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Verizon Taking FTTP Installation Orders

ooglek writes "Verizon is now qualifying and accepting installations for FTTP (Fiber To the Premises)! $39.95 for 5MB/2MB, $49.95 for 15MB/2MB, and $199.95 for 30MB/5MB. No word yet on whether Verizon will block ports (25, 80, etc) for incoming or outgoing traffic; with 2MB upload, I hope to basically run a small data center in my basement. Both phone and Internet will come through the fiber, and there is an unofficial rumor of video services as well by the end of this year. Got Fiber? My install date is November 2nd in Falls Church, VA (near DC). Several people in Keller, Texas have posted pictures and reported 14,679 kbps download and 1,794 kbps download speeds." Update: 10/26 23:52 GMT by T : That second "download" ought probably read "upload."

25 of 624 comments (clear)

  1. Sustainable speed? by fembots · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Verizon has clearly stated that the "actual throughput speed will vary based on factors such as the condition of your wiring inside your location; computer configuration; network or Internet congestion; and the server speeds of Web sites you access, among other factors. Speed and uninterrupted use of the service are not guaranteed."

    So how long will the 15/2Mbps last, and is Verizon at least giving guarantee on a minimum sustainable speed?

    1. Re:Sustainable speed? by 77Punker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Get real! Those factors affect every single connection between two computers in the entire world! They MUST have that disclaimer or else non-techie jurors will be awarding oppotunistic internet users money in civil suits all over the place.

  2. That is wierd by Orgazmus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As far as i got it, the ADSL lines had low upload because of technical limitations.
    But why would these lines come in 5Mb/2Mb and not just 5/5 ?

    --
    The system had the verbosity of HTML combined with all the readability of compiled assembly viewed as bitmap images
    1. Re:That is wierd by Realistic_Dragon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not only does upload cost more to peer at places like LINX but offering 15mb upload would significantly undercut their (much!) more expensive leased line options.

      Immagine that you were a business owner and you could buy three of these (cheap) and a pair of backup T1 lines (not that expensve) to replace your OC3 (very expensive). Bad news for their profits.

      I wonder what the transfer cap on these things is? Probably something rediculous like 1gb/day that allows you to operate your line at full speed for all of 550 seconds before you exceed your quota and get terminated.

      --
      Beep beep.
    2. Re:That is wierd by j1m+5n0w · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There are quite a few reasons to limit upload:

      • Most people pull stuff down more than they push stuff up, so download speed affects user's perception of the quality of the service more than upload.
      • Limiting upload puts a cap on the amount of traffic a single rooted box can generate, when participating in DOS and DDOS attacks.
      • Most people only spend a small fraction of the time downloading stuff, so the connection stays idle 99% of the time or so. Those who run file/web/p2p servers, though, can utilize their link more fully because their computers are "used" by a potentially large number of users on the rest of the Internet. If, for example, I hosted fedora ISOs from a web server on my home cable modem account, my upload bandwidth could easily dwarf what I could possibly download by surfing the web 24/7, even with my upload capped at about 10% of download.
      • The upload cap provides a disincentive from running potentially bandwidth hungry applications like videoconferencing, which require high throughput in both directions.
      • The upload cap provides a disincentive for people to try to use multicast trees and bit-torrent-like applications, by which a user can generate a disproportionally large quantity of traffic from a single connection, by utilizing other user's idle connections.

      -jim

    3. Re:That is wierd by Erwos · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The thinking is that businesses are the ones who need synchronous connections. Therefore, in order to help differentiate between the customers (you charge businesses a LOT more), you alter the features so that the customer gets a lot of what he needs (download) and businesses don't get as much of what they need (upload). This forces businesses to pay the higher prices they're "supposed to".

      Basic economics, in other words. Especially if you're a local phone monopoly.

      At $30 a month for 5/2, I'll be all over this in a second. ESPECIALLY if I can get a static IP.

