Plenty Of Broadband Providers Pretending They're Offering Fiber To The Home
from the false-advertising dept
Earlier this year, we wrote about Verizon suing Time Warner Cable over a misleading advertisement, where Time Warner Cable claims that Verizon is "catching up" to Time Warner Cable in offering fiber optics. This is misleading, at best. Verizon is installing fiber to the home with its FiOS service, providing significantly faster connections. What Time Warner Cable is claiming is that it uses fiber in its network, not to the home. It's true that TWC and plenty of other broadband providers have used hybrid fiber solutions at the network level for many years, but that's totally different than connecting all the way to the home with a fiber optic connection.Now it turns out that TWC is hardly the only broadband provider doing this. Apparently lots of broadband providers are now running ads against Verizon where they claim that they've offered fiber for longer than Verizon. That's totally misleading. Having fiber somewhere in the network is not at all an equal comparison to running fiber all the way to the home. As Broadband Reports asks, it's difficult to see how these claims from others isn't false advertising. They're clearly implying that their fiber is the same thing as FiOS when that's not true at all.
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Filed Under: fiber, truth in advertising
Companies: time warner cable, verizon
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Qwest ad
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Bell is doing that in Canada!
"Introducing Sympatico Optimax Internet service now available in Toronto! With Fibre Optic technology, this new Internet service consistently delivers maximum speeds of 10 or 16 Mbps... Sympatico Optimax Internet service is the next generation of Internet service that uses the latest in Fibre Optic technology to deliver an optimized Internet experience..."
Besides us Canadians spelling Fiber wrong, doesn't it sound like some sort of fiber to the home service? Even the (idiot) installer who came to set it up said it was fiber. When asked how they would be running the fiber line into my home, he said they conveniently push the fiber optic informtion through my existing phone line! Duh! It's actually ADSL2 with a guaranteed speed at the local node.
Turns out it would be better to call Bell's service "Fibre to the Node" but maybe that wouldn't attract as many gullible customers.
It's actually a pretty good service as far as consumer level DSL goes. They guarantee the 16 Megabit speed (to their test server) and with their convenient 40 Gigabyte per month caps, I can finish all of my surfing for the month in just over SIX hours! What a time saver.
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Qwest is talking...
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Corporate strategy...
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Re:
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Re:
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Who is enforcing the law?
The sad thing is that this is also happening in other Departments of this administration too- Budgets have been slashed so much that the Government can't even afford to litigate cases. Attorneys are forced to settle virtually every case.
Another wonderful tidbit of the Bush Administration.
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Re: Who is enforcing the law?
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Verizon
years ago. They did this with money from the government.
But they won't spend their own money to upgrade the
central office, so there it sits... in the ground,
unconnected and dark.
Yeah, I know it's a business and the decision is based
on ROI. The unreliable early 1970's electronics in the
pillar by the roadside belong in a museum. I feel sorry
for the techs that have to keep all that haywired junk
patched together and running. But I hope it will become
enough of a burden to merit replacement soon.
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Damn bran flakes...
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Whiners....
All TWC states is that its a hybrid fiber network. Most cable companies have been using this for quite a few years.
Its Verizons claim to fame with the Fios service, so its only natural that its used in this manner. Its advertising.......
Besides, currently having fiber to your house is overkill. In the future it may be needed, but now its just a waste of Verizons money.
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This why we're so behind the rest of the world
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Tough the Sweeds have had that for few years allready there 100mb is nothing out of the ordinary, tough something like 18% population admit using warez.
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Charter Does This Too.
Amusingly enough, though Verizon is our major service-provider, they will never offer FiOS here. The three closest Public Utility Districts in my area (including my own) already have fiber networks, residential and business. I'm actually getting FTTH installed within the next week, 2M/2M for 40$ (admittedly changing to 4M/768K with my provider's restructuring, though).
Could be cheaper, but to get anything near that from DSL (which I'm too far away from the Central Office for ten years, though being de facto city-incorporated for at least 8 years) or Charter cable would be impossible.
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Fuck Time Warner Inc.
I pay $122.xx give or take 2-4 bucks every month for a supposed 10megabit internet connection, and basic cable with the "entertainment package" as they call it.
It fucking sucks.
I get about 60-80 channels (including 2-13), nick, comedy central, tbs, tnt, and a few of their supposed HD clones. If i want to get HBO, showtime, skinimax, or any of their "premium" channels it's 10-12 bucks a month extra for the first one, add 8 to the 10-12 if i want to add a second teir, and add a 5 spot on top of the 10-12+8 if i want a third movie tier.
wtf?
I wish that in my area I had another choice but i'm stuck with fucking TWC.
they shape my packets, my internet connection drops constantly, my tv picture is shitty, and constantly pixels out, and deblocks, if i download too many files at a time with downthemall my whole internet stops for a few seconds.
TWC sucks!
they fucking suck!
I hope they fucking die.
the second that another option comes my way i'm jumping ship.
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Re: Fuck Time Warner Inc.
TWC is doing the exact same crap to me, and every time I call them to ask them WTF is going on, I'm placed on hold for long periods of time after which they tell me that they're probably experiencing some network congestion (Insert Peak Hours Bullshit Speech Here), and then they basically tell me that it's my fault I'm experiencing shitty service.
They hint that I must be doing either suspicious activity (Bittorrent), or that I'm saturating my internet by exceeding my allotted download/upload speeds.
I wish I had another choice...
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Fiber to the home
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The question of who has fiber where is irrelevant, and both companies have every right to claim they use fiber - which they do. If Time Warner is misleading customers by talking about fiber and not saying where it is, then Verizon is misleading them far more by implying that fiber to the house is fundamentally better for customers than copper (where I live the service is actually slower), and Time Warner is merely playing off of their misinformation.
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AT&T U-verse does it
My dad asked him if it was a fiber or wire based network, and the guys says "Oh, it's a fiber all the way in. It's just like Verizon Fios, only we don't have to install anything or put in new wires" He was so proud and excited.
I almost felt bad mentioning that it'd be tough for it to be just like Fios if they weren't installing anything, considering Fios has managed to burn down a couple of houses when their installers hit power lines while putting in the fiber.
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lol
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