jackrussell
join:2001-12-04
Bowie, MD
| Bowie City Council: Unanimously approves Verizon FIOS TV!
On 17 April 2006, the Bowie City Council unanimously approved the agreement for Verizon to offer FIOS TV. Competition to COMCAST has finally arrived. It should be available in South Bowie as early as this summer.
Let's see how low COMCAST will be willing to go if at all to retain their already diminishing customer base. They are not well liked in the Bowie area. |
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jackrussell
join:2001-12-04
Bowie, MD
| Bummer, just saw the official Verizon Press release. Looks like Verizon will not devulge their rollout plans until later this year. Later this year? That sounds like fall or winter. Looks like I'm going to check with DirecTV for a deal that will keep me a customer. |
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jammmin
join:2000-12-14
Upper Marlboro, MD
| reply to jackrussell
Darn, Darn, Darn.
I just moved from Bowie next door to Springdale recently.
Is it too late to move back. lol
I have trying to contact PG County to see if they are in negotiations with Verizon to provide FIOS/FIOS TV to unincorporated areas in PG County which includes Springdale. Not sure who to call to find out however.
Good luck to you Jack when you get FIOS TV.
They will probably not announce timetables yet because they want to keep Comcast guessing. |
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jackrussell
join:2001-12-04
Bowie, MD
| Jammmin, you are probably correct. My wife said the same thing about their probable attempt to keep Comcast guessing. The City, itself, has said that it should be available in the summer. It was only 2 months between the annoucement of an agreement and actual service for the city of Columbia, MD. |
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PapaGrande
join:2002-05-18
Bowie, MD
| Here's the streaming link for FISO TV approval;
»mfile.akamai.com/20375/wmv/origi···7-06.asx
The Verizon portion of the Council's meeting starts at 35:30 into the meeting. Comcast, Verizon and Bowie City Council lawyers all got a chance to speak.
Grande |
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jackrussell
join:2001-12-04
Bowie, MD
| reply to jackrussell
I just finished watching the session. Fun to see your local government at work. COMCAST did not have a leg to stand on. They had the audacity to say that they welcome what competition as a result of the Verizon agreement will bring. I'd say that within the 3 years that Verizon has been granted to complete this project, Comcast will lose more than half their customer base. |
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PGHammer
join:2003-06-09
Accokeek, MD
clubs:
 ·Comcast
| I'm a former Comcast employee (Tech Road/Online) and yes, the ball got dropped *VERY badly* with regards to Bowie over the years. Part of the reason for Bowie's woes (not an excuse; just a fact) is that the system in Bowie is *completely different* from either cable system in the rest of the county (while southern and northern PG County's systems differed from each other, those differences were *minor* compared to the differences between either system and Bowie). Comcast may be the *current* franchisor for Bowie, but who ran the system prior to Comcast? More to the point, who was the franchisor that *installed* the system? Bowie, Laurel, north county, and south county, are really four *separate* systems (with different headends) managed as a single system. In each case, Comcast acquired the system from someone else (in the case of north county, south county, and Laurel, it was Jones Communications/Jones Intercable); however, Jones was *not* the incumbent franschisor in *any* of the three areas, and it was *never* the franschisor in Bowie. Also, Bowie was treated within the rest of Comcast of Prince George's County like Harry Potter was by the Dursleys: unwanted and (largely) unwelcome; primarily because of the plant differences from either north county or south county. When Comcast acquired Jones, it also kept a large number of the operations personnel. (If I'm not mistaken, Bowie operations was acquired separately, but while negotiations were ongoing between Comcast and Jones.) So from that standpoint, I am NOT surprised by the Bowie City Council's decision.
The $64 question is will the Prince George's County Council (which is the body that will make the decision for the rest of the county) make the same decision that the Bowie City Council did? If it does, it likely WON'T be for the reasons Bowie's City Council did.
