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Comcast is ready to compete with the latest broadband technology from Verizon

Scheduled to begin making appearances this year in the broadband internet industry is Comcast's latest ante-up from their current top tier 8Mbps download to 16Mbps-down and 1MBps-upload transfer speeds.

DSL Reports states the doubled speeds are an answer to Verizon's new FiOS service which is being rolled out in certain markets across the United States. Along with this news comes news of updates to DOCSIS 2.0 which will pave the way for the bandwidth increases.  Early last month, Comcast's CEO, Brian Roberts, took a swing at Verizon saying "I think it does not show any economic promise", talking about the FiOS service according to CNNMoney.com.

The first market to see these upgrades was Reston, Virginia and areas such as Sarasota, FL, Ft. Wayne, IN, and Howard County, MD, are on their way to higher-speed broadband bliss while those consumers where Qwest roams will need to wait.

Current pricing for Verizon's FiOS service at 15Mbps down and 2Mbps up is about $44.95 for participating markets while Comcast is said to be offering their 16Mbps down, 1Mbps up services for $52.95 -- which is the discounted price if you subscriber to their cable TV service as well.

Most users won't see any noticeable difference between Verizon's 15Mbps service and Comcast's 16Mbps offering, however, many will reap the benefits of Verizon's 2Mbps upload speeds compared to Comcast's 1Mbps upload. Ultimately, Verizon's FiOS may come out on top if the pricing structure remains the same between the two alternatives.

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So???
By Cuw on 3/24/2006 4:34:23 PM , Rating: 1
For those of us in the New York area we can get the nice optimum online boost package which is 30Mbps/2Mbps. Thats faster than comcast and verizon. Hell its only $44 a month too so its cheaper along with being faster.




RE: So???
By AnotherGuy on 3/24/2006 4:45:18 PM , Rating: 1
30Mbs? r u crazy? or did u mean 3.0Mbs ?
I live in NY too but fkn staten island has only Time Warner Cable whoch dont think offers 30Mbs


RE: So???
By sheltem on 3/25/2006 3:18:43 PM , Rating: 2
Verzion has FIOS on Staten Island now. I currently have the 5/2 package.


RE: So???
By FoxFour on 3/24/2006 4:47:56 PM , Rating: 2
Do you actually see that kind of speed for real? Or is it just another "up to" deal where you're mostly at 15Mb, and maybe once a month when the moon is full and it's 4am you creep up to 29Mb for a few seconds?


RE: So???
By s1203372b on 3/24/2006 6:10:24 PM , Rating: 3
It's for real. Here's a screenshot of me pullling a file off my 15/2 FIOS connection. The upload is really more like 1.5, but the down is actually usually more than 15.

http://img57.imageshack.us/my.php? image=bandwidthf...

Remove the "%20" spaces the bot puts in to see the image.


RE: So???
By Googer on 3/24/2006 11:22:20 PM , Rating: 2
Try using pics.bbzzdd.com instead.


RE: So???
By Googer on 3/24/2006 11:24:23 PM , Rating: 2
RE: So???
By Googer on 3/24/2006 11:25:34 PM , Rating: 2
RE: So???
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 3/25/2006 1:25:06 PM , Rating: 2
You have to copy and paste the URL into your browser and remove teh %20. We do that to stop phishing, bots, etc.

Kristopher


RE: So???
By Cuw on 3/24/2006 10:32:53 PM , Rating: 2
Well im at college right now so I cant test it right now. There are relatively few users on the Fiber so its extremely fast, i think i was hitting around 30Mpbs when i was at home though.


RE: So???
By Devil Bunny on 3/24/2006 4:55:25 PM , Rating: 2
So, here in parts of Utah, we can get a 1Gb/s down and up for around 40$ a month. Its your own dedicated fiber line, so you get all the bandwidth to your self, yeah its pretty nice.


RE: So???
By TheLiberalTruth on 3/24/2006 5:58:01 PM , Rating: 4
Must be the benefit for putting up with the mormons, eh? ROFL.


RE: So???
By ninjit on 3/24/2006 6:45:43 PM , Rating: 2
What company provides that fiber connection?
That's pretty generous bandwidth


RE: So???
By JackBurton on 3/24/2006 7:20:05 PM , Rating: 2
We get FIOS packages of 15Mbps/3Mbps or 30Mbps/5Mbps here in TX. You gotta love the 3 and 5Mbps upload speed. Comcast ain't touching that.:)


big deal
By sprockkets on 3/24/2006 4:31:15 PM , Rating: 1
Web sites load the same whether you have 1mb as opposed to 15mb.

