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After Lawsuit, Verizon to Modify FiOS Ads Slightly
Still Argues That Cablevision Under Delivers Bandwidth

Last week we noted that Cablevision had sued Verizon for FiOS ads highlighting that Cablevision wasn't delivering the speeds users are paying for. According to FCC data from last August, Cablevision delivered just 50% of advertised speed during peak periods, a fact Verizon quickly made use of in FiOS marketing. However, last week the FCC updated their data to show that Cablevision had made significant improvements, and now delivered 90% of advertised speeds during peak hours. Cablevision quickly jumped on the news to sue Verizon for false advertising, since technically the 50% ads were no longer true.

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Responding to the lawsuit, Verizon has sent Broadband Reports a legal filing (pdf) saying they'll modify their ads slightly to reflect the statistical change -- but will continue with ads based on the data. The same study found that Verizon delivered 104% of advertised speeds during peak hours. Verizon has a history of over-provisioning tiers to deliver users more speed than they expected, something we noted Cablevision quietly started doing after the FCC report.

In addition to the ads using outdated statistics, Cablevision's lawsuit insists that commercials like this one overstate the nature of the issue. One Verizon ad features a user frustrated in their attempt to watch streaming content on Cablevision, with a message stating "connection interrupted." Verizon, as you might expect, insists they're in the right, and that Cablevision has no room to complain.

"The best that Cablevision can claim is that it is not misrepresenting its broadband speeds quite as much today as in the past," a Verizon spokesman insists. "To try to compete with Verizon's state-of-the-art FiOS services, Cablevision has concealed its inferior broadband performance from consumers for years, and continues to do so today."

Unmentioned by Verizon is the fact that their DSL service, still offered in 50% of their markets, likely doesn't fare much better than Cablevision's service at peak time (See August FCC chart). Still, regardless of who wins this legal and PR feud, users in FiOS/Cablevision markets are fortunate in that they're at least seeing something vaguely resembling competition in a U.S. broadband market that generally lacks it.
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45612019 (banned)
join:2004-02-05
New York, NY

45612019 (banned)

Member

No FiOS complaints here.

On the 35/35 Mbps tier I actually see solid speeds of 44/38 Mbps.

I can see why someone would go with cable TV with FiOS TV lacking new HD additions - the cable companies are really starting to kick Verizon's ass in the TV department.

But you'd have to be crazy to opt for cable Internet if you can get Verizon's FiOS product.
glinc
join:2009-04-07
New York, NY

glinc

Member

Re: No FiOS complaints here.

Nahz, you still can't compare cable tv quality with fios.
mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

mmay149q to 45612019

Premium Member

to 45612019
said by 45612019:

On the 35/35 Mbps tier I actually see solid speeds of 44/38 Mbps.

I can see why someone would go with cable TV with FiOS TV lacking new HD additions - the cable companies are really starting to kick Verizon's ass in the TV department.

But you'd have to be crazy to opt for cable Internet if you can get Verizon's FiOS product.

I actually get 45/43 out of my 35/35 from Verizon, I'm not going to lie their provisioning service is awesome considering I'm getting 10Mbps on the download for free, and 8Mbps on the upload for free, I definitely won't complain, however if FiOS starts doing metered billing on their service sadly I'll have to leave them for another provider

Matt

ZeddicusToo
@verizon.net

ZeddicusToo

Anon

Hey

Providers have always competed in "print" (commercials, ads, whatnot)--and occasionally in court. It's the competing in price that we're still lacking. They're still not really even competing in service, only in perception of service.

"Government proves Cablevision sucks. Cablevision spends some money and tweaks their service to make it work somewhat better (to clean up the "bad press"). Government proves Cablevision sucks less than it did.

Film at 11:00. Suit to follow. Please stay tuned."
elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

elefante72

Member

Bandwidth

I can't comment on CV, however TWC always delivered their 15/2 service when I had it, so no complaints there. Since I live in UNY however, every couple of years I needed a new coax pull because they apparently use south carolina terminators in NY . With fiber, no such problem.

However I think that the exposure goes to show how competition in the free market works. Put up or shut up, it forces everyone to go to a higher level, as the market should work. The sad thing is that 90% is not 100%, as it should. CV should just give me MSG HD already, jerks.

If I were getting 90% of a service then I should pay 90%, right?

My 25/25 always runs faster, so I am thankful for fibre, and customer service for Verizon is light years ahead of TWC in my neck of the woods.

The MAJOR problem everyone except FIOS is going to have is asymm, because all of these cloud products start using the uplink. If they can provide 50% of downlink, what is their uplink when that starts getting used? DSL is dead in that case...

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ
(Software) pfSense
Asus RT-AC68
Asus RT-AC66

MovieLover76

Member

There ads were in no way a misrepresentation

up until November 1 I was a cablevision subscriber and one the 15/2 package trying to watch an HD netflix movie (5mbps) was unwatchable, the quality would jump between hd and sd constantly and the video would stall for buffering several times, so at prime time I was getting less than 33.3% of the advertised bandwidth, eventually I paid for boost ( bacause my landlord wouldn't all the fios equipment to be installed ) and with 30/5 the buffering stopped but it still couldn't keep up with one 5mbps stream and the video quality would drop down to SD

I moved and got fios in my new apartment, on the 25/25 package I always get 30/30 on speedtests and netflix HD streams work flawlessly, I'm even able to do two at a time, 3 would probably even work because the connection is so constant but i only have 2 netflix enabled tvs

FIOS is a vastly superior product to Cablevision the PQ on the TV is much better as well, as for channel selection their wasn't any channels that I used to watch on cablevision in HD that aren't on FIOS in HD, I normally stick to the HD channels, so if theirs a difference in selection i didn't effect me.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

1 edit

tmc8080

Member

to be continued...

still not certain that 2012 will bring better deals with a re-emphasis on wireless by Verizon dropping 3.6 billion for new spectrum.

When will higher symmetric(ish) tiers become more affordable for mainstream consumers? Will 50/50 finally replace 35/35 and surrounding tiers get a bump?

to be continued..

btw, my fios is 30.6(7)/25(26.5) on 25/25, so only a +5/+1.2 - 1.5 gain here (meanwhile, my FIXED rate bill just went up 18 cents over the last 3 months higher USF fee and "PEG" grant fees) That brings a NYC metro triple play bundle to $97.58 under a triple play with one HD set-top (old 2010 2yr NC deal).