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wesm
Premium Member
join:1999-07-29
Seattle, WA

wesm to Os

Premium Member

to Os

Re: Is VZ really committed to FiOS?

I figure they're doing two things:

1) They're looking for the "premium" customer, or one who buys based more on features and less on price. This is the same dynamic with DirecTV versus DISH Network. DirecTV prices itself higher and, in return, has to deal less with customers who do things like don't pay on time. Verizon, I imagine has decided to stop competing on price and instead say "our stuff is AWESOME and those who know better will fork out for it." As long as FiOS has rock-solid reliability and sustained speeds, a (potentially) profitable minority will pay the extra bucks.

2) They've decided to really go after recouping the costs of the build-out. I mean, pedal-to-the-floor, paid-off-by-2016 fast. Shoveling more bits faster has a minimal incremental cost to a wired company, so if this can help them claim the need for higher rates, why not go for it? Verizon-the-landline company has been a break-even proposition at best for the past few years because of all the money they've spent on FiOS.

Plus, remember that the rates quoted above are outside of a regular bundle agreement, which Verizon really wants customers to take. Extreme HD + 50/20 is quoted at $104.99 for me, which is only $5 more than Time Warner Cable in the same market, with TWC offering half the transfer rate and fewer channels.
Os
join:2011-01-26
US

Os

Member

There's only one problem out there. How many premium customers are there really? I think in the age of biennial rate increases, there's far more people looking to penny-pinch, question what services they need, and whether they need any of them all (cutting the "cord", going all wireless).

If Verizon is going to ignore these people, then they're going to struggle to find new customers and keep old ones.

Yes, DirecTV has a premium product. But they also send me a promo every week for $29.95/month service. If you want Sunday Ticket, Extra Innings, that's there for you. But they're still trying to compete, and be all things to all people. While you can question their commitment to mainstream HD channels (the same way you can with FiOS), DirecTV is not just saying "We're better, pay for it". A request that simple would easily fall on deaf ears.

wesm
Premium Member
join:1999-07-29
Seattle, WA

wesm

Premium Member

DirecTV does offer cheap rates, but now they're only to two types of customers: Existing customers who are off contract, and new customers who pass a credit check. That $29.95 is usually only good for 6 or 12 months, but you've just agreed to a 24 month contract; that's where DirecTV gets sneaky.

To answer your other question, I guess Verizon thinks there are enough premium customers in its footprint to make the gamble worthwhile. My uneducated guess is that they're probably right, or that this is how they'll position themselves for people who do TV cord cutting ("run 12 Roku boxes at the same time!").

The thought occurs to me that it's funny how the most profitable FiOS systems for Verizon are the ones it no longer owns. The ones it sold to Frontier and FairPoint (along with copper assets it no longer wanted) recouped most of Verizon's capital expense outlay, tax-free no less.
Os
join:2011-01-26
US

1 edit

Os

Member

I never understood why VZ unloaded those. Could they not sell the copper and keep the fiber?

Frontier seemed to be trying to run those people off to Comcast.

EDIT: I should add that the previous residents of my house were DirecTV customers, so they probably think that because the dish is there, that I'll magically want their service. When they don't force me to buy Sunday Ticket to see the games I can here on basic cable, maybe we'll talk.

wesm
Premium Member
join:1999-07-29
Seattle, WA

wesm

Premium Member

Your guess is as good as mine, especially for the Pacific Northwest and Indiana, the markets Frontier got. It's my understanding that Frontier actively argued against taking the fiber systems, but Verizon said "take them or no deal," so Frontier acquiesced because they wanted to expand their footprint. I suppose that Verizon didn't want to operate islands of fiber with no other Verizon facilities for hundreds of miles.

Frontier stopped trying to run people (and by "people," I mean "potential television subscribers") off by mid-last year. Now they've even gotten into the full swing of things by offering double play bundles and promotional rates. Of course, this could be trying to get people back on the fiber systems because there's a rumor going around that Frontier wants to buy Verizon's copper lines in Texas and California. If they do that and they can make the fiber systems Verizon foisted on them look good enough, maybe they can hand them back to Verizon... (Nah, it's probably something silly like not wasting all this money on an expensive fiber network and figuring they should actually try to turn a profit or something. )