[Grovenet] Verizon FiOS v. Comcast

Tue Dec 25 11:19:02 PST 2007

Over time, fiber optic lines to the house and perhaps IN your house will be
important to handle the huge bandwidths your equipment may someday require.
Frankly, whether one has fiber to the house or not is unimportant unless
you're planning to fill your house with internet servers and set up your own
ISP company.

The American public has been conditioned to believe that newer is better. A
goodly segment of our population even have an emotional issue with not being
in the "mainstream" playing on our fear of being left out of the group. It's
a strong, often unrealized background to many of our decisions that allows
the public to accept very weak or even nonsense explanations as 'fact' to
rationalize satisfying that nagging feeling that they "should" do something
because it's "new".  

What does matter, as you noted, is speed and service. I'd add reliability to
the equation: how often has the service been down during the past 12 months
and for how long? 

I won't sign a contract for internet service because the companies I've
spoken with won't agree on what they'll deliver in exchange for my money.
I'll NOT consider a contract in which I commit to a fixed amount of money
and they commit to deliver only what they can, when they can. That isn't
good enough unless I'm free to walk without penalty if I don't like what
they deliver. 

Businesses don't accept that. Why should residential customers? 

Right now the hype is FiOS, with Verizon saying it's better. How much
better? Put it in writing! Not a chance. They'll do something like "up
to...bps" which means anything from a non-functioning connection to whatever
they choose.

Verizon can't even decide what FiOS means. In one release they say it's
spelled FiOS meaning "Fiber Optic Service". In other releases they say it's
a play on an old Gaelic world for "knowledge". I guess it's whatever makes
the most people offer their cash in each market area on a given day. 

There's another issue that really bothers me about the whole idea of bundled
services. Reliable telephone, television and internet services have become
staples in our households right up there with having clean water when we
turn the tap and sewers that work when we flush. So why aren't these
providers held to the same standards of oversight and control?

I'm a dedicated conservative, but that doesn't mean I believe we should turn
over essential and important services to private companies in a virtual
monopoly without lots of oversight and control. It's either that or provide
real competition so we have a true choice. 

To my surprise (and delight) we have that here in our community at least. At
the corner of my house is a cable termination with *two* cables coming out
of the ground. One is owned by Charter (who is connected with Comcast). The
other is owned by Millenium. Two companies, two totally independent
distribution systems, two totally independent cables right to the point of
entry at my house. If I don't like one, all I need to do is make a call and
I'm on the other. Competition! And they know it!  

But, if that's not practical, we need regulation. Most people have neither.

And, as long as we have neither regulation or effective competition, I avoid
both the best I can. 

For me, that's avoiding "bundled" services. Charter provides my TV. They'd
be happy to provide my internet service. Right now the internet service is
provided by another company via telephone line DSL service which allows Cobi
and I to watch streaming audio and video and move 100's of megabytes of
files between here and clients all at the same time without problem. In the
six months we've been here the internet or phone has not been down at any
time I've tried to use it. That's a good sign. But if they did I could lean
on my cell phone if I needed to. I use it 99.9% of the time anyway over the
wired phone. With free long distance it's actually cheaper than the wired
phone. If the DSL service became flaky, I've got Charter cable. Or Millenium
if I choose. 

Maybe some day I'll have one fiber optic line into the house with all the
data I need. But, if that happens, I want the provider of that service to
face consequences for it not working at least as dire as if someone dialed
911 today and no one answered or promised services never arrived. 

One last point in my "rant". Fiber optic is NOT more robust or durable than
coaxial cable. Indeed. After the big storm here on the coast a few weeks
ago, folks could make telephone calls from Coos Bay to Astoria without
problem, but we couldn't call you in Forest Grove on the wired system. The
phone companies had bundled their trunk connections out of the area into one
high-speed fiber optic cable safely buried in the ground - until trees being
blown over tore up the ground and the fragile cable with it. It was about a
week before wired phone service out of the area was restored for everyone.  

There's as much truth as ever in the old saying about putting one's eggs all
in one basket.

Ron D'Eau Claire 

-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Steven
Sent: Monday, December 24, 2007 10:44 PM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] Verizon FiOS v. Comcast

Verizon has Fios, Fiber. Comcast has Cable. They have a fiber infrastructure
but not to your home. Bait and switch, deceptive promotion.

-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com]On
Behalf Of Michael O'Brien
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 6:53 PM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: [Grovenet] Verizon FiOS v. Comcast

Yesterday a Comcast rep appeared at our door in NW Forest Grove to offer a
(supposedly) sweet deal on fiber-optic internet service bundled with
landline service and our existing Comcast cable TV connection.  We currently
have Verizon DSL and landline service, as well as Verizon wireless (which
isn't affected by the Comcast offer).

Question:  do any Grovenuts have any recommendations about which one to go
with?

Generally speaking, we've been happy with Verizon (which has also offered a
bundle with FiOS internet and TV service).  It would be nice to upgrade to
fiber-optic speeds, which both companies are offering.  (I noticed, BTW,
that Comcast customer service has gotten less than rave reviews over the
years.)

Any advice and/or tirades would be greatly appreciated.

Mike
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