What is Digg?47 Comments
- Portfolioso, on 10/12/2007, -0/+41The term FiOS is being misused in this article. The author is confusing fiber optic cable with FiOS, which is a trademarked name of a service from Verizon.
Therefore, Morotola can help persuade your cable company to upgrade to a fiber optic network, but the title of the article makes no sense, since FiOS is only being offered by Verizon, which is a phone company, not a cable company (though they do offer TV through FiOS) - eros42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15This is interesting, but cable companies hold us by the throat and have no incentive to upgrade. In most markets the highest available speeds is 3.0-6.0 mb/s unless you are in a market where FIOS is available. Nice technology but it will take a long time for any of us to actually see it.
- catalysis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Most towns also have an exclusive franchise contract with a single cable company, so the only internet competition is with DSL. As long as DSL is 1-3 Mbps, the cable companies will stay at 3-6 Mbps. Large cities with multiple cable companies will see this technology rolled out faster.
- cawpin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8That's got to suck. I guess that's one good thing about living around a large metro area, Phoenix in my case. I have Cox and have the highest speed they offer. When I signed up it was 8mbps; it's now 12mbps and I have 1mbps up. It runs at or near full speed all the time. I just maxed it out this weekend downloading the new Ubuntu. It started at 1600kbps and slowed to 1100 by the end. I downloaded the whole 698MB CD in just over 7 minutes. I can't believe we've come this far. I remember letting my dial-up run over night to get my first Linux image and that was only 9 years ago.
I have a feeling this comment will bring the old-timers out of the woodwork. - Rickler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6$3,000 per hookup? Don't make verizon out to look like the good guy. That money is the 200 billion our taxes paid for SEVERAL YEARS AGO. That's right we should all have FiOS NOW.
- lordsandwich, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6As someone who lives in an old Manhattan apartment building, I can't even begin to hope that Verizon will figure out how to get FiOS working here. I'd gladly pay $100/mo. for equivalent speeds from cable.
- lbradeen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yeah i've got cablevision and am damn happy with boost. 30mbit down 6 up for $45/mo. I don't see any competition to them for a while to come.
- counterplex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@cawpin
Talking about old timers - I downloaded my first linux distro at the university. Lots of bandwidth but I had to go to a "computer room" to copy the images onto floppies. Man was that tedious. 21 floppies including G and X for slackware I think. - EclipseGSX, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Verizon's really working to build a base around where I live (NYC metro area). It's not available at my address yet, but less than half a mile away some friends of mine got a FiOS hookup. They were talking to the technicians while they were doing the work (they were there for 2 whole days, as they were the first in the neighborhood to get it), and I guess it costs about $3,000 per initial hookup to get a house/apartment wired up. It's a big cost, but Verizon can pretty much guarantee that these people will be long-term customers. Their Internet is so ridiculously fast... a solid 15-20 MBit down and 5 MBit up. Not to mention the quality of their TV signal and digital package. I can't wait for Verizon to get to my neighborhood.
- keram, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Here where I live we have had PON for 3 years now, it makes certain things easier for us (working at the Head End), but at the same time it makes certain things a lot harder.
One thing I always said, most customers have no idea what is involved in setting up the entire network, they always think "Oh yeah, they can just flip a switch & booom it is on".......... right.
Even trying to keep up with all the speed upgrades Comcast is adding (speed boost, 6+ Mb etc) means that we have to implement another CMTS & move certain thing around, and the CMTS alone costs $250K. Having to install PON is not that simple either, Fiber Optic cable is costly also. Look at companies such as WinFirst, which came out of TX, came into CA & was going to go into WA, they were so proud of the fact that they were going to provide Fiber to the Home, one thing they did not foresee was the cost of the fiber, and that is what drove them under (plus several other things).
My point is simple, (not saying this because I work at a Cable Company), consumer want things, but they want things for nothing, they always complain about the cost increases but they also (in the same breath) ask "Are you going to get the PON setup? Are you going to get the 10Mb Down speeds?". - Portfolioso, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I get 20MBPS. Do you have Cablevision in your market? They only seem to increase the speeds to compete with Cablevision.
- cheapdaddy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It really all comes down to Passive Optical Redundant Networks (PORN) the real goal driving force of the internet.
- kd1s, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2A month or so ago I noticed that Cox had been stringing fiber pretty much everywhere in the Providence, RI area. Meanwhile Verizon is cherry picking (Going after lowest income areas since they're most likely to spend more $$$ on wired entertainment).