Nice to have 2mb upload, but what is it used for, filesharing?




RE: big deal
By FoxFour on 3/24/2006 4:44:41 PM , Rating: 3
Depending on latency, a 2Mbps pipe makes quite a difference towards running a game server on your home connection...

I'd sure take it over the extra 1Mb down.



RE: big deal
By bunnyfubbles on 3/24/2006 5:42:15 PM , Rating: 3
I completely agree, there's no way I'd pass up 15/2 for 16/1.

quote:
Nice to have 2mb upload, but what is it used for, filesharing?
Sure why not? I produce some of my own video clips of various things and love uploading them either directly to friends or to a file server so that my friends can get to them even faster on their own time. I'm currently stuck @ roughly 350Kbps upload, and would LOVE to have 2000Kbps. Heck, my cable service started out at 1.5Mbps down and 350Kbps up, since then only the down has been upgraded to 6Mbps down. Having and upload faster than what I was perfectly content with as a downstream speed back in the early days of cable would just be so nice.


RE: big deal
By TheLiberalTruth on 3/24/2006 5:53:34 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
I'd sure take it over the extra 1Mb down.


Me too. Also, check out the difference in price! Rediculous. Also, with the cable internet in my area as an example, I wouldn't want to risk getting it and then end up getting 1/3 (or less) of the advertised speed, plus terrible latency. Verizon has always done right by me. I'll never give another dollar to Adelphia.


RE: big deal
By lennylim on 3/24/2006 7:12:54 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Web sites load the same whether you have 1mb as opposed to 15mb.

Doesn't that depend on the web site? Some sites have more bandwidth than others. And some sites load the same speed whether you're on dial-up or broadband.

More bandwidth allows you to do more things at the same time over the same connection as well.

quote:
Nice to have 2mb upload, but what is it used for, filesharing?

Uploading photos to online printers, photo sharing sites, transferring files to office, sending large attachments, online backup services, etc.

If you don't need the additional bandwidth, you're definitely not one of the target customers, and you shouldn't bother paying whatever extra they're charging for it. Those who do will be glad to have it. And it is a big deal for the U.S., which has been behind many countries in high speed offerings.


RE: big deal
By yzhu92 on 4/15/2006 3:58:51 AM , Rating: 2
In New Zealand, the fastest DSL you can get is 3.5Mbps with 128kbps upload, or 512kbps upload if you spend US$50 or over. Exchanges are crammed full with around 150 users sharing a connection (100Mbps, I think).

Cable is 10Mbps with 2Mbps upload but costs US$70 or over.

And all the plans have data caps, of usually 10GB, if you want more then you have to pay more, which is US$6.20 per 5GB.


Don't count your chickens.....
By The Boston Dangler on 3/24/2006 7:18:28 PM , Rating: 3
Here in Massachusetts, telecom companies enter service agreements with individual towns. The contracts Verizon has stuck stipulate that after a couple years, they have the option of pulling out and shutting down the fiber, if they fail to achieve X amount of subscribers.

Currently, Verizon is severely low-balling the price of FIOS, just to get people signed up. The price will rise dramatically in the near future, just to approach the break-even point.

It's a given that the vast majority of internet customers are not hardcore enthusiasts, like us. Most people have absolutely nothing to gain from increased internet capacity, no matter who the ISP is. It will be difficult to persuade the average person to subscribe to a more expensive service, when they don't really have anything to gain.

Short-term scenario: Early adopters may be left in the lurch.

Long-term scenario: Everything will be fiber and/or wireless. I'm talking 10 years minimum, 15 is possible.

I've been working for a major telecom company for 8 years. Although I'm in Engineering, I work with the municipalities' people all the time. Not speaking for anyone but myself.




RE: Don't count your chickens.....
By ninjit on 3/24/2006 7:42:22 PM , Rating: 2
Somebody above mentioned Fiber projects in Utah, which I just spent the last 45 mins reading up about.

The idea is that smaller towns/municipalites now consider telecommunications as vital to their basic infrastructure as water and power, both for atracting new business and residents, and for providing better services to their exisiting population.

So they're putting up the capital to run fiber all over town, then leasing bandwidth to companies to provide extra-services, like phone, television, on-demand movies, and of-course internet.

I think the relationship works similar to DSL - your physical line is with the phone company, but your ISP can be anyone who operates in the area.

