US Telco Support > Verizon > Verizon Online DSL > Think we will see faster speeds soon?

Think we will see faster speeds soon?

The birds have flown north... they're singing outside my window... and one of the birds, out there, probably grateful for the half eaten pizza crusts scattered around between the empty mountain dew cans, outside the window of the Laboratory of Doom at Castle Gwion, twittered that we might be seeing our uploads double, or more, before he goes back down to Dixie, again... I can neither confirm nor deny, and the VZ insiders seem to grow mysteriously silent... sort of Sergeant Schultz silent... when the topic comes up... in fact, the little Robin twittered, as he took off, to avoid notice by the four legged mousetrap enjoying the first breezes of spring on the porch, there might even be a new service level, on the consumer plans, with higher up -and- down speeds... perhaps as high as 3/768, for a few more bucks, down the road...

If I get solid confirmation, I may be able to say a little more... for now, all I can call it is an abstract whisper in the winds... but I have my twustee Zhen-Xjell foot, handy (Wabbit, ahhh neva thought ah'd hafta say, we misses ya! Dang-nabbit! But ahhh digresses, agin'...), and I'm knockin' on wood...
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Dyma hi ei gwisg yn disgleirio yn llawn o aur
Ei golwg mor dlws ei hud yn ymestyn wi afael yn gryf
"Pwy yr wyt? Pwy yr wyt?
Paid am gadael aros i mi"

Aros i'm paid mynd 'mlaen...
Rhiannon paid mynd 'mlaen aros, aros...

I am not gonna hold my breath.

reply to TheRadeon
That's the most encouraging news we have had about speed upgrades in awhile, and this coming from the forum mod, I would haveto think it genuine!

Thanks!!

Me, too, but keep things in perspective. Remember, it was heard "out by the birdbath," not from official sources; and, remember, we're a forum of users, me included... I don't have anymore insider info than any other user, but I do appreciate the importance of keeping an ear to the ground and my nose to the wind... and my experience has proven that some rumors have more substance than others.

And, here, I think there's reason to be optimistic. Time will be the final judge. Verizon is usually tight-lipped about things like this, and insiders aren't in a good position to confirm or deny things for the company, so I just have to go by instincts. My instinct is that, in this competitive environment, some sort of speed upgrades are the smart thing, business wise.

I recall that I had a good sense we were going to get upgraded from 640/90 to 768/128, back when, but when it finally went official, it was somewhat drawn out, in the implementation (maybe this is why Verizon has wisely decided to be guarded, until they have something to deliver) -- and I remember having a good sense we were going to see 1.5/128, but there would probably be qualifications. We did, and there are...

But I feel that Verizon has competition issues, this time, and that they don't have a lot of choices. In fact, it seems to me that they should be working hard on offering some upgrades, to stay strong in their markets, as regards cable. QoS -and- speed... fancy that ... in further fact, it makes very good business sense not to drag their feet or be so tightlipped for to long, if they want to maintain market position.

Even as a whisper. I have no way of documenting the rumor, but I play the markets, as a way of helping pay my DSL bills... and I understand the value of staying abreast of whispers, as well as the official reports... as well as the importance of being able to distinguish the two, and process the information accordingly.

Just keep perspective. You heard it from a fellow user who heard it on the whisper. Employees, we know, aren't in a position to make statements for the company, so I won't be so presumptuous as to try to put anyone on the spot, like that. But all factors considered, it seems to me that Verizon has to do something along these lines, and the sooner they get it out to their subscribers (without offering unreasonable time expectations, of course, as with some of the prior upgrades), the better for them, in terms of their market position and competitive stance. I hope it turns out being true, and, one way or another, we get confirmation, soon. It won't just be a big smile for all of us, I think it'll be a big smile for Verizon's marketing and customer satisfaction, and a potent weapon in the marketplace, if they do...

