'm getting mine installed today with 5 static ips. can't wait to get home...

"My current ISP verizon costs me $40 a month with a 45kps upload. In one year if used for nothing else I can send 1419gb of data. For a grand total of $480 dollars and one year of transfer time. You could add another $100 for electricity as well."

You're buying the wrong service from verizon.
Verizon FiOS
For that same $40/mo, up it to 2mbit/s
Google calculator says 2 megabits per second * 1 year = 7.52375745 terabytes

Granted, you can match that with a sizable quantity of 500gig harddrives in the mail, but thats point to point. You can't split that bandwidth between multiple sources with different stuff.

Since the people who actually run corporations have no personal responsiblity for their actions, they have no sense of same. Elected officials at least can go to jail, lose their jobs, be exposed as lying jackasses.

I'm happy that I have fairly high-speed internet access from Comcast now, and happier that WiMax is on the way in my area courtesy of Speakeasy, happier still that Verizon FIOS was becoming available where I used to live before moving, and still happier that all of that is happening without huge chunks of my paycheck going to pay for the government to build the infrastructure so someone else can download porn as fast as they want at my expense.

Free-market capitalism will rarely, if ever, get you the best thing possible instantaneously. It is a gradual process that evolves as demand increases for certain things and people find ways to provide it at reasonable costs - where "reasonable" is determined by how much people are willing to pay. You won't get lightning-fast nationwide internet access overnight. And that's not a bad thing. You'll end up getting an infrastructure that's not overly expensive because companies aren't going to build it unless it's worth it to them - ie. unless it's worth it to *us*. They aren't going to spend $100 million if it's only going to bring in $10 million. Nor should they. Nor should the government. It's fiscally irresponsible and it's not someplace I want my tax dollars going. The fact that the public is NOT paying for something that it does not NEED is what I'd consider the "public good."

I was wondering if the ground line was a major reason for this. He does not live in Tokyo, but he does live in a nearby suburb of it.

Currently the large majority of the US phone network is copper. Due to the "time sharing" that was invented about 100 years ago the max speed possible is 56k over a normal phone line. Even that requires some interesting math discoveries.

DSL bypases the time sharing and gives a straight hard line directly to the central office. The reason for the distance limits on DSL is due to distortion over long copper lines. The longer the line, the more distorted the original signal gets. This is why they farther you are from the central office, the slower the speeds you get. How Stuff Works has some info on this.

In order to get faster, the phone companies are installing fibre. I remember reading somewhere that that is what Japan has essentially done. It is still called DSL since it is from the phone company and is stil a digital line. Verizon, my local phone company, is currently working on installing fibre to the home. Already, we qualify for DSL, where a few years ago we did not. (Currently we have cable by Cox.) Hmm... Their 3mb DSL service is a bit cheaper than the 5mb Cox service. They have a DSL 768k/128k for $15/month. That is much better than our old 56k dial up that cost $20/month. So it is improving. We don't yet qualify for their fibre service, it hasn't been put out to this area yet. However, the fibre service they are offering 15mbps for $45. They are also offering HDTV over those connections. By the way, I live in a relatively unpopulated area. Fairfax County, VA. 1 Million people, 395 square miles. We have under 1000 people per kilometer^2 compared to Tokyos 13400.

As I understand it, the largest delay was due to the telcos wanting to make sure they didn't have to open up their brand new fibre networks to rivals. Probably since they wouldn't be able to pay off the investment of fibre at whole sale prices.

http://digital-lifestyles.info/display_page.asp?se ction=distribution&id=2615
http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/channels/Fios /HighSpeedInternetForHome.asp

You don't see what happening in the US any time soon? 25Mbps? 30Mbps is happening in the US today. It's a bit pricey, but 15Mbps is less than $50/month, and you get a faster upstream bandwidth than the Be service (2Mbps vs. 1.3Mbps).

I would certainly hope that US providers would be willing to give me 24 Mb for only $42!

How 'bout 15 Mbps for $49.95/month? OK, maybe it's not available where you are, but how widespread is the Be service?

http://www22.verizon.com/FiOSforhome/channels/FiOS /root/package.aspx/

It is also interesting to see the most popular web sites. Start by typing www. into google suggest. The top 10 are:

1. www.yahoo.com - Search/Directory
2. www.hotmail.com - Email
3. www.google.com - Search
4. www.ebay.com - Shopping
5. www.msn.com - Portal
6. www.aol.com - Portal
7. www.ebay.co.uk - Shopping
8. www.irs.gov - Government
9. www.mapquest.com - Maps
10. www.amazon.com - Shopping

