The Fiber to the Premises Install Process 240
SkinnyGuy writes "Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) or Fiber-based broadband is still in a very few areas, but PCMag's Lance Ulanoff has it and he seems to really, really like all 15MBPS of it. There's also an extensive slideshow on the whole installation process." From the article: "The power out is connected to the box, and the fiber ends in the box and comes out as Cat 5e, which runs back through the hole all the way to a new D-Link router. That's right: In addition to the box on the outside and the UPS inside, Verizon also gave me a new wireless G router, which includes four wired ports. This is a lot of free equipment (though I might incur some charges if I were to quit FiOS before the year had gone by). All this--not including the through-the-tree cable run--took another 2 hours or so."
Get that fiber! (Score:4, Funny)
Availability (Score:5, Informative)
You can check availability here [wikipedia.org].
Re:Availability (Score:2)
I thought the way they rolled these out was to cities and densely populated areas first
Re:Availability (Score:3, Interesting)
My parents just bought a house in Exeter, RI, which is a tiny rural town. It's so small that it only has one police officer; when his shift is over, the state cops have jurisdicti
Re:Availability (Score:2)
I ran some speed tests and got results all within a few percent of 5000Kbps / 1500 Kbps. I hope that's what they subscribed for.
Re:Availability (Score:3)
It makes some sense to do the first rollout in relatively unknown places where initial rollout problems are less likely to give it a bad reputation to an entire major city... Another good place to do an initial rollout would be someplace where there are problems with DSL.. (there are various things that work well for POTS phones that just kill adsl delivery).
Fiber is really good in places that are just too widesprea
Re:Availability (Score:2)
1.7 gigabytes in 12 minutes (Score:3, Funny)
Oh heck, I'm quietly sobbing.
Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:3, Interesting)
Gee, I'm strangely not that impressed. I can get 10Mbps cable modem service right now ($44.95/mo), and I'm in Kansas. I just checked AT&T/SBC's site and it looks like their top of the line service in my area is only 3-6mbps.
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
15MBps = 120mbps, about 12 times faster than your 10mbps connection, and about 20 times faster than AT&T's 6mbps service.
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
That's still better than what SBC&T is going to offer (as near as I can tell) from Project Lightspeed. They're apparently going to cap you at 6Mbits down and 1Mbit or so up, no matter how close you are to the box. (at 500-1000 feet, VDSL2+ gives 50-100 Mbps bi-directional)
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
No, it's not.
Go read the article. The summary here has the label in all caps, but it is Mbps. Bits.
"...When I told her that I was going for the $44.95-a-month 15-Mbps option (Verizon recently announced plans to up this to 20 Mbps), she got even cheerier..."
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
No, 15Mbps. 15,000,000 bits per second is a good. 0.015 bits per second is not good, unless you're measuring the speed of an IP over Avian Carrier network.
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:3, Interesting)
Did you bother to RTA? The author transferred 1700 MB in 12 minutes which is roughly 2.36 MB/sec or about 18 Mb/s. Still pretty damn good compared to my 6Mbps/768Kbps ADSL service of which I realistically see 4 Mbps down and 600 Kbps up. What I want to see is an ISP with a clue start offering high speed connectivity. If I see another god damn cable provider or telco offer some
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
I'd love that too (and I'd absolutely pay $150/mo for it), but the dedicated/c
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
The good news is that it beats my mom's 31kbps dialup connection....that must be why it costs 5x as much...humm....doing the mat
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
Suggestion for a new moderation option: -1: Absolutely no understanding of the t
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
Fiber has more headroom (Score:2)
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
That's fine, but the 10Megabit service you get from cable is, in all probability shared between your entire neighbourhood. i.e. you MIGHT be able to get a 1Megabyte/second download at 4AM on a weeknight, but if everybody in the neighbourhood is trying to do a download, you mi
Re:Competing technologies marching on as well. (Score:2)
I think I speak for everyone when I say (Score:4, Funny)
Easy there (Score:3, Funny)
Easy buddy. He just got fiber, it's not like he killed Kenny or something.
Mod article down (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:Mod article down (Score:2)
Only 15MBPS? (Score:4, Interesting)
American ISPs are cheap... well, expensive, but cheap
"for almost everyone" (Score:2)
If a person lives within 1.7km of wire from their nearest concentrator, then they can get 20MBps.
If you think "almost everyone" lives within 1.7km of wire from their nearest concentrator, I think you're wrong.
Over time, as more remote concentrators are installed, most people in dense areas will be able to get something like this. But right now, I can't imagine that over half of the people in your country live that close.
Re:Only 15MBPS? (Score:2)
Isn't is sad that we consider a static ip address a "sweet feature". Roll on IPv6. Personally I want reasonable upstream speeds on residential connections.
