Fiber Optic Comes to the Masses
I meant to post that we got a call from Verizon last week, fielded by the machine, that turned out to be about FiOS. It’s now available here, and as a DSL subscriber, we get priority. Never thought I’d see the day when fiber would go “the last mile” to the home.
My only question, besides things like cost, was whether we could get it wired into an apartment. Even if it would be an issue, we have a cool landlord who happily allows satellite dishes, and it’s really no different from cable being newly wired into existing places.
It appears that it would cost us $5 a month more than the DSL for 5 Mbps, which is the lowest speed. The highest being 30, for which they want real money. Well, except that “real money” is what I would have to pay to get a 128k or maybe as much as 256k fractional T-1 at the office. Makes me wonder if FiOS will become available there… Yeah, right, where it’s the same company as rents out the T-1 lines to the local connection providers or directly to businesses for huge bucks.
We’re probably going to wait; let it be better established and all, perhaps even more competetive in price if that’s possible, before we go for it. Plus it requires you to have their techs come in an set it up for you at your computers, which I always feel weird about. But then, they’re changing over your phone service and everything, as I understand it, and opening the possibility of TV service via fiber too.
I love technology.
I’ve had it since August, 2004, when I was one of their trial customers. If the techs know you’re tech-savvy, they’ll let you decide just how much you install on your computer. While their procedures do require them to install a Verizon-provided router, you don’t have to install the software on your PC, provided you can get it working with their router. The main reason for the installation CD is that they give you MSN with the service, but I told them I could care less about MSN; I just wanted a “fat pipe.”
And as long as you’re not going to be using their Fios TV, you can yank their router and use your own after they leave. It’s just a PPoE setup, with the difference being that you don’t need a modem anymore. The ONT contains the modem, and they run a Cat-5 cable to an RJ-45 jack somewhere in your house.
Posted by Aubrey Turner on 02/13 at 02:46 PMI could get 15 for what I’m paying now.. DROOL.
If it were availible here I would order it.. Hell 5 is less then we pay now for cable and almost 5 times as fast.Posted by Wayne on 02/13 at 06:22 PMWelcome to the 21st Century.
The company I work for supplies some of the test equipment Verizon uses to test and troubleshoot new fiber runs between the local hub and the customer’s ONT.
FiOS (FTTH) offers almost unlimited bandwidth potential for residential and/or business users. If they ever need to add yet more bandwidth all they need to due is turn up another wavelength. No need to install more fiber. Of course they may have to upgrade the ONT at the customer site, but that’s still easier than havng to add another “fat pipe”.
I’m hoping it will reach this area sometime in the near future. Of course Verizon tells us that over 95% of their residential customers will be covered by FTTH by 2009.
Hmmm. I wonder what they’ll do with all of that unused copper out there?
Posted by DCE on 02/13 at 10:04 PM
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