Slashdot Mirror
Fiber TV Install and Experience
SkinnyGuy writes "The same guy who brought you the Fiber to the Premises (FTTP), FiOS broadband installation process, now brings you a detailed look at the FiOS TV install. He's thrilled and apparently couldn't be happier to say goodbye forever to Cable TV. There's a lengthy story and interesting slideshow." From the article: "I chuckled a bit to myself. After all these years of the phone company having to lease out and let competitors use its phone lines and utility poles, Verizon was using a competitor's wiring (and the work they did to run it into my house). Sorry, Cablevision."
I am going to be looking in to this more as I am in am area that offers this FIOS service. Looks very interesting.
I had FIOS installed a month ago. Right now only internet is available, I'm just waiting for Verizon to get permission from the state to start offering TV. I can't wait. Comcast thinks that they can do things with impunity, such as dropping channels, moving channels around, adding new service (and charging more), etc. The day after Verizon announces FIOS TV, I'm ordering it.
anyone know? On my Time Warner HD channels most shows are pretty good but a lot of times you can see pixels
You turn on your tv to watch your favorite show only to discover that channel surfing collapsed the wave and moved it to a different day.
Damn fibre!
In reality, we have had fibre for years here in england (NTL) and its nice and stable (apart from when its not).
liqbase
I love my cable company. In fact I am considering switching *away* from Verizon telephone service and getting Charter's phone service. I have digital cable through them (including about 10 HD channels and on demand), plus 6M/1M internet service. Everything works great, and when I call to make adjustments to my service they are always very helpful.
I feel sorry for this guy moving everything to Verizon. My experience with them has been less than stellar.
My cable representative told me that FiOS causes cancer ... is this true?
Didn't he tell Cablevision in TFA that he wanted to get away from a monopolistic operation? Isn't Verizon just another monopolistic company that wants to lock you in?
root@allevil:~#
Honestly the problems with the cable provider have little to do with the technology and more to do with the cable provider having a de-facto monopoly on the distribution grid. Competition does wonderful things for forcing companies to provide what consumers want and to keep them in line, as consumers have the option of still getting similar services from someone else.
If too many people change to another provider as you have done then that provider might eventually take on the attitude that your old provider had. When that happens, assuming that there is another option then people will switch to that provider instead.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I had Comcast for 2 years before I moved (to an area they don't service yet... now I have Knology, which is more expensive and flakier :/). I had no problems with them. The only time service dropped for anything other than a power outage was due to a bird nesting in the cable box - and it was fixed promptly (the next morning, as I left for work).
My only complaints wrt cable in general is not being able to get internet apart from television. As little TV as my wife and I watch I think we could get by without the $39.99/month television bill.
Every time a story mentions FIOS I have to post to say how desperately I want it. I [i]hate[/i] my cable company with a passion (Cablevision), and I can't install a dish. I'm in Brooklyn and am counting the days until FIOS is available.
Unfortunately, I have no idea how many days that will be.
"Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
I just made the switch to FiOS... I'm pretty happy with it.
So far, it's been like dealing with a totally different company when dealing with anything related to FiOS. They show none of their old nickel-and-diming that they did on the normal phone service, and they have been very responsive.
Not only that, when they got to my house, we didn't have a fiber drop to the house (it was at the end of the block), so the tech called his boss, who sent a truck full of people to dig the trench and run the line the rest of the way to the house (across several neighbors' yards). When they were done they cleaned it all up so well you wouldn't even know they had been there.
The combined install time for Cable and Fiber was about 6 hours I think, but I wasn't there for the whole thing.
We have yet to even see coax cable run where I live. Fiber? Pie in the sky man, pie in the sky.
This is only significant for people in modern urban areas.
Sometimes I think it might be best if I stopped fooling myself and move out past the power lines altogether. I think my quality of live would improve.
post captcha: "isolates" - sometimes I'd swear the damn slashdot captcha is psychic, its creepy.
I've heard that you can't get business service and FIOS TV, because the TV box for some reason doesn't like having a static IP instead of DHCP. A friend was told that if he wanted TV and business service, he'd have to have two FIOS terminals installed, and it wasn't clear if that meant, for example, being billed for two complete sets of service, or what.
Sounds like either a typical technical blunder, or a great way to discourage home users from getting business class service.
Anyone?
Please help metamoderate.
Fiber TVs?
Great! Now my TV dinners have fiber too.
