Cable's fiber to the home plan is well underway
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Oct 27th 2008 12:53PM
posted Oct 27th 2008 12:53PM
When people think of fiber to the home, they usually think of FiOS. This is a good thing for Verizon since they've successfully bet the farm on the concept. But meanwhile, most traditional cable providers are steaming because they've been laying fiber since the 80's and just now realized they forgot to market that fact to the consumer. You see most customers don't realize that the primary difference between most cable providers and FiOS, is where the fiber ends -- and that FiOS uses IPTV for VOD. While cable companies choose to use fiber to the neighborhood, Verizon took it all the way to the side of your house. The part that surprises most, is that like cable companies, FiOS uses the very same coax cables to get into your house; in fact these days, the internet access even terminates with a cable modem. But of course having fiber run all the way to your customer's homes still gives FiOS a throughput advantage. The cable industry realizes this and apparently already has plans to extend the fiber -- which currently is about three blocks from your house -- all the way to your home. Anyway you slice this, the competition is good for us, and we can only hope that after both the telecom and cable industries offer comparable services, that the focus will turn to customer service, where they both have a long way to go.
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Here, to the north of Pittsburgh, we can't even get Comcast to finish their upgrades to the head end to allow for more than two dozen HD channels (we're still stuck on 625mhz.) It will be a cold day in hell before they ever decide to do this extensive of an upgrade. It's not even a lack of competition either since FIOS is readily available in this area and is now offering 100 HD channels. I'm surprised Comcast has any subscribers left in this area, I know my FIOS is getting installed tomorrow and Comcast is getting kicked to the curb and they will never be let in my house again.
Cable though they had customer loyalty. But they see a 50% conversion rate is areas where FIOS is installed. Cable is going to have a hard time playing catch up on bandwidth and contents offerings..
This is PR BS to ease their stock holders concerns that a product like FiOS will directly have an impact on cable companies stock.
After the way Time Warner handled the Adelphia merger I highly doubt they're going to spend the money to bring FTTP in the next 5 years.
On a recent trip to Vegas, I saw an ad from Cox that tried to somehow assert this idea that because they have been running fiber to the node since the 80's it was some how better than FiOS. I just laughed but it pisses me off that the average person could be taken in by something like that. They can't compete with FTTH and even if they start now, FiOS has a pretty significant lead.
All that matters to me is having very fast and dedicated bandwidth available 24 hrs per day, TV and internet stability, and a decent HD channel lineup.
If standard cable companies can beat what FIOS has to offer, I'd switch in a heartbeat! Verizon has the worst customer service in the history of the world... seriously.
Unfortunately, my only options, Cox and Comcast, cant compete in any of those categories... yet. I guess we'll have to wait and see...
Bring it on, Comcast. Once FIOS hits my neighborhood, I'm switching. But maybe I will stay with Comcast, if they do this fast enough.
What a bunch of BS. I have FIOS, and you do not get a cable modem in the house. The router (not modem) that they give you has a Coax connection on it to use an existing coax to run from the box into your house. If you are willing to let them do that. I have a Cat 5 cable that they ran from the fiber termination box into my house. It is part of the install. I then replaced the crappy actiontec router with a real router & it is a router not a modem. This sounds like cable company PR.
Well since a cable modem really isn't a modem I suppose technically you are right. But in reality the Actiontec has a built in QAM RF bridge just like a cable modem does. As for the cat 5 you mentioned. I already have one ran to my ONT and the installer refused to use it, insisting on using the coax instead.
My installer tried to use the coax also, but it said right in the contract that they would run a Cat5. Installers are lazy. If you let them they won't do anything. You will notice on the Fios termination box, there is a connect for a Cat5 cable. At least there is on mine. I assume Fios is using all the same equipment everywhere.
I think there is some misinformation/misunderstanding here... I am installing FiOS soon, and have been doing a lot of research. My understanding is that FiOS Internet may be provisioned over EITHER coax (RG6) or ethernet (Cat5e). When FiOS was brand new, it was all done over Cat5e, and they used a Motorola NIM (network interface module) to convert from ethernet to coax for the TV end.
However, for at least the last couple of years, the standard install has been to just coax from the ONT (optical network terminal) to the Actiontec router, which takes the place of the NIM for providing video service. From the Actiontec, coax runs to your TV(s) and you connect your computers via ethernet or wifi.
If you read the FiOS forum on DSLReports, you will see posts where people have run their own Cat5e from the ONT to where the Actiontec is located. Although the installer will by default run coax, if the Cat5e is there and the installer doesn't have to run it himself, he will generally use it--it just requires a change of the order at the main office to provision you for Internet over Cat5 instead of coax. Also, some people have reported being able to call Verizon and have this changed after the fact.
well i have Time Warner in Fountain Valley and i know for a fact i have fiber that goes into a cable box that's sitting on my property (I dont know if thats whats called a node) big green box about 3 foot x 1 1/2 and about 18 inches tall. From there to my house they have coax cable
as of now i have about 32 HD channels
If there really is fiber going into that box, the coax doesn't just go to your house but it ends up going to 3-500 of your neighbors as well.
FIOS won't ever come to the Bay Area so I'm stuck with Comcrap :( U-Verse is still in it's infancy here too so I'm not going to jump on that bandwagon anytime soon. Comcast's fast internet/digital phone is the only thing keeping me from switching the T.V. to Directv.
This is cool and all, but we all know it only means that you can hit your cap faster.
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When BellSouth started deploying fiber to the curb in 1995, my planned community got it in 1999. It was nice and to be able to get 1.5Mx256K broadband was even nicer. But, by the time 2003-4 rolled around and ADSL and cable modem services got to 3-4Meg service my fiber was left behind and plans by BellSouth waned out of existence.
As 2008 closes the same old story and new corporate suitors are just as waning as plans remain just that and no actual effort in the field has been made to upgrade that single mode fiber running across my lawn. U-verse means nothing to this consumer AND employee.
I get video from a satellite and broadband from the cable company. Now I'm moving forward to replace the $22/month discounted plain-jane land line phone with a pair of VOIP lines from T-mobile. So, what has fiber mean to me at home? NOTHING.
My cable co's fiber terminates across the street, don't know what kind of improvement I would see for that extra 30 feet.