Monday, February 13, 2006
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.