I'm an optimist, and can't overlook the business pressures of competing in these markets, and it seems to me that it's more likely than not... seems to me they have to make a move like this, and the whispers just increase my optimism... So, with apologies to Mr. Prine, I'm personally "wishin' for dialup and knockin' on wood..." .
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Dyma hi ei gwisg yn disgleirio yn llawn o aur
Ei golwg mor dlws ei hud yn ymestyn wi afael yn gryf
"Pwy yr wyt? Pwy yr wyt?
Paid am gadael aros i mi"

Aros i'm paid mynd 'mlaen...
Rhiannon paid mynd 'mlaen aros, aros...

reply to TheRadeon

I agree with your guarded optimism. The way I see it Verizon should have 3 offerings coming this year. 1) A speed upgrade to hold and expand the customer base - since overbuilding their entire system with fiber is an expensive proposition. 2) a boisterous rollout when they light the fiber to the first batch of FTTH connections. 3) a VOIP offering to anyone who has the minimum speeds to support solid multiline connections (384 in my opinion).

The customer base thing would suggest a speed upgrade first, since the first fiber will go to the geographically endowed, wether they crave it or not. Although they're probably not anxious to spend upgrade money on the DSL side, remaining competitive is demanding it. Looks like the sooner the better to me.

Verizon can move and move quickly when they're convinced 1) it's necessary, 2) it's necessary now, 3) it won't negatively impact the bottom line. They seem to be getting the message, so we're probably just waiting for them to get all their "ducks in a row". It's anyone's guess how long that will take.

reply to TheRadeon
Some sort of upgrade? Vz has started the line work for fiber upgrades (fttp) in some neighborhoods. As for a speed increase for the entire Verizon DSL community, I wouldnt know.

said by JohnE:

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Vz has started the line work for fiber upgrades (fttp) in some neighborhoods.

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I won’t disagree with you there. That’s why upgrading the current dsl packages is so important. As for fiber location. Don’t you think Vz would choose areas that are densely populated in hopes to sign up as many people as possible in a short amount of time? This would fuel their future upgrade efforts.

reply to TheRadeon
I sit here wondering if I will ever see a speed upgrade... if you ask verizon about speed upgreades I have gotten the same thing 3 times that even if there were speed upgrades I would not be able to par take in them as I still use the old Orckit Fujistsu deal and not one of those crappy dies every two months wirespeed modems like my neighbors have. I am less than 3000 feet from my C/O the spec on the modems from fujitsu state they are capable of 8megabits down and damn it if they refuse to switch me over to atm network for speed boost and they are trying to give me the shaft. See my other thread Verizon just needs to do something to make me happy.

reply to TheRadeon
I live in northern Westchester County in NY and am at the limit for 768 service. After the 1.5 roll out, I was hoping for VZ to install an RT to be able to get 1.5. However with Verizon dedicating its resources to the FTTP plan, they are probably not going to spend money upgrading their DSL system and my patience for a speed upgrade is wearing thin. I don't see any evidence that VZ is feeling competitive pressure or they would have made a stronger effort to improve DSL penetration, like some of the other Baby Bells did. I'm in a Cablevision area and have been seriously considering switching, since my DSL downloads seem glacial compared to what my neighbor is getting. If I drop my DSL, plus my VZ dial tone service with long distance and switch to OOL, Optimum Voice, plus a premium news provider to make up for OOL's horrible newsgroup retention, the cost should be about the same.

reply to TheRadeon
I'd call this the wishful thinking thread. Look how many years Vz was at 768 and almost all the other ISP's were at 1.5 or above. Maybe in a couple years they'll go to 2.0 or 3.0 when the norm is 10.

reply to TheRadeon
Many subscriber loops can physically support a higher speed; it is simply a matter of provisioning. Since ADSL is adaptive, the DSLAM and modem will sync at the highest reliable speed not to exceed the provisioning (i.e. "cap"). Unfortunately, in a significant number of suburban and rural exchanges, the subscriber's ADSL speed is limited by distance and/or line quality.

