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No bandwidth caps and image quality boost numbers

Most internet users want high speed connections, especially if they watch television programs/movies, play games, or download files using their computers. Cable systems using copper wiring can offer high speeds, especially if using DOCSIS 3.0 technology, but for pure bandwidth nothing surpasses fiber optic systems.

FTTP (Fiber To The Premises) systems have been envisioned for years, but high installation costs have discouraged many companies from bringing FTTP to the market. The only nationwide Internet Service Provider willing to take that risk so far has been Verizon, and it has been paying off for them.

Verizon now has over 3.3 million subscribers for its FiOS Internet service. It added 198,000 new customers in the third quarter, for a net gain of almost 800,000 new FiOS internet subscribers this year alone.

Slow uploading speeds and bandwidth caps are some of the weakest points of traditional ISPs. The "Fastest" plan offered by FiOS allows download speeds of up to 50 Mbps and uploads of up to 20 Mbps, while even the basic "Fast" service features upload speeds of up to 5 Mbps. None of the FiOS plans have any bandwidth caps.

The company's FiOS TV service is also growing. FiOS TV now has 2.7 million customers, up 191,000 in Q3.

The high bandwidth afforded by fiber optic systems allows Verizon to forego the signal compression used by most cable and satellite systems, which often leads to artifacts during the encoding and decoding portions. FiOS TV has much higher image quality, especially when viewed on large screen televisions.

Verizon has big plans to continue subscriber growth. FiOS Internet is currently available to 11.5 million premises, while FiOS TV is an option for 10.9 million premises. The company plans to makes FiOS available to more households, as well as boost adoption rates.

Comments     Threshold


Real expansion...
By n0b0dykn0ws on 10/28/2009 12:49:07 PM , Rating: 2
If only they would truly expand.

I have two choices for broadband. One is a regional cable company, which has tremendous infrastructure issues, and the other option is DSL for about the same price but with slower speeds.

I'd not only love their internet offerings, but their HD services too.

n0b0dykn0ws




RE: Real expansion...
By corduroygt on 10/28/2009 12:54:14 PM , Rating: 2
Totally agree, fios is available two streets down from my home but not for me...For 2 years I've been waiting for them to come 2 streets down.
In the meantime, comcast doubled my speed to 16mbit/s now I see sustained dl speedds of 1.9 mbit/s so fios is losing its advantage since I don't come close to the 250GB cap anyways.


RE: Real expansion...
By Lord 666 on 10/28/2009 12:59:00 PM , Rating: 3
I was at 22 download on Comcast before moving and now on FiOS 25/15 package. Can tell you that, in my area at least, the performance experienced is greater than what its rated at. When they do come two blocks over, definitely worth the migration.


RE: Real expansion...
By Oregonian2 on 10/28/2009 1:48:17 PM , Rating: 3
Yes, that's why FiOS numbers will go up continuously as long as Verizon pays they high upfront cost of expanding their system. They'll get high signups for at least the internet service anywhere they are installed.

It took a year or two for them to expand to my home when their install boundary stagnated a couple blocks away.

My FiOS is rated 20/5 and for fast internet sites, I'll regularly get the full 20MB download speed continuously for large downloads (like getting a full new multi-gigabyte map upgrade for my GPS from the Garmin website).

Verizon may get a bump down in stats sometime before long when FiOS here in Oregon (with Intel's largest employee-count facilities), Washington (Microsoft,etc), and I think parts of Indiana will be sold off to Frontier in Verizon's abandonment of the Silicon rain forest (and whatever metro Seattle calls their area).


RE: Real expansion...
By threepac3 on 10/28/2009 5:51:34 PM , Rating: 2
Verizon Recently changed my connection speed from 20/20 to 25/15. Great thing about it is I'm seeing 25/20 speeds. As it is now I can download at 3 MBps and upload at 2.5 MBps. Pretty Awesome!


RE: Real expansion...
By Souka on 10/28/2009 6:08:28 PM , Rating: 2
I live in Issaquah, WA (about 10 east of Seattle).

FIOS will never be an option until some FCC ruling is changed.

I have Comcast, only other land based option is Qwest DSL (which also provides traditional land line phone service. According to Verzion, they're prohibited from offering their service to my area by law, and suggest writing to my congressman to change it. It had to do something with big companies (eg, Verizon) pushing out smaller telco's (eg, Qwest).

I do not remember the specifics as it was over 6 months ago...but I called back a few days later, got the same story.

Lame!


RE: Real expansion...
By Oregonian2 on 10/29/2009 2:11:33 PM , Rating: 2
Won't get it anyway with Verizon abandoning Washington State in it's entirety anyway (FiOS there being sold to Frontier along with all the DSL, etc stuff as well).