Typing one more letter shows you the top sites for that letter. Here is the top for each letter:

• a is for www.aol.com - Portal
• b is for www.bbc.co.uk - News
• c is for www.cnn.com - News
• d is for www.dictionary.com - Reference
• e is for www.ebay.com - Shopping
• f is for www.food.gov.uk - Government
• g is for www.google.com - Search
• h is for www.hotmail.com - Email
• i is for www.irs.gov - Government
• j is for www.juno.com - Internet service provider
• k is for www.kbb.com - Consumer information
• l is for www.lyrics.com - Music
• m is for www.msn.com - Portal
• n is for www.nick.com - Kids
• o is for www.orbitz.com - Travel
• p is for www.pogo.com - Games
• q is for www.qvc.com - Shopping
• r is for www.rotten.com - Information
• s is for www.sears.com - Shopping (sorry slashdot)
• t is for www.target.com - Shopping
• u is for www.usps.com - Government
• v is for www.verizon.com - Telephone service
• w is for www.weather.com - Weather
• x is for www.xanga.com - Blogs
• y is for www.yahoo.com - Portal
• z is for www.zappos.com - Shopping

This is some random commentary to make sure that my post has enough characters per line on average to get by the lameness filter. Just a few more words should do it. Then I will be over the limit. Maybe you would like to hear a bit about my projects: Attesoro - A internationalization editor for Java programs. Coinmill - A currency conversion website with many currencies, and features such as abilty to parse English sentences asking for currency conversion. Java Utilities - Utilities for common task in the Java programming language such as parsing CSV files and string manipulation.

that'll never happen
http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/channels/Fios /HighSpeedInternetForHome.asp

In eastern PA, where I live, Verizon is rolling out a fiber optic network. Up to 30MB downstream, 5MB upstream. http://www22.verizon.com/FiOSforhome/channels/FiOS /root/faq.asp

They also have been quietly offering $14.95 naked DSL as part of a deal with Yahoo. http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/352935 1

I tried to see if I could sign up for this services and drop my dial tone, but they are only offering it to new customers. I ended up ordering Comcast cable at a promotional rate of $19.95 with the idea of switching again to whatever is the best deal.

Bullshit.

http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/channels/Fios /HighSpeedInternetForHome.asp

If that was the reason, you'd have the same excellent communication infrastructure at least in your major cities and associated suburbs and satellite communities.

We do.

"Right now, it doesn't matter where you live in the US. You can't get it. So until you can get these speeds in the highly populated areas you can't use the last mile arguement."

Bullshit.

http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/channels/Fios /HighSpeedInternetForHome.asp

Verizon FIOS

You can get 30 Mbps service for 199 a month, if it's in your area. It's not very wide-spread yet, but it's there. I think a guy I work with has it. I will ask him about it when I see him next.

if the price they sell broadband at is $29.95/month, but they will only sell line access to the competing ISP at $39.95/month, the ISP cannot compete.

Don't they already do this? (Verizon DSL prices vs Easystreet DSL prices) Easystreet's Verizon line charge is more expensive than buying DSL straight from Verizon, with one year contract. Are these numbers accurate, or am I missing something here?

Those would help for people who don't know about these television commercials. My favorite is the monkey one with the bananas. That one is too funny.

I couldn't find any online commercials, even on Verizon's Web site.

I find it incredible that no one has mentioned in this discussion the fact that that availability metric does not apply to your land line.

That's the fabled gold standard of reliability they need from their equipment to be able to promise you a completely different availability metric for their network. Network, as in, after your call makes it to the phone switch at the CO, that's the chance of the call making it to the other parties' phone switch at their CO.

For example, Verizon only claims 99.99% network availability.

In fact, the article we're discussing only pegged a land line's availability at 99.9%.

Verizon is already doing this (part, at least), FIOS TV (check the FIOS TV clip in the corner - It also tells you how to pronounce Fios) is in the planning/prep stages (supposed to be rolled out later this year). It is meant to replace cable entirely, but with more interactivity...

http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/channels/Fios /HighSpeedInternetForHome.asp Put your number in there, they'll let you know if it's in your area :)

What you're referring to already exists (at least the fiber optic part).

The problem is landlines. You can't connect to them using this software unless you pay extra ? I understand alot of people will save on long distance using pc to pc Voip but connecting to landlines offers no big cost savings.

Verizon long distance per minute USA to Slovakia: $3.69

SkypeOut rate per minute USA to Slovakia: euro 0.055

I'd say there's a bit of savings there.

To me, they are the best option if you have them as an option. I constantly get over 7Mbps down and atleast 800Kbps up on my 10/1Mbps line.