Have you read my journal today?
This is a little off-topic, but I guess it'd be helpful for those thinking about switching such as myself. There is a little disclaimer at the bottom of the FiOS ordering page, saying that once switched, we can't go back to DSL again because the wiring has been changed. Does this mean that we can't ever have DSL again even with another phone company, say AT&T? What about the phone service? Thanks.
I can get FIOS neither at my office nor at home.
:(
Verizon will only install FIOS in single-tenant buildings. I rent an apartment, and I rent space in an office suite.
WTF Verizon? Every time I try to come back there is always, ALWAYS a technical reason I can't come back.
And every time you send your reps to my place of business to sell me services, I inform your rep that you can't deliver what you're offering, they call to confirm (actually they call to prove me wrong and try to sell me the service) and find out that I've already inquired about the service and can't get it unless in a single-tenant building and/or (in the case of HIGH-speed DSL) am willing to settle for five or fewer non-consecutive IP addresses.
Government-guaranteed monopolies suck.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
If you use coax to hook all the TVs up? Screw that.
Verizon oughtta start pumping out multicast MPEG2 over IP, and give everyone a small IPTV reciever with fiber gigabit port on the back. So. Fucking. Lame.
I have been living in upstate Jersey for about a year now. I have seen Cablevision frantically try and upgrade their systems to compete with the invading FIOS. My speeds on Cablevision tests at about 13Mb/1.8Mb which is close to their advertized 15Mb/2Mb. So not bad.
But, they have throttled me 3 times and have told me next time they will either not release the throttle or terminate my account. They have told me the throttle is a function of the processor load on the managed switch over time (wtf?). So I have to be very careful now. I have been referred to a section in the contract I was forced to agree to that states something very vague along the lines of "Cablevision reserves the right to do anything we want".
Verizon save me!
"What's the use of a good quotation if you can't change it?" - Doctor Who
Oh by the way .. Verizon is still topping them. The local speeds for FIOS are 20Mbit/5Mbit for $45/mo.
"What's the use of a good quotation if you can't change it?" - Doctor Who
I like your signature. I like your mod rating too.
"What's the use of a good quotation if you can't change it?" - Doctor Who
Right as this article was posted I was starting to draft the fiber distribution plans for an area in the Journal Square C.O. in Hoboken, NJ.
There is a war going on for your mind.
know this place hates the man...so which is going to be? do you hate the cable man? or the phone man?
well in my case they both consistently have offered exceptionally high quality service.
Why am I switching from cable man to phone man? Speed and price. I get 30/5 for 55$ and i can get better quality tv service for 35$ less per month with more channels and more premium content. I don't know about you but paying 65$ vs 100$ per month is very appealing.
And in case this was news.... for every horror story this is a highly successful story. I feel sorry for the man going back the cable man and his decade old infrastructure and capacity. For me I'll go the fiber phone man with virtually unlimited capacity....
Yeah I was pretty stunned by that, too. I guess I shouldn't have been, because it's probably going to work -- people don't expect commercials to flat-out lie to them, because of truth-in-advertising laws, so they'll probably believe that Net Neutrality is bad, because they saw it on TV.
Unless Google and some other deep-pocketed companies get together and start running some serious counter-advertising (and just running stuff on the Internet is not going to work; people who use the internet "recreationally" are almost all already sold on the idea of Net Neutrality, it's preaching to the choir), I think Congress is going to roll over and we're going to have a tiered Internet before people even know what happened to them.
I know a guy who works as an attorney for the telecom companies, actively working against Net Neutrality every day, and not even he would say something as cut-and-dried as "Net Neutrality means you'll pay more." Everything he says is the usual beating-around-the-bush lines that you'd expect, and that's the line I expected they'd maintain in the commercials. But they really decided to kick directly for the balls.
I suggest a counter-advertising campaign of "Telephone Companies Are Funding Al Qaeda" or perhaps "Comcast's Executives Worship Satan."
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Please dig up our street. I won't mind, honest. It won't even be that big a deal. Pacific Bell's... er, SBC's... Um, AT&T's central office is just a block and a half away.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Here in Pennsylvania our incompetent legislature decided to be a bunch of f**ktards and denied Verizon state-wide permission to provide TV over fibre. So, now Verizon needs to negotiate with all 660+ of Pennsylvania's municipalities individually. (Gee, I wonder if the fact that Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia has anything to do with it.) This is different than what Verizon did with Texas and a few other states where they were granted state-wide permission to offer TV.
