The Fiber to the Premises Install Process

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."

Availability

[Yaksha42]

It's too bad that it's not very common, it's cheaper than my 5mbps cable connection.

You can check availability here [wikipedia.org].

No turning back

[the_tsi]

Before everyone goes and gets FIOS for their broadband fixation, beware that in the vast majority of markets, Verizon *CUTS THE COPPER TO YOUR HOUSE* when they run the fiber for FIOS. They pull it out of the ground. You are off the grid. You are no longer subject to all the wonderful federal and state utilities requirements placed on telephone companies for purposes of "protecting" residential telephone customers. Your FIOS line isn't even really considered a telephone line in most states.

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.

I've had FiOS since November 2004

[cheezus_es_lard]

I was one of the first people in my town to get wired for it; we happen to have the headquarters of the old GTE entity in the city limits, and they piloted the service to the towns their execs lived in. I got lucky in the old broadband roulette game.

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:Competing technologies marching on as well.

[Quikah]

Verizon FIOS is only 15 Mbps, not 15 MBps. The /. summary is incorrect (shocking I know).

I've got it in TX

[NFNNMIDATA]

And let me warn you: the D-link router is a POS. It reboots itself way too much (daily at a minimum, compared to never with my old Linksys). Very painful when you play WoW or work at home. I finally got around to switching back to the Linksys I had, but I had to get rid of the Sveasoft firmware I'd installed in order to get above 4mbps (and get 15mbps). It turns out the Linksys gets almost 1mpbs better throughput than the D-link in my tests as well, so if you get fiber do yourself a favor and ditch the D-link. Oh sure, you could go the customer service route, but I for one am too lazy to sit there pretending to empty my temp internet files while some stooge reads a troubleshooting script.

I have it, they did it

[RebornData]

I've got FIOS and my traditional phone line now runs over the fiber They completely removed the existing phone box on the house and put the ONT in it's place... it has a similar block for wiring the house phone wiring to it. This is why the FIOS install comes with a UPS- so that your phone line will keep working if the power goes out. They didn't actually tear out the copper wire from the ground, but hooking it back up would be a project.

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

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

Verizon does NOT cut the copper to your house. They will do so if you request... because they offer phone service through their fiber (NOT VOIP) And its all on battery backup as well.

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

[mduell]

For all of the commenters asking for a source, here it is: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2005/05/07/AR2005050700178.html [washingtonpost.com].

Re:I've got it in TX

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

I used to think this. I once bought the Dlink 624 router and it did exactly as you described. It would reboot constantly... every 5 seconds.

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 service because it couldnt keep up.

The Dlink 624 that i was given by Verizon with my FIOS install, runs at a full 30/5 mb service consistantly. AND there are no reboots.

The reboot problem that i experienced a year ago, does not happen at all with this Dlink 624.

BTW Verizon has custom firmware for the Dlink 624 that they give you.

The router is performing extremely well and I cant explain why.

Like i said, i bitched about the dlink 624 for a long time and praised my linksys but... that situation is now reversed oddly enough and i cant explain why the Dlink 624 works so well now.

 

Re:I've had FiOS since November 2004

[garylian]

Yes, that 30/15 is horrifically expensive.

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) is having some issues, since many of my neighbors experience the same thing.

But their 15/2 service is worth it. Now, if they would just pull the throttle off the VPN for work, I'd be a happy camper. Thing is as slow as a 56K modem at times.

Um, no.

[tgd]

I have FiOS. And contrary to the "they remove the copper" bullshit people seem to hype up online, I still have copper lines. And, contrary to that article, I do not have (and never have had) a Verizon phone line.

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:No turning back

[tgd]

Second hand intarweb posts.

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)

Thank you for making me irrelevant.

[postbigbang]

DSL and cable ISPs don't support VLANs or IPV6 either

Not so. Do your homework.

.....2 streams per customer worse-case

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, or three or four or what? There are no guarantees at all. And no guarantees that you won't get blocked-- what with Net Neutrality out the window.