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The Internet Technology

Verizon Taking FTTP Installation Orders 624

Posted by timothy from the sneeze-at-cat5 dept.
ooglek writes "Verizon is now qualifying and accepting installations for FTTP (Fiber To the Premises)! $39.95 for 5MB/2MB, $49.95 for 15MB/2MB, and $199.95 for 30MB/5MB. No word yet on whether Verizon will block ports (25, 80, etc) for incoming or outgoing traffic; with 2MB upload, I hope to basically run a small data center in my basement. Both phone and Internet will come through the fiber, and there is an unofficial rumor of video services as well by the end of this year. Got Fiber? My install date is November 2nd in Falls Church, VA (near DC). Several people in Keller, Texas have posted pictures and reported 14,679 kbps download and 1,794 kbps download speeds." Update: 10/26 23:52 GMT by T : That second "download" ought probably read "upload."
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Verizon Taking FTTP Installation Orders More

Verizon Taking FTTP Installation Orders

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  • Form doesn't work for me (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:19PM (#10636603)
    It takes me to the DSL order page, and tells me I already have it. Yes, I do, I never noticed. Thanks Verizon!

    • Re:Form doesn't work for me (Score:5, Funny)

      by SilentChris ( 452960 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @07:15PM (#10637135) Homepage
      I just called, and the reason it doesn't work is because it's currently in a "test phase" in certain markets. Thanks Slashdot for getting my hopes up.

      Actual conversation with Verizon:

      Verizon: Yes, we're very excited about this service. What's your phone number.
      Me: *Give my phone number*
      Verizon *silence*: Let me speak with my manager. *comes back a little while later* Where did you hear about our FIOS service?
      Me: Uh, an internet site called "Slashdot". Lots of tech news.
      Verizon: We were wondering. I've been getting calls all day. We only have FIOS in test markets right now like Florida, Texas... rattles off a few more names.
      Me: Any idea when you're going to support the NY metropolitian area?
      Verizon: I'm sorry, I don't know at this time.

      • /. the call center (Score:5, Funny)

        by beanluc ( 780880 ) <beanluc up to gmail.com> on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @07:29PM (#10637256) Journal
        > Verizon: We were wondering. I've been getting calls all day.

        Has a call center ever been slashdotted before?

      • Re:Form doesn't work for me (Score:5, Interesting)

        by moosesocks ( 264553 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @07:50PM (#10637419) Homepage
        FYI, Verizon has wired much of Northern NJ for FTTP, but NJ State legislation is preventing them from turning their network on. However, verizon has given the order to make the network 'ready to turn on with the flip of a switch' which is pretty cool IMO. Now just to wait for a new governor. The present one hasn't accomplished ANYTHING, and is unlikely that he will now.

        Sorta a pity how they are stifiling innovation in this state -- as I watch one of AT&T's former largest test centers be demolished piece by piece. (which managed to hold on for quite a while after the breakup, but is sadly no more...)

        • Re:Form doesn't work for me (Score:4, Interesting)

          by thisissilly ( 676875 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @07:57PM (#10637465)
          Curiousity makes me ask, as a fellow NJ resident, what legislation is preventing it, and who I should be writing to get things moving.

        • Re:Form doesn't work for me (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Jah-Wren Ryel ( 80510 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @10:39PM (#10638513)
          Verizon has wired much of Northern NJ for FTTP, but NJ State legislation is preventing them from turning their network on.

          My understanding, based solely on reading the forums at dslreports.com is that Verizon wants monopoly rights to the fibre they are laying. As in no second source ISP like Covad or Earthlink would be able to lease bandwidth or connectivity on the fibre lines at (low) state-set rates, like they are able to today on the copper lines.

          Based on that, I think Verizon is in the wrong. They are dangling shiny trinkets of high-speed internet at a reasonable price in order to distract people from the inevitable long-term result of monopoly control over public works - erosion of price competitiveness and technological stagnation.

          Sure, 15MBps at $50 looks GREAT today, but will it be that great in 5 years? What if the price goes up to $100? Pay no attention to the details behind the curtain!

          Again, without knowing more than I've read at the forums, I think that if it were up to me, I'd be looking at a compromise. Verizon can have monopoly control over the fibre network with three caveats:

          1) A viable competitor exists in each segment (neighborhood, town, whatever) such as cable which is priced within say 20% for equivalent levels of performance.

