| reply to piltdownman
Re: oh I'm a resident and wish the county would negotiate with Verizon in good faith. Here are a few reasons:
Quality -- I have had their internet service for 7 months. Not one hiccup and twice the speed of comcast. I had comcast for the three year prior and I am so happy I switched to FIOS. Most online forum report that the quality of FIOS TV is head and shoulders above cable and satellite. As far as relying on franchise agreements for assuring quality -- I have comcast cable and a franchise agreement and the quality leaves something to be desired. I think competition would be a greater incentive to improving quality. They fear losing customers more than than the county cable office.
Price -- With FIOS internet I get more than 2x speed for same price as comcast (and no outages or loss of bandwidth). FIOS TV is about $300 less annually than Comcast. So how does the franchise agreement protect us -- Comcast has been able to raise its rate pretty much at will. Where FIOS TV is offered, cable companies have lowered their rates to compete.
Reliability -- After we lost power recently, FIOS internet was restored at the same time the power came on. Comcast followed six hours later. During my time with comcast internet, I suffered through significant loss of bandwidth and complete outages. FIOS internet has been 100% bulletproof.
ROW protection -- Currently Verizon is laying fiber across the county without a franchise agreement because the county doesn't regulate telephone and internet service. Somehow the county exercises some level of control. If the county would negotiate an agreement if good faith, it might have even greater control.
Verizon has raised many issues in it's lawsuit but I think their bottom line is that they don't want their phone service and internet service to be a part of the franchise agreement because it is currently not regulated. I think that is fair. If they county would agree to that requirement, I think we could have a deal quickly.
P.S. I vote democratic and want the county to raise taxes to fully fund our public schools. But when it comes to the marketplace, consumers will always win if there is more than one supplier. |
