[Macworld]

Post your comments for Fiber showdown looms as Verizon builds in AT&T territory here

[Interrupt19]

Let's hope this becomes a widespread trend.
There's a large amount of AT&T customers who would drop their 6mb "pro" package for FIOS in a heartbeat.

[DisabledTrucker]

There is a lot of us AT&T customers that would gladly drop our 8MB service for their own 15MB U-Verse service too... Not to mention Crapcast's cable service for AT&T's U-Verse service that was supposed to already be here as per the contract that they signed with the state when they purchased BellShit...

[RobK]

With 19 Viacom channels dropping from my cable/phone/internet company at midnight, I called to today to find out FiOS isn't in my neighborhood yet... and I've had my cable company for 13 years.

[vfx2k4]

Um- 'wild-west showdown?' Is that what we're calling competition in a capitalistic market these days? I hope AT&T and Verizon both lose their shirts begging for customers.

[alansky]

About damn time those pussies started competing for customers instead of just dividing up the territory like a g*damn apple pie!

[Speed_Racer]

Hey, Verizon, here's a crazy idea. Why don't you finish building out your own states first? Verizon started offering FiOS in my city well over two years ago. I've checked every few months and the stupid website still says it's not available in my neighborhood.

[bonesb]

I'm with Speed_Racer! I live near downtown Portland OR in an older working neighborhood with really nice houses. We have two-pair Qwest phone lines and Comcast when you can get their butts here. We can't get crap for service, but FIOS has been coming "soon" for three years now. Screw 'em both.

[akira34]

A large part of why FiOS isn't in areas has more to do with the town/city AND the unions that run cables between the poles.
While I've had FiOS for a few years now (got TV service in early 2008) I know of other towns in MA that still don't have it. Places that ARE on the list to get service, when the towns allow it and/or the unions stop being such boneheads about things.
Personally, I really enjoy my 20Mbps Upstream and 5Mbps Downstream speeds... I've been debating going to the symetrical service (20 over 20) but am holding off for the next speed bump. I'd be just as happy with 30 over 10, since that would give me the extra upload I need to make my web site load faster. I host my digital image gallery at home, and since most of my newer shots are with a 21MP camera, the images are rather large (10-20MB on hard drive, 60MB+ in Photoshop)...
I wish RCN and Concast would stop stuffing my mailbox with their crappy offers... All I do is toss them directly into the recycle bin without even looking at them. It amounts to SPAM via snail mail... Pretty pathetic...

[booga]

I don't know anyone who has FiOS who doesn't love it, including myself. Verizon has a winner on its hands, and hopefully they compete it aggressively wherever the locals allow them to string their fiber.

[seanmcg]

akira34 said:

A large part of why FiOS isn't in areas has more to do with the town/city AND the unions that run cables between the poles.

Years ago, where I live, the county government got fed up with the cableTV company awarded the local cable franchise when the company did not fulfill the requirement to upgrade their backbone to fiber on time. They then gave the cableTV contract to Comcast, and the upgrade was completed, with an interesting twist.

All the fiber upgrades had to go underground. I thought it was just to clean things up, but for once, the county may have been thinking ahead. The guys weren't just installing the fiber, but extra conduits (?) to be used by ANYONE. It wasn't owned by the cable company. The cableTV stuff was only being pulled through one of four conduits.

This was long before FiOS was common talk even among techies.When Verizon finally got the go ahead to offer the full FiOS package in the county, they had a relatively easy time running their main backbone.

As a side note - One of the guys told me that around the country (at that time) there was (is?) a lot of "dark fiber." Supposedly, these are fiber cables pulled in anticipation of them being used for applications like FiOS, but which lay unused. I never followed up on that, and I wonder if that cable is now being lit up, allowing faster implementation in some areas.

[doh123]

would be nice to have something that fast... FIOS is available in such a low percentage of areas in the US, most people have never heard of it. Wouldn't be surprised where I am at if something like that isn't available for another 20 years

[neutrino23]

AT&T keeps advertising and calling me to say that they have installed fiber in my neighborhood (near SF). I say "Great. Please bring the fiber to my house." Their reply is that they only bring the fiber to the area and then bring copper to the house with lousy DSL speeds.
Astound is rumored to be upgrading their plan to something quite fast but I haven't see it yet.

[HUT104]

Can you throw me a bone and talk about Qwest vs Comcast. I too suffer from the coming soon bs and hear a lot of PR about Comcast's new? fiber. Also, I had the site that shows all areas in Portland that get FIOS but lost it. If I move I would like to know what's covered. Screwed2