          2) They agree to a more relaxed test for market collusion than what the FTC/DoJ uses in order to absolutely prevent Verizon and whoever their local competitor(s) are from abusing their certain oligopoly. Punishment for collusion being immediate and permanent loss of control of all the fibre in the area in which the collusion occurred plus enough of a geographical radius to cover enough more customers to equal 200% of the total affected. (The state would probably assume control and lease it back to Verizon and any other ISPs.)

          3) Yearly review of their performance with a regular 5-year major examination of their quality of service and evaluation of their technological currentness.

          These all assume that the details are worked out by Verizon and a team of negotiators for the state that are not biased by bribery of any sort (no cushy jobs at Verizon 6 months after the contracts are signed).

          I am a big believer in "free markets" - as long as care is taken to prevent monopolistic abuses that can naturally arise in a loosely regulated market. But, public utilities are a natural monopoly and so special care, much better care than is usually applied, must be taken to keep a check on the monopolistic business practices that inevitably settle in. To do otherwise would be the equivalent of giving Verizon a money pipeline into the community's bank accounts.

    • Fios Availability. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Deathlizard ( 115856 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @08:07PM (#10637525) Homepage Journal
      Just got off the phone from Verizon. and the nice lady gave me some details of availibility.

      1) First off, the Number that the script tells you to call (the (888) 662-8275 one) is wrong according to the person that I got on that line. She directed me to (888) 991-4999. Whether or not that's the right number for overall rollout I dont know, but it had all the answers I got. Not that you'll need to call after reading this.

      2) From what she was seeing, it's still only available in the Texas area where it was deployed for it's Pilot Program. She wouldn't confirm where they were expanding the service, but she did confirm that it is going to expand in the coming months because it was very successful in the pilot program apparently.

      3) She said that availability will be announced in your Verizon bill (If you get one) as soon as it's available in your area (probably to cover the costs of the equipment). the web site also will tell you about availibility whenever it's updated, but for right now it's Texas only.

      • Re:Fios Availability. (Score:4, Funny)

        by nofx_3 ( 40519 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @08:30PM (#10637667)
        Hmm, I think your sig is a little confused. You see, Mayor McCheese IS the mayor of McDonald land. This has nothing to do with "having it your way" which is the Burger King slogan. Unfotunately the whole idea is ass backwards, you can "have it your way" at Burger King becuase its a Monarchy run by guess who? Yep, the Burger King, and you can't vote him out even if you want. I for one, cast my vote for Grimace, and I would make the Hamburgler cheif of police, seeing as he has so much experiance in the crime field.

        -kaplanfx

  • Pricing looks good (Score:5, Interesting)

    by erick99 ( 743982 ) <homerun@gmail.com> on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:20PM (#10636616)
    The 5MB/2MB pricing is great for my area. I get about 4MB/256KB right now for around $29/month. The biggest advantage to the fiber would be the 2MB upload speed which would be great as I send a lot of photos to my dad for a genealogical project. I went to Verizons site and my phone number doesn't qualify yet, but, I'm sure it will be eventually....

    • Re:Pricing looks good (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I thought you said "gynecological project."

    • Re:Pricing looks good (Score:4, Interesting)

      by garcia ( 6573 ) * on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:29PM (#10636701)
      The 5MB/2MB pricing is great for my area. I get about 4MB/256KB right now for around $29/month. The biggest advantage to the fiber would be the 2MB upload speed which would be great as I send a lot of photos to my dad for a genealogical project. I went to Verizons site and my phone number doesn't qualify yet, but, I'm sure it will be eventually....

      Feel special. DSL here is 2048/256 for a bit under $60 here. Cable (with all its port blocking glory) is $39.99/mo for 3000/256.

      I would do ANYTHING for inexpensive high bandwith connections. I don't even care about the upstream. Just give me reasonable speeds downstream with reliable service. No random disconnects, hours and hours of downtime w/o anyone to fix the problem, and crappy DSL routers required.
      • Yeah, I'm paying $49 for 512/256 DSL, best I can get here. The cable setups I've worked on locally have almost the same actual speed, and they are paying $70+ for supposed 1/512 which is no faster than my DSL. Argh
    • Don't go by the web site. I kept going there as well after they finished in fiber lay down in my neighborhood. It kept saying "not available" but then I called the telephone number and I qualified (I'm in Keller). Call the number!

      I got the 15/2 service and it's great.

