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Verizon Fios

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FiOS ONT installed in Massapequa, New York

FiOS is a fiber to the premises (FTTP) telecommunications service offered in the United States by Verizon. According to Verizon's Trademark (No. 3001081), FiOS is a Gaelic word for "knowledge". Also, FiOS is a abbreviation of Fiber Optic Service. Verizon has attracted consumer and media attention in the area of broadband Internet access, as the first major U.S. carrier to offer such a service. Verizon has also launched a television service with its fiber optic lines, and is expected to become a major competition of local cable television companies over the next 10 years. It will compete with current Triple Play offers, where the local cable company offers broadband Internet access, digital cable, and VoIP telephone service. FiOS started as a pilot program in Keller, Texas, but availability of the Internet service has expanded to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, Florida, California, Oregon, and Washington. The FiOS TV service has launched in some of these states and will continue to expand its reach over the coming months.

Building for the future

Verizon has opted to invest heavily in a fiber infrastructure, betting that its competitors will shy away from such an expensive and risky investment. The strategy seems to hinge upon a higher quality, higher capability network, contrasting with lower prices offered by competitors.

Part of Verizon's strategy is to compete with cable television by partnering with content providers to provide content through its fiber optic service, available in limited areas since late 2005.

NJ Residents Alert

John Corzine signed legislation on Friday August 4, 2006 opening up the marketplace in NJ by creating a statewide franchise replacing the current method which requires cable and other TV service providers to negotiate franchises with each municipality independent of one another. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060804/nyf068.html?.v=56

Service offering

Internet Access

There are three tiers of residential Internet service:

  • 10 Mbit/s Downstream/2 Mbit/s Up Price: $34.95 or $39.95/month
  • 20 Mbit/s Downstream/2 Mbit/s Up Price: $44.95 or $49.95/month
  • 50 Mbit/s Downstream/5 Mbit/s Up Price: $179.95 or $199.95/month (Verizon offers this tier at $59.95 or $54.95 in some areas.)[1]

Please note that monthly prices can be lower if one commits to a one-year contract. Furthermore, prices are lower if bundled with a Verizon calling package. Typically, a consumer with existing Verizon phone service will receive $5 off his or her monthly FiOS bill. Employees and retirees of Verizon companies who live in FiOS-qualified areas can receive the 15 Mbit/s downstream residential service for $39.95/month. [2]. Port 80 inbound is blocked; however, port 25 inbound and outbound seem to be open at this time. [3] [4]

Though not widely advertised, business service is available in some areas, with static IP addresses and no blocked ports. For example, the business version of the 15/down 2/up with 5 IP addresses is $99/month in Massachusetts.

Speed has recently been increased in the Tri-State Region where there is stiff competition. The new speeds bump the lower tier service to 10 Mbit/s Downstream/2 Mbit/s Up for the same $39.95/month, and the second tier to 20 Mbit/s Downstream/5 Mbit/s Up for $44.95/month.[1]

Television (FiOS TV)

Verizon is currently building a fiber-optic television service, and plans to make it available to several suburban areas in the near future. However, they first must receive legal permission (in the form of a franchise agreement), and must fight the pressure that local cable companies place on state and local governments to block Verizon's television service. On September 22, 2005, Verizon began taking orders for FiOS TV in Keller, Texas and in Herndon, Virginia on November 21, 2005 [5].

Service Tiers Include:

  • Basic - includes 15 to 25 channels
  • Expanded Basic - includes 175 to 195 channels
  • La Conexión - Spanish-language package, includes 130 to 150 channels
  • Movie Package - 44 movie channels (Starz!, Showtime, Encore, TMC, Flix and Sundance)
  • Sports Package - More than a dozen sports channels including Fox College Sports, Outdoor Channel, Golf TV, and the NFL Network
  • Movie & Sports Package - All the channels from both the Sports and Movie Packages
  • Premium Channels - HBO and/or Cinemax
  • International Channels - Individually priced international channels including ART, TV Japan, RAI, and TV5
  • Spanish Language Package - More than 20 channels of news, sports, and movie telenovelas in Spanish
  • On Demand library (with over 1000 Free programs) (not including movie channel subscriptions)

All service tiers beyond basic require a digital set-top box to receive the television signal and decode for display on the television set

Telephone

Verizon also offers analog Plain old telephone service, or POTS, over FiOS. The common model optical network terminal has 4 analog phone jacks. For residential installations, Verizon generally requires any existing analog phone lines to be "cut over" to FiOS. Note that this is a permanent modification: once converted to fiber, one can never again go back to DSL service as the copper line is made inactive (and in some cases removed). Verizon's justification for this is that installations cost them over $500 per home, and they do not want to make that investment twice. The pricing of POTS over FiOS is identical to POTS over traditional copper, no differences exist billing wise as only the delivery system changes. The same packages, rates, deals and telephone taxes exist on FiOS POTS and copper wire POTS. The phone pricing on traditional copper will migrate to FiOS phone when FiOS is installed.

While FiOS phone service offers excellent audio quality compared to standard copper phone lines, customers should be aware that power outages may affect service availability. Unlike standard phone lines, the FiOS service depends on power at the customer premises. The FiOS backup battery will power the phone lines for 4 to 8 hours (reports vary). This may be an issue for sites that experience extended power outages that depend on analog phone lines for remote monitoring, alarm systems, and/or emergency calls. However, while running on the backup battery, the video stream and internet stream are disabled to conserve power for emergency dial tone use.

