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Sorry for replying to my own post, found the official press release from Verizon.

http://newscenter.verizon.com/proactive/newsroom/r elease.vtml?id=87633

Can I use my DSL Modem, Router, or Cable Modem with my Verizon Fios Internet Service?

No, at this time you need to use a broadband router specifically provided by Verizon that has been approved to work specifically with Verizon Fios Internet Service. Your router also contains special diagnostic software that can help us troubleshoot and correct problems should you experience trouble with your Internet connection.

my phone number doesn't qualify yet

If people would RTFF from Verizon:
"Eligibility for Verizon Fios Internet Service is based on your service address, not your telephone service. Therefore, your eligibility for Verizon Fios Internet Service is determined based upon where you live not based on your telephone number."

I found it odd that Verizon's pre-qualify check requires a phone number, even though the FAQ states no less than six times that availability "is based on your service address not on your telephone number." There doesn't seem to be a pre-qualify where you can type in a street address.

Burns me a little, because I don't have a land-line (that's half the point of your own fiber link...who needs copper when you've got VoIP and 2MBit upstream?)

Since the /. of the first one, I've found a second one. GO YE and /. this link.

FAQ, question #3

"... Up to 15 Mbps/2 Mbps* ...Speed and uninterrupted use of the service are not guaranteed."

No SLA means the numbers are meaningless. They may as well put "Up to(!) 15,000 Gazilionbps/2,000 Gazilionbps*" and it's still be true even if your new fiber line performs worse than 56K modem.

Our experience with Verizon, our local telco in NY, has always been bad (DSL, phone lines, business T1s, everything). Verizon and incompetence go together, regretfully.

I have the evil Verizon as my Telco. I lived in area where Call Intercept was available. It worked pretty well at stopping Telemarketers for a while. They began to work around this issue by showing 800 numbers when they called. This allowed them to slip by the first line of defense. So I went ahead and got a caller ID modem and got CallerId from Ascendis Software. This allowed me to hang up on those 800 numbers. Life was good. Then, I had to move to new place only 10 minutes from where I was. I discovered Verizon had merged with GTE around 2000 or so and never upgraded the Central Office in the new area. So call intercept was not available in the new area. The day I moved in to the new place, I was slammed by people selling security systems, painting, re-modeling, etc. I promptly added my new numbers to the do not call list and configured CallerId to block this crap. It's a bloody war trying to stop these bastards.

I don't like the thought of goofballs mucking around with the service either but I can see legitimate uses for it.

Take a look at some of these nifty caller-id features such as "Prevent Your Number from Displaying on Caller ID" or "Caller ID with Anonymous Call Block"

Suppose your phone number is unlisted and typically shows up as "Anonymous" or "Unavailable" to caller ID. Now suppose the recipient of your call has Caller ID with Anonymous blocking. You can't get through or, with some services, you have to leave your name at the tone and hope they pick-up and decide to take your call.

It would serve as a way to make your own number show up when you want it to but otherwise remain anonymous and not defeat the purpose of having an unlisted telephone number.

• A ***Celeron*** 2.0
• 256 megs of ram (PC2100! Ack!)
• a LEXMARK printer (mucho ink cartrige price)
• 12 months of service at a ridiculous rate for dialup
• A mini tower (forget upgrades) and a mere 250W PSU

C. Gibson might not appreciate you posting his/her phone# to be Slashdotted...

Not always. Some 555 numbers direct you to things such as automated repair lines. For instance Verizon uses xxx-555-1611 for repairs to your home line.

I would suggest, though, that people who are moving scope out the ISP and broadband provider scene before they settle on a place. At least try to live somewhere where you can chose between cable (ugh!) and DSL (there are some good providers out there, even if the access lines from the "telco" (cough, customer non-service, cough) might be expensive.

This is espescially important if you are buying a home, and found the perfect one, but broadband availability sucks: "$20k off the offer for the house being in the unfashionable part of the internet".