Re:Only 15MBPS? (Score:2)
Re:Same Deal Down Under (Score:2)
Telstra is partially to blame for this; they refuse to provide any DSL service whatsoever to those who can't get their maximum speed. Agile gives you as much as you can handle though, so when they start getting out into the non-metro areas things may improve. As it is, I'm in a metro area (Adelaide) and live ~2.1km from the exchange, giving me just over 8Mb/s sync speed, and >800KB/s download speed. It
No turning back (Score:5, Informative)
That means all that recent hubub about "competitive access" and "CLECs" and all that other theoretically Good (albeit practically Frustrating) stuff that opens up the telephone system no longer applies to you.
Yeah, I know we all hate the phone company, and everyone screams "well it's not like we were getting the service we paid for in the first place", but try writing a nastygram to your public utilities commissioner regarding faulty (or bad) service on your fiber, and there's a lot less they can do than if you're sitting on the "real" PSTN.
If you (or a future resident) ever wants to get the copper back, it could potentially be an administrative, technical, financial, bureaucratic, and/or logitistical nightmare.
Caveat emptor... although I sure wish it were available here.
Re:No turning back (Score:2)
I have it, they did it (Score:4, Informative)
However, he's gone a bit too far with the regulatory fear-mongering. Yes, the fiber line is excempt from the regulations passed in 96 that forced the phone companies to allow competitive access to the copper that enabled Covad, Northpoint, and others to start building out DSL networks of their own. However, the FIOS phone line is still a tariffed / regulated service, with the same Public Utility Commission oversight as before.
-R
Re:No turning back (Score:3, Informative)
BUT... You the installer will ask you if you want to keep the copper or not. They will ask. If they dont, you can mention it and ask them to not remove it.
Its not a big deal at all.
Re:No turning back (Score:2)
Either way, its been widely discussed at dslreports.com aka broadbandreports.com and i havent heard of anyone ever having a problem with keeping the copper hookup.
The installers arent required to remove it, they are instructed to unless you chose to not remove it.
My installer asked me specifically if i wanted it removed. I said no, and i still have the copper line. I u
Re:No turning back (Score:4, Informative)
Not really (Score:2)
Um, no. (Score:4, Informative)
If you order FiOS and don't want them to remove the copper, tell them you don't want them to. If you don't want phone service, don't order it. I think I pay $5 more a month for the service because I don't have phones, but that may be wrong. Its $44.95/month for 15mbit. Someone who knows what they pay with phone service can chime in if its less than that.
There's no grand conspiracy to force people off copper. Of course they'd rather do that, but they don't force it on anyone.
Oh, and your phone service is quite considered a telephone line if you are getting phone service from Verizon over the fiber -- you still pay all the taxes and have all the "rights" associated with phone lines. Only if you use a 3rd party VOIP over FiOS would you lose those. (Verizons fiber-based phone service is NOT VOIP)
Re:Um, no. (Score:2)
Re:No turning back (Score:2)
Re:No turning back (Score:4, Informative)
No one I know with it had any copper removed. Not one.
As I said in my reply direct to him, there are a bunch of incorrect things people (who strangely don't have it) seem to keep repeating. To enumerate:
1) they do not remove copper usually. They never will if asked not to.
2) you do not need phone service
3) their phone service is regulated, if you do have it
4) Their network absolutely can handle the bandwidth. I can saturate my 15 mbit connection 24/7. 1.8meg/sec sustained, with no problems. (I know the grandparent didn't mention THAT FIOS rumor, but I thought I'd toss it in there)
Re:No turning back (Score:2)
Perhaps this depends where you are and whether the lines are in the ground or overhead. In Virginia they wanted to remove my overhead copper lines but didn't because I had a T1 at the time. You are correct that they won't insist on removing them if you ask them not to but you have to know to ask.
2) you do not need phone service
However, ordering it without phone service is *really* hard. You will get a serious runaround if you try. You're
All What? (Score:4, Insightful)
Excuse me, but that seems pretty lame for fiber to the curb. At 15MBS, I doubt the cable companies are shaking in their boots yet.
Re:All What? (Score:2)
The tech asked for my phone, made a quick call and then did another test.
"45 megabits . . . I know you didn't order that. It'll adjust."
You can get more bandwidth - you just have to pay for it.
Verizon's plan for world domination with FiOS (Score:5, Interesting)
CNET article on it [com.com]
--
From Northern Virginia? Visit Fairfax Underground [fairfaxunderground.com]! (Just added: Fairfax County wiki, need submissions)
Re:Verizon's plan for world domination with FiOS (Score:2)
Re:Verizon's plan for world domination with FiOS (Score:2)
Hey, buddy, if youz wanna sell your house, youz gonna have ta ante up to get dat cable run to you house again, capisce?