    • Re:Pricing looks good (Score:5, Funny)

      by Monkelectric ( 546685 ) <slashdot AT monkelectric DOT com> on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:36PM (#10636769)
      I send a lot of photos to my dad for a genealogical project

      Allow me to translate this: "I download a lot of porn on Bit Torrent any my ratio is terrible"

    • Re:Pricing looks good (Score:5, Interesting)

      by blwtech ( 825616 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:51PM (#10636907)
      I live in Sacramento and have Sure West's fiber service. It's 10MB/10MB and includes my phone and television service as well. We pay $120.00 a month for all three. I love the service.

    • In Japan (Score:5, Informative)

      by achurch ( 201270 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:56PM (#10636976) Homepage
      you can get 100Mb/100Mb for around $60/month . . .

      Okay, I'll stop bragging now (:

  • Sustainable speed? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fembots ( 753724 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:20PM (#10636617) Homepage
    Verizon has clearly stated that the "actual throughput speed will vary based on factors such as the condition of your wiring inside your location; computer configuration; network or Internet congestion; and the server speeds of Web sites you access, among other factors. Speed and uninterrupted use of the service are not guaranteed."

    So how long will the 15/2Mbps last, and is Verizon at least giving guarantee on a minimum sustainable speed?
    • Speed and uninterrupted use of the service are not guaranteed

      Yeah, parent post makes a good point. Sometimes congestion on the Internet can slow light down quite a bit...

    • Re:Sustainable speed? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by 77Punker ( 673758 ) <(spencr04) (at) (highpoint.edu)> on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:26PM (#10636667)
      Get real! Those factors affect every single connection between two computers in the entire world! They MUST have that disclaimer or else non-techie jurors will be awarding oppotunistic internet users money in civil suits all over the place.

    • Re:Sustainable speed? (Score:3, Informative)

      by NerveGas ( 168686 )

      I've seen providers with bandwidth and latency guarantees before. But, keep in mind that:

      1. They only guarantee bandwidth within their own network, and under certain conditions
      2. They only guarantee latencies within their own network
      3. They only guarantee bandwidth and latency a certain percentage of the time, not 100%.
      4. They are usually very expensive
      5. Your recompense if they don't meet the guarantees are minimal.

      As far as items 1 and 2, you really just can't do anything else. Company A sim

  • Monthly costs? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by fredistheking ( 464407 )
    Are these going to be the monthly rates as well or are these just installation costs?

    • Re:Monthly costs? (Score:3, Informative)

      by SlamMan ( 221834 )
      There is no installation costs. If you cancel the service in the first year, you have to give back to the router or or pay em another $50.

  • That is wierd (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Orgazmus ( 761208 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:20PM (#10636619)
    As far as i got it, the ADSL lines had low upload because of technical limitations.
    But why would these lines come in 5Mb/2Mb and not just 5/5 ?

    • Re:That is wierd (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Realistic_Dragon ( 655151 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:30PM (#10636710) Homepage
      Not only does upload cost more to peer at places like LINX but offering 15mb upload would significantly undercut their (much!) more expensive leased line options.

      Immagine that you were a business owner and you could buy three of these (cheap) and a pair of backup T1 lines (not that expensve) to replace your OC3 (very expensive). Bad news for their profits.

      I wonder what the transfer cap on these things is? Probably something rediculous like 1gb/day that allows you to operate your line at full speed for all of 550 seconds before you exceed your quota and get terminated.
      • if you needed a 155 megabit oc3 and converted to a couple 30 megabit fiber connections, someone would probably have your head on a platter. a couple of very expensive T1 lines with IP on them (maybe 450 bucks each per port plus the distance run, which could be about 0 to double the cost again). fortunately, the 30 meg cap is assuredly an artificial limit, and they will be able to ramp that number up for quite a few years, whenever the competition starts getting their attention.

        capping it would be the ult
        • yeah i got "the call" it was because I transferred over 1 terabyte in 30 days and the neighbor hood was complaining that the speeds were really slow. i download and share about 200 movies through a direct connect hub and they got pissy.