I just had FiOS installed this past Saturday and it definitely is incredible! I'm getting 15Mb down (confirmed) and 2Mb up (averaging at 1.8Mb up) for less than Comcast high-speed Internet. I wish Verizon would get to my municipality. I'm fed up with Comcast.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
The article is all about receiving one-way broadcast video content. That's fine for the couch-potato crowd, but what do you get in Internet bandwidth?
To me, this guy seems to be mis-attributing his excitement to Fiber, when he's ready just excited to be getting HDTV for the first time.
That said, getting an HD feed is always great (especially the first time you see your new HDTV the way it was meant to be displayed).
Why are the fibers etc mounted in a box outside of the home and then is the signal led into the home? This would be the same as hanging my NT-1 (for ISDN...) on the sidewalk.: not too wise.
I had FiOS internet installed a couple of years ago and the TV service installed over the summer in my home. I'll focus on the TV like the original article. I don't have a HD set, and I already owned a TiVo (with the lifetime subscription) so I just got the regular tuner box, not the DVR. Installation was pretty straight forward. My ONT was a little too old (it didn't have the sort of DOCSIS-like support that the modern ones have that allow the tuner boxes to call back and set up streaming video sessions), so I had to have a separate box installed on the network. It wasn't a problem, but it's the second wall plug Verizon has needed for FiOS (the first being on the ONT itself). Install took a couple of hours all told and the tech was very well informed and friendly. He didn't mind that I was using a TiVo instead of spending the extra $12/month for their DVR, he even supplied the somewhat oddball digital optical cables needed to connect the box to my receiver.
The box itself isn't bad. It has a program guide and a reasonably extensive selection of PPV and Video on Demand. There is even a decent amount of free VoD options. That said, the quality of the VoD is not all that wonderful (even at SD resolution), and the ones that they're actually trying to sell are grossly overpriced. For stuff you can purchase, the cost is generally in the $10-$15/hour range, and for something that you can only view for a couple of hours and has somewhat crummy quality I can't see myself ever using it. Frankly, even the free VoD offerings aren't all that compelling and I've used the feature a grand total of twice--both times I was just playing around too. Example free VoD things are: One of the better sketches from the latest Robot Chicken, A discovery channel program about something or the other, some music videos, ads for videogames, extremely patronizing "help on making the most of your FiOS service" clips, and so on.
Some bad news: The box has USB and serial ports on the back, with an optional ethernet port. All impressive features that could set it apart from the normal cable boxes, all disabled. Yes, this means if you want to use a TiVo you have to set up an IR blaster. I believe the serial port was disabled entirely out of spite. If you don't use the router they gave you when you got the FiOS install it is very difficult to get the VoD working. The router they give you is a buggy piece of crap Linksys DI-604. I had to swap out the router because it was constantly generating packet storms over my FiOS link, and I still haven't managed to get VoD working again.
Overall, I prefer Verizon over the old Cox service we used to have. The base price is slightly cheaper, but since we didn't have to rent the box from Cox the price is a wash in the end (although Cox bumped their prices a few months ago around here, making FiOS cheaper again). One interesting thing with their plan is that they offer several ala cart options, typically for foreign language channels. While they're somewhat pricey ($7-$10/month for each channel), Cox didn't offer them at all. The HD selection is much better than Cox, not that I care yet since I still only have a SD TV.
From what I understand, Verizon is dragging their feet on coming out with a Cablecard for FiOS TV, which is a real shame because I hate cable boxes and I don't really care about their VoD options or guide. IR blasters suck.
Oh, about the guide: Unlike TiVo they apparently don't have a staff that double checks the guide info they get. It's not unusual to fire up a show on the TiVo and notice that the guide information that the TiVo recorded on the bottom of the screen is wrong or generic.
I read the internet for the articles.
Because of the fact that the harder you compress the channels, the more you can push down the wire, the cable companies have every incentive to push the compression to the limit, and then push a bit more.
At least as I understand it, most Video-over-IP systems (which may or may not include FiOS, I don't really know that much about how it works) ought to be a little more resistant to that, because they don't transmit all the channels simultaneously as cable does.
There is an incentive to over-compress on cable TV systems because that's the only way to add more channels. If you want to go from 150 channels to 300 channels, and you're already using all the bandwidth, you need to compress each one at 2:1 in order to squeeze more in.
