[Discuss] Verizon phasing out copper

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On 05/08/2013 05:08 PM, Richard Pieri wrote:
> Matthew Gillen wrote:
>> You can buy internet service without getting TV.  They are an ISP.  That
>> is how they sell it.
> FiOS is a bundled residential service competing directly with various
> cable TV/broadband providers like Comcast and Cox. THIS is how VZ sells it.
>
> Look at the technology. Each fiber to the premises carries three
> wavelengths of IR light. Each of these three "bands" correspond to one
> of the three bundled services: television, telephone, IP traffic. The
> technology is designed to carry a bundled broadband service package.
>
> VZ also sells fiber IP services to businesses. This is under the
> "Business FiOS Internet" brand name but it sometimes isn't FiOS
> technology; it's traditional fiber IP networking. You can't get this in
> a residential deployment because it's a different technology at the
> endpoints.
>
I think what is important is not how they market it, but how they 
package (maybe define is a better term) it to the regulators. From my 
standpoint their TV service is not as good as Comcast and DirecTV. My 
son-in=-law lives in Buffalo where he has a choice of FIOS and Charter 
for ISP service. No competition, FIOS wins, but they hated the TV 
service, so they changed their contract and got DirecTV. (When I refer 
to TV service, it is the number of channels, the guide, and the 
on-demand offering). My son-in-law is an IT professional who works for 
the Federal Public Defenders office.

The legal problem is that the laws are archaic and have not really 
caught up to the technology. Every city and town wants a piece of the 
action, but in reality these services should be regulated both at the 
state and federal level.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
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