Regarding the credit card issue, most of the airplane seat back phones allow you to dial the operator without using a credit card. This allows you to ask questions, supply a credit card number if your mag strip is bad, and do things like register your seat so people can call you in the air.

http://www22.verizon.com/airfone/af_faqs.html#af15

I'll quote the part you're interested in:

• In California, Verizon plans to pass about 100,000 homes and businesses with FTTP technology in the Huntington Beach area and in other parts of Southern California.
• In Florida, Verizon plans to pass about 100,000 homes and businesses with FTTP technology in the Tampa area and parts of Hillsborough County.
• In Texas, Verizon plans to pass 100,000 homes in part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, including Keller, which was announced by the company in May.

Verizon intends to pass 1 million homes and businesses in parts of nine states with fiber by the end of the year.

http://newscenter.verizon.com/proactive/newsroom/r elease.vtml?id=86053&PROACTIVE_ID=cecdcacdc7cdcbc6 cdc5cecfcfcfc5cececacccccac9c8cfc8c5cf

5 Mbps down /2 Mbps up for $34.95 a month as part of a calling package or $39.95 a month stand-alone.

15 Mbps down/2 Mbps up for $44.95 a month as part of a calling package or $49.95 a month stand-alone.

30 Mbps down/5 Mbps up , pricing will be announced at a later date.

Next stops on the rollout after Keller, TX (which is already rolled out) are Huntington beach, CA and Tampa, FL.

You've got it reversed. Pacific Telesis wasn't split up to create AT&T et. al.

Here's a summary:

AT&T was split up in 1984. This created the "new" AT&T, which was a long distance company, and seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) which became the new local phone companies:

Ameritech
Bell Atlantic
Bell South
Southwestern Bell
NYNEX
Pacific Telesis
US West

And then there was GTE, which was independent from the Bell System all along. It was the largest independent phone company, but it was still regulated differently - for example they were able to provide both local and long distance even before deregulation.

Then came the 1996 Telecommunications Act which deregulated a bunch of things including the phone business. RBOCs were allowed to merge with each other in exchange for providing "unbundled" services to CLECs. They came to be called ILECs. See the Wikipedia article on the term ILEC for more details.

Pacific Telesis was by then known as Pacific Bell (aka "Pac Bell"). It soon merged with Southwestern Bell which had taken to calling itself SBC. The companies continued to operate under their old names for awhile but more recently it's all SBC regardless of where you go. In time SBC also absorbed Ameritech.

Bell Atlantic and NYNEX merged to become the "new" Bell Atlantic. This company then turned around and merged with GTE under the new name Verizon.

And finally the national dark fiber network company Qwest merged with (bought out) US West, and kept the Qwest name.

So now we have:

SBC (former Pacific Telesis/Bell, Southwestern Bell, and Ameritech)
Verizon (former Bell Atlantic, NYNEX and GTE)
Qwest (former US West)
Bell South

Verizon's investor relations site has a Corporate History section that might also help explain some things.

Dude, Verizon is not VeriSign.
Cripes, why is it any time one company comes up, someone thinks we're talking about the other? Read, people, READ!

From Verizon's news page, and I quote:

Verizon appealed the court's decision because it opens the door for anyone who makes a mere allegation of copyright infringement to gain complete access to private subscriber information without the due process protections afforded by the courts.

They don't condone piracy, but they want to cover their customers in case of abuse. It's a very reasonable position and it makes me glad I'm a Verizon customer(though actually they are the only broadband availiable in my area).

In the UK, recently we've had one of our communications services - the Royal Mail - go through a privatisation process. Its first step, of course, was to reduce service levels while spending more advertising "new" (existing renamed) services to give the impression that it is more innovative.

The motive has switched to profit.

More's the pity. I suppose Joe and Jenny Idiot have to have their gadgets, but such horrendously disposable items will lead to a lot of unpleasant waste.

I agree with you. I'm sure when they talk about "organics-based displays", they're not talking about the good kind of "organic". The term "organic chemistry" simply means that it's based on carbon instead of silicon. Unfortunately, the carbon compounds will be heavily doped with the same sort of toxic metals and other compounds that cause problems when disposing of traditional electronics.

But I do think the market will take off, given the right price point, for the same reason people talk on their disposable cell phones while driving their modified military vehicles. (And as soon as you can figure out what that reason is, please let me know!)