Verizon has almost completely stayed within their former Verizon (including GTE, etc) POTS service areas -- although they've gone out of such areas in limited fashion. Some of that may be due to laws, but I think a lot of it has to do with re-use of existing Verizon facilities like central offices and backhaul infrastructure which makes those areas a lot more economic for initial expansion (along with having existing lower-dollar service customers that will be easier to "upgrade" to full internet/phone/TV services).

But yes, we've Qwest in Portland proper and I understand it'd be "forever" before they'd get FiOS -- even while all areas surrounding Portland proper has been getting FiOS slowly by slowly as things get installed (all underground, etc which takes a while).

I'm in Washington County, the Western Suburbs of Portland. This is where all the high-tech is (Tektronix, Intel, etc) en masse. We're all formerly GTE areas long ago, so we're all Verizon now (and to become Frontier).

We were one of the first areas to have FiOS installed quite a long time ago (although not usually listed in national lists, we not being as big as Texas, etc).

I just hope Frontier is able to keep up and maintain FiOS after they take it over (that being what I use and like quite a lot).


RE: Real expansion...
By FITCamaro on 10/28/2009 7:09:56 PM , Rating: 2
You can thank your government for them not being able to.


RE: Real expansion...
By keith524 on 10/29/2009 8:24:15 AM , Rating: 2
I think not. Verizon ran fiber through our neighborhood 2 years ago for FIOS but they won't offer it because of "marketing" reasons.


RE: Real expansion...
By marvdmartian on 10/29/2009 10:35:32 AM , Rating: 2
Agreed. I live 2 hours from the Dallas-Ft Worth metroplex, and they haven't come up this way, even though the city I'm in offers a population of over 100,000 people.

My choices are TW Cable Roadrunner (which I now have), standard speed up to 6 megabit per second, DSL through AT&T @ 768 kilobit per second (where I live), or wireless through Xanadoo or Clearwire (neither of which I've tried, since they can't hit the speed I'm getting with RR, but charge just as much).

If FIOS moved in here, I'd switch in a heartbeat!


Verison's Business Model
By Hyperion1400 on 10/28/2009 12:50:53 PM , Rating: 5
Part 1: Don't suck

Part 2: Continue to not suck

Part 3: Maintain not-suckage while simultaneously expanding lack of suck

Glad to see it's working for them in spades. But, give it some time and I guarantee TW, Cox, and the like will start whining like hell to the FTC/FCC and Verison will get shafted.




RE: Verison's Business Model
By Hyperion1400 on 10/28/2009 12:52:53 PM , Rating: 2
Aw, looks like I can't stick to that model...

*Hangs head in shame*


RE: Verison's Business Model
By chmilz on 10/28/09, Rating: -1
RE: Verison's Business Model
By MindParadox on 10/29/2009 4:52:06 AM , Rating: 1
some people, like myself, have horror stories about verizon, like a $7000 PLUS wireless phone bill in 1999 for an 18 hour conversation to uganda!! find me a phone from 1999 that could stay alive talking that long, and i might think about paying them

(they have even admitted it was impossible with the phones available, and that my number HAD to have been cloned to another device, yet i still receive calls from collectors about the supposed "debt" to verizon)

obviously, i will never pay for any service from them as long as i am alive


RE: Verison's Business Model
By maven81 on 10/28/2009 1:36:38 PM , Rating: 2
If the time warner attack ads in the NYC metro area are any indication, time warner is scared, very scared.


RE: Verison's Business Model
By Omega215D on 10/29/2009 10:07:54 AM , Rating: 2
And people are believing it and many can't seem to live without their NY1 or all their favorite sports teams in HD... yet Fios still shows the same sports and teams most follow anyway. I dunno... NYers aren't as educated as once thought.

Bring it to Queens as I cannot stand TWC with their crap service and equipment.


RE: Verison's Business Model
By inperfectdarkness on 10/28/2009 5:45:53 PM , Rating: 2
cox's tier 2 (rated at 9Mbps) has been speed tested at my house to hit >40Mbps at times.

i'm happy with the service--however, there are MOST CERTAINLY places where i've lived previously where the availability/speed was atrocious.


RE: Verison's Business Model
By keith524 on 10/29/2009 8:54:10 AM , Rating: 3
I don't trust speed tests any more as I firmly believe all the ISPs give priority to the test sites.


Verizon needs Fios in WI
By spidertaker23 on 10/28/2009 12:48:39 PM , Rating: 2
Man I can't wait for the day for Verizon Fios to hit WI. Uverse and Time Warner suck!

I hope they launch Fios in WI soon.