IP based systems don't work this way, because they only transmit down the wire the channel that you're watching. That's not to say that your entire connection is used to transmit that one channel (because that would prohibit having more than one tuner per household, or doing things like TiVO-style watch+record or PiP, which would put them at a disadvantage compared to cable), but it's not transmitting all the channels, all the time. When you want to change channels a command is sent upstream and you get a different feed hooked up at the head-end. So each channel can take a much larger percentage of the total bandwidth than on a cable system, at least theoretically. I think in practice, both IPTV companies and cable companies will compromise on some sort of de facto standard quality, which they think is just enough to not cause a person on a SDTV to get too pissed off. That's the way they work -- they'll deliver the bare minimum necessary to prevent people from switching, and not an ounce more.
Reading the FiOS article on Wikipedia, it seems as though Verizon's system in addition to the upstream and downstream data channels, also has a separate and distinct channel (1550nm) for RF video overlaid on an optical carrier. So conceivably they could be using data circuits for switching, and then send the video down the RF channel. This seems somewhat unlikely, but who knows.
In theory anyway, a circuit-switched system like that offered by optical fiber could give more quality with an equal or greater number of channels than conventional cable. It also makes the addition of On Demand services or additional channels relatively simple, since an additional channel doesn't require an allocation of 'to the curb' bandwidth when it's not being watched by anyone. In practice though, I expect Fiber-based and coax-based TV services to sink to the same levels of mediocrity.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
My cable reception (comcast) was lousy, getting worse over the last year. Reception on some channels was bad enough that TiVo couldn't record shows. Also almost every show had an audio lag at some point.
I've got fios (verizon) now. Every channel is crystal clear and the sound is great. The fact that the package of 180 channels I have is cheaper than what I was paying for far fewer cable channels is also nice.
What many people don't realize is that cable vision has an all fiber network. And watching that guys setup, fios is the uses the same method as CV. Cable Vision just does the fiber to coaxial at the pole. If was a fiber line that went directionally into the home and into my modem I would be impressed. Also I made add that I get 30mbps (3.2MB/s) down and 3mpbs(340KB/s) up with CV for 55.
Also verizon brings me nothing bad news. I had verizon dsl, I switched to another caires business class, and as I was canceling my verizon setup they said they where going to give better speeds for cheaper. Believing this, I canceled my business class order. Verizon lied. I was still the same speed. 45 dollars a month for 60KB/s down 10KB/s up.
After looking at the pictures of the install, I am disappointed at verizon. I though it was fiber to the home, not fiber to the outside of my house.
Also if any has a brain think of what happens in an apartment building.
Fios is bad.
I don't think that an ATSC tuner will decode in-the-clear QAM channels, if it's not a hybrid ATSC/QAM device. A lot of HD tuner cards for PCs will do both, but some won't. I have definitely seen ATSC tuners that would not do QAM, because they were only designed for decoding 8/16-VSB and not 256-QAM. Asking for an ATSC tuner when you want something you can plug into your cable line to decode unencrypted QAM broadcasts may be setting yourself up for disappointment.
If the terms that Radio Shack staff will understand are going to be the most specific ones we can use, we are seriously in trouble. I'll bet half the people at my local store couldn't tell you the difference between a resistor and a capacitor if you put a gun to their head.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I keep hearing about how great FIOS is, blah blah blah, yet according to dslreports it's nowhere to be found near me. I'm in the midwest (Northwestern Indiana now, Kalamazoo Michigan soon), and there's neither anything nearby now, or according to their maps in the future. What the crap? How long do I have to live with the crapulance that is Comcast?
Although you didn't say whether your inability to have a dish was a result of geography/location or a landlord, if it's the latter, you might be able to show them that they cannot legally prohibit you from installing a small-dish system. A lot of landlords don't know this, and think that they can just tell tenants that they can't put one up. Unless you're living in a historic area, or there are particular safety reasons for not installing one, you have the right to put one up. The landlord can say that you can't drill into or damage the building, so you might need to get creative, but they can't prohibit one altogether.
This applies to dishes smaller than 1m in diameter and conventional TV antennas smaller than 1m in diagonal measurement. (Sadly it doesn't apply to amateur radio antennas, but the FCC has always treated amateurs like its red-headed stepchildren so I can't say I'm surprised.) More info and the actual rules are here. Alternately you can Google "OTARD".