Incidentally, they have an obnoxious feature on their website where you can punch in someone's name/number and their cell phone number, and their home address. Click more info and you can see a map of where their home is. I know we've been over this before on slash though so I won't go on a big paranoid rant. I'm sure there's a way to remove your name from the database (yeah right).

It is not clear, if this will be a service offered directly to consumers, or wholesale deal with phone card companies- which Verizon has offered for years.

Unfortuatly in the past couple years almost all telemarketers showup as 'unknown' anyway, so I have no way to prove I already talked to someone selling the exact same thing.

OK, so why make a law to dodge telemarketing calls? You could just not answer calls that have blocked numbers. You could get a TeleZapper. Verizon has Call Intercept. How hard is it to be proactive?

Um. Well, you'll be glad to hear that the First Amendment has nothing what so ever to do with anything in this thread.

I'll bold the relevant portions:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

So actually, it has everything to do with it.

I dont care if they pitch their sales to people that care to hear it.
All I know is I dont want to hear it, have told them so, and am still _forced_ to listen to it aginst my will.

Really. Someone held you down and forced you to listen.

No.

No one forced you to lease a telephone line. No one forced you to answer that phone. And certainly, no one forced you to give your phone number out to some companies who decided to call you back.

The First Amendment does not grant you the right to force me into anything aginst my will.

First Amendment also does not grant you the right to pass laws abridging freedom of speech -- doesn't matter if you like the speech or not. Why do you think ignorant people still get to say "nigger" all the time?

And as to your "UNLIST YOUR NUMBER!!!" comment, thank you for suggesting what I did as I ordered the phone line 9 years ago. Got any suggestions that may have something to do with solving the problem of harassing calls?
As it would seem, adding or removing my number from the public phone books should have no physical means or otherwise to magically make that number removed from the telemarketers lists.

TeleZapper. Check your Caller ID box (that's what it's there for.) Change your phone number.

Proactivity is the key.

I love having a three-year-old.

"Hi, can I speak to the person in charge of making decisions about your long distance service?"

"Sure - Jared?"

"Hi. Hi. Daddy? No video now? Jumping! Jumping! No jumping. [beep] [boop] [beep] Bye bye."

Recently we got Verizon's Call Intercept service, and we only get calls from the local firemen and sherrif's departments trying to get us to donate to their charities. Probably the best $5/month I spend - but Jared misses getting to play with the phone.

Just to let you know. They still get your number. *67 does not work on 911, toll-free and 900 services.

"Please be aware that the FCC has ruled that certain types of calls, including 911, 900, 976, and toll free numbers (800, 888, 877, etc.), are exempt from Caller ID blocking. Non-Published and Non-Listed numbers will be forwarded on calls to these service providers, even if per call or per line blocking is activated."

Verizon as one source for this information.

You answer and there's nobody in the call centre available so you get a silent call. I've had 5 of these in one day. As the caller id is blocked I can't even discover which set of brain dead idiots it is calling.

I used to get tons of those too. I'm in New Jersey and my local phone provider is Verizon, and I signed up for their Call Intercept service as soon as it was announced (for an extra monthly fee; it's included in some plans). Any incoming call with anonymous or "Unavailable" caller ID gets answered by a Verizon computer, which (1) plays a recording that says the caller must press 1 to continue; then (2) requires the caller to record their name; and then, if the caller successfully does all that, (3) rings my phone with a distinctive ring (three short rings, in my case). If I pick up the phone, the computer says there's a Call Intercept call and please press 1 to hear who it's from. If I do that, it plays the caller's recording. If I want to speak with the caller, I press 1 again and it connects me. If I don't, I just hang up.

As soon as I activated Call Intercept, the house went eerily silent. No more telemarketing calls. Period.

No, wait...I actually had one person (a real estate agent) go through the rigamarole. One telemarketing call in about two years.

You answer and there's nobody in the call centre available so you get a silent call. I've had 5 of these in one day. As the caller id is blocked I can't even discover which set of brain dead idiots it is calling.

