Verizon Laughs Off DOCSIS 3.0 → Facts...don't you just love 'em

I know i do...thats why i switched to FIOS.

Some pricing facts:
Verizon month to month (make sure and look at the column where you need Verizon phone service:
»www22.verizon.com/Reside ··· lans.htm

Comcast month to month (look at prices for those with TV service):
»www.comcast.com/About/Pr ··· PRID=827

Comparison:
Verizon
20/5 $65/mo
50/20 $160/mo
Comcast
22/5 $63/mo
50/10 $140/mo

Why doesnt verizon just offer a 1gig service and blow everyone out of the water?

For me, Verizon 50/20 is $94.95. It could be as low as $89.95, but I pay month to month and don't have phone service with Verizon under the same account.

Normally the price for FiOS 50/20 is $139.95, or whatever Comcast is selling their 50/10 service in those areas where both FiOS and Comcast DOCSIS 3.0 overlap.

Probably because Fios has 2.4 gbps shared amongst 32 users. To start offering 1 gbps speeds to a single customer means that they would then have to admit that they couldn't GUARANTEE that speed to the customer all the time. They would then, from a marketing perspective, put themselves in the same shared bandwidth boat as cable.

But at 50 mbps x 32 users, they can say they haven't oversold the pipe and can deliver their marketed GUARANTEED speeds because 32 users totalling 1.6 gbps would be under the size of their 2.4 gbps pipe.

Shh... You're not supposed to prove him wrong.

Nobody would buy it at their current price points. If you do the math, every jump of 2.5 times the bandwidth costs 2.5 times the price. At that rate, their pricing would be as follows:

50Mbps/20Mbps = $160
125Mbps/50Mbps = $400
312.5Mbps/125Mbps = $1000
780Mbps/312.5Mbps = $2500

Now I am not sure if those upstream speeds are even supported, so this is just a pricing exercise. I am also sure that there would be some sort of a discount as the tiers got higher, however just based on their current rates thats what it would cost.

The prices I quoted are the OFFICIAL price sheets(see the links in the OP). Both providers cut deals and lower prices with different bundles and will cut deals in areas where there is competition. I am sure that people could post lower Comcast prices as well.

Like the CAPS... They can't GUARANTEE that now either. Just because I have a wide driveway doesn't mean I will get to work any faster in rush hour.

You are only as fast as the fullest shared link in the path end to end. Broadband aggregation points, peering points and last mile on content will always be a limiting factor no matter what the last mile technology is.

I am in a Comcast area.

I had 16/2 with powerboost, all channels and premium movie packages, and my monthly bill was higher than what I now pay Verizon with 50/20 internet and a similar TV package.

I now have much faster internet speeds and many more HD channels with FiOS, which were two important factors for me.

The point I'm trying to make is that price is not really in issue between Comcast and FiOS with regards to competition, as they are practically the same for any similar type of service. So we are left to decide on which product to choose based on other factors.

These speeds assume people want to drive them to those levels, right? Call up Level3, Verizon, AT&T, etc and ask them what a 780Mbps or 1G connection will run you just for the bandwidth (ignoring the local loop)

Some more facts:
With Comcast, it's likely you'll never hit your full 22 or 50 mbps down, likewise, it's likely you'll never hit your full 5mbps up or 10 up.

Reason? Remember, your throttled if you hit more than 70% 50% (As real world test have shown).

There is no definition of peak times or congestion so your pretty much throttled 24/7.

By the way, it's likely that the average person will not go for month to month service and will take the 1 year contract. Acknowledging that, the prices break down as follows without Verizon telephone service: 20/5 is $59.99, 20/20 is $69.99, and 50/20 is $144.95. Knock off $5 on each if you have telephone service from Verizon + FiOS.

Additionally, I'd rather go for guaranteed 24/7 20/20 or 20/5 than gimped 22/5 which is more realistically going to be (maybe) 16/2 or 16/3.

How many HD channels do you watch?

We have about 45 and I probably watch about 6-7 of them, tops.

The "official" price changes with location. The official price for FiOS 50/20 in my area is $89.95 (which has been the official price here since it was first offered). Comcast has yet to offer comparative speeds in my area; the only official price I've seen for Comcast's "50" is around $150 ("Comcast doesn't compete on price" ...according to Comcast). Comcast's cheapest broadband (as in, NOT the "economy" tier) is about $60 (and, yeah, we're talkin' non-bundled--you'll pay that $60 one way or another). For $60 you could have gotten the older, "slower" 30/5 FiOS from Verizon (discontinued: too slow to be the "top" offering).

Across the board, for comparative speeds Verizon's FiOS costs less than Comcast's HSI.

I believe that Comcast with PowerBoost is far more practical in more situations for the average user. For more common data transfers, the benefits of PowerBoost really do shine, and even the Comcast 12/2 package is competitive with Verizon's 20/5 service for many people.

