More New Yorkers get a taste of FiOS
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 17th 2007 2:36PM
posted Oct 17th 2007 2:36PM
While many of us are still twiddling our thumbs waiting for FiOS to take our town by storm, another section of New Yorkers are getting the opportunity to indulge. Reportedly, Verizon recently "won a video franchise for its FiOS TV service in Buchanan, NY," bringing the total amount of New York communities with FiOS access to 65. Furthermore, the operator is purportedly marketing its FiOS internet service to additional consumers in the state, particularly in parts of Cornwall, Newburgh and Poughkeepsie. Go on, you lucky souls, gloat all you'd like -- we'll just live vicariously through you until our day comes.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but is not the problem getting FiOS into urban areas the running of the fibre cable? I'm fortunate enough to have FiOS, but I have a "normal" detached house on its own 1/8 acre plot. Verizon ran the fibre from the pole behind my house to a new box that they installed on the side of the house. They obviously can't just do that for apartment buildings, condos, and town homes.
Isn't that why there is such a delay in major cities? Not being flippant or anything, but that's what I've come to understand from friends of mine who live in downtown Baltimore and have been waiting for FiOS.
To respond to John B., I think you'd be surprised by the number of single family homes and two-family homes in the outer boroughs of New York that would be conducive to FIOS. I'm not just talking about Staten Island either.
Laying the fibre is only the first step. That gets you internet (and therefore, phone service too) but TV requires approval from the city as well. I'm in Dumbo in Brooklyn and FiOS is working with my building to add the proper wiring as I speak. I except to have internet up and running in less than six months, and I hope New York approves the TV service by then.
True. I'm in the situation that you describe. I've had FiOS for a while but I still don't have FiOS TV because Pennsylvania was bought^H^H^H^H^H^H lobbied by Comcast (based in Philadelphia) to deny state-wide permission to Verizon.
No, no. Not surprised at all. It's just that most of the FiOS issues I've read and heard from others (who are in the same predicament) is that they live in apartment buildings, town houses, or places like that where the phone connection is usually a shared box on the outside of the entire structure.
But let's be honest. To most people who don't live in a big city, we usually end up thinking about things like Times Square and Broadway when someone says "New York". We don't think about the outlying boroughs. :)
Anyway, I was just trying to get verification of why there seems to be much more rapid deployment of FiOS in suburban areas rather than in urban areas, which I think would have the highest demand.
I work for at&t and we have U-Verse which is the same thing as FIOS. What we do so it’s available to everyone is do a FTTN (Fiber to the node) which is a box that is usually next to the telephone cross connection box. From that point of the node it changes into regular copper wire. That way it can be available to everyone in the area no matter how remote your home is. Currently we are working in south eastern Michigan and it’s going to take approximately 3 years for the whole state of Michigan to have this ground breaking service.
But you don't have the same bandwith, do you ? ;)
Finally! I live in Newburgh and this is good news. Was about to switch to DirecTV to be rid of this horrid TimeWarner Cable garbage with its molasses internet speeds...can't wait!!!
We are able to push 20 Megs once to get to the copper 10 for the HD Channels 8 for internet and 2 for other. The bandwidth for the fiber part is almost unlimited over 250000 Megs per second the only bottle neck is the copper and the equipment.
John,
That's the actual problem, the bottleneck in the line to the actual customer. I think ATT underestimated the future explosion of HDTV and even worse, the Internet 2. In less than 5 years, 20 Megs won't be enough. Digital video downloads will also be an issue.
Yes your right most likely we going to up it to 30 megs over the copper portion in the next year or so. We had to do it this way until we start putting fiber to the house. New sub divisions that allowed us to put down fiber within the last 10 years already have the fiber to house or as we called FTTP (Fiber to the premise.) Putting this on copper twisted pair is just a temporarily solution. It is so much legal matter we have to go through to lay down fiber.
One would thank that NYC, arguably home to the world's highest concentration of both media consumers and producers, would be a priority for Verizon to bring online.
Alas we sit, wait, and scream obscenities when the copper craps out because of a heavy rain...
I actually live in New Windsor, NY, which is in-between Cornwall and Newburgh. I've been seeing FIOS kiosks in malls for a full year now and still nothing. A few months ago, sales rep told me that they should be deploying FIOS sometime in the summer, but it's fall now and still no FIOS. But then again, I live in a condo complex and we couldn't get DSL when we first moved in here. We might have the same problem. I'll be happy when I can actually sign up. Until then, I'll rock my Roadrunner cable.