PLEASE bring fios to Chicago.
C O M C A S T is horrible.
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Ditto to that, but in Denver...
Ditto to that, but in Denver. We all hate hate hate Comcast.
Clarification on Verizon's enterprise efforts
This story references another Network World article on FTTP for enterprises but according to that article, Verizon is a subcontractor to SAIC (a defense contractor) and the actual system going into the Annapolis Junction building is SCS (SAIC's offering), not Verizon's.
Verizon is NOT better than Comcast
To those begging Verizon for any services, we live and own businesses in areas served by both Verizon and Comcast.
In every case, Verizon service is worse, the terms are worse, and the service is less reliable that what we get from Comcast.
It took years to get viable alternatives to those Verizon monopolizers in our area--so beware what you are asking for.
I find articles informative, and interesting.
I find articles informative, and interesting.
No more Comcast Monopoly
We need more options in the Chicago area.......
Deregulate the Last Mile
It is time for the FCC to step in and disassociate the last mile from the content. As is being done with the electric companies all around the US, it is time to force the same on the last mile providers. By creating a signal/wiring solution standard for the home, then anyone can provide the end content, whether it be Comcast, Verizon, Vonage, ATT, Time Warner, and many others out there. This would definitly give a boost to the technology economic growth that was stiffled by Greenspan and the Clinton administration, which has never returned. The telcos with the current federal oversite will continue to give what they want you to have where they want you to have it, and that is final. Wrong frame of mind. I appreciate the FiOS offering at my house, but I would certainly like other alternatives for content. Today Verizon has a sugar dady as all telcos do in the FCC, and couldn't really compete in the content if their lives depended on it. This is an absolute fact. Now lets promote content selection in this country and have the FCC focus on home termination signaling offerings!!
build it and they will take it
If the last mile was deregulated to the tune you advocate, FTTP and coax networks to the home would never have been built by companies. The copper networks that were deregulated in 1996 were built under previous monopoly protection, so while it was a big financial loss to telcos, it could be argued that they already skimmed the profits of this network for many years past.
FTTP is a little different. Verizon is laying, at enormous expense and due to heavy competition from cable companies, the FTTP network to the homes with the expectation that they will be able to charge for it's use as they see fit and as the market will bear. This is Capitalism. I fail to see how an FTTP network laid down today could be considered a regulated monopoly holding and "deregulated" to allow competition access over those very same pipes.
I think some people advocate this because they want the free lunch that a "competitor" could provide if they could walk into your neighborhood, take over the FTTP pipe to your house, and never have to pay for the deployment of those pipes.
Sure, earthlink could provide you 50mbps service for $20/mo. over FTTP since they never had to dig a trench or hang a cable.
Still Protected
What you say is true about the FTTP pipes strung through the neighborhoods, but as comunnity regulations limit the businesses who can provide these services, they should also mandate that this infrastructure should be available to any content provider. Certainly the copper laid in the 40s has paid for itself over and over and over again, as will the FTTP solution.
I believe there is still a major TELCO continuing to get significant performance out of this old plant. The fact that Verizon has choosen to deploy a fiber base in a government controlled environment, still provides them a monopoly on how the service can be used, and at what price even to their content business unit. This said, all households(not 9x%) in American should have today a minimum of 1MB of broadband access at their doorstep. No one is asking anyone to do this for free. But the TELCOs can mix their content into this infrastructure cost when they hold the single purse.
This cable plant then should constitute the various signaling necessary to promote standard as well as broadband communications. Choose what you will for access to the premise, however the communications device must terminate FCC regulated standards signaling at the customer premise.
Now anyone wanting to deploy content over this cable plant will provide cost recovery similar to the electricity providers for the electric cable plant.