I am very aware of the going rate for a 1Gbps connection, however there are a few things to keep in mind. First, although minimally so, FiOS is an oversubscribed network. Secondly the bandwidth being offered is not symmetrical. Thirdly (and perhaps most important for business use), is the fact that there are no SLA's associated with the product as its a consumer grade connection.

The bigger issue at hand (as you mention) is that there is absolutely no market for 1Gbps home internet connections. Sure it sounds "cool", but you cant access (hardly) any site on the internet today at that speed. The only way anyone would buy a 1Gbps connection would be if it was less than $100 per month, as people are looking to cut costs more than ever. I know you hear people on this site ramble on about how consumers are demanding GigE at home, but thats just a bunch of hooey!

Its first you don't go to the ILECs they'll always want more. You go to another provider. 2nd. you don't call L3, you call Cogent and get it. Dirt Cheap and all the bandwidth you may need.

I have always had the movie packages with my TV service, HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Starz, etc. I used to have one of each available in HD with Comcast, now just about all of my movie channels are available in HD.

Here is a detailed list of what I had before compared to what I have now.

»Re: What Channels?

I pay $89.95 for my FIOS 50/20 tier.

But when I had Comcast the speeds woudl slow to a crwal every evening. it was terrible. Although maybe it's better now since half the condos have switched to FIOS.

My speeds with Comcast were fairly reliable. But my street was one of the last to have FiOS available, so I'm sure the congestion was much lower because FiOS was in the immediate area for so long.

Also, our area was one of the early test sites for the 16/1 and 16/2 speeds. So we must have had a decent infrastructure in place or Comcast would not have tested in our area.

You didn't answer the question.

How many do you watch?

Its more fun to tease other companies, and bring them up to a reachable standard (w/o much effort - where its deployed) - then either implement a price cut, or throw in a few extras.

Its a bit like a poker game... VZW is attempting to call out a bluff.

It depends. More than the average viewer I suppose. I do watch a lot of sports, and there are many more HD sports channels available with FiOS. I love ESPN-U right now for all of the HD college basketball games they show.

I also watch a lot of the science-themed HD channels, and there are several channels that I now have in HD that Comcast did not offer, such as the Smithsonian and Biography channels.

I enjoy some of the shows on the Travel Channel and The Weather Channel HD storms and disaster episodes are nice to watch in HD.

And the picture quality is so good, especially with fast motion on the screen.

But the movie channels all being in HD is huge for me. I rarely watch movies a second time, unless I've never seen it before in HD.

All told, I watch probably around 10-15 channels more per week than I was able to watch on Comcast.

Edit: If you want I can log in and check which channels I have scheduled to record on my DVR? A nice feature by the way. I can count the number of differnt channels I have set to record for the week, but that would not include any spontaneous viewing that I typically do.

so for a few dollars less i can get a service that may or may not work based on the comments posted in the forums and oh and my favorite..

I get free usage caps with Comcast!

I typically watch the primetime network shows, maybe Fox News HD and CNN HD now and again. I watch PBS HD as well.

If my cable provider gives me Discovery and science channel HD I don't think I'll really need anything else. Otherwise I am fine.

I'm not a big sports fan except for NFL and NBA. Got those though. Don't really like college sports.

With my TiVo I can log in and schedule whatever I want and also see what I've set up to record as well.

So most users typically won't be watching 100 or so channels. They'll watch a few and the rest is wasted.

Maybe what cable providers need to do is give us the choice to have a la carte programming and put the channels on SDV so they don't consume bandwidth.

I just don't see too many people having only 10 channels in their "favorites" setup. They see what is on TV, and if it looks interesting, they record it or watch it "live". You have Tivo, so you would not appreciate the enormous improvement I now enjoy with the FiOS guide compared to my previous Comcast SARA guide.

When I finished reading Pompeii by Robert Harris, I searched through my FiOS channels for some shows on the era, region, and volcanoes in particular. I found a bunch of relative shows, and many of them on HD channels that I don't often regularly view.

Since then, I have made use of the search function more frequently. I really do watch many of the HD channels that I now have with FiOS. And I certainly watch a lot of HD programming on channels that were not available to me in HD before, with Comcast.

OK... Call Cogent and ask what a 1G connection will cost you... Post back when you find out. I'll wait.

Where is 22/5

I pay the extra cash for the highest teir and see maybe 16/1 if im lucky.

All Internet services are oversubscribed and the degree of oversubscriptions varies at different points along the path. The current last mile of FiOS may have lower density, but do you know how many FiOS nodes share an OC12 or OC48 when the all come together? That is the thing they don't want to talk about.Point taken... price a 312Mb connection then.Perhaps, but those that work with SLA's know that for the most part they are BS, are rarely collected on. It is about the same as calling and getting a day or two off your bill for residential service. Most residential service (operated well) has similar performance of commercial.

The reality is residential is typically less expensive to run given only a few expect to run wide flat out for long periods of time. It is the average users that subsidize the network costs of the REALLY heavy users.

At the speeds you are asking for above, odds are these would be really heavy users and the cost to support that are more commercial level costs.