I used to get tons of those too. I'm in New Jersey and my local phone provider is Verizon, and I signed up for their Call Intercept service as soon as it was announced (for an extra monthly fee; it's included in some plans). Any incoming call with anonymous or "Unavailable" caller ID gets answered by a Verizon computer, which (1) plays a recording that says the caller must press 1 to continue; then (2) requires the caller to record their name; and then, if the caller successfully does all that, (3) rings my phone with a distinctive ring (three short rings, in my case). If I pick up the phone, the computer says there's a Call Intercept call and please press 1 to hear who it's from. If I do that, it plays the caller's recording. If I want to speak with the caller, I press 1 again and it connects me. If I don't, I just hang up.

As soon as I activated Call Intercept, the house went eerily silent. No more telemarketing calls. Period.

No, wait...I actually had one person (a real estate agent) go through the rigamarole. One telemarketing call in about two years.

'Nuff said.

How does equivalent phone service equate to larger homes?

How about looking at how the more expensive living costs relate to the larger opportunities to make money? More expensive phone services don't correlate to high paying areas.

Fsck the third world countries. They would dig themselves out if they really wanted to. Fsck the rural communities. If they wanted modern conveniences like telephone and internet they would move to the cities like us civilized people.

BTW, you don't have to pay the "tax". It's a fee levied on the providers of lines. Tell your provider you don't want to pay it. Problem solved.

I am a teacher in a public Middle school in Carrollton, TX. I started a robotics club this year in order teach students robotics design, programming, teamwork and other skills. We use Lego Mindstorms and Handyboards in our club and program them in C, specifically Interactive C and Not Quite C (NQC). We also have one system running Linux as both IC and NQC are available for Linux.

My administration is very supportive of the club, providing money and other suppport through the year. The main difficulties in the club was raising money for the equipment and to pay the fee for the Botball competition we entered.

I applied for a grant with our local Educational Foundation and received $1,000 to fund the initital purchase of equipment. Your school district probably has an educational foundation that provides grants to teachers and students. Find a willing faculty member to sponsor your club and help you find funding and support.

Before I received that grant I began teaching the students C using a free Windows compiler I found on the net. It was perfect as it allowed the students to write Windows console applications without worrying about the code over head of a real Windows application. You can find the Bloodshed complier here

After we got our initial equipment I searched the net for grants available to public school teachers to fund technology applications. I applied for an $8,500 grant from The Verizon Foundation. This money will be used to pay our Botball entry fees for next year, and buy more advanced equipment for the students returning next year. I have had so much interest in the robotics club that I will probably have three clubs next year.

• Cingular Wireless is a joint venture between the domestic wireless divisions of SBC (NYSE:SBC) and BellSouth (NYSE: BLS).
• SBC owns 60 percent of the company and BellSouth owns 40 percent, based on the value of the assets both contributed to the venture.

• Verizon Communications, (NYSE:VZ), formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE

I suppose it really does depend on the ISP, but I've been talking online with many people and they all state that their broadband ISP's allow multiple connection via NAT. This prompted me to see if mine did too, and sure enough, they do. In fact, they'll even sell you the kit to do it and provide support.

Two weeks ago, my Dad told me that he ordered Call Intercept for the phone line at his new house. He was all happy because he was convinced this would reduce all that unwanted, dirty e-mail he keeps getting. I clued him in.

Also, there are notes written all over case of my fathers computer monitor. I don't think he quite gets the whole "use the computer to take notes" concept.

Here's what Verizon had to say... From an email, and from their website

Please respond to Employee Communication/EMPL/NY/Bell-Atl@VZNotes

To: All Employees
cc:
Subject: Seidenberg, Barr Comment on FCC Ruling


CEO Ivan Seidenberg and Executive Vice President and General Counsel Bill Barr provided additional public comment Monday regarding last week's controversial FCC rulings on telecom competition.

Speaking at a Merrill Lynch analysts' conference, Seidenberg said Verizon will take legal action against the FCC ruling, declaring that the Commission's policies are legally flawed and fail as a means of creating sustainable competition in the industry.

Verizon had hoped for regulatory relief from having to provide deep discounts to competitors for network elements, also known as UNE-P. The FCC ruled instead that the decision would be left up to each individual state and the District of Columbia, through the jurisdiction's public service commission.

