TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Broadband Competition Must Surely be Working

Re: Broadband Competition Must Surely be Working

Gene S. Berkowitz (first.last@comcast.net)
Wed, 17 Aug 2005 23:43:29 -0400

In article <telecom24.372.5@telecom-digest.org>, jmeissen@aracnet.com
says:

> Our government claims their actions are intended to encourage
> competition, expand deployment and lower cost of broadband Internet
> access. It must be working ...

> Verizon is aggressively deploying fiber-to-the-premises here. Because
> I use a local independent ISP there has been a lot of concern about
> the consequences of this action.

> What has now been confirmed by calls to Verizon is that
> - Once the fiber connection is established all services, including
> voice, are moved to the fiber and the copper wires are pulled,
> making it impossible to return to standard DSL in spite of the
> supposed 30-day trial period.
> - The lowest cost package for the fiber connection is 30% more
> expensive than their standard DSL offering
> - They will absolutely NOT allow connections to other ISP's over
> the fiber connection, essentially limiting ISP's other than
> MSN to dialup customers.
> - The lowest-cost package from Verizon that will allow me to
> continue to run my own servers and host my own domain (something
> my local independent ISP actively supports) will cost $99/mo.

> So, while the landscape today includes a diverse collection of local
> and national ISP's with a range of services and cost options, the
> future will be dialup at $10-15/month or Comcast or Verizon/MSN at
> ~$50/mo. No more local businesses, no more local customer service, no
> choice of services.

> Yes indeed, seems like a major improvement to me.

> John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com

Verizon also REQUIRES that you use THEIR router after the fiber modem.

--Gene

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