No FiOS in 2006, maybe 2007

Verizon is the ones out there running cable down Claiborne. I have seen all the Verizon trucks there. Miss Utility came out and marked the entire east side of Claiborne, parts of Vestals Gap and Demott. Exact same thing they were doing last month in the Farm.

Staci

 

I've seen them working like crazy burying cable(?) Does this mean FIOS is coming to town?

 

The only thing I can say it means is there is a bunch of burried cable in Broadlands
Staci

 

It's orange flexible tubing. They're now laying it along Claiborne near Hillside. Can we at least be hopeful that it's related to FIOS?

 

Orange flexible tubing is just conduit for data or telecom use. It could be for anything from conduit for fiber, coax, or twisted pair copper for voice lines. Just because it's orange doesn't mean it's fiber. All the copper laid in the Broadlands was laid in orange conduit years ago. But it could be safe to bet that Verizon isn't going to be laying conduit for the sake of giving us more copper lines. The five pairs twisted copper that I currently have running to my house are more than enough.

 

Looks as if July will be spent on Claiborne Pkwy. I didn't notice any other Broadlands streets on the July list. =(

 

It appears they are slowly moving down Demott though. They did a loop from Broadlands Blvd. down to Vestals Gap Dr. and just on this past Tuesday marked all the lines down to Summerbrooke Pool. I'm not so sure what is going on for the west side of Clairborne as my dog walk route is only on the east side.

 

Wonder what FIOS will cost 5 years from now when they've got you all to themselves?

 

Good question. I would imagine it would cost (adjusted for inflation) about the same as what we've been paying to Cablevision/Adelphia/Comcast. Verizon has been known to return POTS service in certain cases but it may require jumping through hoops. Today the POTS line is less important than it was even 10 years ago. And 10 years from now I think it will be even less important with both wired and wireless competitors to Verizon.

 

They still won't have you all to themselves. They may cut the copper, but we still have the coax (Comcast). Besides, the going trend is to get rid of the land phone line anyhow. I don't like that they are removing the copper lines however.

[edit] Reading the posts on ./, Verizon will not cut the copper if you ask them not to.

 

Has anyone heard (or seen) the picture quality from FiOS? I know a Tech/Sales Rep at Avitecture who says that he switched from DirecTV to FiOS and found the HD picture quality to be much better than the satellite due to less compression of the data stream.

-Jim

 

A friend of mine in Leesburg has had it for about 6 months.

Of what I can tell the picture quality was really good. I have Comcast HD service and it is very similar to that. The internet speeds were also comparable to the article that Eric posted.

I will say one thing that I was surprised by how the Video On Demand was shared via the Internet connection. The fiber comes into the home and then is broken out with a Ethernet and a Phone cable. The Ethernet cable is then plugged into a Verizon device that acts as a wireless router and also serves the coax to the cablebox for the TV. When you watch something via VOD, the Verizon device uses QOS to serve the VOD content in a higher priority. I wasn't sure if when you watch VOD it eats into your total bandwidth.

Comparing FIOS to Comcast:
TV - Both are comparable to each other. Both Comcast and FIOS use the same Motorola cablebox. FIOS I think has more HD channels available.

Internet - FIOS is faster. Not sure if Comcast will increase the speeds to compete but FIOS has the fiber speed advantage.

Phone - Haven't tried it. Not sure if it is comparable to Comcast phone.

 

Did anyone else notice the Comcast ad in the Sunday Washington Post Loudoun Extra advertising the fact that all the existing Loudoun cable channels will be changing and they are adding 50 NEW channels (including new HD ones) - all effective August 18?

I guess that this is their preemptive strike against FIOS. I was just glad to see they are finally adding the NFL Network (even though it will be part of their Sports Package - which costs extra).

 

is broadlands in queue yet for FIOS?

 

We're getting closer. Sometime in 2008 is the last whisper I heard.

 

Comcast rates are also going up....I'll be glad when FIOS is here - I'll drop Comcast like a hot potato! Can't wait!

 

Claiborne Pkwy is on the list for a third month but I don't see much else in the Broadlands. At this rate we may have FIOS by 2009.