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Verizon CEO Hints at 1 Gbps FiOS
Says More 'Troublesome' Copper Lines to Be Migrated

Speaking at CES yesterday in his first keynote, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam hinted at 1 Gbps FiOS and suggested the company would be speeding up the transfer of "troubled" copper customers to FiOS. Verizon in 2012 made getting users on problematic copper lines onto FiOS a priority, and it's something the CEO says will speed up this year.

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Sandy in particular has been used to speed up this migration, whether those customers want to lose POTS or not. McAdam acknowledged as much in his keynote:
quote:
One event that drove Verizon to accelerate its copper-to-fiber migration program in 2012 was Hurricane Sandy. With much of its copper facilities damaged beyond repair in both New York City's Broad Street area and areas of New Jersey such as the Barrier Islands, the service provider decided the best route was just to replace it with fiber.

"When we had the impact of Sandy our mantra was you will not fix copper," McAdam said. "So if copper got into any kind of a damaged situation and FiOS was in the vicinity, or we could run FiOS down an adjacent street and get into there, we would cut the copper out of service."


In an obvious nod to Google Fiber, McAdam stated the company has the technology in place to offer 1 Gbps speeds to customers, but didn't state when this would be made available. It wasn't that long ago that Verizon, responding to some faster cable offers, insisted that 100 Mbps was just a marketing "parlor trick." The company then proceeded to offer 300 Mbps in some markets for $205 a month.

Despite all the talk about speed, Verizon's focus on FiOS in 2012 primarily involved raising prices on broadband and TV packages.
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m3nphls
join:2012-10-02
Brooklyn, NY

m3nphls

Member

If only....

If only google fiber came to nyc, it would push fios to lower their price and offer 1Gbps for cheap as well!

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: If only....

LMAO, keep dreaming

skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

1 recommendation

skeechan

Premium Member

Re: If only....

At least until greedy NYC pols and building owners looking for kickbacks put their hands back in their pockets instead of looking at VZ as a payday.

aztecnology
O Rly?
Premium Member
join:2003-02-12
Murrieta, CA

aztecnology to m3nphls

Premium Member

to m3nphls
I'll take 1Gbps for just a few more dollars a month...

PapaMidnight
join:2009-01-13
Baltimore, MD

PapaMidnight to m3nphls

Member

to m3nphls
said by m3nphls:

If only google fiber came to nyc, it would push fios to lower their price and offer 1Gbps for cheap as well!

If only verizon would complete even the legally obligated rollouts they already have... Baltimore County comes to mind...

buzz_4_20
join:2003-09-20
Dover, NH

1 recommendation

buzz_4_20

Member

If Only

They kept expanding the FIOS footprint. Even pushing other companies to deploy fiber and drum up some competition.

ropeguru
Premium Member
join:2001-01-25
Mechanicsville, VA

1 recommendation

ropeguru

Premium Member

Re: If Only

said by buzz_4_20:

They kept expanding the FIOS footprint. Even pushing other companies to deploy fiber and drum up some competition.

Exactly.. The comment, "Says More 'Troublesome' Copper Lines to Be Migrated" does not equate to "Further expansion".

I really wish they would have run FiOS into my community. They past right by us and ran it an additional 10+ miles to the local administration offices but bypassed the established communities along the way.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

1 recommendation

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: If Only

They could eventually. Once they finish up their commitments with cities, they very possibly could explore to see where they could deploy FiOS and make a healthy profit. They are not going to turn entire communities onto LTE in the future. That is simply not feasible.
34764170 (banned)
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON

34764170 (banned)

Member

Re: If Only

said by silbaco:

They could eventually.

Except they've stated they won't be expanding any further.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: If Only

At this time. Nothing is forever. Especially in telecommunications.

RAZ Black
join:2001-10-04
united state

RAZ Black

Member

Re: If Only

ya, but it certainly f'n takes them forever...

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

KrK to silbaco

Premium Member

to silbaco
They have seen the future, and it is LTE (With Caps and Overages, of course.)