And what should appear in my email yesterday? A notice that my net speed is being bumped to 20mbps which btw is 5mpbs faster than Verizon. For $50 a month. I disconnected my cable television service because with that kind of speed I can stream video all day long. I can't wait for Joost, Vudu, etc. to become realities. - SourWorm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Absolutely agree. Getting just about 40KBps upload on cable is stupid and can easily hinder a family during normal internet usage.
- Disjunto, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5in the uk... DSL can be faster than cable... quite fun really :D
- morgrar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Well, what about Cablevision? Optimum Online has been offering 10mbps down forever, and now it's 15mbps down, or 30mbps down if you pay for Boost, and 2mbps up, regardless. I feel like FiOS' major competition is Optimum Online.
- fadetoone, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I have Verizon FiOS (both internet and TV)... it's pretty fantastic. I would definitely recommend it if you have the option. I have 15 down/4 or 5 up, and I keep hearing they are bumping it up to 20, although I haven't seen it in my speeds.
- OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1[quote]I get 20MBPS. Do you have Cablevision in your market? They only seem to increase the speeds to compete with Cablevision.[/quote]
In NYC, Cablevision and FiOS both have Time Warner running scared and I love it.
Why don't people understand this simple fact yet: COMPETITION IS GOOD FOR CONSUMERS!
It is blatantly obvious that had TW been allowed to maintain their monopoly we would never get these speed increases.
It's not just US companies competing with each other, but foreign competition. US broadband has fallen behind Asia and now even parts of Europe. Especially compared to Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong, US broadband is a joke.
US cable companies can't use the population density excuse. How is it that some EU countries are now rolling out 100Mbps symmetric FTTH and the US cannot? - starvo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I keep waiting for them to get is elsewhere in Boston. It's in parts of Saugus and Lynn apparently, but Cambridge and Somerville seem to be reluctant to grant them franchises.. and you'd think they'd be pushing for it, based on the concentration of yuppies and IT workers living in those areas.
- tbisaacs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I freakin love my FiOS/FiOS tv. I can't wait for the new FiOS TV 2.0 UI to roll out.
- vypergts, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Here, digg the story with an accurate headline if it makes you happier (and a better source to boot): http://digg.com/tech_news/160Mbps_downloads_move_closer_for_US_cable_customers
- ksponge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@fadetoone (#6595166)
I'd be worried about them selling my info to the gov't but that's just me. - OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't know why you got dugg down for that. TW NYC, and US cable in general, is a huge ripoff.
What's the difference between broadband and digital cable? They're saving $$$ by going digital, yet they've increased prices compared to analog cable. For what? The Golf Channel? The Game Show Channel? Do people realize that TW charges customers for these ***** channels no one watches?
No offense to golf or game show fans, but channels like that should be optional. And there should be a discount for customers who are paying for both broadband and cable, and in some cases VoIP as well. - cbreaker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I realize symmetrical speeds are a whole other ball of wax, but the blocked ports ***** sucks. One thing I would have liked to see IPV6 DNS do was also include some way to make ports dynamic for things like web and smtp.
My internet speeds with Cox are really good - 15/2, and I do see those speeds often. But the port blocking sucks, and if I want to go with the same speed service but "business" (aka a new tftp config file sent to my cablemodem without port blocks) is $250 a month MORE then what I pay now.. - Bootes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1With Fios I actually get 30mbps down and 5mbps up. With OOL I never reached the speeds that I payed for. I also no longer trust them with their capping and lying to my grandparents about pricing. Meeting about a franchise agreement in my town with Verizon, I can't wait!
- voodoobru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i live in manhattan and there is absolutely no competition with the local cable provider (Time Warner). as such, they provide crappy upload speeds (512k up), and ridiculous prices (55 for internet) and FiOS isn't going to be available for a looooong time, and that to, it's to the discretion of the land lord. renters really are effed in this regard. DSL or cable.
- cbreaker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Cox has, surprisingly, been doing a good job with their internet service in Rhode Island. While I still believe that their cable TV service is rather poor, with a low selection of HD channels and very high cost, the Internet speeds are good. I have the 15Mbit service (which .. did it go to 20 yet? It's supposed to this month for us) and I can easily achieve that speed from any site that can send me stuff that quickly. The upstream is reliably 2Mbit; still better then the "fast" comcast 768k upstream offered by Comcast to our neighbors in MA.
In the end though, I'd rather have the not-as-fast Comcast service with no blocked ports.. - cbreaker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Move out of the sticks, boys."
- Winston 'The Wolf' Wolfe - cbreaker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dude, who the hell are you talking to?
BOO HOO it's hard to put up a network. I feel so bad for the billion dollar cable industry that by and large has captive customer bases.