So don't read ANYTHING into Bowie's decision regarding FIOS TV; the issues are completely different in Bowie (or Laurel, which has a similar decision on its plate) as opposed to Prince George's County as a whole. |
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jackrussell
join:2001-12-04
Bowie, MD
| PGHammer, I appreciate the comments. The most important thing is that now Comcast will have to fix its problems in the Bowie market, something as you so well put they haven't really been doing. I would tell you that Bowie probably has more satellite dishes than any other community that I have ever seen. That does not bode well for Comcast, because those people who were relectant to put up a dish or could not get a signal will certainly "flee" the coup. Don't get me wrong. It's all about best price and best value. That's why I went the DirecTV route 9 years ago and is the reason why I will go over to Verizon FIOS TV. I also had Comcast Internet. When the introductory price of 6 months for $29.00 expired, I literally begged them to bill me at the same rate that their cable TV people were being billed at ($43.00). They would not commit to that price. Because I was not willing to pay $64.00 a month for Internet, I went to Verizon FIOS. Would I have remained a customer for $43.00 per month with Comcast? Absolutely. Comcast will now have to cut its prices and revise its policies in order to even just hold its base. Bottom line: The consumer now has choices and choices drive prices down. |
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PapaGrande
join:2002-05-18
Bowie, MD
| In regards to the rest of Prince George's County, it appears that negotiations are just getting underway. After speaking to the City Council and finding out that Woodmore South was not apart of the incorporated city of Bowie, I was referred to the Cable TV Commission...
»www.co.pg.md.us/Government/Board···enu(0,1)
Here's where I got the news that Verizon recently filed for a TV Franchise relatively recently and not to expect anything of substance for about 9 months...
Hope this helps...
Grande |
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jammmin
join:2000-12-14
Upper Marlboro, MD
| reply to jackrussell
I spoke with Deborah Giles from the PG County cable television commission yesterday.
She did confirm that Verizon is currently in negotiations with PG County to offer cable television services in the unincorporated areas of PG County(which would include Springdale where I currently decide).
She did not give me details of the negotiations but she is optimistic that an agreement can be reached in a timely fashion since Bowie just authorized a cable TV franchise for Verizon.
I am keeping my fingers crossed. |
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liquidnw
join:2005-06-05
Bronx, NY
| reply to PGHammer
said by PGHammer  :I'm a former Comcast employee (Tech Road/Online) and yes, the ball got dropped *VERY badly* with regards to Bowie over the years. Part of the reason for Bowie's woes (not an excuse; just a fact) is that the system in Bowie is *completely different* from either cable system in the rest of the county (while southern and northern PG County's systems differed from each other, those differences were *minor* compared to the differences between either system and Bowie). Comcast may be the *current* franchisor for Bowie, but who ran the system prior to Comcast? More to the point, who was the franchisor that *installed* the system? Bowie, Laurel, north county, and south county, are really four *separate* systems (with different headends) managed as a single system. In each case, Comcast acquired the system from someone else (in the case of north county, south county, and Laurel, it was Jones Communications/Jones Intercable); however, Jones was *not* the incumbent franschisor in *any* of the three areas, and it was *never* the franschisor in Bowie. Also, Bowie was treated within the rest of Comcast of Prince George's County like Harry Potter was by the Dursleys: unwanted and (largely) unwelcome; primarily because of the plant differences from either north county or south county. When Comcast acquired Jones, it also kept a large number of the operations personnel. (If I'm not mistaken, Bowie operations was acquired separately, but while negotiations were ongoing between Comcast and Jones.) So from that standpoint, I am NOT surprised by the Bowie City Council's decision. The $64 question is will the Prince George's County Council (which is the body that will make the decision for the rest of the county) make the same decision that the Bowie City Council did? If it does, it likely WON'T be for the reasons Bowie's City Council did. So don't read ANYTHING into Bowie's decision regarding FIOS TV; the issues are completely different in Bowie (or Laurel, which has a similar decision on its plate) as opposed to Prince George's County as a whole. I'm not a comcast sub nor to I live in this area but you raise and interesting subject. Yes the differences in hardware etc, make it difficult to serve certain areas equally. My personal opinion is no one is to blame but these large cable companies. They choose to purchase each other instead of spending the money to build out there own networks because they want avoid having to compete with each other. Then in cases such as this town they drag there feet on upgrading the area to support new services. So I have no sympathy for comcast or any company that does business that way. Hopefully the telco build out will help stop this practice and force these cable companies to upgrade these areas. |
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JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs: | The Gazette has an article about Bowie's agreement with Verizon:
»www.gazette.net/stories/042006/b···39.shtml |
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jackrussell
join:2001-12-04
Bowie, MD | The article mentioned a few months before the service is offered in the City. I believe that means about 2-3 months before the first part of the city has FIOS TV. |
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