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Verizon says Fios service in the future could hit 400Mbps

News.com sat down with Verizon CTO Mark Wegleitner to talk about the company’s strategy and its plans for internet services in the future. Questions on the agenda centered on Verizon’s Fios service that delivers TV and broadband services to home over fiber optic networks and more.

Wegleitner was asked about how he feels as a network provider about slowing down peer-to-peer traffic. He skirted answering the question posed to him and merely said that it’s rational to need a network management plan, yet you have to ensure the capabilities of applications. Basically Wegleitner says slowing down one application makes others work better, but you have to ensure peer-to-peer works for those using it legitimately. The answer between the lines appears to be that peer-to-peer traffic shouldn’t be blocked, but slowing it down is understandable.

In talking about Verizon’s Fios services, Wegleitner says it is on schedule to meet the stated goal of 18 million homes wired for Fios by 2010. The current 50Mbps speed offered by Fios is capable of being fully consumed according to Wegleitner with the proliferation of multiple internet connected devices in today’s home from notebooks and computers to Blu-ray players and game consoles.

Wegleitner says that with the current Passive Optical Network specification being used with its Fios service it can offer up to 100Mbps speeds to a home. Wegleitner says that Verizon is looking to deploy GPON technology as an enhancement to its current fiber technology. Using the new specification 200Mbps to a home will be possible with a maximum data rate of 400Mbps.

When asked if Verizon plans to keep building its Fios fiber optic network after it hits the projected 18 million home mark in 2010, Wegleitner says that there is “more gas” in the Fios engine. However, he points out those rural homes will be the ones least likely to get service. To be able to provide fast data speeds in rural locations Verizon is betting on LTE 4G technology.

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More speed is fine but...
By PitViper007 on 6/27/2008 12:55:18 PM , Rating: 5
How about just getting FIOS rolled out everywhere? I mean come on, we're talking about the the highest speed network for the money and it is very limited in its deployment at this time. I say FIOS for everyone!!!




RE: More speed is fine but...
By HrilL on 6/27/2008 1:41:15 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah I agree with that. I can't wait for it to make to where I live as the only option I have is cox cable and it has been giving me worse and worse service since I got it. I could really use that extra bandwidth as well. Then working remotely from home won't be as time consuming considering now that it takes me way to long to send files back and forth over the VPN


RE: More speed is fine but...
By SpaceRanger on 6/27/2008 1:59:18 PM , Rating: 2
Here Here!!!

First I was told... Beginning of 2008 for my area... Well.. Now I'm being told 2009....

Sometime by the year 2012 I'll have FiOS... /nod


RE: More speed is fine but...
By Oregonian2 on 6/27/2008 3:17:43 PM , Rating: 2
OTOH "My area" had FiOS at least a couple years before my house had it available. Two or more years ago it was less than a mile away (saw references in a forum somewhere about installs giving locations where I knew where they were). About a year and a half ago it was within a couple streets of me before the underground installers went up a nearby crossing street not to return until the following summer and then it was a few months after the conduits came past before they declared service available. And then I delayed until about two weeks ago (then upping 15/2 to 20/5 "free" earlier this week). Awesome compared to DSL.

If you like mail flyers for DSL though, just go to verizon's website and check for fios availability. I did that quite a few times and I think every time I checked resulted in postal mail of a Verizon DSL offer (I had third party DSL (albeit using Verizon copper)). They could have saved $50 not sending that massive mail to me. :-)


RE: More speed is fine but...
By jskirwin on 6/27/2008 3:06:24 PM , Rating: 1
Fios is in my area, and even though I swore I'd be the first on my block to get it, I still don't have it. VZ hasn't made it easy for me to get.

It took 6 months from the time the guidewire was up before the fiber was hung and eventually lit. I learned it was lit after I entered my phone # on the site, but when I called the CSR said it wasn't available yet. I hung up and called back and was told that it was available, but the CSR didn't have any info on the packages; she asked if I could call back later. I hung up and forgot about it for awhile.