Interestingly, it also applies to home-owners associations (HUAs) -- which can be even more of a pain-in-the-ass than landlords -- and local municipal and state regulations. It pretty much trumps everything.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I live in northern New Jersey. I currently have the Cablevision triple play. I have the IO package (I forget if it's the standard or Silver) with HBO, one HD cable box, one standard cable box, phone service, and Internet all for $140/month. Everything works fine, the only reason I would consider switching would be considerably lower pricing.
What is the price for a comparable Verizon setup?
Self awareness - try it!
Any way to hook-up a MythTV box to one of these?
I'd like FIOS. A friend has it and loves it. But until they either open it up to other ISPs or provide a competitive price for static IPs, I'll have to stick to what I have. Too bad, as I'm also interested in FIOS TV as a replacement for our elderly DirecTV setup, but until they budge on the network issue, I won't be budging on the TV issue.
Ron
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Buried as SPAM for Verizon... oh wait wrong site...
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
As it stands now, nothing could ever motivate me to switch from Cablevision to Verizon for any service. While support is part of it, in that Cablevision's is generally good and Verizon appears to be staffed by idiot used car salesmen, the billing is the real clincher. Cablevision's bill for $49.99 monthly high-speed Internet? $49.99. No contract, no equipment fee, no installation fee, no surprises. I have their cable and VoIP services also, same thing. Contrast with Verizon's billing scheme for their services--count on 2-year contracts, equipment rental fees, and bills with what they criminally quote you as the monthly rate listed as the 'subtotal' above an ever-expanding list of inane little line items nickle-and-diming you up. Verizon doesn't want you as their customer so much as their bitch.
Just say no to this bull, it's the only way they'll ever learn.
Support NRA, America's oldest civil rights group.
I would assume that they have something like this for business, but you're guaranteed to pay more for a more comprehensive support policy. I can't say that I've ever looked into it because I don't need to. Even with a personal account, you can for the most part run whatever you want, but they will keep tabs to make sure that you're not running a commercial service. If I run a personal web site with low bandwidth, I'm sure (because I've been told by their service reps) that they're not going to bother me. Now, if that turns into a commercial site with a lot of bandwidth and/or it gets hijacked and becomes a spambot, that's a different story.
As for land line, it's opposite of DSL. DSL runs over the phone line so you need to have a landline to get DSL (unless you get a "dry" connection which does not require a phone number). With FiOS the phone runs over the fibre optic connection so technically there is no need to have a landline phone, although I think he said that the account is linked to the phone number. I don't work for Verizon and my knowledge is limited to my conversations with the rep as he was installing it. I don't know if having a landline number is required. He told me that the main reason for pushing FiOS is for Verizon TV. I don't know what kind of priority they might have on landline phone numbers.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
When I saw that my new router had a coax connection, I completely choked. My brain immediately said, "What The FU*K!!! They're supporting 10Base2 again?" So, I asked the tech when he was installing my FiOS this weekend what's with the coax.
The reason why they're using coax, even for FiOS Internet, is because just about every house has coax in it because of their cable company! I was fortunate in that my house is a ranch-style with a four-inch gap in the walls, so one of the first things I did was wire my house up. It now has 21 network jacks installed throughout. I'm in the minority of people who can even do that -- but almost everyone has coax throughout their house. By going "back" to coax, Verizon is completely eliminating the need to lay out new cable or to use a comparatively slow wireless connection. They're using existing resources. Each TV will get a box that connects to the coax, just like a standard cable box. When FiOS TV becomes available, they run a coax cable from my FiOS box on the outside of my house to the cable box a few feet away and each TV gets a FiOS converter box.
As soon as he explained that, the coax connection on my FiOS router made total sense.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
The cable company seems to get along fine putting wiring in houses that don't have it. I can't believe that it would be such a greater cost for Verizon to do it. Being fucking cheapskates (while continuing to pull in federal money to upgrade all sorts of things) is why we still have second-class network infrastructure compared to say nearly any country in Europe or Asia.
Sorry, but I'd rather pay an extra $150, and have real fiber. If it even cost that much, the bulk of the cost would be in the hourly wages of those pulling the cable.
Unfortunately, I'm too drained from finals to think about it properly, but I believe there's an analogy to be made with the whole One Ring thing. With the right power in the wrong hands, either of those companies could rise up and start putting the boot to our faces just as hard as the other--I just can't think of what regulatory or monopoly power they'd need.