I've had FiOS since November 2004 (Score:5, Informative)
All things considered, the biggest annoyance is the fact that the power is no longer line-supplied. That 12v battery in my garage has been replaced twice already. Sooner or later, Verizon quits paying for them; I have no idea when, but soon.
My FiOS is set up similarly to that of the article, except my run comes into the NID outside, has the power source and battery separate, and splits off 3 phone lines, my WAN IP interface, and my FiOS TV connection (which goes to a splitter/grounding block in the attic).
All in all it's definately worth the speed at 45 a month. I'm paying about $230 a month after you roll in my 3 phone lines ($85) Internet@15/2mbps ($45) and FiOS TV ($100)
They offer a 5mbit, 15mbit and 30mbit connection, but the last I checked, they priced the 30/15 connection at $199 a month.
peace
Re:I've had FiOS since November 2004 (Score:2)
Re:I've had FiOS since November 2004 (Score:2)
Dude, pretty much everyone I know has been paying at least $85/mo for "basic" digital cable for a couple years now - add any premium channels (e.g. HBO) and it goes over $100/mo. And no, the pr0n is PPV and costs extra - except for a little nudity here and there - no real porn. As a side note, it's fascinating to me that there are so many people living in govt housing project where they are paying e.g. $15/mo for rent, but they manage to keep a
Re:I've had FiOS since November 2004 (Score:3, Informative)
I just got Verizon's FIOS service earlier this year, after Charter cable was having so much down time it wasn't funny. Of course, Charter's downtime seemed to increase as Verizon started to dig in the area. Mostly DNS problems or so.
Now that I have FIOS, I really like it, and their FIOS TV prices seem to be better than Charter's digital cable offerings. However, I still see some DNS problems, so it feels like the backbone of the internet in this area (North Texas
Re:I've had FiOS since November 2004 (Score:2)
I got Verizon in to fix the problem, since it didn't happen until they installed FiOS, and the tech generously informed me that (a) this is a common problem, (b) they were supposed to ask if I have an alarm system when I ordered and
Cat 5e? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Cat 5e? (Score:2)
Re:Cat 5e? (Score:2)
Re:Cat 5e? (Score:2)
Re:Cat 5e? (Score:2)
Re:Cat 5e? (Score:2)
Re:Cat 5e? (Score:2)
I predict cheap consumer devices (e.g. TiVo) with gigabit local area networks in the next five years.
Verizon FIOS (Score:2)
Re:Verizon FIOS -- Whoa... wait a minute... (Score:2)
Wait a minute
Total Download Limits? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Total Download Limits? (Score:2)
I've uploaded gigs and gigs of HD 1080p footage (I'm a special fx artist) we're talking 30+gigs
Not a word from Verizon.
I've got it in TX (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I've got it in TX (Score:3, Informative)
I ripped that thing to shreads by word of mouth... I bought the linksys WRT54gs and returned the dlink-624 router...
That was a couple years ago...
Fast foward to today... I was very concerned about the dlink 624 that FIOS gives you. I had FIOS installed a few months ago and it turned out that the Linksys WRT54GS would SLOW MY SPEED DOWN. It would cut 10mb from the servic
Re:I've got it in TX (Score:2)
Re:I've got it in TX (Score:2)
I cant explain why this one works now, and the old one i had did not. I'm happy it does though.
The problems i had with my first dlink 624 were just unbareable. XP would tell me every 5 seconds that i've lost network connection. The whole router would reboot. It was a nightmare and i quickly hated the dam thing.
Its just odd that this one works. I've had a friend h
And behind the scenes, the real dangers (Score:5, Interesting)
Let's see if it's future proof.... can they update their hardware to accommodate multiple concurrent IPTV QoS-based streams at HD raster/frame/color levels? No. Are they going to guarantee your network applications-- no matter who provides them-- won't be port blocked or attenuated by service type/port? No. This is called 'net-neutrality' and Verizon isn't net-neutral (just their services of course).
Can you join an MPLS network, even though Verizon supports their own internally? Nope. Can you join theirs? Nope-- not today anyway and no date in sight.
Can you run Skype and Vonage, or are they blocked? Can you run mulitple QoS- VoIP streams without raising eyebrows? Nope.
Can you get them to do an SLA? Nope.
Can you currently up-and-download stuff amazingly fast? You bet.
And no- I do not work for any carrier or affiliate of any kind. Instead, I've been following FTTX for 20 years.