RE: Verizon needs Fios in WI
By noxipoo on 10/28/2009 1:15:27 PM , Rating: 2
don't hold your breath if your local phone company is ATT like mine. Probably won't see it unless you move.


RE: Verizon needs Fios in WI
By darklight0tr on 10/28/2009 1:30:52 PM , Rating: 2
I have U-verse in Madison, WI and it works great. The only thing I would like to see with it is higher Internet speeds at lower prices.

I had Charter Cable before...and boy do they suck. I experienced intermittent performance issues with my Internet which they couldn't fix after a month of trying. I was glad the day I gave them the boot.


RE: Verizon needs Fios in WI
By MindParadox on 10/29/2009 4:57:10 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
I had Charter Cable before...and boy do they suck. I experienced intermittent performance issues with my Internet which they couldn't fix after a month of trying. I was glad the day I gave them the boot.


Charter here myself, and i experienced the same problems as you till i bought my own cable modem. the no names and outdated surfboards they issue are complete crap even when they work correctly, and there were a crapload recalled recently here in atlanta due to them being installed with the wrong power brick, causing them to catch fire in some cases, but usually just to overload the electronics and make it lock up about every 4 hours or so

currently, my internet has been connected for 176 days with an average speed of 8 1/2 Mbps down, and 1.2 Mbps up


RE: Verizon needs Fios in WI
By TrevorBlain on 10/28/2009 1:31:25 PM , Rating: 2
Right there with you, I'm in Milwaukee and it just kills me that I am stuck with a choice between Evil and More Evil (TW and ATT).

I'm beginning to think that FioS would just be TOO fast for this state.

Believe it or not, I'm at least somewhat tempted to move to an area that has FioS available. The weather blows here, anyway. :P


RE: Verizon needs Fios in WI
By Veerappan on 10/29/2009 10:22:39 AM , Rating: 2
Well, I used to have Charter in Madison, and it was decent. Moved to Boston, and had Comcast for a bit (decent, but nothing special), now I've got the 15/5 plan FiOS from Verizon, and it rocks. $50/month for what I've measured at 26 mbit up / 18 mbit down.

The weather here still sucks though. Warmer by about 5-10 degrees on average, but more rain/sleet and the occasional nor'easter.


FiOS is Awesome
By Lord 666 on 10/28/2009 12:54:11 PM , Rating: 1
Just came from "Comcast County" with my new house being in a FiOS area. Was on the fence and still have one or two grips, but overall glad I ditched Comcast (thanks Apparition). Comcast even lied saying they can port my old Comcast voice number two towns over, but in reality were unable to even though it was VoIP. Fucking bastards.

Two minor grips about FiOS:

1. When changing channels, the on screen display has a lag saying what channel and program is on.

2. Internal network flexibility is a bit annoying. Want to deploy a ASA5505, but due to the way the modem and tv box communicate, its a bit cumbersome. There are work arounds on the Internet, but the best way would require purchasing a Motorola MoCA unit on Ebay.




RE: FiOS is Awesome
By theapparition on 10/28/2009 1:42:55 PM , Rating: 2
Hey, most time people tell me to f*ck off, so thanks!!!

And I warned you about the VOIP numbers. There's government regulation requiring number porting, but since VOIP isn't under government regulation, they are under no requirement to port your number. Once you go VOIP, they own your number and have control of it.

I haven't noticed much lag, but then again, don't get to watch too much TV. Wife has never complained (about that at least, lol) about channel lag.

Why can't you put the ASA5505 between the FIOS router and your home network? Sure I'm underestimating it since I don't know what you're trying to do.


RE: FiOS is Awesome
By amanojaku on 10/28/2009 1:52:53 PM , Rating: 2
As a Time Warner customer I'm jealous and telling you to f*ck off!

*shakes fist in fustration* :-)


RE: FiOS is Awesome
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 10/28/2009 1:45:18 PM , Rating: 2
Hmmm

1. I usually see this when switching between the HD and regular channels, as long as you stay on either side the delay seems to be negligible.


RE: FiOS is Awesome
By HrilL on 10/28/2009 5:31:47 PM , Rating: 2
I would say your 1. gripe is standard with pretty much every HD services. I have yet to see one that loads channels quickly. be it cable or satellite. I've never seen how fios works.


Comast good here
By Heinrich on 10/28/2009 12:54:27 PM , Rating: 4
A few years ago I despised the arrogant cable company and their spotty service.

Things have changed with Comcast since FIOS. Uptimes have been nearly 100%; service has gotten cheap; customer service has gotten better; speeds have more than doubled at the top end.

Happy with Comcast here !




RE: Comast good here
By chmilz on 10/28/2009 2:37:00 PM , Rating: 4
It's called competition. Amazing what it can do.