Hell, there's probably a power out there so terrible that we wouldn't even want to trust Google/Gandalf with it.
You're completely missing the point, which considering how you're approaching the topic is not surprising. The number of houses that currently have coax vastly outnumbers the number of houses that don't. There is no reason to re-run a whole new set of cable when what is already there will do nicely. It saves Verizon money, which an optimist would say keeps rates low, although we know better; it save a ton of headaches for the tech, I'm sure; and it saves time on installation, which the customer will no doubt appreciate.
Upgrading to fibre just for the sake of upgrading to fibre is a waste of money IMHO, just like those who feel the need to spend hundreds of dollars every few months just to have the newest CPU for their personal PC. If you're that concerned, feel free to run your own or go ahead any pay to have it done. It's your money; do with it as you wish. As much as I think Verizon is just as bad as any other monopoly, I fully understand and agree with their decision to utilize existing resources.
And knock it off with the complaints about us vs. Europe and Asia. As is said on Slashdot over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, you cannot compare numbers accordingly. The population densities of the vast majority of countries in Europe and Asia compared to the population density of the United States make any such comparisons completely baseless.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
I've had Verizon FIOS since June 2006 (I live in Long Island, NY.) For their triple play package (tv, internet, phone) it couldn't be any better, and is way better than Cablevision.
Installing FIOS
The installation went easy, the install techs are knowledgeable and rewire everything over the old stuff. The install takes about a day, and it's done cleanly.
Internet (first, cause thats what most people here are interested in)
I have 20mbps/5mpbs, and on a wired connection, you get your full advertised speed (I actually get 21/5.5 usually) For wireless, they give you a free Actiontec wireless router (the thing is a monster is size.) On a 802.11g wireless connection I get speeds around 11/4, which is still plenty fast. The connection is on 24/7, no outages or anything, ever, like all the crap I had dealt with from Cablevision. With FIOS, I can torrent all the time at full speed, no caps. The FIOS internet rocks.
TV
The FIOS tv is also great. There are like 1000 channels, which breaks down into like 250 real channels, like 200 HD channels, and a ton of movie and music channels that I didn't pay for. The standard def tv from fios looks great, much better than normal tv. The cable boxes work well, the guides make it easy to find shows over different channels or days. The only gripes I have with the tv are the somewhat random order of the channels (they BETTER fix this in the future) and that the channels aren't always in order, for example, the range from 30 to 60 only has like 12 channels, for some reason. Can anyone want to clear this up for me?
Phone
It's POTS, nothing more, nothing less. Works the same as before.
The guy was being wise about the CABLE company being a monopoly, while getting TV service from the phone monopoly. Ironic.
While that may be true, The bells have done no less - they also seek to maintain their monopoly over wired basic telephone.
What is really needed is a choice (for wired broadband Internet, at least) OTHER than EITHER the cable company *or* the phone company, and then people can choose to get their phone either from the monopoly or over IP, and their TV either from the monopoly, a Dish/DirectTV, or (hopefully someday) over a standards-compliant IP protocol.
Here is my summary of the pros/cons of the various options for high speed net (this is US-centric)
DSL - cheap, contract required, slow, mandatory phone service (from the monopoly telco, even if your DSL is from a 3rd party) even if you dont need/want it, you can choose between a single ILEC and a few CLECS - ILEC will usually drag their feet on any CLEC install, limited availability - max 3 miles from CO/DSLAM
CABLEMODEM - less cheap, no contract, slightly faster, usually mandatory cable TV service even if you dont need/want it, you cant choose between cable companies, cable not available in many areas
WIRELESS - expensive, usually slow, reliability issues, either contact or large up-front equipment investment required, availability varies
SATELLITE - expensive, slow, reliability?, high latency, contract or large up-front equipment investment required, almost universally available
The number of houses that have regular telephone lines laid in the 1960s vastly outnumbers those that have something more modern.
So, we have telecom companies lobbying congress to outlaw net neutrality while they roll out half-assed DSL products that give us the bandwidth we should have had in the early 90s, instead of giving us modern infrastructure. We lose, they get to save a few bucks, even as they continue to rake it in.
FIOS TV. They lobby congress to make sure they don't have to share access to the fiber, while they give us half-assed TV products that use wiring put in by the cable company (which apparently wasn't cheapskate enough to not install it). We lose, they get to save a few bucks, even as they continue to rake it in.