          • Re:That is wierd (Score:4, Insightful)

            by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @11:27PM (#10638800) Homepage
            All modern filesharing software allows you to set upload speed limits. Do it. No offense, but this is exactly the kind of crap that ruins it for everybody. I'd have been pissed if all the sudden my link slows down because my HTTP GET can't get through due to 40 people downloading Gigli and Catwoman.
    • Bandwidth costs money too. Most people don't care about upstream speed. Let's say our network has 40 users. Let's say that for every person who cares about upload speed (likely telecommuting geeks and those who run their own servers) there are 30 people running eDonkey / Kazaa. Those 30 people don't care if their uploads are capped at 2mbps. The techie might, but he'll live with it or buy a better plan if he really needs it. This way people don't waste tons of upstream bandwidth.

      Besides, where are the apps
      • Peer to peer (emule, BT) relies on a fast upload for a fast download, because of an anti-leeching quota system. So anyone who uses P2P extensively (a bloody big market) care very much about upload. I know I do on my 256/64 for AU$40 a month.

    • Re:That is wierd (Score:5, Insightful)

      by j1m+5n0w ( 749199 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @07:08PM (#10637068) Homepage Journal

      There are quite a few reasons to limit upload:

      • Most people pull stuff down more than they push stuff up, so download speed affects user's perception of the quality of the service more than upload.
      • Limiting upload puts a cap on the amount of traffic a single rooted box can generate, when participating in DOS and DDOS attacks.
      • Most people only spend a small fraction of the time downloading stuff, so the connection stays idle 99% of the time or so. Those who run file/web/p2p servers, though, can utilize their link more fully because their computers are "used" by a potentially large number of users on the rest of the Internet. If, for example, I hosted fedora ISOs from a web server on my home cable modem account, my upload bandwidth could easily dwarf what I could possibly download by surfing the web 24/7, even with my upload capped at about 10% of download.
      • The upload cap provides a disincentive from running potentially bandwidth hungry applications like videoconferencing, which require high throughput in both directions.
      • The upload cap provides a disincentive for people to try to use multicast trees and bit-torrent-like applications, by which a user can generate a disproportionally large quantity of traffic from a single connection, by utilizing other user's idle connections.

      -jim

    • Re:That is wierd (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Erwos ( 553607 )
      The thinking is that businesses are the ones who need synchronous connections. Therefore, in order to help differentiate between the customers (you charge businesses a LOT more), you alter the features so that the customer gets a lot of what he needs (download) and businesses don't get as much of what they need (upload). This forces businesses to pay the higher prices they're "supposed to".

      Basic economics, in other words. Especially if you're a local phone monopoly.

      At $30 a month for 5/2, I'll be all over
    • Verizon's FIOS is a passive optical network, which uses shared bandwidth on the downstream side (every home's equipment sees all the traffic) and time-division multiplexing on the upstream side (homes send data one at a time). That approach allows Verizon to have only passive, non-powered optical splitters in the field, sharing one fiber among as many as 32 homes.
      Google passive optical network if you want to know more.
  • Our system is unable to determine if Verizon Fios Internet Service is available at your location.

    Please try again at a later time or call (888) 662-8275 Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-11 p.m. EST or Saturday 8 a.m.-8 p.m. EST to speak with a Verizon Online representative.

     What an Evil tease...

  • /.'ed (Score:3, Funny)

    by OffTheLip ( 636691 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:21PM (#10636629)
    and my phone no longer works either. sigh.

  • Host a Webpage (Score:5, Informative)

    by OctaneZ ( 73357 ) <ben-slashdot2NO@SPAMuma.litech.org> on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:21PM (#10636630) Journal
    They don't say if they will be blocking ports but FAQ 11, "Can I host a Web page?" is answered as follows:
    Yes, Verizon Fios Internet Service includes 10 MB of personal Web space.

    I wouldn't hold my breath.

    • Re:Host a Webpage (Score:5, Interesting)

      by treke ( 62626 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:45PM (#10636842)
      Well I can't speak for this service specifically, but I have Verizon DSL and they don't block any ports that I've noticed. Ports 25 and 80 are both open to the world at this moment. This is the Ventura California area, in case it varies by region. To bad anything over 1.5mbit is unstable on the wiring in my apartment.