For example, after the telephone cable on my street was replaced, I have a "long-haul" but relatively clean loop (probably around 20K feet). With a Westell 2200 modem and Cat5 inside wiring, my speeds are consistently 730/135, but my downstream capacity is > 95%, i.e. I'm "capped" by the intrinstic electrical characteristics of my line. If Verizon increased the downstream provisioning at the DSLAM, it wouldn't result in an improvement in my throughput. My upstream capacity however is only at 50% capacity, so if Verizon offered 768/256, I'd see faster uploading speed.

The problem is that many people in my area can't get their line qualified for DSL due to distance, and those that can are similarly limited in throughput. All of that could change if Verizon installed an RT where the neighborhood distribution box is, but now with their FTTH plans, that seems unlikely. The end result is that most homes in my area will probably never have access to DSL.

- Dan
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"I'm going to bypass your forebrain and appeal directly to your amygdala..."

reply to TheRadeon
If Verizon upgraded there speeds to 3M/768, In my opinion, they would be in direct competition with OOL. The reason why I think so is because even though OOL is 10MB/1MB, downloads average out around 3MB and uploads are only faster but a little bit if any at all. I think upgrading to 3MB/768 would be a good move on Verizon part.

reply to TheRadeon
Good discussion. I should probably have added this: do not ask or rely on what a telephone support number operator tells you. They're little more than "the help" in management's eyes... bottom of the food chain, from the perspective of corporate. Sorry, no offense intended, and I hope none taken if any help desk folks are reading along, just trying to save a lot of questions that can't be answered... with 2.some-odd million subscribers, it would cost billions to have all qualified techs answering the phones; that's why there's tiered support. At any rate, even a top-tier technician isn't a "need to know" staffer, as far as the back office is concerned, much less the boardroom and deployment people. Even if they ask, they'll be told the same as you and I: "you'll find out when we make the official announcement, get back to your boom mic and looseleaf binder..."

I just thought hat was a very important point I should remind everyone of. The support folks, and even a lot of the techs, are just plain outside of what the company considers an official need-to-know loop. And they're treated accordingly. Marketing and deployment is usually on the level of a minor military secret, in corporate America. Sometimes that's necessary, to keep the competition off guard, when new offerings are released... sometimes, though, it's also counterproductive, because some of your citizens ("us"), anticipating a sweeping defeat because they think their new weapons are never coming, have defected to the enemy, before the generals ("them") are ready to hold the briefing... and the soldiers (techs) aren't at liberty to discuss anything they know, even if they know it, anyway, with us... it's a hard balancing act. But until that "briefing", you can't expect the Sergeants or even the Captains in the field to have copies of the "top secret" papers or access to the strategy plans... much less the privates on the line... it would be pretty much useless and uninformative to ask them, in the first place. Let them do the job they were trained for, manning their positions. They'll pretty much find out when we do...

As noted above, even if some of the front line troops have the battle plans, they're not at liberty to share them without the proper orders... otherwise, they may just get tossed into the brig for espionage ... so it isn't worth the phone call, if that's the question, unless your radio's broken and you like the half-hour of free elevator music on hold and a few seconds of mis- or dis-information, as a bonus, before you hang up.
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Dyma hi ei gwisg yn disgleirio yn llawn o aur
Ei golwg mor dlws ei hud yn ymestyn wi afael yn gryf
"Pwy yr wyt? Pwy yr wyt?
Paid am gadael aros i mi"

Aros i'm paid mynd 'mlaen...
Rhiannon paid mynd 'mlaen aros, aros...

It would be really cool if they did increase the speed like you said. I truly hope they do it. If they did that they would blow comcast right out of the water.

8-]

reply to gwion
What kinds of speeds would one expect from Fiberoptic connections? Also if VZ were to upgrade to 3.0/768 without any caps they would be in competition with any cable internet provider becuase it's all about caps, DSL doesn't usually cap cable does. Imagine hosting rooms with a fiber optic connection, or with UL speeds of 768 that would be awesome.

said by Gamer90:

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What kinds of speeds would one expect from Fiberoptic connections?

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*wets self*

reply to Gamer90
Examples of fiber speeds can be found in the fiber forum.