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Comcast ads are misleading consumers about FiOS

news.yahoo.com — Avery Axel was annoyed with his cable company, Comcast, and was considering switching to Verizon's new FiOS fiber-optic TV and internet service...

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 23, 2008

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  • george2gfm, on 06/23/2008, -5/+199A competitor being misleading? Say it ain't so.
  • brstilson, on 06/23/2008, -4/+182Comcast is so full of *****. Fiber means dick unless it's run all the way to the home. It would be like an ISP advertising dial-up at T1 speeds because part of their network is that type of line.
  • bjornski, on 06/23/2008, -7/+136Hi, I'm a Mac....
  • Elranzer, on 06/23/2008, -1/+112Personally, I'd love to get FIOS and I would switch to it in a heartbeat, were it available in my area. I don't live in the boonies either, Albany NY is a rather medium-to-large city and metro area.

    FIOS has been out for years, WTF is the hold-up getting out to areas??
  • staeiou, on 06/23/2008, -0/+106Yeah, Comcast also ran ads for a little while saying that they had over 1000 HD channels. Pathetic.
  • TheHayze, on 06/23/2008, -1/+90Not to even mention those crazy ads about talking turtles. There are no such thing!
  • dsmx, on 06/23/2008, -1/+88If a competitor starts mudslinging at it's competition you know it hasn't got anything good to say about it's own service.
  • alapoet, on 06/22/2008, -3/+87FTA, it seems all the other major cable players are doing the same - Cox, Charter, TimeWarner, and Cablevision.
  • TheMu, on 06/23/2008, -1/+81Hell, they've been doing that for years with DSL. It's all FUD crafted to mislead people into sticking with Comcast.
  • inactive, on 06/23/2008, -0/+63Comcast can't upgrade their network because they spent all their money on that LED wall display in the Comcast Center.
  • dougvfr750, on 06/22/2008, -6/+62There's fiber on my street. Give me the right parts and I'll run it into the house myself....
  • bjornski, on 06/23/2008, -0/+52Hardly. Most of the time they're just bashing Vista.
  • AlwaysAwake, on 06/22/2008, -10/+61To further their mutual ambitions for The One World Company, David Rockefeller, and his loyal servant Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase & Co., lead a group of super-rich owner investors backing Verizon, which just bought Altell to surpass AT&T as the largest wireless phone service provider, As they have devoured Bear Stearns and are dismantling CitiCorp in the financial field, AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, etc., are their next prey. They are following the example of their partners, The Rothschilds, who just bought up EVERY wireless broadband platform in Europe, with approval from all Governments. Richard Carrion of Banco Popular Holdings, on the Verizon board, brings the ATM business into the picture as well. The overall plan is massive in scope and depth.
  • dazparkour, on 06/23/2008, -0/+39"Comcast is deploying rhetoric instead of Technology". Pint (Or whatever you happen to drink) to the first person to sum it all up better than that.
  • inactive, on 06/23/2008, -0/+39when i got fios, they dug the trench to my house, laid the fibre and set me up for no cost to me. They replaced the grass kept everything tidy. Very very professional.

    I am paying 30 something a month for 5/2 service. For 10 bucks more I can go 15/5. I dropped comcast because they ***** me over so many times, I couldnt stand it. Fios TV isnt in my area yet, but I even dropped them as a tv company even though i had no replacement. I will get tv again with fios tv comes later this year.
  • FKnight, on 06/23/2008, -0/+37All I know is it takes me 5 minutes to download a movie with FIOS and about a half an hour with Brighthouse. I couldn't care less what it plugs into.
  • Pittance, on 06/23/2008, -0/+29About as much as Clinton pointed out Obama's good points, but yeah sure. Usually the PC guy just mentions his failings and the Mac guy just shrugs and says "Sucks for you".
  • nicc, on 06/23/2008, -1/+28as a Comcast to FiOS switcher, the only downside, at the moment, is the severe lack of HD channels FiOS TV has compared to the others.
    that said, FiOS SD service is of a noticeably better picture quality than Comcast SD service was.
  • eldridgea, on 06/23/2008, -0/+20Verizon runs fiber to the home.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fios#Technology

    FTTP - Fiber to the Premises
  • TimmyGUNZ, on 06/23/2008, -0/+19I recently moved to a FiOS area and was glad to switch from Cablevision. Not only am I getting a lot more for my money, but there is a marked difference in picture quality.