I like the model behind this idea, and agree that telecommunications are becoming more and more important.
- Heck I was in a little town way down the coast of Baja for 2 weeks, several hours from the nearest real road, where I didn't expect to see a phone let alone internet, but the local school (that has 20 students) had a solar-powered satelite internet system that the goverment funded, but they don't have running water!

Yes, I agree that companies really do need a profit-motive to lay down all this expensive fiber - and that's exactly why these municipalites are jumping in to actually provide the service.

So don't relegate fiber to the far future just yet. Here is a good wikipedia article that lists many cities that are doing the same thing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTTH< /a>

And even if Verizon pulls out due to lack of profitability, the cities its in may buy out the infrastructure from them after seeing how well (or not) these other locales do with their model of the fiber network as a public-owned resource.


By glennpratt on 3/24/2006 9:14:16 PM , Rating: 2
That may be, but thats why we don't sign long contracts. Verizon has been so much better about service and speed then Comcast, it's nuts. I already know 4-5 people with it and there installing it in my neighborhood now.


By masher2 (blog) on 3/25/2006 2:35:08 AM , Rating: 2
> "Currently, Verizon is severely low-balling the price of FIOS, just to get people signed up. The price will rise dramatically in the near future, just to approach the break-even point"

No it won't. They are indeed taking a loss to sign up customers-- as are most of the major Telcos at the moment-- but there won't be any dramatic price rises in the future. The cost of providing the service will decline rapidly, while ther charges remain constant until they regain a profit margin.

This is the same business model that Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and others have followed in past rollouts.



hum...
By fanbanlo on 3/24/2006 4:42:27 PM , Rating: 2
hum... what do u guys do with all the bandwidth?




RE: hum...
By Devil Bunny on 3/24/2006 4:57:18 PM , Rating: 2
hehehehe, bit torrent is one of the things that many people wlould use that much bandwidth for. Its like the dual core guys, but with internet, we like to multi task. Plus its bragging rights.


RE: hum...
By Xenoterranos on 3/25/2006 1:18:02 AM , Rating: 2
I could get the i386 and x86-64 release DVD for all my fav linux distros in no time! *joy*

Oh, yeah, I live in texas, where 3mbps/256kbps for 40$ is a deal... sigh.


RE: hum...
By Acanthus on 3/24/2006 6:04:51 PM , Rating: 2
filesharing, webcams, hosting game servers, small web servers, voice chat servers.

Webcams need as much bandwidth as you can throw at them, 5fps sucks.


Fios
By Anemone on 3/24/2006 9:02:39 PM , Rating: 4
Frankly I do realize it will eventually rise in price, or the cost will go down to provide the service and the price will stay the same.

But getting fiber over cable is like sticking it The Man. I'm hardly alone in being entirely fed up with yet another rate hike only to read in the Wall St Journal 2 months later that Comcast or some other cableco had a fantastic record breaking quarter with profits (BOTTOM line) going up by some mega percentage. The cableco's have avoided upgrading. They do all they can to charge the most for delivering the least. I had far, and I mean vastly better service under DSL than I have ever had with cable. And don't even get me started on the customer service. I had a senior exec in IT tell me once he was pleasantly surprised with FIOS to finally talk to an engineer over a problem, not some idiot customer service rep who's only response is that you are welcome to take a day off from work to wait for a 4 hour window to get service.

The cableco's can't diagnose crap remotely. They never, ever know about an outage before you call them, and you wonder what the heck you are paying them 2x the money for? Don't give me bull about costs or investments. Most of the towns that have cable footed a good portion of the bill to bring cable to the town. After that it's been upgrades and raking in the cash. Comcast advertises "focused on community", and I'm thinking "gee I'm so glad you charge me so much that you can afford to give my money away to whomever you please".

This isn't just about faster service. It's about what cable SHOULD have been delivering at a price that they should have been able to deliver it. They are the incombent. There stuff is ALREADY BUILT WITH OUR DOLLARS. And they want a premium to deliver less than half the speed, 10x the latency, and tell me they have fiber too? Well where the fxxx is that fiber you claimed in a recent ad. Because it sure isn't delivering anything to me!

The cableco's deserve to beg us to come back. They've more than earned years in the doghouse. In some cases car payments are less than what they charge, and they expect us to "appreciate" them? I don't think so.

I'll happily pay Verizon to come and put in Fios. And if my town vetoes the idea, I'll buy a house somewhere where I can get it. I've had years of price increases vastly in excess of the cost of living, mild to pathetic increases in service, outages without apology and often without recompense, and all that leaves me with a very disgusted taste in my mouth. If it were any other type if business these folks would have been sued into oblivion.