    • From the terms of service (Score:5, Informative)

      by MerlynEmrys67 ( 583469 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:53PM (#10636939)
      Nope - no servers allowed... so basically Verizon is continuing to be a WSP, not an ISP. I really wish more providers would just let me do what the heck I wanted to do with my connection - why should they care - just throw a QoS penalty on any traffic over xbits/sec that they don't want me to really use
      • I've always wondered why the hell they would care about servers as long as you're not serving several gigs of data each day. If you have a personal FTP server to connect to from work or school, how does that harm their network? Between this policy and the PPPoE, that almost negates the benefit of a fiber connection. I think I'd just stick with cable modem, which is fast enough for what I need. Why bother have a blazing fast web browsing connection, which sounds like all that Verizon will be letting people d

  • But it's download only! (Score:5, Funny)

    by YetAnotherName ( 168064 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:23PM (#10636641) Homepage
    From the summary:

    ... and reported 14,679 kbps download and 1,794 kbps download speeds.

    Sorry Verizon, but if I can't upload those HTTP GET requests, I don't need any of your one-way fibre. Talk about asymmetric!

  • Excellent work, Slashdot (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You broke it.

    Server Error in '/FiosForHome' Application.

    Runtime Error
    Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine.

    Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a tag within a "web.config" configuration

  • don't you mean.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by trybywrench ( 584843 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:27PM (#10636677)
    I hope to basically run a small data center in my basement.

    don't you mean your mom's basement?
  • Server Error in '/FiosForHome' Application.

    Runtime Error

    Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine.

    Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a tag within a "web.config" configuration file locate

  • hmm... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by lingqi ( 577227 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:28PM (#10636684) Journal
    I am getting fiber to the premisis installed this week, and it's 100Mbps up/down for ~25 bux / month.

    I was complaining because VSL limits that to ~55Mbps.

    Being in Japan just put things into a dirrerent perspective, I guess. So here is to consumers of America (of whom I will become one again all too soon) - DEMAND MORE!! it's kind of weird when the post get so excited even though it... erm... relly slow.

    • America's too big! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Orestesx ( 629343 )
      Smaller countries such as Japan and Korea can more easily change their network infrastructure (see cell phones, broadband, etc.) We should compare America's network infrastructure to Russia or China or heck even Australia. Comparing it to a much smaller country (in both square footage and population) will not lead to any meaningful conclusions.

      • Re:America's too big! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by womby ( 30405 ) * on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @09:05PM (#10637871)
        What about breaking it down to areas that are of similar size.

        The most densely populated city in Japan is Tokyo. 8 million people in 630 square kilometres (13,000 per k2)

        The most densely populated city in the US is New York. 8 million people in 830 square kilometres (10,000 per k2)

        The most densely populated city in the world is Seoul. 10 million people in 615 square kilometres (17,000 per k2)

        In Tokyo we have 100% ADSL availability offering 40 mbits down
        there is also limited (~10%) FTTP availability offering 100 mbits

        Why is there not even one company attempting to offer something similar in New York, Korea has near 100% availability of dsl and cable yet they too are limited to US like services.

        The real reason we have insane connection bandwidth in Japan is because the telecoms monopoly is restricted from price gouging, they must lease there cables at a flat rate irrespective of the amount of data that flows over them.

        When I had an ADSL connection I would pay $20 a month to NTT for the ADSL connection, then my ISP could push as much or as little data over that connection as they wished.

        Now I have a Fibre connection, I pay $40 a month for the wire, I actually pay $70 a month to my ISP but I get a static IP range and national wireless coverage too over the AirH network.

        The reason Japan has stupid fast internet connections, and the second highest broadband penetration in the world? Competition, who would have thought of it.

  • WTF!? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by clambake ( 37702 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:28PM (#10636689) Homepage
    $39.95 for 5MB/2MB, $49.95 for 15MB/2MB, and $199.95 for 30MB/5MB

    In Tokyo (my home nw) that's DSL rates! Fibre STARTS at 100MBps! WTF?
    • doh, misread, it's not FTTH, it's FTTP...

  • skeptical (Score:5, Informative)

    by vijayiyer ( 728590 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:29PM (#10636695)
    I live in Huntington Beach, one of the first places this is rolling out. That said, I'm going to be content with my 3Mb/768k DSL until I'm sure there aren't any ridiculous "for entertainment only" policies on Verizon's books. My current ISP (SurfCity DSL) doesn't block ports, sells me a static IP for a small fee, and even sells IP address blocks for reasonable (~$20/mo) fees. Having all the bandwidth in the world is practically useless with a dynamic IP and having the major ports blocked.

  • 6 meg DSL (Score:4, Funny)

    by BrookHarty ( 9119 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:29PM (#10636704) Journal
    I can't get Verizon to fix my 6 meg dsl, since DSL isn't supported, only voice lines are. Lucky Speakeasy isnt charging me the 99 dollars a month because I cant use the service.

