Our government claims their actions are intended to encourage competition, expand deployment and lower cost of broadband Internet access. It must be working ...
Verizon is aggressively deploying fiber-to-the-premises here. Because I use a local independent ISP there has been a lot of concern about the consequences of this action.
What has now been confirmed by calls to Verizon is that - Once the fiber connection is established all services, including voice, are moved to the fiber and the copper wires are pulled, making it impossible to return to standard DSL in spite of the supposed 30-day trial period. - The lowest cost package for the fiber connection is 30% more expensive than their standard DSL offering - They will absolutely NOT allow connections to other ISP's over the fiber connection, essentially limiting ISP's other than MSN to dialup customers. - The lowest-cost package from Verizon that will allow me to continue to run my own servers and host my own domain (something my local independent ISP actively supports) will cost $99/mo.
So, while the landscape today includes a diverse collection of local and national ISP's with a range of services and cost options, the future will be dialup at $10-15/month or Comcast or Verizon/MSN at ~$50/mo. No more local businesses, no more local customer service, no choice of services.
Yes indeed, seems like a major improvement to me.
John Meissen snipped-for-privacy@aracnet.com