So, if they can come up with this (where I live) in time for the Verizon FIOS official launch with the TV service, I might stay with them. Otherwise I'd go with Verizon's 15/2Mbps for about the same price as Cablevision's current package.

Oh, and the first poster mentioned something about an upload cap. Well, I limit mine to around a 100Kbps when downloading distros on Bittorrent and they don't seem to mind and at. Actually, I have a talk with someone at corporate about this and they guy assured me they don't cap, unless of course you are dumb ebough to open unlimited access to your bandwidth. I even run Remote Administrator at very high refresh rates (300+) and it's all good with them. Also, you can't run any kind of web or game server on their lines. (All default ports are blocked, and they are good at monitoring others traffic.)

Monopolies suck for the non-monopoly owner, no doubt about it. You should check out Verizon DSL. If you live close to a civilized part of Philadelphia, you may be able to get it at your house. Their basic DSL in Philly now offers the equivalent speed of the entry level internet cable at about 2/3s the price with no contract required. Plus, they have a sale untl the end of June, 2005 on the first three month's subscription and no signup charges (and no, I don't work at Verizon). If we all keep switching providers when they have a price cut, we can keep the pressure on :)

Verizon's Fios puts their DSL to shame where available - naked or not. $50 a month for 15Mbps down and 2 up. Hot hot hot.

Kind of interesting to read the CEO's comments considering Verizon has already blanketed New York City in phonebooth hotspots. They work pretty well, and are free (for now) if you use Verizon DSL. Wouldn't be a stretch to see Verizon rolling similar networks out in other metro areas (and charging), in which case the muni's would kill them.

I don't know if the all the telco's already have plans for their own DVR's (probably) when they rollout TV service on their new fiber networks. It looks like Verizon is using MS, but perhaps this is an opportunity for Tivo to secure some new subscribers/revenue. Of course, they should still be pursuing some of the other options discussed here too. As a current Tivo user, I'd hate to see them go under!

Verizon's FiOS service is coming to some Florida locations. In my neighborhood, the fiber is in the in street and the technicians are currently finishing the connections.

It will be 15 Mbps down / 2 Mbps Up starting at 49.99/mo.

The price does jump for faster service -- 30 Mbps / 5 Mbps will be $199/mo.
More information here:

http://www22.verizon.com/fiosforhome/channels/fios /root/package.asp

Windows server: Sure, some folks buy it, but plenty don't. So far, Microsoft only has about one third of this space, and Linux is nipping at its heels. They knifed Windows for Itanium, to the disappointment of both Itanium users.

Server appications: IIS has lost market share to Apache in recent years, and Exchange isn't ubiquitous yet either. SQL server enjoys showing the web its limits.

Windows CE/Mobile/Tablet/whatever: Still no monopoly, and since sales of PDAs are shrinking and tablet PC's haven't really caught on, even if MS did take over this market...

Game Consoles: XBox did just have its first profitable quarter. Ever. But it doesn't seem to sell so well overseas, and Nintendo and Sony haven't been persuaded to go away yet.

Media: Media Center PC's aren't selling so well, and in a world with iTuneszilla stomping around, Windows Media suddenly seems less likely to rule the universe than it did a few years ago, even with "PlaysForSure."

Internet Services: Even with its added features, MSN Messenger doesn't seem to be destroying AIM or Yahoo Messenger. MSN doesn't seem to be destroying anybody in general, even if Verizon throws it in free with DSL, and even if MSN is the homepage for Internet Explorer. Now Microsoft wants to go after Google, too.

It's pretty interesting to consider that Windows Client and Office are so frickin' profitable that Microsoft can afford to throw gobs of money at their unprofitable products and divisions (which are pretty much everything but Windows Client and Office) and still have huge heaps of cash left over.

(Oh, and I left off Apple, because if 95% of the world abruptly switched to Apple, Microsoft is second only to Apple itself in Mac software development, and would still be one of the most profitable companies out there, on sales of Office for Mac, VirtualPC, etc. Also, because as long as Apple is out there, and isn't owned by Microsoft, Microsoft can point at it and say "look, there are other choices, we're not that much of a monopoly!" :)

Or maybe you could get realPlayer and a proper broadband connection.

Player? Check. DSL? Check. I shouldn't need more than 768Kbit/s bandwidth to access a "225Kbit/s" video sans random buffering periods.

I also don't like moving the seek control while playing, only to notice, at times, the video not buffering again at all; the video just freezes, with no traffic to/from the line. I very rarely see this with WMP or <ugh>QuickTime</ugh> on my otherwise fully-functioning DSL, but then I've only seen progressively-loading, non-streaming trailers and such with QT.