The cost of the set top box would not be any higher, if it had a fiber jack. The cost of the cabling that they had to install (did you read the article?) wouldn't have been more. It would not have taken any longer to install it. That's hardly brilliant, it's lazy and irresponsible.
Did you know that there is a looming worldwide shortage of copper ore? Using copper for telecom is not a waste of money, it's just forward thinking. We have no worldwide shortage of sand that I am aware of.
As is said on Slashdot over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, you cannot compare numbers accordingly. The population densities of the vast majority of countries in Europe and Asia compared to the population density of the United States make any such comparisons completely baseless.
Which explains nothing at all except why some rural areas might go without. NYC has density as high as anywhere else, so if I move there I can certainly get 100mbit service? Hardly. Something else is going on.
Journal Square is in Jersey City, not Hoboken.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
For who? Verizon or Cablevision? FiOS is already wired in Hoboken, it's just that little MDU thing that's holding about 99% of the town back.
Disagreeing with me does not mean you get to mod me troll.
In the beginning when they first started to roll this out (over a year a go) they did do this some. At least for a while now in Oregon and elsewhere from what I here, they simply leave the wiring. (Yes I have FIOS - I don't know what it would take to go another phone company).
Klein bottle for rent - inquire within.
I just got it installed at my apartment (a large complex), but I think they had already "pre-wired" all of the builds his last summer.
Klein bottle for rent - inquire within.
I find the following quote very interesting.... "I chuckled a bit to myself. After all these years of the phone company having to lease out and let competitors use its phone lines and utility poles, Verizon was using a competitor's wiring (and the work they did to run it into my house). Sorry, Cablevision." I gotta say, he's just wrong. The cable lines in the house are owned by the homeowner, not the cable company. Just like the electrical wires in the home aren't owned by the power company. Cable companies have been using the existing phone wires in the house when they moved users over to digital phone/VOIP. It's simply the easiest and most non-intrusive way to set it all up, but if the author thinks that the verizon is using the cable companies lines, he's dead wrong. That would likely be illegal anyway.
That's nice but the Journal Square *Central Office* encompasses both Jersey City & Hoboken (& a few other municipalities).
There is a war going on for your mind.
Verizon. We'll try to draw faster :D
There is a war going on for your mind.
Wow that's ugly... AT&T's U-Verse offering is a lot better looking and functional.... May not be 100 mbps for $120 a month but at least it has better offers...
I have Comcast for TV and Internet. (I don't have a landline phone.) It's not that I like Comcast. Indeed, I hate Comcast. It's just that I hate Verizon more.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Besides that GUI being hideous and about as functional as digital cable [read: not functional] I don't see much of an advantage of their TV system. I personally belive AT&Ts U-Verse is MUCH better -- given the lower bandwidth they will provide to the home [25-35 mbps and RISING]. Don't believe me? Check out some of the screenshots at: http://www.uverseusers.com/ Their outlay keeps growing every day -- the 18th they hit the San Francisco Bay Area. But, that's just me.
Draw as fast as you can - but I'd rather have you try to solve the problem of what to do in an apartment complex or even a multi dwelling townhouse so you can bring this stuff to the masses in metro areas, instead of just the suburbs.
Disagreeing with me does not mean you get to mod me troll.
AFAIK It's not a problem. And it's really not anything I can solve considering I just draw what the field guys bring me. MDU's are just the last thing they get done according to their game plan. We're working on them now. Apparently they have to hook up everybody in any county they are getting permission to do FTTP, at least that's the way I understand it.
There is a war going on for your mind.
I have a similar issue in that a piece of gear in our house is not guaranteed by the manufacturer to work over FIOS. Verizon is doing a full court press in my neighborhood and even came to my door to sell it in person. I explained the issue and was told this is a common issue with a lot of businesses that want to keep their phone system on POTS. The solution, according to the rep, was to call support and explain that you want to keep your phone line on POTS and get FIOS for internet (and TV) only. If they resist, explain that you have equipment that must stay on POTS.
I wonder if you could get both FIOS and third party DSL.
Note: I've seen other people in this thread talk about Verizon techs cutting the POTS wires. I asked about this too and was told that standard practice is to leave it in case someone needs POTS. I guess it comes down to the individual tech and how Machiavellian the local management is.
From WP:Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Verizon
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."