      -Erwos

      --
      Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
    4. Re:That is wierd by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 3, Insightful

      All modern filesharing software allows you to set upload speed limits. Do it. No offense, but this is exactly the kind of crap that ruins it for everybody. I'd have been pissed if all the sudden my link slows down because my HTTP GET can't get through due to 40 people downloading Gigli and Catwoman.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  3. America's too big! by Orestesx · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Smaller countries such as Japan and Korea can more easily change their network infrastructure (see cell phones, broadband, etc.) We should compare America's network infrastructure to Russia or China or heck even Australia. Comparing it to a much smaller country (in both square footage and population) will not lead to any meaningful conclusions.

    1. Re:America's too big! by womby · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What about breaking it down to areas that are of similar size.

      The most densely populated city in Japan is Tokyo. 8 million people in 630 square kilometres (13,000 per k2)

      The most densely populated city in the US is New York. 8 million people in 830 square kilometres (10,000 per k2)

      The most densely populated city in the world is Seoul. 10 million people in 615 square kilometres (17,000 per k2)

      In Tokyo we have 100% ADSL availability offering 40 mbits down
      there is also limited (~10%) FTTP availability offering 100 mbits

      Why is there not even one company attempting to offer something similar in New York, Korea has near 100% availability of dsl and cable yet they too are limited to US like services.

      The real reason we have insane connection bandwidth in Japan is because the telecoms monopoly is restricted from price gouging, they must lease there cables at a flat rate irrespective of the amount of data that flows over them.

      When I had an ADSL connection I would pay $20 a month to NTT for the ADSL connection, then my ISP could push as much or as little data over that connection as they wished.

      Now I have a Fibre connection, I pay $40 a month for the wire, I actually pay $70 a month to my ISP but I get a static IP range and national wireless coverage too over the AirH network.

      The reason Japan has stupid fast internet connections, and the second highest broadband penetration in the world? Competition, who would have thought of it.

      --
      **** lying is wrong even for sleeping dogs
  4. Two things by Pan+T.+Hose · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No word yet on whether Verizon will block ports (25, 80, etc) for incoming or outgoing traffic; with 2MB upload, I hope to basically run a small data center in my basement.

    First of all you can use any service you want listening on any port you want. Data in your /etc/services file are only default ports, not mandatory ones. For example, you might run smtp server on port 80 and http on port 25 and they would complete the tcp three-way handshake just fine. If you have ever seen a web url in the form of proto://host:port then you know what am I talking about.

    Second of all, there are other important factors of Internet connection than only throughput. For certain tasks other factors may be in fact much more important, from which responsiveness, min/avg/max icmp round-trip, full duplex support, underlying protocol, mean time between failures, uptime and responsiveness are only a few.

    Generally, when you want a good data center you have to learn to look at other factors than raw throughput when choosing an Internet connection, just like you have to learn to look at other factors than clock speed when buying a server for said data center.

    Besides, what does the "2MB upload" mean? Two megabytes per second? Including or excluding data parity bits? Synch bits? Tcp headers? Data integrity checksum overhead? Networking is a difficult craft. There is a long way before you will "run a small data center in my basement" just as easily as you imagine, if it is ever possible at all.

    --
    Sincerely,
    Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
    "Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
    1. Re:Two things by lidocaineus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      For example, you might run smtp server on port 80 and http on port 25 and they would complete the tcp three-way handshake just fine.

      That would work if you ran a server destined to never offer serivces to even a small group of people, but for normal, practical usage, it's... well, useless. Sure, you can append port numbers to your protocol directives, but it'll never be an ubiquitous internet side in the least. You can't accept SMTP traffic unless it's been directly MX'd from a "normal" server, you can't even bounce port 80 requests to the proper port since presumbly, you moved it OFF port 80 to prevent random connections or avoid upstream blocks. Port shuffling is usually considered poor design and the worst example (if used in this fashion) of security/obscurity

  5. Re:It's Mb, not MB by Carnildo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's still faster than the fastest cable available around here (3Mbps/256Kbps) and much faster than the fastest DSL (768Kbps/256Kbps). It's also about a third the cost of DSL and half the cost of cable.

    I just wish they were offering it here.

    --
    "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
  6. Re:No Servers Allowed by wildchild07770 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The same stipulation exists in my cable contract but the guy installing (who pointed it out) made it quite clear that so long as i'm not running at peak capacity 24/7 or trying to host a high traffic web server they'll never bring it up. It's more of a "we reserve the right" clause than anything.