"You cannot take a national market like this and have 51 jurisdictions make a study and come up with any pattern that will drive consistency in the industry," Seidenberg said.

Seidenberg predicted that the FCC - as it has twice before - would lose again when the courts ultimately rule on the new policies.

"Our view is that (UNE Interconnection)...would eventually die anyway," Seidenberg said. "Because in the long term, technology would displace the bootstrapping of other people connecting to our network."

Seidenberg said that the FCC's ruling theoretically left some upside potential for Verizon in broadband markets, but added that the company needs to see the written order before assessing the practical impacts in this area. For example, the FCC's press release indicates that phone companies "may not retire any copper loops...without first receiving approval from the relevant state commission."

Barr further addressed the broadband issue in a statement to the media. He said that while the language in the ruling is unclear, if the intent is to give the states a veto over whether we can replace obsolete copper facilities as we install broadband facilities, then "the FCC will have done precious little to deregulate broadband."

Barr said that with such a veto, regulators could require that local phone companies deploying broadband facilities maintain two parallel networks, burdening new investment with massive additional costs. Likewise, regulators could impose onerous rules on new broadband facilities in return for their consent to retire the old.

"Either way, such an approach does not give phone companies any assurance that their opportunity to earn a return on massive and risky investments in broadband will not be thwarted by regulators," Barr said. "Unless this issue is clarified in the Commission's upcoming order, the FCC's effort to free broadband from regulation will be illusory."

Verizon offers call intercept for $5/month, which sounds like what you have. I wonder however if it's really worth $60/year.

I've had pretty good luck by politely requesting: "Add this number to your no-call list"; so far, every telemarketer has understood this request. Some of them have read me a warning that it will take X weeks to propagate.

My 2-3 telemarketing calls per day have decreased to perhaps one or two per month, mostly these recorded pitches for satellite dish sales and Disneyland vacations. I have taken to writing down the toll free numbers, calling them up and making the no-call request.

One problem I've heard mentioned about a national no-solicitation law is that non-profits will get lumped in. Also, during election season I got a million recorded and live calls; I don't like'em but I can understand why they do them. Perhaps there should be a check-box for what kind of organizations you want excluded.

Is located over here [verizon.com]. Verizon's "Do Not Call" Policy for Consumers If you don't want to receive sales calls from Verizon business units, you can ask us to place your name on a "Do Not Call" List. In compliance with federal and state laws, we'll document your request immediately. Please allow up to 60 days for your name and telephone number to be removed from any sales programs that are currently underway. Your request to be on a "Do Not Call" List will be honored by the Verizon company which receives your request. When we solicit new customers, we will also honor "Do Not Call" requests on behalf of consumers from the Direct Marketing Association and various state-agency lists. * Your request can be in writing or by phone, and must include your name, address, and telephone number. * If you have multiple telephone numbers, tell us all numbers that you want to be included. * You'll remain on our "Do Not Call" List for 10 years, unless you ask to be removed. * If your name, address or telephone number ever changes, you must give us your new information for your "Do Not Call" status to remain in effect. For more than a century, customers have counted on Verizon's telephone companies to respect and protect the privacy of information we obtain in the normal course of providing service. While we are working hard to serve you in new and exciting ways, our commitment to protecting your privacy remains as strong as ever. Being on a "Do Not Call" List means that you won't receive sales calls by anybody representing that Verizon company. We may still, however, contact you for non-solicitation purposes, for things like service-related notices and surveys, billing and other communications. Our telemarketers are trained to comply with this policy, and we periodically monitor them to verify that this policy is being followed. We want you to know we appreciate you as a customer and respect your right to privacy. Hrm.. How interesting.. Damn I'm glad I own a cell phone... if only the majority of the US wasn't considered rural, and I happened to live in a rural area! What a monopoly. What's sad is that it's like this with just about every other utility company in the area (Gas and electric just to name the big ones). Law should protect the majority, the majority of US citizens live in RURAL areas. Yet, nothing for the rural areas. WTF?