Say what you want about being able to do business in someone elses building, I think they call that a shopping mall, with rent and commission paid to ensure the premise is kept at a required level. Now the shoppers get what they want, and investors get compensated for their investment. This solution is working in the electricity cable plant, and should be mandated into the cable plants of the TELCOs. As I have witnessed over the years, if the TELCOs have the best deal, people will buy it. If they don't, then as with long distance offerings became over priced by the TELCOs, companies like MCI, Clay desta Communications and various others won over the monopolistic practices of Ma'Bell for long distance. All businesses will have the same options securing the cable plant and allowing for the next generation network.
TELCOs have procrastinated over the last 5 years to control how they fund their content through the regulated side of business. It is now time for content competition.
I LOVE COMPETITION!!
Comcast is NOT better than Verizon
To those begging Verizon for any services, we live and own businesses in areas served by both Verizon and Comcast. In every case, COMCAST service is worse.
Results may vary, but in my case, Verizon wins nands down. Comcast service sucked EVERY TIME I needed them. Verizon FIOS has lived up to the hype and I would only go back if they pulled the fibre from my dead cold hands.
Verizon Stiffles IP Solutions
Granted comparing a TELCO to a CABLE company is like comparing a boat manufacturer to a trucking company. The business model and the aspect of the offering is so majorly different, that it makes no sense. Now that said they both are looking to make as much money as possible.
Telcos come from a 5-9s infrastructure with call support mentality, while cable companies come from entertainment solutions where if your TV isn't working, then go fishing, play cards, or what ever , and we will get there either Wednesday morning before noon or Wednesday afternoon before 5, so sit and wait on us.
So with this all said, there is a very different way they also try to run their turf. Cable companies know TV and channel signaling. Provide movie content, and try to push VoD. Oh and someone told them they could offer Internet services, and by opening the interface to broadband IP could have any manufacturers CPE gear maintaining the IP service. Open interface standard, novel idea.
Verizon(Telco) works to protect their turf, by maintaining "PROPRIETARY" offerings. They had an idea to push "IP over Cable"(proprietary standard, supported in the NIM100 by Motorola). It suffice to give them the capabililty to manage their cable TV signal, and terminate IP at the customer premise. They could have used Ethernet, which their set top supports, as well as developed a wireless solution. Now the "Master Plan". Lets(Verizon) invest in a company called ActionTec, and integrate our solution into their premise router, and force every household in the country to adopt our device as the CPE since nothing else at all supports "IP over Cable" proprietary standard. Now Verizon can increase their investor return. This since they could 1) wrangle more money sharing out of a little company like ActionTec, versus Motorola, 2) maintain a proprietary solution, that if you want a single entry point to your house, Verizon has sowed up the premise with their proprietary solution, and there isn't an alternative. They will pull the NIM100 from a service option, because they only want to support the ActionTec, since it provides a payback to them.
Now here is where the whole subject of this response leads to. If all you want is to connect a PC to the internet, then most of the time the ActionTec works ok. However if you have built a home network with wireless infrastructure for video, music, gaming, and what ever the home industry will continue to grow to, the ActionTec stinks. Its ability to perform the fundamental processes such as "DHCP" is mostly none existant. There is absolutely no worse device on the market for DHCP, reviewing all CPE vendors, then ActionTec. But if your cable TV, and movie service is through Verizon, without using their sloppy gunky CPE solution called ActionTec, you can't receive a channel guide, or VoD, and many of the services your cable program promotes, like widgets. With their ActionTec solution in the picture, you can receive everything I said, but your network storage devices usually can't get an address, your IPTV boxes can't move video, if they can get an address. Many of your PCs in your premise are hosed as well. So if you are really looking to fix this with a Linksys, Dlink, NetGear, or any one else, you have to go to Ebay, and buy a NIM100 to resolve this issue.
Verizon only believes you should have the amount of IP presented to you that they they understand. I can assure you that isn't very much.
So great the cable company will come out Wednesday some time, but be aware from a user of FiOS. Verizon is changing their services view as well. They may be out Tuesday, but it won't be today, for any of your FiOS services. They are changing to the Cable model, and not vice versa.
Please bring back the IP entrepreneurs of 1999 and 2000. These TELCOs are stifling creativity for the Internet.