Let Fios come. And let those fancy cableco stocks crash and burn. I'll bring the matches.




wow I'd definately go for some 2Mbps up action
By phaxmohdem on 3/25/2006 6:01:32 PM , Rating: 2
I'd love to have 2Mbps up for hosting websites on from home. The question is, are these providers going to be ghey and block port 80 and 25 and such to prevent servers from sprouting up?




By kuyaglen on 3/25/2006 10:53:45 PM , Rating: 2
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/re mark,15556763

Comming up on 3 weeks that my pings go from 30-5000. So anybody but Comcast and Yahoo/SBC will be getting my business as soon as its available in the Sacramento CA 95834. I forsee Comcast getting more customers and having more bandwidth issues.


2Mbps up much more benefitial
By randomlinh on 3/24/2006 9:19:55 PM , Rating: 2
I want to take advantage of VOIP dammit. Filesharing would be cool.. it'd make sharing full res photo's so much easier for me.... but, friends would still be limited most likely since fios is not really out yet (these small roll outs don't count as anything, I live in a county that is suppose to get it... am I ever going to see it? maybe in 5yrs).

I'm stuck w/ paying comcast $45/mo + cost of cable tv (which we will keep, we live in a hole and can't catch reception very well). But we buy basic basic cable anyway. all for a 3Mbps (supposedly 6.. but I don't believe it) and a pidly upstream.




reliable
By toyota on 3/25/2006 1:48:09 AM , Rating: 2
just give me something reliable. i live in birmingham, al and have had nothing but problems with charter cable. both places i have live have been nightmares. i loose signal strength all the time. heck last year i had NO connectivity for over 40 days. one time it was down(tv and internet) for a week straight and i got nothing but excuses everytime i called. i went to the local office on the 7th day and said "get somebody to my fucking house and fix the cable NOW". they actually sent a truck and the problem turned out to be a simple blown fuse outside. i have so many stories about them that it is ridiculous. when it works my 3 meg cable is usually around 400 k in the evenings. the only time i actually get 3 meg is after 11 at night or during the middle of the weekdays.




file sharing
By RyanHirst on 3/25/2006 4:01:45 AM , Rating: 2
This is an extreme example, but it is not hypothetical-- it's me:
Chess endgame tablebases. What about them? A complete set of 6-man tablebases is about 1.2TB. Since U of Alabama quit, no website hosts this data. The only way to get them is through eMule. Download priority through eMule is a function of total uploads-- so your long-term average download speed is going to equal your upload speed.
For 1TB of data, I'll take 2Mbs over 1Mbs thank you very much.




By regpfj on 3/25/2006 12:36:59 PM , Rating: 2
http://www.linkcity.org/

A different community here in the KC metro area rolled out a fiber based ISP program this year. I'm pretty jealous b/c Time Warner has the market cornered in my area. I pay $45 for 3 down, 256 up and it's never that fast. Here's the linkcity menu:

256K High Speed Internet "Lite": $14.95/month
Includes two e-mail addresses

5 Meg High Speed Internet: $34.95/month
Includes five e-mail addresses

10 Meg High Speed Internet: $59.95/month
Includes five e-mail addresses

20 Meg High Speed Internet: $99.95/month
Includes five e-mail addresses

30 Meg High Speed Internet:Ê $159.95/month
Includes five e-mail addresses

No contracts required for any High Speed Internet services. Pricing indicated is preliminary and subject to change at the time of network completion. Additional e-mail addresses are available. Call 816-412-7990 for more information!

I wish the b@$t@rd$ would run a pipe five miles south and hook me up.

The wiseacre that is in charge in North Kansas City also said 1 gbit symmetrical is easily possible: "the infrastructure is admittedly over-engineered". Jerks.




Lucky them.
By HmmmDonut on 3/25/2006 1:37:29 PM , Rating: 2
This makes me want to cry. Do you all realize that they can upload faster than I can download? Damn you Bellsouth!

Atleast Verison is bringing the faster service into Florida. I hope it doesn't take them long to get the my area.




Real 16 Mbs??
By phoneboy on 3/25/2006 5:06:07 PM , Rating: 2
Always remember something about any cable co's internet service, it's shared bandwith on the pipe from the office. The FIOS connection is a dedicated pipe to the customer. Just like any cable offering you might get the rate they sold you but thats normally at 2:25 A.M when noone else is using the service. Trust me, I've had both services at the same time.




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