[Grovenet] Verizon FiOS v. Comcast

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

So, they're bringing the fiber into the house? You're having houses rewired?


That's very rare in homes. All the "fiber optic" service I've seen stops at
the utility box out front and they continue to bring coaxial cable into the
house. Sometimes the fiber stops at the local offices and it's coaxial line
from there as always. 

Contract terms? Does anyone have a firm speed/service agreement before they
sign? All the systems I've seen so far promise "up to" such-and-such speed,
which means any speed at all, no matter how slow, meets the vendor's
contractual requirements and, without an 'up time' agreement it means they
only have to provide it now and again as they see fit. 

Ron D'Eau Claire 




-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Allen Warren
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2007 2:17 PM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] Verizon FiOS v. Comcast


What concerns me is how fiber-optic service is being currently offered so
inexpensively when fiber-optic modules themselves are very expensive.  A
fiber-optic network card, for example, is a minimum 2x the cost of it's
copper cousin.  And the higher the speed the greater the difference in cost.
The fastest network speeds from server-to-server using fiber-optic just hit
10Gig.  The cost of that 10Gbe fiber-optic card is almost 4x the cost of
copper.

Fiber-optic speeds will continue to increase, only limited by how long it'll
take to keep developing the higher speed fiber-optic modules.  But the cost
clearly exceeds copper.  And I don't see Verizon or Comcast or any other
provider eating those setup costs forever.
 
Allen Warren



----- Original Message ----
From: chuck <chuck at grovenet.net>
To: Forest Grove local interests list <grovenet at rdrop.com>
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 10:12:03 PM
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] Verizon FiOS v. Comcast

Hey Mike,

Verizon has been pushing the FIOS on me as well.  I currently have DSL, 
copper phone lines, and Dish TV. 

Dish TV is a whole 'nother story - but since I don't watch a lot, for 
what we pay for the basic channels - it'll do.  As far as a phone 
system, I like the fact that I can plug in one of those 'old fashioned' 
phones, the ones that don't need an electrical outlet, and still have 
phone service during a power outage.  Like someone else already said, 
that is not an option with Fiber.  The battery backup is a nice feature 
- but - it's something else to plug into an outlet, and replace from 
time to time.  Of course I know people who live on their cell phone now 
- so phone service may not be an issue either.

I'm a computer nut, and live on the Internet.  DSL works fine for me.  
My email is plenty fast enough, I can watch Youtube videos just fine, 
and can usually load up a web page within a second or so.  And I think I 
am about 1M download speed.  Do I really need 15M Down?  I can't see it 
- yet.  I'm sure as more and more web services come out that require 
extra bandwidth - I may change my mind - but for now - I'm fine.  Even 
in the old shop, when I had Comcast and 4M down, I could still have 6-8 
computers all connected with plenty of bandwidth. 

If you don't download a ton of stuff, or are an online gamer, plain ole 
DSL may be just fine.

Ultimately - it comes down to price.  Definitely find out what your 
'real price' is - after all the promotions.  Also ask about contract 
terms, how long they can lock you in for - etc. 

My 2 cents.

chuck

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