Meanwhile I was being inundated with offers from Comcast; nothing though from VZ. A couple of weeks later I called VZ and spoke to a bored CSR; after playing a game of 20 questions in which I extracted the available packages from him "Does package A include Internet? No. Does package B? No." I learned that the installation would take a full 8 hour day during which the tech needed access in my home.

That's a deal breaker because I'm an IT contractor and the lost wages couldn't justify the "cool factor" or being an early adopter or my urge to stick it to Comcast.

So I called Comcast and told them that Fios was available. They immediately cut my rate. I'm stuck with them for now. Even now 6 months later I still get all kinds of junk mail from Comcast but nothing from VZ regarding Fios.

I still want Fios, but I would like VZ to "push" it to me as opposed to me "pulling" it from them. I guess they've gotten used to Fios adopters wanting the service so badly that they don't have to do anything but sit and wait for the phone to ring.


RE: More speed is fine but...
By sxr7171 on 6/27/2008 3:11:47 PM , Rating: 1
I know. It's like being at a restaurant at the end of the meal and wallet in hand, you feel like you need to beg someone to come and collect on the check.


RE: More speed is fine but...
By Oregonian2 on 6/27/2008 3:29:04 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
So I called Comcast and told them that Fios was available. They immediately cut my rate.


Didn't Verizon just lose a court case or some such having do do with them doing that to try and keep customers ("losing" to the cable guys)?

When FiOS became available here, we got an oversized lush beautifully done flyer that was selling "don't you want to be the first one in your neighborhood with FiOS?" or something like that. This was late last year (maybe 7 months ago).

Verizon marketing in your area seems quite different for some reason.

P.S. - What's a "guidewire". Fiber above ground there? I thought FiOS was almost always underground (like it's here).


RE: More speed is fine but...
By jskirwin on 6/27/2008 3:42:55 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
What's a "guidewire". Fiber above ground there? I thought FiOS was almost always underground (like it's here).


I live in a mature suburb of Philadelphia (homes >50 yrs old). The fiber optic - like everything else - is strung above ground. First a steel cable is strung between telephone poles. Then fiber optic is brought in and hung temporarily from it. Then this thing that looks like an oversized thermos travels down the guide wire and "wraps" the fiber optic around it. I'm not a pro: I just watched them do it from my front yard one day. Months of splicing and testing follow.

VZ customer service is terrible here in Verizon Country. I forgot to mention that two or three before I spoke to a human I got disconnected in the phone tree. I forget how I got around that road block, but it just added to the impression that the company just didn't want my business.


RE: More speed is fine but...
By Oregonian2 on 6/27/2008 5:21:18 PM , Rating: 2
Thanks for the description!


RE: More speed is fine but...
By winterspan on 6/27/2008 11:33:33 PM , Rating: 3
unfortunately, it's going to take government intervention with subsidies and tax incentives before the telecom monopoly is going to get off their fat greedy asses to build out a FTTH network nationwide. For now, they are happy charging US citizens the highest per megabyte rate in the developed world.


Consumption
By Kalte on 6/27/2008 1:18:42 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
The current 50Mbps speed offered by Fios is capable of being fully consumed according to Wegleitner with the proliferation of multiple internet connected devices in today’s home from notebooks and computers to Blu-ray players and game consoles.


Wegleitner isn't making much sense. If you have an internet connection at home, all your devices share that same bandwidth, and you're not using any more or less than before. Who cares if you have a thousand laptops at home all trying to load a website? It'll take ages, but the FiOS network wouldn't be affected, just your own download speed.

Sounds like he's BSing to uninformed subscribers.




RE: Consumption
By blaster5k on 6/27/2008 1:32:04 PM , Rating: 2
We aren't given the exact words from Wegleitner in this article and this particular sentence is poorly worded, but it seems he's only saying that the full 50Mbps of bandwidth is available. It's particularly beneficial for homes with lots of internet-connected gadgets. How is that BS?


