Verizon testing 7mbps DSL

Verizon Communications is testing a new service that more than doubles the download speeds on its digital subscriber line service.

The trial, which is open only to selected residential customers, provides download speeds of 7.1 megabits per second with upload speeds of 768 kilobits per second upstream. News of the trial was first reported Wednesday on the Web site Broadband Reports.

A Verizon representative confirmed that the company is testing the new service, but she said it has not determined if and when it will offer the upgrade to consumers, or how much it would cost.

The 7.1mbps DSL service is currently offered to business customers, she added. The cost of the business service ranges from $204.95 per month to $234.95 per month and includes other services such as a security suite, personal e-mail accounts, one-year domain-name registration, and dial-up use for remote workers.

In April Verizon doubled the download speed of its $30-a-month service, to 3mbps, with an upload speed of 1.5mbps.

For more than a year now, phone companies have primarily competed in the broadband market based on price. Earlier this summer, Verizon introduced a service that costs $14.95 for download speeds of 768kbps and upload speeds of 128kbps.

But increasingly, phone companies have been boosting speeds on their service to compete with cable providers, who are also offering higher and higher broadband speeds.

Earlier this month, BellSouth announced it was increasing its service to 6mbps of download capacity and 512kbps upload capacity. Previously, the fastest service available from BellSouth was 3mbps downstream and 384kpbs upstream for $42.95 per month.

SBC DSL =(

Well, sadly in my small mountain town, there is only SBC DSL, because Comcast will not move 1 mile into my area....I wish there was a way to increase their desire for growth without it costing me $10,000....that is what we need.....

[xhable]

thats amazing

I never realised america was actually behind, and thought were limeted with wanadoo or bulldogdsl's £30 per month 8mbps dsl packages. you guys should all move to the 51st state, thats what I think.

[mikei2]

I wish I could get 1.5mbps

"...with an upload speed of 1.5mbps." The original article said, "...up from the currently speed of 1.5mbp"

[aot]

7 millibits per second?

Mbps = megabits per second.

[El Kabong]

Cost?

Apparently Verizon has a variety of pricing plans depending on where you live. We are Verizon customers and can't touch those prices in our area.
What I'm looking for is low cost static IP. Currently, my phone bill would double if I bought it from Verizon. It's really not justifiable to boost the price when static IPs would be automatic with DSL if special procedures were not initiated at the phone company to make them random.
Such unfair practices may ultimately bring about the demise of an unregulated Internet.

[BlinkMM182]

Eh...

maybe this matters if you love DSL and must have a static IP. Personally I have Cable and my speed never goes BELOW 7mbps down with no less than 700kbps. By next year its supposed to be 15/2 for the same price.
To me VZ is playing catchup. (unless your talking about FIOS)

[garonne]

It was about time

The baseline for DSL service in large metropolitan areas in France (that's 100,000+ inhabitants) has been 20Mbps for the past 2-3 years. In contrast to Verizon's $200+/month price, this is available starting at $20/month and gives you telephone+TV access over DSL on top of that.

Wanadoo, Free, Alice, Neuf Telecom are all competing to go beyond basic internet access with those additional services which are enabled by proprietary modem/routers (some include DynDNS support for home-hosting). Prices though vary with QoS - Wanadoo is known for having the best customer service and fewer line drops than others, but overall the offerings are much more solid than anything that can be experienced in the US, and far cheaper.

It's ironic to see the US playing catchup (on this instance only) and good to see that US providers are finally switching gears.

[verdyp]

Lowest broadband prices, maximum service, and lowest prices

May be you don't know who is Free, the now wellknown French ISPthat hasrevolution the whole ISP business with the lowest flat pricing rates for the maximum of innovative services:
* up to 18Mbps with ADSL2 in many areas
* about 30euros/monthfor the access
* numeric satellite TV over the wire with more than 40 channels
* free VoIP nationwide phone service
* the largest freeweb hosting
* unlimited number of user accounts and emails
* a box that integrates the TV decoder, the VoIP decoder (no need to use your PC,just hang up your phone, or switch on your TV)
In fact the service isnot even priced on speed: eachtime anewtechnologyemerges, you get it on the wire andbenefit from speed improvements.
Definitely, France has the lowest Internet prices in Europe, and offers the maximum of services with your ISP subscription (and the rural exception is now mostly ended, with broadband at more than 1Mbps available throughout the territory).
May be France is still not the most connected country, but it goes fast, and both France and UK have now better broadband penetration than US where millions ofpeople are still connected with slow 56K modems and with no cable access in rural areas.
Before DSL, cable was not developed in France (favored by satellite TV services). DSL is now faster and cheaper than cable access and offers much more services.

Forget cable access in US, or you won't be able to connect lot of people. US is just discovering the benefit of a strategic national plan to support and finance broadband access over all the territory. Blame the FCC for having not realized thisandforced a true regulation that would have allowed developing broadband access throughout US, despite the huge, oversized, and underused equipment found in metropolitan areas (and blame the ISPs and the FCC for having not really used a fair competition to lower their rates to maximize the use of their investment in these areas, where there's in fact no more gain to do there).

Taxing ISPs in these large cities (notably those geographical areas with little competition) will force these exclusive cable ISPs to do their job and invest in rural areas, and really compete as they should do using the DSL technology, and local loop sharing with regulated pricing based on effective costs.

[joevaccarelli]

Everything old is new again

1999 - Verizon rolled out DSL service in New York City. There were three tiers of service. The top tier was called PowerSpeed DSL - 7.1 MBs for $199 per month. Eventually, this disappeared and there was 640 Kbs and 1.5 Mbs. Am I the only one who remembers this?