Vegas?
By dondino on 10/28/2009 7:31:02 PM , Rating: 2
It would be nice if they came to Vegas but Verizon has very little presence here. Anyone have an idea on their expansion plans? I was hoping the article would shed some light on that, no pun.




RE: Vegas?
By nowayout99 on 10/29/2009 4:32:36 AM , Rating: 2
For now, Verizon is pausing new expansion plans. But once it restarts, they're more likely to show up in areas where they are already the prevalent landline company.

Not sure who that is in Vegas, but if it happens to be AT&T, you're more likely to get u-verse.


fiber to cable
By Screwballl on 10/28/2009 12:51:17 PM , Rating: 2
What many companies are doing (including Cox in my area) is putting down fiber backbone so there is a fiber line to a main junction box up the street and then copper cable to the house, a type of hybrid setup. I have heard of various other phone and cable companies doing the same. This allows the boost in speed so my mid range price plan still sees 12Megabit speeds (usual downloads for me run 800-1200 KBps depending on the site).
Since they rolled this out in my area, I have not seen a single moment of downtime. Even before the upgrade, I still only saw my connection down 2-3 times per year for less than an hour each time.

Now I am just waiting for them to roll out DOCSIS3.0 in my area so I can upgrade my modem.... and I know Verizon won't be coming here because Sprint/Embarq/CenturyLink loves the duopoly here.
The choice here is
1) stable, fast and reasonably priced Cable (internet, phone and TV), or
2) low speed, high price, unstable DSL connections, overpriced bundle with a dish company, and poor copper line phone service.




the big asterisk
By tastyratz on 10/28/2009 2:14:26 PM , Rating: 2
Verizon fios was GREAT when we had the net through them in NH awhile ago... but the big problem is their commitment. Verizon has abandoned all but their most profitable areas, and while they continue to expand they are "trimming the fat" on even recent expansions. I swear we didn't have service a year before getting pushed off and we were first in the area.
Fairpoint "fios" was such a nightmare I tried getting the hell away from them, worst expeience ever. It was a company biting off more than they can chew and taking on most of the new england area sans mass.

While they continue to "expand" they are doing the same thing in other areas. They are trying to sell a large hunk of service area off to Frontier.

Is this what we should expect? If your a new customer getting new service... don't bank on Verizon always being your provider or it sticking around, I wouldn't burn your bridges anywhere unless you live in downtown congested metro areas.




As a FIOS user
By MPE on 10/28/2009 3:09:40 PM , Rating: 2
I had RCN and Time Warner in NYC.
Time Warner sucked because their price is higher than everyone else, especially if you wanted HBO and such.

RCN was the cheapest but changing channels with their cable box WAS EXTREMELY slow. It would take 4-6 seconds before the image clears up. Internet and cable signal was spotty at times. They where the cheapest.

FIOS has the fastest internet (20/5) at the same price, fastest cable box, and cleanest images - especially for the old standard def channels where the other cable companies just basically butchered them. HD looks best also.




Damn
By Chiisuchianu on 10/28/2009 3:22:41 PM , Rating: 2
That's great news. Hopefully they expand to the rest of Florida that's missing FIOS. I'm dying to get some FIOS!




By FlyTexas on 10/28/2009 11:25:45 PM , Rating: 2
We had Time Warner Cable for several years at 10m down, 1m up. FioS was just down the street all that time.

We were the 6th install in our area when they expanded this year, holy cow it is fast. Even from the same web sites, it is at least 3 times faster in real world terms.

We get 25m down, 15m up, it is like a whole new Internet. It is also less laggy than cable was, which is nice.

The Win 7 RC took +- 20 min to download. That is just stupid fast.

The installer was very nice as well, he spent 3 hours here of which 45 minutes was my asking him questions, some stupid some not so stupid. Very friendly installer, good job whomever hired him.

Yes, they cut the copper to the house, but so what, we'll never use it again anyway, and I don't think anyone else will either.

AT&T is nuts to not be running Fiber to the house, AT&T offers phone service here, not that I'd use it, and their only Internet option is DSL at a max of 6m down, 768k up for $50/month.

Stupid AT&T...




Crap on Verizon
By gwynethgh on 10/29/2009 7:54:19 AM , Rating: 2
Just before they added TV to their service here they bailed out of our area. Now we are stuck with Chapter 11 Fairpoint. Not a chance in heck that Fairpoint will be able to afford to roll out new services. Frak




No to verizon
By fishman on 10/29/2009 8:41:13 AM , Rating: 2
I had planned to move to Fios. But after it took Verizon 3 1/2 weeks to fix my lack of dial tone and reestablish my DSL connection I figure I'll look elsewhere.




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