I suspect FIOS expansion is dead forever barring a massive shift in the competitive landscape.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: If Only

Again, they can't move entire towns/cities to LTE. I don't know how no one on this website can grasp this concept. There is no possible way LTE can support that much traffic. Not even close. LTE will only work in sparsely populated areas. The LTE network is already slowing down and they have hardly anyone using it for home usage.

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

KrK

Premium Member

Re: If Only

It can, it's just a question of how many access points they build.
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9 to ropeguru

Premium Member

to ropeguru
Once again, wait until the LTE build is done. I'm betting FTTH expansion will come back in the next couple of years.

grydlok
join:2004-01-06
Richmond, VA

grydlok to ropeguru

Member

to ropeguru
move into that active Senior community at Lee Davis and Pole green rd. They have FIOS internet only

RiseAbove
Premium Member
join:2004-01-30

RiseAbove to buzz_4_20

Premium Member

to buzz_4_20
said by buzz_4_20:

They kept expanding the FIOS footprint. Even pushing other companies to deploy fiber and drum up some competition.

Verizon in a lot of places cannot push FIOS more because of agreements they made with the cable companies. By that I mean those cable companies agreed that they would not move into the wireless business in Verizon areas and they would not extend FIOS into those cable provider areas. So right now they are at a stand off because of that issue.
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

Re: If Only

I'm guessing you're assuming they have a gentlemen's agreement?

jfleni
@bhn.net

jfleni to RiseAbove

Anon

to RiseAbove
Actually, that would be the best thing for everybody, except the doupolists! Verizon and the other telcos running around trying to cut the "unmentionables" off the cable-crats and vice-versa! A famous economist (Galbraith) called it the "theory of countervailing" power; it would make competition real, immediate and sudden!
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Goodbye Copper

Verizon should have been allowed to ditch copper were FiOS was deployed from day 1.
CXM_Splicer
Looking at the bigger picture
Premium Member
join:2011-08-11
NYC

CXM_Splicer

Premium Member

Re: Goodbye Copper

They did ditch it, despite all the customers still using it (and paying for it).
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd to silbaco

Premium Member

to silbaco
I am guessing lots of the North Jersey Shore are getting FiOS now. Thanks to Sandy it is basically greenfield in some of the barrier islands.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

1 recommendation

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Please bring FiOS to Western Mass

You can skip Palmer and the rural areas between Worcester and Springfield, they're rural and you won't get a quick return on your investment. Springfield, West Springfield, Holyoke, Chicopee, Longmeadow, East Longmeadow, Ludlow, and Agawam are all the urban areas where you can serve 8 customers off of one pole instead of one customer every couple of miles and you'll quickly get a return on your investment. And don't forget Northampton, Easthampton, Hadley, and Amherst; those are areas with a lot of college students and people with money. Contrary to popular belief, Western Mass is a viable market to upgrade to FiOS.

I think the time has come to sunset copper lines. Copper lines have basically reached the end of their useful life and the time has come to shut them down. And if you'll deploy FiOS in Springfield, I'll pay the hourly rate to wire my house since it is a duplex and would require a custom install.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

1 recommendation

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: Please bring FiOS to Western Mass

Skip the rural areas? Why do that? While those rural areas might not bring in a lot of money, they are one of the more costly areas to maintain copper service. We have a number of cooperatives and rural providers deploying fiber on gravel roads where there are only a couple people per mile.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

1 recommendation

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Re: Please bring FiOS to Western Mass

said by silbaco:

Skip the rural areas? Why do that? While those rural areas might not bring in a lot of money, they are one of the more costly areas to maintain copper service. We have a number of cooperatives and rural providers deploying fiber on gravel roads where there are only a couple people per mile.

My bad, I did not realize that rural copper was expensive to maintain. I was thinking from a service provider's perspective where they want a quick return on investment. We don't have the cooperatives here in Mass like we did in Iowa. Mass is pretty urban and the rural areas are served by investor owned utilities. What I can say is the urban areas get their power restored pretty quickly after a storm (I was out three days in the October snowstorm) but the rural areas waited up to two weeks for the lights to come back on. And they want to sell their rural assets as Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont are rural states and Verizon dumped their inventory there onto FairPoint (which is basically insolvent due to the high costs of serving those areas). And with FairPoint, service has gone downhill (Grandma quickly switched to Time Warner for home phone when FairPoint came to town). It would be nice if FairPoint did upgrade their areas to fiber but they don't have the cash.