RE: Consumption
By blaster5k on 6/27/2008 1:34:08 PM , Rating: 3
In fact, the original article makes this more clear.

quote:
Are people really using the 50Mbps service?
Wegleitner: Under specific circumstances, transferring files at 50Mbps is better than 10Mbps. The key here, though, is concurrent use. In the old days, when you had one PC, there probably wasn't much need for these kinds of speeds. But now there are multiple devices connected to broadband in the home. And that number is only going to grow. So it's important to have the performance there.


RE: Consumption
By joex444 on 6/27/2008 2:53:23 PM , Rating: 2
You're reading it wrong. Look at it starting from the last sentence first, then put a "thus" and read the first sentence.

We have more devices in our houses these days, so its easier for a family to use a 50Mbps connection. With only 1 or 2 PCs, using 50Mbps is harder to do, that's all he is saying.


RE: Consumption
By sxr7171 on 6/27/2008 3:09:55 PM , Rating: 2
Read carefully. He's just saying that today people are capable of wanting and actually using a 50Mbps line to its potential. The article was written just fine.


RE: Consumption
By Ananke on 6/27/2008 4:42:07 PM , Rating: 2
They consider the entire bandwidth available, including the TV if you order. So with HDTV and Internet traffic, it is not that hard to fully utilize it. Especially, it doesn't make sense to have just the Internet for th eprice, better get a package with TV, phone and web.


RE: Consumption
By Oregonian2 on 6/27/2008 5:37:22 PM , Rating: 2
True, package deals can be a great deal if that's what one wants (I just got FiOS only for Internet service (although FiOS carries my POTS service over it as well)).

But in any case, I don't believe the 50-Mbps that some people subscribe to for their Internet service includes bandwidth used for other purposes (like TV). But that said, they may be oversubscribing the main fiber in terms of total bandwidth so it may impact things sometimes. IOW, if one has 50Mbps service and turns on the TV box, then I don't think retesting with places like www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ will show a change.


RE: Consumption
By rett448 on 6/30/2008 8:44:58 AM , Rating: 2
The 50 Mbps is just for the internet. The Fios rep told me the total bandwidth per house approaches something like 6 Gbps. This makes sense when you figure in 20-30 HD channels, 200 SD channels, phone, and VOD in addition to the internet


RE: Consumption
By Oregonian2 on 6/30/2008 2:17:38 PM , Rating: 2
6 Gbps? Are you sure?

I have seen references that say the video is sent down the fiber on a third wavelength (data uplink is one, downlink is another) but haven't investigated if that's true. But on BPON the data downlink is "only" 622 Mbps and is shared for up to 16 (or was it 32) houses. GPON which is starting to be installed (mine a couple weeks ago was BPON with the installer saying GPON was a few months out locally) is 2.4Gbps to-the-houses (slower "up") and is shared by more houses.

But in any case, in terms of video, unless things have changed in the last few months, one can only see a maximum of two HD channels simultaneously in a home with FiOS, even if one has more than that number of sets connected (one of the things that bothered me when looking into what to get, we got 3 directv HD DVR's -- although we've not tested to see if we can do more than two different ones at once). There must some upstream switching of what's delivered to one's house -- at least with the HD.

So it would seem that both data and at least HD video is "shared" so any gross bandwidth figure would be misleading.

P.S. - Verizon has just upped the HD count to something like 90 I was told by the installer -- but I haven't looked into it, I'm committed to DirecTV for a while yet (and DTV is due to go to as many as 150 or so soon when the new satellite is cranked up and/or whenever channels sources are available).

P.P.S. - Note that I love having FiOS and am not complaining! I'm just hard pressed to think 6Gbps is being delivered for *me*. :-)


RE: Consumption
By loeakaodas on 6/27/2008 11:13:28 PM , Rating: 2
The TV signal is actually MoCA or the same technology as cable, sent over a different wavelength than the Internet or POTS. VOD for the TV service uses Internet, but that's it.


Does increasing speed really matter
By yanon on 6/27/2008 11:58:46 PM , Rating: 1
if all the U.S. broadband network providers start implementing monthly usage cap?




By lagitup on 6/29/2008 4:04:25 PM , Rating: 2
They seem to get along just fine in england where the standard plan has a usage cap @ 8mb/s for the equivelant of 20usd or os per month...


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