  7. Re:WTF!? by womby · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Tokyo is only 25 to 30 percent more densely populated than New York City, so though cable cost might be orders of magnitude higher in Kellar, TX I am sure residents of NY would be happy to pay $30 instead of the $20 I pay (a whole 50% increase, let the profits roll)

    --
    **** lying is wrong even for sleeping dogs
  8. Re:Form doesn't work for me by galbro · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ah, another ASP.NET site /.'d to death.

  9. Re:Pricing looks good by Gaijin42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From a technical perspective :

    Because (just like every other service) they are over selling.

    People who buy the 5/2 pipe will tend to not use it all the time. They can toss hundreds of people on and still get their speeds.

    People who buy the 30/5 pipe WILL tend to use it, because they are hosting, or running some sort of service where they can afford the extra cash. Therefore they cannot get shared pipe, and they pay for the full thing.

    It isn't a price inflation for the high-bandwidth option. It is a discount for the low bandwidth option.

    Or alternitavely from the economic perspective :

    Prices have nothing to do with actual costs. People who need the extra bandwitdh are likely willing to pay more, therefore they are charged more. The joy of elasticity of demand, and low competetion.

  10. Re:Form doesn't work for me by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Verizon has wired much of Northern NJ for FTTP, but NJ State legislation is preventing them from turning their network on.

    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.

    Based on that, I think Verizon is in the wrong. They are dangling shiny trinkets of high-speed internet at a reasonable price in order to distract people from the inevitable long-term result of monopoly control over public works - erosion of price competitiveness and technological stagnation.

    Sure, 15MBps at $50 looks GREAT today, but will it be that great in 5 years? What if the price goes up to $100? Pay no attention to the details behind the curtain!

    Again, without knowing more than I've read at the forums, I think that if it were up to me, I'd be looking at a compromise. Verizon can have monopoly control over the fibre network with three caveats:

    1) A viable competitor exists in each segment (neighborhood, town, whatever) such as cable which is priced within say 20% for equivalent levels of performance.

    2) They agree to a more relaxed test for market collusion than what the FTC/DoJ uses in order to absolutely prevent Verizon and whoever their local competitor(s) are from abusing their certain oligopoly. Punishment for collusion being immediate and permanent loss of control of all the fibre in the area in which the collusion occurred plus enough of a geographical radius to cover enough more customers to equal 200% of the total affected. (The state would probably assume control and lease it back to Verizon and any other ISPs.)

    3) Yearly review of their performance with a regular 5-year major examination of their quality of service and evaluation of their technological currentness.

    These all assume that the details are worked out by Verizon and a team of negotiators for the state that are not biased by bribery of any sort (no cushy jobs at Verizon 6 months after the contracts are signed).

    I am a big believer in "free markets" - as long as care is taken to prevent monopolistic abuses that can naturally arise in a loosely regulated market. But, public utilities are a natural monopoly and so special care, much better care than is usually applied, must be taken to keep a check on the monopolistic business practices that inevitably settle in. To do otherwise would be the equivalent of giving Verizon a money pipeline into the community's bank accounts.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  11. Re:But it's still not internet service... by NerveGas · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The internet IS P2P

    Funny, until a few years ago, nearly all Internet-based applications (and hence, traffic) was definitely server-client based. HTTP, SMTP, POP, DNS, all server-client. With the recent advent of P2P apps, that may have changed in terms of raw traffic, but just because one person downloads a single 4 GB ISO hardly out-weighs the fact that another 100,000 have sat down in that time frame and used distinctly client-server applications.

    If you don't have a "always on", syncronous connection with static ip where you can do what ever you want on any port, it is NOT an internet service.

    So, once you put up a firewall, you no longer have an Internet service?

    steve

    --
    Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
  12. Re:Pricing looks good by Combuchan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Except latency sucks, and DirecWay's Fair Access Policy means that if you download more than 169 MB in some period of time (their website doesn't say), you get dropped to 47 kbps for 8 - 12 hours.

    The software for my roommate's digital camera was a 125 MB download from HP. Using this for anything like installing or upgrading a Linux box is out of the question. I've seen 50 MB government documents doled out like candy.

