Post by unlawflcombatnt on Jul 9, 2007 20:31:43 GMT -6
From Nakedcapitalism comes a good article about how Verizon is trying to monopolize certain markets. The article is titled Verizon Locking Customers into New Fiber Optic Service (and Not Telling Them).
"Readers may think we are being unfair in picking on Verizon....
And on the surface, Verizon's new fiber optic service, FIOS, is a big step up. It's super fast. Even its slowest package, at 5 mbps downstream and 2 mbps upstream, beats DSL hands down and is almost certain to be faster than cable (FIOS is a dedicated pipe, while you share your cable bandwidth with other users....
So what's the problem? Verizon is taking out the local copper for FIOS customers and, according to this Associated Press article, in many cases not telling them about it. For customers, that means they no longer have the assurance that they can make calls in a power outage, and they are locked into a higher cost service. While a Verizon spokesman said they would "restore" copper if a customer insisted, one can imagine that they wouldn't make the process easy.
In some respects, this shouldn't be surprising. Verizon has announced it intends to retire large sections of its copper network. But it was supposed to manage the transition in a way that didn't unduly damage competitors, and that clearly isn't happening. Verizon is required to lease its copper network and its central office ports to competing internet service providers (ISPs), but no such requirement exists for fiber optic networks. AT&T and Quest are going through the same transition to fiber optic, but are not yanking out the copper infrastructure as fast as they can...."
The entire post can be found at
Verizon Locking Customers into New Fiber Optic Service (and Not Telling Them)
"Readers may think we are being unfair in picking on Verizon....
And on the surface, Verizon's new fiber optic service, FIOS, is a big step up. It's super fast. Even its slowest package, at 5 mbps downstream and 2 mbps upstream, beats DSL hands down and is almost certain to be faster than cable (FIOS is a dedicated pipe, while you share your cable bandwidth with other users....
So what's the problem? Verizon is taking out the local copper for FIOS customers and, according to this Associated Press article, in many cases not telling them about it. For customers, that means they no longer have the assurance that they can make calls in a power outage, and they are locked into a higher cost service. While a Verizon spokesman said they would "restore" copper if a customer insisted, one can imagine that they wouldn't make the process easy.
In some respects, this shouldn't be surprising. Verizon has announced it intends to retire large sections of its copper network. But it was supposed to manage the transition in a way that didn't unduly damage competitors, and that clearly isn't happening. Verizon is required to lease its copper network and its central office ports to competing internet service providers (ISPs), but no such requirement exists for fiber optic networks. AT&T and Quest are going through the same transition to fiber optic, but are not yanking out the copper infrastructure as fast as they can...."
The entire post can be found at
Verizon Locking Customers into New Fiber Optic Service (and Not Telling Them)