Fiber to the home - What are the standards ?

Yep, the service is called FiOS. Three packages, 5/2 15/2 and 30/15? Those are the Mbps down/up. The first (5/2) is $39.95 here is PA. the second is about $50 and the third is something like $200/month.

Yep, fiber to every house, all the way *to* the house. Large areas of a central office wire center will be done at a time. Once activated, customers will be notified they can sugn up. Initial targets are existing ADSL customers.

The box looks pretty much like a NID just twice as big. 8-(

The box, called an ONT (Optical Network Terminal) comes in several configurations but the most common has 4 POTS ports, an RJ45 ethernet port and a coax connector.

Your existing dialtone is swung over to the POTS ports, a Cat-5 run to the router and then a short setup procedure to authenticate you on the new FiOS network.

Yes, the ONT needs power. A cable is run inside and a small charger is plugged into a 120v outlet. This keeps the internal battery charged. As I hear it, the first battery is "on Verizon" but subsequent batteries are "on you". A properly functioning battery can supply up to 8 hours of run time for POTS.

I'm in Langhorne PA and the conduit work has started. Doylestown PA is already "live" and customers are signing up. I'm told that Langhorne will go live the end of this year or early 2006.

I can't wait.

John

But one strand, not two, from what I was told...It's one large passive optival network... [ergo: no amps etc in the field.]

If you opt for POTS over fiber. A friend has the service & decided to keep his POTS on the copper, at least for now.

Interesting trivia point..thanks. Guess Ma does not want to be rolling trucks to replace batteries.

Also note that the ToS forbids all servers:

3.6 If you subscribe to Broadband Service: * You may not resell the Broadband Service, use it for high volume purposes, or engage in similar activities that constitute resale (commercial or non-commercial), as determined solely by Verizon. * You may connect multiple computers/devices within a single home or office location to your Broadband modem and/or router to access the Service, but only through a single Broadband account and a single IP address obtained from Verizon. * Where available, Broadband customers may use their Broadband accounts to connect through an analog connection, but these connections will be subject to usage thresholds and additional per hour and monthly charges, depending on the Service to which you subscribed. * Additional User IDs provided for Broadband customers' email boxes are not intended for use as dial-up connections. Any usage associated with additional email box User IDs will be charged the per hour rate associated with usage above the monthly allotment for analog Dial-up Service (where available). The number of mailboxes available to you depends upon the Service to which you have subscribed. * You may not use the Broadband Service to host any type of server personal or commercial in nature. So no matter what upstream bandwidth you get, don't try to use it...

This (power) is one of our biggest hang ups. I'm on a university campus and there are new staff and faculty houses in the plan. It is a 'greenfield' build, and we've decided on Fiber to the Home (FTTH) for the project. And after going through the topology discussion (active, pon, epon, gpon, et. al.) it has been the power solution that remains in question. It's interesting to see Verizons solution, which is sort of what we had figured the phone companies would do. We've toyed with power supplies out in the system and running a hybrid fiber/copper for the drop, and distributing power, then the neighborhood power supplies goes on a generator for back-up. Then there are no batteries to replace.

I"m curious though how the "cable is run inside". Is the phone company going to be installing a new 120V circuit on the customers premises? (this doesn't apply to our situation, 'cause we'll have that power built from the beginning). Part of the reason I ask is in reading the instruction manual for the Cisco ONT, their suggestion was running the power cord from the ONT in through a near-by window!

I'm SURE there is a wallwart inside and low-voltage twisted pair is run back to the box...

Since when is it De Rigeur for Americans to imitate the French and put a space before every question mark ?

Or are you just a hopeless Space Case ?

What is this nasty infection that's spreading around the net ? That is certainly _not_ the way we learned to do it in school !

I'd be scared spitless. With the vagaries of battery power, limited battery life, and power outages a _lot_ longer than 8 hours (ice storms and hurricanes), it would scare me to have such an unreliable system for emergency purposes. One rat chewing thru a fiber cable could take out a whole city. (Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.)

I guess the telcos figure that if you can't get POTS service, you can just call on your cell phone. :-P

Also, remember that even if you plug that FiOS wall wart into your own UPS, it won't do a bit of good if the fiber concentrator down the block has also lost power and its battery has run down. And with that situation, you can't run over to your neighbor's house to borrow the phone to call and tell repair that you don't have any phone service. Did you aver get that sinking feeling that someone has really made a big mistake? :-O See this informative and scary URL for more info.

Or more likely, they want to sell you a battery maintenance service (like the inside wiring service) for a nice, profitable monthly fee.

[snip]

So, just run down to the corner and use the pay phone... Oh wait, they're disappearing, because no one uses them any more. ;-)

From what I saw, the outside plant is all passive; there's nothing to run down.

Vast numbers of us the US never had a corner pay phone. Or sidewalks to the corner. While I do have sidewalks now, a corner that MIGHT have a pay phone is 1/2 mile away or more. :)

And chances are that they get dial tone thru the same pair gain equipment (down at the corner) that you and your neighbors get it from. :-(

For more info see

Excellent. Then perhaps it will eliminate this problem.

Of course, you still have the problem that if one fiber strand is broken (commonly known as backhoe fade), the whole neighborhood loses dial tone.