You know what? If they didn't take so long to keep the infrastructure upgraded, it wouldn't be so hard. And you know what else? People have the right to demand more from their $160/mo they pay for cable TV and internet. Don't give me this "it's hard... stop complaining... it's hard.." Yea, well so is any business.
Ohh, and your example of how it's so expensive is laughable: A company that planned to roll-out fiber optic cable to every home didn't factor in the price of fiber optic cable into their bugget? Are you kidding me? That has nothing to do with expensive fiber optics and everything to do with being really, really bad businessmen. - joey52685, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Cablevision recently changed the upload for the 'boost' service from 2mbps to 5mbps, this is what kept me from switching to fios. Now that they have competition cablevision has really stepped-up. Also there are rumors of a new 'Ultra' service which would be 50mbps synchronous (up and down) presumably a hefty charge would be associated but worth it for greater-than-t3 speeds. As for the subject of this article, cablevisions networks already run on fiber optics the only thing that is still cable is the drop from the street to your house. For all of you who don't get cablevision than fios will be very nice once it's available. (and yes FIOS, fiber optics, and cable companies are three different things)
- verbal272, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1up here in manitoba, we're able to get 25Mb Down, for around $65 CAD a month
- DrDabbles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Interestingly enough, I just learned some new info from Comcast. They have had this "Comcast Enterprise Network" and "Comcast Enterprise Internet" service available for a while now. Basically, they use their fiber network to give you fiber connections. A complete MPLS network? Sure. 10Gbit/sec fiber for geographically diverse SAN mirroring? Totally.
This service DIRECTLY competes with all the major TELCOs fiber offerings. In addition, Comcast offers leasing of dark fiber. Verizon has been able to cut that offering completely, except when entering into agreements with other local/national telcos.
In short, were it not for the cost of actually getting a fiber connection to your house (CPE+Cabling+Man hours=Expensive), you'd be there already. It's an easier network for Comcast to manage, and it's far more reliable than going HFC to the door. - fadetoone, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Not familiar with them, so it might be why. Verizon has potential to upgrade the hell out of their bandwidth though, so I'm not too worried about it.
- swordedge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1The consider Symmetrical Speed a business option, not a home one. I don't think the guy was reporting on the business side of things.
- swordedge, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Read the article, he does quote people that do know what they are talking about
- swordedge, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Being in a Verizon area with no FiOS and Time Warner that does fiber to the neighborhood, I want both to do Fiber to the Home. Even without changing my cable package, (5Mb down, 384Kb up), If Verizon started rolling FiOS out around here, my speeds would double instantly. Then I could download DL.TV in 3 something minutes instead of 6 something minutes! (this from someone that remembers spending about 12 hours downloading StarOffice back in the day, over a modem. 76 Meg)
- Ribald_Jester, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2I didn't read anything about symmetrical speeds? Why are cable/dsl companies allows to offer "Internet" service, when in reality it isn't? I'd like to see symmetrical speeds, and less blocked ports 1st.
- bleonard, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2FiOS should not be in the title of this article. Dugg down for being incorrect.
- mhockey14221, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Optimum online (with boost, especially) is about as fast as FiOS
I usually get 13-15mbps down here in the Bronx, I'm not sure if its available everywhere in Manhattan, but if it is, its not that bad to install in old apartment buildings like mine. - indie1982, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0@disjunto
Yeah it can be, if you live next to the exchange you can get 24Mbit/s...
Virgin Media have just upgraded my cable Internet connection to 20Mbit/s, available anywhere on their network ;o) - biter, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I love my FiOS and will never go back to cable. Unlike Cablevision, I get 20Mbps I signed up for. I also haven't experienced any outages yet, which was pretty much a norm in my area.
- EclipseGSX, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I have Optimum Online and Cablevision's TV service, and I'm not very happy with it. The iO service sucks, the cable box is slow, you don't get free on-demand with premium channel purchases, my Internet speeds are VERY variable, my HD channels constantly cut out, etc. Some days I'll get 5MBit down, others 15. The only thing that is a big advantage over all other alternatives in the area (except FiOS) is the speedy upload, which you don't find anywhere.
- Blazekun, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2This is exactly what happened in my area. For a while I was getting 16mbps, that dropped down to 8 and they said they were just "testing" It's really obvious what they were really doing. Making sure they have everything set up for when FiOS comes to our area. Once it does we get a free speed boost of double our current.
***** really. - Noty661, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1In Tampa, Road Runner cable internet is way faster than anything we could get from Verizon DSL or FiOS. (At a reasonable price)
$39.99 for 5 Mbps for FiOS, I pay $32.99 for 10Mbps from RR.
You CAN purchase the 30Mbps package, which is twice as fast as the max from RR, but for a hefty $179.99 a month.
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