It would be nice to have cooperatives here, particularly in the rural areas (particularly the rural parts of Western Mass, and northern New England). I don't think the laws of the states here allow for cooperatives but we do have a number of municipal utilities (Chicopee, Westfield, Holyoke, and South Hadley just to name a few). Municipal utilities tend to have better rates than investor owned utilities.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: Please bring FiOS to Western Mass

Cooperatives benefit greatly from the lower maintenance costs of fiber. There are several here deploying it to their entire service area no matter how rural that may be. Unfortunately major companies would rather pay higher maintenance costs than deploy fiber.

sdjcl
@mckesson.com

sdjcl to silbaco

Anon

to silbaco
I would terminate all copper service to the rural area and force them to use either cable or LTE.

These equipment are too expensive to be deployed to rural area
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: Please bring FiOS to Western Mass

Most rural areas don't have cable. That leaves nearly a monopoly for the telco. Although deployment costs are high, if you deploy fiber to a rural area it will pay itself off eventually. If you can get them on your TV service, it will pay itself off even faster. Plus a lot of rural people still have landlines.
brianiscool
join:2000-08-16
Tampa, FL

1 recommendation

brianiscool

Member

Good

When they deploy 1Gbps nationwide it will bring downt the 300Mbps to $99
McBane
join:2008-08-22
Wylie, TX

1 recommendation

McBane

Member

Old news

They tested 1Gbps FiOS not too long ago on a test XG-PON setup with some business customer like a year ago.
majortom1029
join:2006-10-19
Medford, NY

majortom1029

Member

yay

I think fios internet and phone are coming to me. I live in brookhaven town on long island. Verizon originally stated that fios wont be coming here because they stopped rollout to places that didn't already have it.

lately in my complex I have seen Verizon trucks all over the place. there are no markkings in the street for the fiber and You see the fiber strung on the poles outside the development. Its not yet connected though you see the end of the fiber feeding the development not connected.

So with this we are replacing the copper with fios to places that can get it means this work is mostlikely what is described in this article.

I can't wait
fioseller
join:2007-08-31
Lindenhurst, NY

fioseller

Member

Re: yay

You will be able to get the phone and Internet. They don't have franchise agreement for TV with Brookhaven and you have to wonder if they ever will.
majortom1029
join:2006-10-19
Medford, NY

majortom1029

Member

Re: yay

said by fioseller:

You will be able to get the phone and Internet. They don't have franchise agreement for TV with Brookhaven and you have to wonder if they ever will.

I know that. AllI care about is there internet and phone. I am fine with tv since my development has an agreement with cablevision so I would pay only the price for my boxes for tv.
IanR
join:2001-03-22
Fort Mill, SC

IanR

Member

The good news re Verizon

The god news for Verizon FIOS customers is that it is FIBER to the house. Other cable systems often use fiber in the street and another cable to the house. Thus the cost of upgrading Verizon to a I Gbps is minimal compared to many other cable comanies which have crews visiting each house to lay a stretch of fiber to the house.

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PastTense
join:2011-07-06
united state

PastTense

Member

Since copper is so expensive, surely fiber must be cheaper?

Obviously!

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antdude
Matrix Ant
Premium Member
join:2001-03-25
US

antdude

Premium Member

What about my areas?

I am still on copper! I can't get DSL (20K ft. to CO) and FIOS even if they are available in my cities.

tmh
@comcastbusiness.net

tmh

Anon

Comes with a 250Gb cap

Hit that in about 30 mins.

••••••
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

?$?

At&T and Verizon aren't going to spend a penny on deployments & investment in the wireline networks unless they are forced or coerced to do so...

This can be for any number of reasons, such as lower uptake of LTE wireless, more consumer complaints reaching congress & the fcc (at which point, the telcos get more stick than carrot).

Lastly, Verizon is NOT doing 1gigabit symmetrical this year.. you can take that one to the bank.. at ANY price to residential customers.

•••••••••••