    As the FiOS tech explained (and this article touches on), the difference with FiOS is that you are getting fiber optic right into your home. When you are using cable, you are sharing bandwidth with everyone in your local radius, so living in populated city, my bandwidth was taking hits everytime someone in my building or block added HD service.

    I can honestly say that since switching to FiOS, not once have I had any picture stutter or artifacts that were present all the time with Cablevision. Also, bittorrent on their internet is jaw dropping.
  • twiztidsinz, on 06/23/2008, -4/+23"WTF is the hold-up getting out to areas??"

    Same thing that's been holding up the expansion of fiber for years: Corporate Greed.
    Why spend the money to increase their infrastructure when they can just charge you more for the current service? The major companies had received large tax breaks in exchange for having fiber rolled out across the nation by 2006... guess what they did?
  • staeiou, on 06/23/2008, -0/+19This was written by the Associated Press. Yahoo just reprinted it.
  • zizzybaloobah, on 06/23/2008, -0/+17Watch the ads carefully - they don't say '1000 channels'.

    They say '1000 choices'.

    Clever. Misleading, but clever.
  • Upon66, on 06/23/2008, -1/+18Comcast likes to make the customers think they have an OC-96 connection right to their house.
  • Bootes, on 06/23/2008, -0/+16A typical full length movie encoded with DivX/XviD is about 700mB. 20mbps internet = 2.5mB/sec. 700mB/2.5mB/sec = 280 seconds. 280/60 = 4.6666666666666666666666666666667minutes.
  • EarlOfLade, on 06/23/2008, -2/+18Quite frankly, not acceptable at all.
    If you expect a company to lie, cheat and steal in it's advertising, something is seriously wrong with YOU!

    And if companies can't make sure their advertising is truthful, society has to by making laws. USA is an alien place when it comes to legality, it has no laws that protect the consumers, but tons of laws that protects the companies. For a consumer, USA is a lawless third world country.

  • kelub, on 06/23/2008, -0/+16I work for a university. We've ran fiber to all of our buildings; however, up until last year, many of those fiber lines were using 10mbps transceivers. Using the term "fiber optics" is just another buzzword the corporations can latch onto to trick people into thinking their service is better. Unless they specifically tell you the speed, don't be fooled.
  • inactive, on 06/23/2008, -0/+15comcast = evil
  • benny215, on 06/23/2008, -0/+15where do you live? i live in downtown philadelphia and we don't have it. i hate comcast and would love to switch if they ever make it available. seems like this fios is some fairy tale that everyone talks about but no one can actually get.
  • davdev, on 06/23/2008, -0/+15As someone who just a year ago hated everything about Verizon, I LOVE FIOS. Sure I wish they had a few more HD channels, but they are coming. The PQ on both SD and HD are drastically better than my old comcast connection, and my internet speeds are much faster as well. At this point, it would take a very serious upgrade for me to switch from FIOS
  • rabidg00se, on 06/23/2008, -1/+16Spain won.
  • nygrissplz, on 06/23/2008, -2/+16No, it really DOESN'T suck. I have 5Mbit DSL and it is absolutely fantastic. AT&T DSL does not suck. I know nothing about Qwest, however.
  • PaleoDigger, on 06/23/2008, -0/+14If you are saying Verizon does not run fiber (optical fiber) to the home, directly to the demarcation point, you cannot be further from the truth. I recently switched from Comcast Cable (copper coaxial to the home) to Verizon FiOS (optical fiber to the home). I KNOW it's optical cable because I was there when they had to dig up my lawn to lay the new conduit and run the fiber from the ped (pedestal) to the new demarcation box IN MY HOME.

    Comcast (IMHO) is lying (at worst) and intentionally misleading the public (at best) when it makes statement such as it runs on fiber too!. Please stop spreading this FUD for them, it makes you less believable as an intelligent person.