Now I just have to wait until it hits our area...

Click here to see if its in your area!

Here is a good forum for discussing it:

DSL Reports Verizon FIOS Forum

Here are some samples of the FIOS speeds! They are crazy!!

It's odd. I haven't heard of a cap in Verizon DSL. Or any home broadband in NY for that matter. Which is good.

Primustel in Canada has had a neat VOIP unit you plug a plain ol phone into. You can transfer your existing landline number to it...

Being able to keep your existing number is key. Verizon sent me a flyer advertising their VoIP offering, called Voicewing. I'm already a Verizon DSL subscriber, so I have broadband. I'd like to dump my local phone connection, for which I pay close to $50 a month and don't use a whole lot. So what are my options with VoiceWing, I wonder. I check out the web site.

Turns out that since I have DSL, I must retain my existing POTS line as well. So I can get VoiceWing for $30/month, but I have to keep both POTS and DSL. And the new service will have its own different phone number! Great...I get to pay more and tell everyone that I have a new phone number.

The main problem with slow broadband--stateside and elsewhere--is the transmission medium. Rollout of broadband to new areas often entails laying down hundreds of km of fibre, as many areas have nothing but Cu wire prior to this. Add to this that the two most prevalent broadband solutions still use Cu for the "Last Mile", and you have huge bottlenecking problems. To their credit, Verizon is trying to fix the problem, but any infrastructure change on this scale is going to take aeons.

Contrast this with S. Korea--the poster child for a wired society. Look back a measly few decades, and lo and behold, no telecom/cable infrastructure to speak of! By the time they started really getting serious about geting wired, fibre had become the Medium of Choice, so that's what they used.

Consequently, they get blisteringly fast internet connections, and are often puzzled or pitying when their US friends complain about slow downloads or quadruple-digit ping values. The US can have this kind of speed, and it will, but the time required to replace an existing network (or notwork, as may be the case ^_^) is several orders of magnitude greater than the requirement for installing an infrastructure into a virgin environment.

Here is the link to their DIRECTV® package:

Verizon Freedom with DIRECTV

Once they finish laying the optic fiber in their major markets, they would start offering TV over those lines.

Verizon is working frantically to lay the optic fiber door-to-door. They already offer superfast internet speeds 15Mbps/2Mbps for $49.95 in some markets. The service is called FIOS (http://www.verizon.net/fios) and I strongly believe that Verizon is working hard to get into Cable TV business. They already offer DIRECTV® deals with their unlimited Freedom long distance package.

Verizon Airfone is not satellite based for calls within North America. Verizon has been assigned special frequencies for use in ATG (air to ground) communication. "When a call is placed, information is sent from the phone handset to a receiver in the plane's belly and then down to one of the 135 ground radio base stations located strategically throughout North America." In other words, they already have "special equipment to receive the signal inside of the airplane and then connect to the phone network directly." http://www22.verizon.com/airfone/af_faqs.html

Can you hear me now?

I mean, can you hear the sound of one million slashdotters clicking here?

Letter

VoIP can be used without a computer. Companies sell a module that you connect to your broadband line in order to make calls out using a normal phone 'handset'. The idea behind this is that there is no noticable difference to VoIP as compared to your POTS line; same functionality, same options as everone else. Verizon VoiceWing

Meh, I'll just get verizon's fiber to the home service. Then setup a Less Networks node, roll my own NoCat Auth AP or join one of the great Area Wide Wireless networks.

Verizon is just a 500lb gorilla that can't see more than 2inches infront of its face!

http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=17
http://www22.verizon.com/fiosforhome/channels/fios /root/package.asp
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%28651+MB +%2B+664+MB%29+%2F+%2830+Mbps%29

Sorry.

My understanding, based solely on reading the forums at dslreports.com is that Verizon wants monopoly rights to the fibre they are laying. As in no second source ISP like Covad or Earthlink would be able to lease bandwidth or connectivity on the fibre lines at (low) state-set rates, like they are able to today on the copper lines.

Ummm... the rules about whether or not a local exchange carrier has to "unbundle" network elements -- i.e. resell them to competitors -- are set by the Federal Communications Commission, not by state public utility commissions or state legislatures.

The FCC ruled on Oct. 22 that fiber to the home (FTTH) and fiber to the curb (FTTC) were exempt from the unbundling requirements.

Verizon had previously announced plans to have FTTH available to 1 million subscribers by 12/31/2004, and to an additional 2 million by 12/31/2005. The day before the FCC's action, they announced availability of FTTH in parts of 6 northeast and mid-Atlantic states -- see the end of the announcement for the list of counties where it will be available.