Re:And behind the scenes, the real dangers (Score:2)
Re:And behind the scenes, the real dangers (Score:3, Insightful)
they also have great difficulties with VLANs, and IPV6
DSL and cable ISPs don't support VLANs or IPv6 either.
can they update their hardware to accommodate multiple concurrent IPTV QoS-based streams at HD raster/frame/color levels?
A HD H.264 stream is only 10Mbps, so FIOS can fit roughly 62 streams per fiber, w
Thank you for making me irrelevant. (Score:3, Informative)
DSL and cable ISPs don't support VLANs or IPV6 either
Not so. Do your homework.
That's if you don't have several children.... eschew things like QT7.... and want to have any kind of reasonable future running non-carrier-controled QoS streams! As for consumer broadband ISPs that support MPLS, again-- you need to do your homework. The big guys don't, but the little ones are getting smart. SLAs are becoming important, too. What happened to 5-9's? Is it one 9, two,
Re:Thank you for making me irrelevant. (Score:2)
Not so. Do your homework.
There are enough DSL and cable ISPs that I'm sure some of them support IPv6. Very few, but some.
As for VLANs, they work just fine on FiOS as long as you're using one that is OK with a dynamic IP endpoint.
Can you run Skype and Vonage, or are they blocked?
I'm using Vonage, so the answer is yes. Works just fine.
I also ripped out the D-Link router the provide and hooked up my Linux firewall directly to the ONT. This means I get unmol
Re:And behind the scenes, the real dangers (Score:2)
In fact, blocked ports and throttled services in general is a serious issue where I am concerned.
Re:And behind the scenes, the real dangers (Score:2)
IPV6.... (Score:2)
thoughts on ONT bandwidth, etc. (Score:2, Interesting)
Does anyone know the speed of the PON interface and whose OLT that Verizon is using? I'd be curious how much bandwidth from the optics the end u
Are we supposed to be impressed with 15Mbit fiber? (Score:2, Interesting)
Phone is not coupled with FIOS (Score:2)
As a Verizon FIOS subscriber (have been for the past 4 months or so), I can attest that you don't need to have phone service through Verizon to get FIOS. In fact, I did have phone service through them and the day after my FIOS was connected I shut off my phone service and went with Vonage.
Does this guy do his research?
Also the article states that the speeds are 5, 10 and 15 MBps. That's wrong. It's Mbps.
port blocking and upload. (Score:2)
I have FIOS 30/5... (Score:2)
The install process is a few hours long. I'm proud to be the first person in my area to have it. (I've had a few months now) I cant tell you how happy i am to no longer be a Cablevision Optonline broadband subscriber. I was one of the first Optonline subscribers and saw their service degrade horribly over the years.
FIOS has forced OOL to "BOOST" their speeds but they're still plague
Re:I have FIOS 30/5... (Score:2)
Passive Optical Networking Systems (PONS) weren't around 10 years ago. The technology first saw serious discussion about any form of commercial deployment in 2003.
Without PONS it wasn't cost-feasible. You needed two fibers to every location instead of just one, and the fiber had to go all the way back to powered equipment at the CO instead of being merged with other subscribers on to a small n
Re:I have FIOS 30/5... (Score:2)
He also mentioned that they've changed hardware once already and verizon is paying quite a bit per person and losing quite a bit on each install.
As if Verzion will actually play ball (Score:2)
But once they roll out FIOS I might call and beat them up a bit, tell them that if they can give me unlimited to the U.S., Canada, France, Italy, Spain and the U.K. as well as CLID, CW-CLID, Three-Way calling, voice mail, and a ton of o
They installed the fiber, then cut the copper! (Score:2)
Re:They installed the fiber, then cut the copper! (Score:2)
Re:Looks good (Score:2, Interesting)
Pricing is something like $32/mo for 5Mb, $39/mo for 15Mb, and $170/mo for 30Mb. The installers ment
Re:Looks good (Score:2, Interesting)
my neighbor likes it (Score:2)
I have Comcast and it's about 4Mbps so if you need the extra speed it should be good. The thing that turns me off is:
a) I hate Verizon and
B) he said it took like three days to hook it up. And he's a programmer who works from home. Go figure.
It IS good. (Score:2)
Re:FiOS availability in Cedar Park/Austin, TX? (Score:2)
Re:Do they NAT?mowgli (Score:2)
I'd say its the primary downside of FIOS at the moment.
that and they block incoming port 80.
Re:We already paid for 45Mbps - cheating bastards (Score:2)
Yes, more or less. Those dozen or so companies are known as the "Internet Core Exchange." They include folks like MCI/Verizon and Abovenet. The process is known as "Reciprocal Peering" and the ICE move 100% of their traffic that way.