    I'm close to the CO, but something is wrong with the burried wire, and Verizon wont help me locate the issue. They tested the house, Covad did testing, thought the DSLAM was bad because it was bouncing, tested my PID, but everything looks fine. Just 3-6 times a day, the line drops and reconnects, all freaking burried wire too.

    I'd kill for 5/2meg for 40 bux a month, 99 for 6/768 DSL that doesnt work is major suckage. Lucky comcast has 3/256, so im not bandwidth less, I just can't host any of my domains.

    Verizon has such bad policies on support on copper, fibre must be a god send to customers needing support... Could even switch to VoIP too.

    I'd even shut down my vanity domain Fuck Verizon [fuckverizon.com] if they fixed my DSL! Currently I have it re-directed to verizon eats poop...

    • Incdiently, I had the same problem pop up after 2 years of DSL service. Nothing changed inside or outside the house to my knowledge when the issue started. A verizon tech I knew was dispatched to attempt to fix the issue. After scratching his head for a few hours, he ran a home run from my tele box to the modem, and the issue went away. Never figured out why the line quality in the house spontaneously dropped after 2 years of no issues.

  • And the best part? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:31PM (#10636716)
    MSN® Premium Internet Software

    Awww yeah!
  • Because then at least couldn't blame the bandwidth problem for their IIS issues.

    https://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/Channels/F io s/ErrorPageHSI.aspx?aspxerrorpath=/FiosForHome/cha nnels/OrderFios/olo_addtodb_futurenotification.asp x

  • The first plan is 5Mbps/2Mbps with a lower case b. That means 625KB/s down, 250KB/s up.

    • Re:It's Mb, not MB (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Carnildo ( 712617 )
      That's still faster than the fastest cable available around here (3Mbps/256Kbps) and much faster than the fastest DSL (768Kbps/256Kbps). It's also about a third the cost of DSL and half the cost of cable.

      I just wish they were offering it here.
  • Maybe they should hook themselves up first?

  • That's a widely disparate range of speeds... or (Score:3, Funny)

    by karmaflux ( 148909 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:36PM (#10636768)
    14,679 kbps download and 1,794 kbps download speeds.

    Since the editors don't edit, I hereby declare 1,794kbps download speed and 14,679 upstream!
  • An additional Verizon Online monthly Supplier FUSF recovery fee applies and will be added to your monthly bill. Applicable taxes apply.

    Translation: we'll actually charge you more, but we're not going to tell you how much.

  • Two things (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Pan T. Hose ( 707794 )
    No word yet on whether Verizon will block ports (25, 80, etc) for incoming or outgoing traffic; with 2MB upload, I hope to basically run a small data center in my basement.

    First of all you can use any service you want listening on any port you want. Data in your /etc/services file are only default ports, not mandatory ones. For example, you might run smtp server on port 80 and http on port 25 and they would complete the tcp three-way handshake just fine. If you have ever seen a web url in the form of prot

    • Re:Two things (Score:5, Insightful)

      by lidocaineus ( 661282 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:58PM (#10636991)
      For example, you might run smtp server on port 80 and http on port 25 and they would complete the tcp three-way handshake just fine.

      That would work if you ran a server destined to never offer serivces to even a small group of people, but for normal, practical usage, it's... well, useless. Sure, you can append port numbers to your protocol directives, but it'll never be an ubiquitous internet side in the least. You can't accept SMTP traffic unless it's been directly MX'd from a "normal" server, you can't even bounce port 80 requests to the proper port since presumbly, you moved it OFF port 80 to prevent random connections or avoid upstream blocks. Port shuffling is usually considered poor design and the worst example (if used in this fashion) of security/obscurity

  • Yawn (Score:2)

    by chrome ( 3506 )
    Japan has had FTTH (Fiber To The Home) for years. and they don't limit the speed. Its 100Mbit all the way baby.

    Why is it that when the rest of the world catches up, its always limited?

  • Verizon Video Services (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ffejie ( 779512 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:40PM (#10636805)

    I just submitted this story to /., I'm assuming it doesn't get listed.

    Verizon and Motorola announce deal [lightreading.com]

    Basically, they are using Motorola set top boxes to deliver video feeds off of their Fiber. I would expect it soon.

