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Verizon: We Could Offer 1 Gbps, But Don't Think You Need It

For the last few years ISPs have spent a lot of time responding to Google Fiber by insisting that users don't need 1 Gbps connections, hoping to shift the conversation away from the elephant in the room: their high prices. Time Warner Cable doesn't think consumers need ultra-fast, inexpensive connections and neither does CenturyLink or Frontier Communications. Of course several of those companies then turned around and themselves started offering limited deployments of 1 Gbps services nobody apparently wanted.

Verizon's the latest, company CFO Fran Shammo telling attendees of the Wells Fargo 2014 Tech, Media & Telecom Conference this week that while Verizon could offer 1 Gbps services, consumers don't need that kind of speed:
quote:
Speaking at the Wells Fargo 2014 Tech, Media & Telecom Conference, Fran Shammo, EVP and CFO of Verizon, said that the company has put in the network infrastructure to support 1 Gbps, but he does not see a market for it today. "We're now offering 500 Mbps in the home and you could take it to a Gig even though there's no application today that would ever need a Gig in the home," Shammo said.
While it's true that nobody "needs" 1 Gbps right now, Google's $70 price point for such speeds managed to excite consumers as a price proposition, something that doesn't often happen in this market courtesy of limited competition. Consumers don't "need" Verizon's 500 Mbps service tier either, especially at Verizon's price point of $290 a month, four times the price of Google Fiber's offering at half the speed. Of course it was only a few years ago Verizon called 101 Mbps an unnecessary marketing "parlor trick", so this guessing game on what consumers want or need isn't traditionally very productive.

Most recommended from 84 comments



Mike
Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA

7 recommendations

Mike

Mod

it's not that they're wrong

I mean they can barely peer netflix or youtube on a 35mb service.

Here's 98% more of nothing.
shmerl
join:2013-10-21

6 recommendations

shmerl

Member

Where is 500 Mbps for $35?

What Verizon offers now is a rip off comparing to other services which charge less than $100 for a gigabit connection.
bcltoys
join:2008-07-21

5 recommendations

bcltoys

Member

Wireless

Most of our custermers would prefer to have high priced low cap wireless.
elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA

2 recommendations

elray

Member

Spot on!

Verizon is correct.

The public, at large, certainly does not "need" 1 Gbps.

Moreover, they do not want it, either, as the majority does not even want to pay the price for existing Fios tiers.