Technology

Verizon is constructing a passive optical network. Optical fiber extends from central offices to unpowered hubs, in which the fiber is optically split up to 32-ways.

The active components adhere to the ITU-T G.983 standard, also known as APON or BPON, which provides:

  • 622 Mbit/s (77.75 MByte/s) downstream @ 1490 nm
  • 155 Mbit/s (19.375 MByte/s) upstream @ 1310 nm
  • RF video overlay @ 1550 nm

One model optical network terminal (ONT) being deployed by Verizon is the Tellabs 1600 series ONT [6]. This terminal provides up to 4 provisionable voice telephone ports, a 10/100 Ethernet interface for data traffic, and 1 coaxial connector for CATV services. This terminal is manufactured by Tellabs, Inc. [7] The Motorola ONT1000V is also being used in some locations [8].

Service areas

California

Currently available citywide

Available in some parts of these cities

Connecticut

Delaware

  • Suburban areas of New Castle County, Delaware, deployment is under-way. It is already active in much of the county and many consumers have already switched from Verizon DSL due to the similarity in price for previous customers.

Florida

  • Suburban areas of Tampa. FiOS Video franchise rights approved by Temple Terrace. FIOS TV service became available in Florida on December 6, 2005, and the city of Tampa approved FIOS video as May 12, 2006

Odessa, FL added -- April 2006

November 2005. Television expected June 2006.

  • Areas of Sarasota, and Sarasota County are currently under development. And Manatee County has been fully deployed with FiOS and FiOS TV. [April 2006]

The FIOS area map for Florida is available at http://www.cellularaddict.com/fios/FloridaTampaBay2.jpg

Indiana

  • Fort Wayne, Indiana The majority of the city has been completed. The remaining portions should be done by summer of 2006.

Maryland

Here is construction information (Verizon External Link) for the current month.

Massachusetts

New Hampshire

New Jersey

  • Bergen County - Allendale, Alpine, Bergenfield, Closter, Demarest, Dumont, Emerson, Franklin Lakes, Garfield, Glen Rock, Hackensack, Harrington Park, Haworth, Hillsdale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Lodi, Mahwah, Midland Park, Montvale, New Milford, Northvale, Norwood, Oakland, Old Tappan, Oradell, Paramus, Park Ridge, Ramsey, Ridgewood, River Edge, River Vale, Rockleigh, Saddle River, South Hackensack, Teaneck, Tenafly, Upper Saddle River, Waldwick, Wallington, Washington Township, Westwood, Woodcliff Lake and Wyckoff
  • Burlington County - Evesham, Medford and Medford Lakes
  • Camden County - Audubon, Audubon Park, Barrington, Cherry Hill, Chesilhurst, Haddon, Haddon Heights, Haddonfield, Lawnside, Tavistock, Voorhees, Waterford and Winslow
  • Essex County - Maplewood, Montclair, South Orange and West Orange
  • Mercer County - East Windsor, Ewing, Hamilton, Hightstown, Hopewell Township, Lawrence, Pennington, City of Trenton, Washington Township and West Windsor
  • Middlesex County - Monroe Township, Plainsboro
  • Monmouth County - Asbury Park, Colts Neck, Eatontown, Englishtown, Fair Haven, Farmingdale, Freehold, Little Silver, Manalapan, Middletown, Millstone, Red Bank, Roosevelt, Rumson, Sea Bright, Shrewsbury Borough, and Tinton Falls
  • Morris County - Denville, Dover, Hanover, Harding, Long Hill, Mendham Borough, Mendham Township, Mine Hill, Montville, Morristown, Morris Plains, Morris Township, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Randolph, Rockaway Borough, Rockaway Township, Victory Gardens and Wharton
  • Somerset County- Bernards, Bernardsville, Bound Brook, Franklin, Manville, Somerville, South Bound Brook and Warren
  • Passaic County - Clifton and the City of Passaic

New York

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

In February 2006, Verizon applied for a cable television franchise to serve one of nine service areas in Rhode Island. The regulatory process is expected to take several months. Source: http://www.backchannelmedia.com/newsletter/story/8933093064/Verizon_Seeks_Cable_License.html

Texas

Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex

Virginia

Northern Virginia

Central Virginia

  • Richmond, Virginia – Several neighborhoods have been upgraded to fiber and Verizon is taking orders for FiOS.

Hampton Roads

  • Newport News, Virginia – preparations are now being made to deploy in the Jefferson area.
  • Norfolk, Virginia – Prominent areas by the water have been deemed as fiber capable at this time. Installations have begun.
  • Virginia Beach, Virginia - FTTP is being installed in widespread areas around the city. Implementation began in the Great Neck area and has fanned out from there.

Washington

Western Washington

  • Snohomish County, Washington – Installation is underway in the Bothell/Mill Creek area of Snohomish county.
  • King County, Washington- Installation is underway in some Kirkland and Redmond neighborhoods.
  • Some Kirkland and Bothell neighborhoods are ready for ordering in the near future. Only telephone and data are being readied.

Notes

  1. ^ BroadbandReports–Fios Speeds Increased. (URL accessed 1 May 2006).
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