  • "It's gonna take some heavy fiber to move that out."
  • I called the toll-free number and the guy was stumped. He said that it is currently available in a couple areas to Verizon employees only.

    He said they weren't selling it yet and he didn't even have pricing info so I helped him out and quoted the web page pricing to him.

    He seemed confused by the fact that he had just gotten several calls about this new service. Apparently I'm not the only one who called after their web site repeatedly crashed. :)
  • Their website was slashdotted, so i gave them a call to see. Took 5 mins to find out that the qualification was inconclusive. That would mean one of two things: Their testing gear was broke, their software was on the blink from the beating it was taking, or the CO's equipment is still red-tagged World War II stuff!

    Down here, most likely it would be the third selection..

  • MB means MegaByte. Mb is megaBit. Quite a difference, but you can generally count on connection speed being measured in the latter.

    I'd seriously consider buying a /. subscription if the stories could be edited for technical and grammatical correctness. That would really be nice.
  • You will need to use the Verizon provided routers with the Fios Internet service.

    So, if i only get one IP address, that means i cannot run my own H.323 or SIP server or anything like that.

    It sucks. No thanks.
  • Is this PON or something else? Does anyone know of the details of the gear that makes this work?

    The PON stuff is getting cheaper, for example a small headend unit is now about $4500 and the stuff at each house is less than $750 and with fiber running a dime a meter, the major costs is the trenching and fusion splicer.
  • Just a word of caution after having been through several hurricanes this year:

    What happens when the power goes out, the fiber goes dark, and now you have no telephone? During the hurricanes many people running phone service through broadband were SOL, and cell phone reliability also went into the toilet. Keep in mind some areas were without power for _weeks_. As much as I want to ditch mine, sometimes a land line is still the best way to go.

  • FTTP (Fiber To the Premises)! $39.95 for 5MB/2MB, $49.95 for 15MB/2MB, and $199.95 for 30MB/5MB

    ...and I live less than 20 minutes out from Boston and I still can't get DSL service other than 1.5mbit/96kbit (yes, you read that right. 96kbit upload, WORSE THAN ISDN!)

    If I lived one town over, I could have my choice of DSL providers and about 10 different combos of up/down rates. It's quite sad; Verizon won't allow any of the DSL companies to sell service in our town, and they won't offer anything except

  • No Servers Allowed (Score:5, Informative)

    by MattW ( 97290 ) <matt@ender.com> on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @06:58PM (#10636994) Homepage
    From the terms and conditions:
    You may not use the Broadband Service to host any type of server personal or commercial in nature.

    I wonder how the TOS nazis plan to handle P2P apps like BT?
    • The same stipulation exists in my cable contract but the guy installing (who pointed it out) made it quite clear that so long as i'm not running at peak capacity 24/7 or trying to host a high traffic web server they'll never bring it up. It's more of a "we reserve the right" clause than anything.

  • The poor server.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dj245 ( 732906 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @07:13PM (#10637111) Homepage
    ...isn't accepting inquieries. Perhaps it lacks a little Fiber to the Premises?

  • Fios customer service phone number (Score:3, Informative)

    by willith ( 218835 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @07:21PM (#10637186) Homepage
    Since the site appears to have been utterly destroyed and the locator is timing out, the customer service number for Verizon Fiber Solutions. is 888-553-1555. These guys can check your availability for you.

    I'm in Houston, TX, and they say no Fios for the forseeable future here.

  • Called the 888 Number (Score:5, Informative)

    by da_Den_man ( 466270 ) <dcruise&hotcoffee,org> on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @07:23PM (#10637204) Homepage
    It is only a test project in Keller TX. They expect a rollout to other areas after the completion of the test. Until then...it is still a BIG-PIPE dream. They did say they will be sending out a notification and advertising campaign when it becomes available in other areas.

  • slashdotted? (Score:3, Funny)

    by samantha ( 68231 ) * on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @07:30PM (#10637270) Homepage
    The app for checking landline number to determine eligibility is crashing. Very inspiring.

  • This could be bad.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by doormat ( 63648 ) on Tuesday October 26, 2004 @10:14PM (#10638350) Homepage Journal
    Image 100s of boxes on this service getting compromised and used in DDoS attacks... you think its bad now with 256-512kbit/s upstream, imagine 2Mbit/s upstream. Verizon needs to be on the lookout, watching for large spikes in upstream bandwidth, actively looking for DDoS activity.

    SECURE YOU BOXES!

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