Comments on: Verizon technology chief talks fiber

CTO Mark Wegleitner explains why Verizon is spending billions to take fiber to the doorstep.

[olderthandirt51]

Provide basic service to rural areas, first.

I've been a Verizon customer for 11 years. Until recently we
couldn't even get voicemail or caller ID. We have a hybrid switch,
not full digital and they have no plans to upgrade. SWB provides
high speed internet (not satellite) to their customers just 4 miles
down the road. Verizon needs to send some of that 18 billion our
way and bring us some 21st century technology.

[burkeen]

Verizon still too fragmented/confusing

Look at the Verizon Web site and just try to find a single page where you can create a simple package that mixes all the Verizon services: wireless, land line, Internet, fiber, tv, etc.. It's impossible. As you navigate the site it's clear that all those separate divisions made their own web pages. This is a good indication of what their company and service is like - fragmented.

The design of the Web pages is also indicative of Verizon's concept of their customers. All the Fiber pages look and feel like TV advertisements loaded with animation fluff, simplistic slogans and generalized project descriptions. You have to dig through several pages to find any technical details. Clearly Verizon is hoping that people buy tech services the same way they buy shampoo.

I get flashbacks to having Verizon DSL which I eventually dropped because customer service was a nightmare. You had to be transferred around to several depts., none of whom communicated with each other, to find someone who could help. Now they've added a fiber/tv dept. to their balkanized company. They should invest some of that fiber money in reinventing their internal organization.

[bkedersha]

Verizon is feeling the icy cold tip of competition

It started a few years ago, but today Verizon is feeling the icy cold tip of competition. Granted it is from the equally worthless, lazy, mental midget cable companies, but still, they are being threatened. This is the sole reason they are deploying fiber. Otherwise, they would have continued to be their lazy selves. They have no touched their POTS lines in years, yet they continue to increase their phone fees? PLEASE! Next up, Sprint and WiMax, and hopefully, this will continue the trend of getting Ma Bell 2 working.

[morningowl]

while in a remote area..surrounding towns have it, we don't

Living in NH, I guess I should expect ancient services, but with each town only 6 or 8 miles on either side of me with high speed internet, I wonder to this day why we cannot be "wired" as well. I realize the ROI may not be optimum, but I am sure if someone lobbied our small town, we would be happy to assist with the upfront costs. We can't even get a cable company out there although 6 miles away there's cable service.

[telestarnext]

Hmm

If I were a member of your town, I would get some people together, create a co-op and maybe set up a local wireless internet system. Sometimes it pays to stop 'wondering' why things happen, and MAKE things happen.

You could PIPE in some of that internet from 6-8 miles away with a WLAN Backhaul system for under a $1,000

If your not interested in investing $1000 why should verizon invest $1,000,000 ?

[torystark]

you have no idea

Dude you have no Idea I live in ME they have cable access, DSL, etc less than half a mile seriously it's around 300 yards away from my house and they will not extend it one inch

[CharlesRovira]

How about its because we've been paying for it for YEARS!

We've been paying a surcharge on our freakin' telephone bills since the mid-nineties.

The only ones who ever saw any benefit was the telcos who laid so much fibre that most of it is dark because its not necessary (Remember the Global Crossing debacle?)

And the amount of fibre laid to our door, in feet and inches, was 0'0"

The telcos have been ripping us off for years with promises and surcharges.

We're finally seeing some fibre because its cheaper to replace broken copper with fibre than to keep trying to patch it with solder.

The fibre replacement policy, which we, the consumers, have been paying for since the begining, with surcharges for things that the telcos never intended on delivering, has been a complete rip-off since the beginning.

[Uptown Guy]

Big Cities?

There are a LOT of folks in some big urban areas that have been shabbily treated by the cable guys who are ready to jump to FIOS. But nowhere do I see or read about Verizon's "strategy" for multi-user dwellings. Will we be able to get fiber inside our apartments? Can building owners prevent us from getting fiber into our apartments?

We already know that for at least 5 years, cable has been fiber to the street outside our buildings. We already see areas of the same city where the FIOS is going to be available sooner getting treated to aggressive measures to the point where they get 20% MORE HD channels for the same rates the rest of us pay... but if Verizon does the same thing, we'd be subject to the very same restrictions, rendering the use of fiber pretty much moot because Verizon won't "go the last mile (which is more like 200 feet)."

[coover]

So Where Is the FIOS?

Verizon has been advertising it's FIOS service in my area for a couple of years, now. So when I call them and tell them I'm ready to sign up, they say they'll notify me when it's available, and suggest that I sign up with Directv. I don't want Directv. I want fast internet (present Verizon DSL gives me 1.2 MBps - certainly not fast enough for my purposes.

So I ask when FIOS will be available in my neighborhood. And they won't give me an answer, making me assume that it won't be available for a long, long time. Come on, Verizon. You could be honest with your customers, but you (evidently) cannot. I'm a big boy. I can take it. If you aren't going to install FIOS in my area, tell me.

[ralfthedog]

50 or 100 up / only 5 down?

Lets get a bit more symmetric.