50 Megs for $90 from Verizon FiOS
The bandwidth speed battles between Cablevision and Verizon are getting bloodier. Cablevision has been pushing the envelope and is forcing Verizon to do things a Bell typically doesn’t like to do – offer real broadband level speeds.
Verizon has announced that it will sell a 50 megabits down and 10 5 megabits up connection for $90 a month. (Thanks Tom, for pointing out that the business offer was 50/10.) The service is available where Verizon FiOS network is live in the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
This is an interesting move -does this mean Verizon is now just a pipe provider (and there is nothing wrong with that.) I have argued this is the best recourse for the phone companies is to sell more bandwidth at premium prices – turn the Moore’s law to their advantage.
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Now is the time for Cablevision to offer the symetrical speeds they have been “trialing” in Oyster Bay. You mentioned this trial back in July.
http://gigaom.com/2005/06/27/cablevision-to-sell-50-megabitss-service-in-long-island/
I wonder what the real-world speed difference will be between 50/10 and 15/5.
yeah, this could be one of the most interesting developments. i know cablevision is pretty close to finalizing that trial – which could mean more interesting developments in the near future.
A good way to test the difference in speed would be to play an online game like wow. Is the connection really anything different then with a cable / dsl modem. I have a feeling that no matter how fast your initial connection to the central office is you will still suffer from internet lag.
Yeah I was wondering about similar things. Could somebody unearth some fine print that would disclose some limits on the service? Forget playing games. If you have a 10 megabit upstream, heck, start hosting popular media streaming web sites straight from your home, for no more than $90/month. Forget using web hosting companies, you can become one for $90/month, some additional dough for a couple of static IP addresses, and a couple of Mac Minis.
Somewhere in their terms of service, there’s gotta be something that gives you an absolute bandwidth usage monthly quota.
Can their backhaul actually sustain 50/10Mbps from multiple users?
One place the extra bandwidth would make an immediate difference is with online video and file sharing.
A good example is online file storage/backup. With a measly 1.5 Mbps/384kbps connection, you have to be really careful about which files you choose to store. With 50 Mbps/10Mbps, you could backup a fair amount of stuff, especially if you could somehow schedule the backup to happen at night. If higher speeds become the norm, we could see a whole new breed of Internet applications.
Om (Mr. Malik?), is there really nothing wrong with just being a “pipe provider”? So far, it seems like broadband providers have done all they can to avoid the commoditization of their offerings. I guess the PC processor manufacturers have survived, but I don’t know that they’re happy about it. At least Intel doesn’t have to dig up anybody’s yard to keep pace with Moore’s Law. :-)
You won’t notice the difference in a game like WoW since it wasn’t designed to take advantage of such speeds. Latency (lag) is the biggest buzz-kill for online gaming.
Speed like this will enable HD video downloads once the DRM issues are ironed out. Of course it will also enable Napster-like sharing of video (like in the “bad” old days).
Broadband speeds have always lead applications. People used to ask what you’d really do with a 128k ISDN line. Seems silly now…
I know for sure that I’d pay for FiOS if it was available in Rochester, NY. But… we’re always the last to get any cool new technologies rolled out. It’s a crying shame.
and to think videotron is all excited about upgrading its high-speed service to 20Mbps from 15Mbps…
Om:
Been poring over the press release and it looks like 50/10 is a “business offer” with a best price of $350/month but 50/5 is a “residential” offer at the $90 you quoted.
This is a partial answer to your reader who was aking about TOS limitations.
Think that you’re right on that this is competition for real. Wish we had it here in Vermont.