When the digital conversion goes through, hopefully sooner than later, a lot of bandwidth will be opened up, giving cable the ability to reach speeds in excess of 150Mbps in the next few years.

A current analog cable channel takes up 6 Mhz worth of space on a line. When the conversion takes over, every channel could be converted to Digital HD, and still only use 3Mhz of space. All they have to do is reappropriate space and FIOS and cable can compete.

The second problem we have been unable to troubleshoot. Our two year old XP will not connect with the internet above snails pace even though the connection is strong. It never had a problem with dial up. We have spent several sessions on the phone with the tech crew pinging, and restarting, and trying various options, we even installed an new wireless card to no avail. The company sent out a second box, we tried that. Still super slooooooowwwwwww. Any ideas?

8/22 the upgrade happened. It locked up the basic box I had, and changed the functionality of the DVR and remote (the previous software used the buttons around the “select” button for play, fast-forward, and rewind and was not informed, so seemed like it was broken). Calling the support center, I was routed to “level 1 / upgrade support.” The women there were clueless, unable to listen and comprehend and basically morons (and I don’t use that term much). Both times I called for this, I had to be routed to another tech to get help. They were slightly better.

When I did get the upgrade resolved, the menus were bug ridden, slow, and difficult to understand.

• Guide – Features of the previous version are now gone o “Show Reminder” on the basic box is no longer there. o The Guide cannot be adjusted to default to “favorites” list o To get to the guide, you have to go thru the menus on the left side (obscure interface) o There is a limit to the number of favorites you can program in o If you select to use Favorites, it jumps to the top of the list and then need to page down o Programming of a “series” next to impossible to figure out o Etc…
• DVR – The quality of the picture on the DVR pixilated, freezes, and drops out, etc.
• Basic Box – The basic box has lost connectivity recently, etc.

Internet - Actiontech router – Failed the wired connections one morning. Talked to the tech and tried to explain the problem. He said he would drop ship a router (work from home … not acceptable). I had to raise a stink to get him to send tech out. (Tech said they always bring out) - Installed my own router in the meantime, to try to get back to work. This worked fine. - Tech brought new Actiontech router – Did not work at all. Attempted to sort out with FIOS center, and had to call a few times. Eventually decided to try another. - 2nd New Actiontech router – This worked when installed (tech did not know much about computers, which seemed odd for a tech helping me with a computer problem) - Wireless connection with 2nd new router – initially spotty connectivity with it dropping connectivity. I did use the online connectivity, and this problem was resolved.

STAY WITH WHAT YOU HAVE …. FIOS SUCKS!!

I tried to switch back to comcast but they couldn’t get their act together in getting my phone number back from VZ. They blew 3 installations where the tech showed up, and said “gee, it says on the sheet that your number has been ported back, but I called and it’s not, so we have to schedule another installation”. Pretty soon my FiOS 30-day trial had expired and now I’m locked in.

This is also not to mention that the basic Comcast Internet was faster than the basic FiOS speed. I had to upgrade the FiOS service to 20 mbit for $10/mo more, since I work at home and use it a lot.

Does anyone know if I can at least buy my own cable box to avoid the rental fee, or get some kind of in-line decrypter to replace the box with?

Thanks.

For example Red Sox games are only broadcast on channels needing a STB. None of the news channels are on analog either. QAM HDTV can only tune HD versions of same broadcast channels, everything else is encrypted. Can’t even get boring CSPAN without a STB.

I’m just mad about this unneeded expense and inconvenience solely to make Hollywood happy.

I have fiber on my cul-de-sac, and I wonder how long it will take for Bellsouth/AT&T to realize the potential source of income…

thanks for stopping by. I read the same report, and you are right to point out that while there is no uniformity when it comes to FiOS wounding the competitors, it is worthy to note that when given a choice, consumers tend to exercise it.

It is something we have forgotten in the days of duopoly, and we need more competitors to spur the growth of real broadband. Unfortunately FCC and the regulators have made it impossible.

I would love to see Comcast counter with its own better, and perhaps more sanely priced competitive offer as well.

Before we all get excited about Verizon and Massachusetts, it is clear that some of the numbers are missing or don’t really show progress.

In the story, there are 34 communities – we don’t know how many households or businesses there are in those communities. Then we are told that Verizon has 11,.982 customers — if you examine each of the parts where the data is presented, this represents 3 different companies – RCN, Comcast and Direct TV…

When those market numbers are added together we get 241,500 – and thus Verizon has less than 5% of the current market, excluding all those who don’t have phone and cable service. –

FiOS entry in Massachusetts doesn’t uniformly wound competitors http://www.onetrak.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=2408&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

I asked if they were there because of FiOS. One rep nodded yes while the other said no. I think I know which one was telling the truth.

They asked what gripes I had about my service. I told them I was unhappy that the NFL Network was pushed into one of their premium packages and that the Internet was slow (comparatively to FiOS at 20/5 as compared with 8/768kbps). They offered phone service, and when I wouldn’t take that lame piece of bait, they told me they couldn’t do anything for me. I ordered FiOS that night.

The next day I got a notice that Comcast was jacking the DVR fee $3/month. Considering I was getting more from FiOS for less money already, this was like a kick in the pants.

Finally, once FiOS was installed, I called Comcast to cancel. I expected a retention deal. Nothing, just some guy in India telling me to return the cable box (the equivalent of “don’t let the door knob hit you on the way out”).

So yeah. Comcast should be scared.