A New Cable in Town

[xoxoxoBruce]

I got a newsletter from the township saying they have inked a 12 year deal with Verizon. Because Verizon intends to offer TV/Video along with the phone and internet, the township has jurisdiction. They claim 15 other municipalities in the county are doing the same.

~Verizon has to provide free cable service to all township buildings, schools, fire companies and the library.

~Verizon must supply two dedicated channels for the township.

~Verizon must connect, at it's expense, every residential dwelling within 150 feet of the trunk or feeder lines, not already served by the FTTP network

~The agreement contains provisions for enforceable customer service standards.

~The service area includes the entire township.

This is welcome news, especially since comcast just raised rates while decreasing service..... again.
I wonder how soon? Let's see here, uh...start very near future..... laying fiber....Initial Service Area which is 94% of the township. Oh no....where zat?
Balls... 3 to 5 years for the Extended Service Area, which of course, is moi.

"Fiber to Premises" runs the fiber cable to every home, rather than to "nodes" with copper wire to homes. This is so they can bring me TV/Phone/Internet in fibrous splendor...... someday.

[tw]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I got a newsletter from the township saying they have inked a 12 year deal with Verizon. Because Verizon intends to offer TV/Video along with the phone and internet, the township has jurisdiction. ...
This is welcome news, especially since comcast just raised rates while decreasing service..... again. ...
."Fiber to Premises" runs the fiber cable to every home, rather than to "nodes" with copper wire to homes. This is so they can bring me TV/Phone/Internet in fibrous splendor...... someday.

Verizon's original plan was to install fiber everywhere in four years. Well, some areas now may not get it. But finally, a monoply has competition. Previously, town would restrict cable service because with competitors the $8 per month cable price would rise.

Verizon estimated their installation cost would be about $600 per customer. Apparently it is higher causing Wall Street to downgrade Verizon debt ratings. But fiber to every home is even in the Cellar neighborhood. See pictures by UT some years ago. Doylestown PA was one of the first towns upgraded some years ago. The technology is finally that ubiquitous.

So why should each town have jurisdiction over who can provide cable TV. Why a government enforced monopoly? Well they get service for free. Enforcing a monopoly does have advantages.

[Undertoad]

FIOS service has been merely outstanding, and I patiently await the TV part of it.

Since installing FIOS, which I did the first day I could determine it was available (about two months after they dug up the curb), there has been about one half hour of downtime and no slowdowns.

Around here it's $49.95 for 15 mb service and worth every penny.

[Elspode]

Comcast blows goats. I have pictures.

Pay more, get less...its the American way where services are concerned.

[mbpark]

FIOS will not be in the city limits, so Philadelphia won't have fast Internet.

Bensalem, Hulmeville, and many other towns will.

Verizon = not stupid. They know that FIOS in the city limits will cause them to lose a lot more money providing Internet to the less affluent areas, because the Street administration will make them wire up North Philadelphia, Kensington, and West Philly first. From what I remember, Comcast doesn't even service the less fortunate parts of Philly yet, some division of Time Warner Cable (Urban Cableworks) and DirecTV do. Verizon provides phone service there, and that's it. Comcast is taking over Urban CableWorks' domain and providing some cable service due to their settlement with Time Warner regarding the takeover of Adelphia's operations. However, DirecTV is the major player in the ghetto (i.e. a big chunk of Philly).

I will admit, some of those areas of Philly are quite harsh.

However, this leaves many of their larger customers in Center City in the lurch, as their business DSL options are not that fast. We're at the point where the home Internet connections are 4x the speed of a T1 line through Comcast, and even faster via FIOS, and they're still charging a ton of cash for Business DSL at 1.5Mbit or 3Mbit/s. Your average small business will have a faster Internet connection than many businesses in Center City.

Yes, there's Wireless Philly. However, a shared Wifi connection won't cut it for many businesses that run services from their office. Considering you're sharing that service with many parts of Philly that don't know how to spell Antivirus or know what a security patch is, it really won't cut it.

However, the Cable part is what many people are looking forward to, if they can provide decent service above that of Comcast, which should not be too hard. This IS Verizon though, and not Verizon Wireless, so I expect the quality of service to be of the same type that has caused people to flee to Comcast and Vonage for phone service.

I also expect that certain features of Cable which I like, such as On Demand, will also be much different, and may not feature many of the free features (network shows, free movies) or premium features (Howard Stern On Demand) that I use and like.

[Shawnee123]

I don't know much about such things, so bear with me. What is FIOS?

Is this all something that could replace cable? For example, Time Warner is what I would consider a monopoly. There are other companies where you can get cable internet but you are still paying TW for the cable line.

I hate TW. Their customer service is unrivaled in unfairness and rudeness. They don't give a crap if you stay a customer or not. I chose the not but for most people it's the only game in town, in their minds.

I had thought about someday getting satellite TV and whatever the fastest internet I can get through a phone line. If there are better options on the horizon I would like to know.

So, is what you're talking about here exclusive to the areas you live? Can you explain, in layman's (read: I'm 'tupid) terms, what all this might or might not mean for the future of the cable industry?

Thanks!

[SteveDallas]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

I hate TW.

That's just mean. (I admit, he does write long posts sometimes.)

Oh, har har, yes it was a joke. FIOS (stands for Fiber Something Or Other) is Verizon's fiber optic to the house service. They are rolling it out in certain areas, including where UT lives. (There is an old thread about them digging up his sidewalk to put it in.) The reason this is a big deal is that you can move data over fiber optics a ton faster than over copper. Verizon hopes to use this to compete in the cable TV marketplace, but for the time being it's only there in very specific areas.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

I hate TW.

I feel the love. Pray with me son.

Let us give thanks to FiOS - the Irish god of knowledge. For it is in his favor that we receive Fiber Optic Service. May that single glass fiber that enters thy heart of our homes bless us with bi-directional light. May the gift of TV, telephone and internet be the trinity of godliness.

Bring wrath upon the satans of municipal governments who would deny us this trinity. Bring wrath upon the town that must wait two more years for their FiOS. Bring wrath upon those who would instead use the evils of Comcast or Dish. For such evil may be their only alternative.

May us users be bless with the monthly bill starting at $40 for 5 Mbps. May we be blessed using a UPS so that phone always rings. May we be blessed with an installation that sometimes takes most of the day. For god's servant must even reconfigure our computer and program our TVs.

Glory be those throughout Montgomery county who now have FiOS for their neighborhoods for those will be visited by white trucks in mass. For some, they be first chosen ones. Blessed be those in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, and Washington State who shalt share in the light.

Cursed be the lowly non-believers in Philadelphia who are punished for letting Earthlink install WiFi. For I have seen the light - and it works. Praise the last mile provider for he finally saw thy error of his ways. Praise him for providing all with the light within two years. For he hath promise that upon us all soon.

Amen.





(Hey kid. Pass me that JD bottle. Want some god blessed wine? Here. Try this.)

[Pie]

[Shawnee123]

You guys are funny. I just re-read this thread and thought "Hey, when did I ever say I hated (the Cellarite) tw? I never said that!"