Done. The FCC has some information about the E911 system that carriers like Verizon and Sprint are already rolling out. Basically, it gives the 911 operator your GPS location. This could easily be expanded to other things as well, but many of the higher end and newer cell phones come with it built in. E911 is currently being tested in select areas, but eventually it should become nationwide.

Info here.

I used to get 7-10 telemarketer calls a week before this service, now i've got blissful silence. It is very worth the $4.00/mo. verizon charges.

-ted

Sad, but true is that it'll take a lot of forward-looking folks to bring this to the fruition. As much as Verizon, Qwest, Bell South, and the other Baby Bells complain that they have to bear the costs of maintaining the copper, it is essential to their business future. If they didn't have that cross to bear (that is, if wireless were available), then what would they have to block out competition as effectively as they can today?

Wireless would be wonderful. But only companies such as Sprint, who is a minority player (relatively, on a national level) in the local market anyway, can actually afford to offer it... And even they've given up. The rest simply don't want to challenge their business plan that much. And can you blame them? The investors would have the head of Ivan Seidenberg.

Face it, we're stuck.

jrbd

I currently reside in Eastern PA and it is the dark ages here. The cable here is awful, they say they offer one-way cable, but the signal here is so bad that I doubt any decent speeds could be attained. The bunch of morons known as Service Electric are the provider for our area. They're one of the of the oldest cable TV providers (which leads me to believe that they've never updated their equipement and the original cable from over fifty years ago is what their network is based on). They say they have the most advanced telecommunications and online services available but don't let that fool you. They only thing they've done that is anywhere near advanced is that you can now you can pay your bill online for their lousy signal and even worse channel selection.

We can't get DSL because of the greedy fucking bastards who could give a shit about their customers and just barely pass as a legitamate company called Verizon. On an additional note, GTE^h^h^hVerizon hasn't updated the equipment in our area for so long that they actually ran out of phones lines on the trunks that service our neighborhood.

The real reason T. Ridge became the Director of Homeland Security was to get his ass out of this lousy state. Thankfully, I'll have job soon and I'll also be leaving this god-forsaken place behind. But I'm not bitter at all...

The "No PIC" (Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier) charge is mandated by the FCC (although each telco can choose whether or not to pass the cost on to coonsumers). Check out Verizon's explanation:. The fact that ATTB is charging their customers for not using THEIR modems is just a way for them to make an extra buck and screw the consumer. It's ridiculous.

Palo Alto: http://www.cpau.com/fth/

Somewhere in Virginia: http://newscenter.verizon.com/proactive/newsroom/r elease.vtml?id=69074

Theres always good info on this sort of technology here:

http://www.convergedigest.com/DSL/ftth.asp

Out West it's called Privacy Manager, but in the Northeast it's called Call Intercept. Number of telespam I've gotten per day has gone from 2-3 to 0. Either the autodialers can't handle the automated prompt to record their name, or the telemarketers know they have no sale and just hang up instead of recording their name.

actually I was on verizon's web page looking into DSL and I put in my cell number and I can get DSL on my cell phone.... wouldnt that be wireless DSL ???

They seem to be calling it "1x", so I searched for that. I found a coverage map and some PR prediction.
It's in PDF, search for "1x" or flip to page 17 for the map.

Verizon Wireless is a business unit inside of Verizon communications, but it is not a separate company. Look at the Verizon Company Profile for more information.

thousands, five, what's the difference?

No, seriously... I realize there are at least two (and possibly as many as four) other providers that cover more than ten square miles with something resembling recent technology.

Good thing The Market has provided us with all these choices, eh?

Well, if this "Akron-based company" treated their employees anything like my last employer did, it's no surprise. We were told three months ahead of time that we were being laid off, and then security guards were stationed inside the building to watch us all the time.

Nothing quite like making your employees feel like criminals when it comes to making them want to steal things.

--saint

(I know, this is probably chock full o' poor grammar. I just got to work and I'm working on my first cup of coffee. Deal with it.)

Verizon have a website covering their disaster recover operations. They even have a few good picuures of their damaged building here, including one showing the fire department spraying water out one of their 7th floor windows!

Verizon have a website covering their disaster recover operations. They even have a few good picuures of their damaged building here, including one showing the fire department spraying water out one of their 7th floor windows!