  • bjs3171, on 06/23/2008, -0/+14they bought Alltell? Thank god. now they can stop running that awful advertising campaign.
  • Ryokurin, on 06/23/2008, -0/+13Ads like this are very effective to those who don't know technology. My father has complained about service for years, Fios isn't an option but Satellite is but he won't switch over because of years of Comcast commercials saying that rain will cause it to cut out. This is despite the fact my sister who lives down the road from him has had a dish for years and has only lost service when a tornado passed over the house! I've had an similar experience and neither one of us can get him to try it.
  • gn0stik, on 06/23/2008, -1/+13And they've all been misleading customers about satellite TV for years. This is just part of the same game plan.

    I've lost cable during high winds less than my friend who has dish. Figures, they have a bunch of satellite dishes, after all.
  • mobbo, on 06/23/2008, -0/+12I find it so funny Charter even has the BALLS to mention FiOS. They ONLY compete in places where they are the only choice. But now that FiOS is being deployed here in Denton, TX, I can't wait to see them fold up and gtfo. Terrible customer service, terrible prices, awful picture quality, ***** equipment, and embarrassing sub-contractors as "techs".

    I recently moved back to Denton and specifically found a house with FiOS availability. As I was moving in, a Charter salesperson called and I just laughed and hung up the phone. I've uploaded at least 500GB worth of data and downloaded at least 1TB of data so far this month without any complaints from Verizon. My neighbors share even more than I do and they have had no traffic shaping of any kind.
  • inactive, on 06/23/2008, -0/+12They ain't got ***** is what they have. I met one of their bigwigs and told him they should try doing on-demand viewing. That way they can have 2 streams going to a house both, if available, in HD. He looked at me funny and said he'd think about it. I'm sure that was his paradigm shifting without a clutch, so it'll go nowhere.

    Comcast really has to get their act together. Damn if the cable didn't go out yesterday while watching Euro 08 Spain v Italy. I was pissed.
  • gaapgod, on 06/23/2008, -0/+11"Comcast has started upgrading its network to provide FiOS-like speeds in 20 percent of its markets this year." And by "upgrading" they mean adjusting the setting at the main hub. Like I have said previously, we have plenty of bandwidth capacity in the US, it's just that companies are keeping speeds down so they can claim to be "upgrading" later and charge more money!
  • fuhcough, on 06/23/2008, -1/+11They bought Altell? *****.

    Wizard, we've been summoning you for hours!
  • ShinyDemon, on 06/23/2008, -0/+10You missed the point: you get your own fiber line.
  • davdev, on 06/23/2008, -0/+10Don't forget in most of the country the rights to deliver this service have to negotiated and approved town by town. While Verizon may be to blame somewhat, a lot of the delay is because your town/city councelors are waiting for a kickback before they will approve it.
    That is why Verizon has been pushing for legislation that would grant approval at the state level.
  • NinjaJoey, on 06/23/2008, -0/+10er, if you DON'T want to...
  • Jenadae, on 06/23/2008, -3/+13He still uses real player...
  • SpectralSounds, on 06/23/2008, -1/+10@pittance

    You do know the "pc guy" is hired by Apple, right? Those commercials are nothing but mudslinging by Apple. Apparently, their marketing machine has you fooled into thinking that is actually a PC user speaking his personal opinion.
  • hurdboy, on 06/23/2008, -0/+9Cox, with their hot BBB bond rating, is particularly worried about Verizon in some of the larger east coast markets. Where I live (Hampton Roads area of Va.), Cox has been doing the "we're fiber!" thing for a few months now. I travel to the Northern Virginia/DC area frequently, and have seen lots of ads up there, too.
  • bbliss17, on 06/23/2008, -0/+9comcast can die

    Verizon FIOS FTW!!
  • prth8machine, on 06/23/2008, -0/+9I certainly can't speak for all FiOS customers, but I've had it for a couple of weeks now and I love it. My only complaint is that there is some latency on the net side, but the TV is great. Picture quality is clearly better then what it used to be on Comcast. It would take a drastic reduction in service for me to leave it. And really, it wouldn't matter what Comcast did, I likely wouldn't leave FiOS.
  • twiztidsinz, on 06/23/2008, -0/+8Comcast: Sucktastic
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