[Grovenet] Verizon FiOS v. Comcast

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

I agree, Steven. 

I ignored that because you had made the point.

Another issue, in my mind, was that the "fiber-mania" is all "hype" that
means almost nothing to the physical needs of the consumer today. Coaxial
cable to the house or fiber optic to the house will both provide more
bandwidth than any residential customer will want unless they're setting up
a huge data center in their home. When a salesman asks if one wants more
bandwidth, ask why they aren't providing it now. The connection to your
house is NOT the limiting factor. The whole intent on the part of the
company is to get consumers to spend more money to help pay for the company
to stay competitive. 

The FiOS pitch does pander to people's desires to own the "newest" of
anything today and it might be significant to the actual performance of a
home system at some point in the future. 

It was trying to point out that in the absence of either competition or
adequate regulation the price of fulfilling that emotional need by switching
to fiber today might well backfire, costing more money for less service. 

When I visited the Bonneville hydro facility one time, a guide there told
the story of trying to hook up customers to use Bonneville power when the
dam first went into operation back in the 1930's. They sent out reps to talk
to residents all around the area. One rep stopped at a farm on the hills
actually overlooking the new dam. That farmer had a couple of creeks
crossing his place and had a few Pelton wheels driven by the water to
provide power. They were hooked to his wife's washing machine, his shop saw
and to a generator that provided electricity for a few lights and the living
room radio. 

After listening to the salesman's pitch about how cheap and dependable
Bonneville power would be, he looked at his Pelton wheels which provided
free, reliable service day after day around the year, and he looked down at
the dam on the Columbia river below and said, "No thanks!"

"But why?" the salesman asked. "You could get rid of these Pelton wheels and
have all the electrical power you could ever want!

"Yep," the farmer agreed. "And once I got rid of them and bought a whole
bunch of new appliances that needed more electricity than I can generate
myself, you could decide to charge me whatever you want for my power, and
I'd have to pay up. No thanks..."

Some things never change. The first rule of success is to never buy what
doesn't pay its way, and then to look realistically at whether something
fulfills its promise. 

There's nothing wrong with a 48 inch plasma TV, or a new car, or any new
thing if it brings satisfaction, contentment and enjoyment worth every penny
of its price day after day, year after year. 

But so often the joy is in the acquiring, not the having. Once in hand, it's
just something else using space that we can't do without. 

That is never truer that on this day the cumulated weeks of worshipping
outrageous consumerism called "Christmas" (see attached).   

Ron D'Eau Claire 




-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Steven
Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 1:28 PM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] Verizon FiOS v. Comcast


Ron, my point is the deceptive advertising done by comcast as they compete
against verison for your service. Suddenly, we have two providers for
phone/cable TV/Interent. Comcast aparently wanted to get a term contract
signed so that one can't jump to the competion. In doing so, they fib a bit
on exactly what is going on. Verizon promotes their new fiber optic system.
Comcast competes by saying that their cable system has some fibers in it
too. This confuses the buyer, not up on exactly what is going on. For this I
give comcast negative points.
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