    Ergo, as long as the world keeps getting more byte-bloated, the technical limitations of satellite internet will plague it into highly rural markets, as even many small communities have some form of land-based broadband.

    I'd suggest DirecWay if you've got a cabin in the middle of nowhere, but that's about it.

    --
    "[T]he single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom." -- Barry Goldwater
  13. Re:Form doesn't work for me by jlgolson · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Verizon wants monopoly rights to the fibre they are laying If they are laying it, it is their right to use it however they want. If Earthlink wants to run fibre, they can... If Verizon is spending millions of dollars to run fibre everywhere, don't you think they should be compensated fairly for it? You say you are a believer in free markets, but apparently not free enough.

  14. Re:Pricing makes no sense. by cadence007 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In this case, its a premium service, not a "buy in bulk, and get it cheaper"... that would be buying a gbit pipe. Small businesses will lap it up at those prices. T1's are several hundred more in most markets, for 1.55/1.55mbit.

  15. Re:Form doesn't work for me by raju1kabir · · Score: 5, Insightful
    If they are laying it, it is their right to use it however they want. If Earthlink wants to run fibre, they can... If Verizon is spending millions of dollars to run fibre everywhere, don't you think they should be compensated fairly for it?

    They are laying it on public land with forced easements. Very different from building something on land they own. The fiber is there because the public (i.e., the government) enabled it.

    --
    "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
  16. Re:Wrong answer! by Rich0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If Ma Bell were still in existence, the Feds could have easily required broadband access to every
    home.


    Uh, you do realize that back in the days of Ma Bell you weren't allowed to even plug a modem into a phone jack? Why do you think that people used acoustic couplers?

    Sure, you'd have high speed internet access. Oh, you would only be able to use it on a genuine Bell computer - buy your 1.2 GHz model for only $1500!

    The problem is that barriers to local phone competition need to be lifted. Sure, you won't see competition in the suburbs - at least not initially, but in major cities it would probably take off quickly since the per-capita cost of additional wiring isn't too bad. It would probably slowly spread out into the suburbs much as phone service did in the first place.

    We also trashed our airline industry
    all in the name of competition -- too bad that
    those really cheap airline tickets are being
    subsidized by the American taxpayer in the form
    of airline bankruptcy bailouts and fuel subsidies.


    Regardless about how you feel about phone service monopolies - airlines clearly are not a "natural monopoly" (perhaps airport management is, but certainly not flying the planes themselves). All the federal government needs to do is let some airlines fold, and let the industry consolidate to a reasonable number of players. Fares would rise, of course, but not to the levels they used to be at. Back before deregulation, airline fares were such that only the "jet set" could afford to fly at all. There were no sales - prices were imposed from on high. Even the food served was regulated, in order to prevent airlines from differentiating themselves. That is just crazy.

    Regardless of what you think about phone service, airlines should be in complete competition. Barriers to entry are fairly low, no real infrastructure is required (besides the planes and a few mechanics) - none of the usual arguments for natural monopolies really apply. If you're going to regulate airlines, we should be regulating the convenience stores down the street...

  17. Talked to a rep and confirmed availability by D4rkUnderlord · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I am building a house in a new community in Westfield, IN (Indianapolis basically) and confirmed I could get it installed asap if my house was built. This is probably due to a new community with all teh wiring brand new, including the CO in the back yard.

  18. +5 Informative!!!? by kuwan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What the hell is wrong with the moderators?

    The fiber is there because the public (i.e., the government) enabled it.

    Who the hell cares if the government enabled it, Verizon is spending the millions of dollars and putting in the time to make this possible. They should have monopoly rights on their investment and hard work. The government also "enables" stadiums to be built, large office buildings to be built, etc. The government doesn't then force the owners of Madison Square Garden to rent it out at a government-regulated rate. The government doesn't force the owners of the Empire State Building to lease out office space at a government-regulated rate.

    The owners of these buildings (and other such properties or services) rent them out because it is in their financial interest to do so. The rate at which they are rented out is set by the fair market value. If it is in Verizon's interest to lease out their fiber lines then they will do so and the fair market value will determine the rate. We don't need the government stepping in to tell Verizon that XYZ is the rate that they can lease their fiber at and there's nothing they can do about it.

    What we need is less regulation, not more of it.