Cable ads attacking Verizon confuse consumers

Avery Axel was annoyed with his cable company, Comcast, and was considering switching to Verizon's new FiOS fiber-optic TV and Internet service.

[FIOS is the best]

I have always hated Comcast fraudulent ad towards Verizon FIOS!

[not in the least confused]

Id love to get Comcast out of my house, however FIOS is not available here yet,Niether is DSL, and I live in Bel Air.

So much for deregulation of cable companies...blame it on your state legislature hard at work.

[terrence]

im tired of comcasts constant flickering and pixelizing everytime i try to watch tv.. alot of my friends in anne arundel and in baltimore county have fios and they love it.. hurry up city council so i can get fios in baltimore..

[An MIT Senior]

As a fun note, standard CAT-6 cable is better then fiber optic cables. When you have a fibre optic cable, the light bounces inside the cable, so even though the cables may be the same length, fibre optic cable is defintely not "the speed of light". While the amount of bouncing varies depending on the materials, and even the angle of the fibre optic cable, the delay to get information from one end to the other is ridiculous. The only real advantage given by fibre optics is higher bandwidth, at the cost of network speed. You 'ping' on a fibre optic cable tend to be anywhere from 20% to 90% higher than on a CAT-6. And you all know about comcast's 'Powerboost', I suppose? Want to know the secret? It will use the fibre optic parts of the network more with larger files, such as when you download images or videos, but uses the higher-speed/lower bandwidth lines for common traffic, such as gaming, which uses very little bandwidth but requires a very low ping.

Honestly, if you people care only about mb/s instead of ping, you should just go for satellite.

(As another note, there is a much larger overhead for reconstructing the light signals, and while it can be done quickly, it's a bit beyond what Virizon gives you for this task. Comcast, on the other hand, can use better hardware to forward signals through the fibre optic lines then forwarding it to you in low-overhead standard methods, making your connection all the faster.)

[Joppa MD]

Longtime Comcast customers are not getting the SpeedBoost adverstised by Comcast. I asked for the 3/$99 deal and was told since I was already a customer for TV and Broadband I would have to opt for a $180 package but I would get the new high-speed broadband.
Whata crock; FiOS please come soon

[Fed up in Towson]

Verizon had trenches dug for the fiber back in February and spent the next two months adding the additional wiring etc. to the poles closest to houses, but FIOS is not yet available in our neighborhood.

[Fed up in Towson]

An MIT Senior wrote:

As a fun note, standard CAT-6 cable is better then fiber optic cables. When you have a fibre optic cable, the light bounces inside the cable, so even though the cables may be the same length, fibre optic cable is defintely not "the speed of light". While the amount of bouncing varies depending on the materials, and even the angle of the fibre optic cable, the delay to get information from one end to the other is ridiculous. The only real advantage given by fibre optics is higher bandwidth, at the cost of network speed. You 'ping' on a fibre optic cable tend to be anywhere from 20% to 90% higher than on a CAT-6. And you all know about comcast's 'Powerboost', I suppose? Want to know the secret? It will use the fibre optic parts of the network more with larger files, such as when you download images or videos, but uses the higher-speed/lower bandwidth lines for common traffic, such as gaming, which uses very little bandwidth but requires a very low ping.
Honestly, if you people care only about mb/s instead of ping, you should just go for satellite.
(As another note, there is a much larger overhead for reconstructing the light signals, and while it can be done quickly, it's a bit beyond what Virizon gives you for this task. Comcast, on the other hand, can use better hardware to forward signals through the fibre optic lines then forwarding it to you in low-overhead standard methods, making your connection all the faster.)

You're forgetting upload speeds. Although we get very good download speeds over Comcast right now (25 mbs down or more), we're capped at a measley 700kbs upload throughput. I need to get large binary files to my customers, so while not symmetrical, FIOS still has a huge advantage over cable in terms of upload bandwidth. Plus, their HDTV signals supposedly don't use nearly as much compression as Comcast, so I looking forward to getting hooked up before football season starts. I know a few folks in the Dallas area that have FIOS and they can't say enough good things about it.

[Bababooeey]

Time Warner is just as bad with their uploads. If only FIOS were more available in the Northeast.

[Hmmmm]

I danced a jig when FiOS was finally available in my area. It took about 2 years from the time they left a hangtag on my doorknob saying it was coming, until the time I was actually able to sign up.

I do not miss CONcast one bit!

[Joe Momma]

Looking forward eagerly to Verizon FiOS for my household.

Why? COMCAST sucks!

[Bababooeey]

They're Scam-Tastic!!

[cable]

another fun note. wana know why cable sucks big time. why? well the answer is the same as the knicks and MSG. IT STARTS AT THE TOP. DOLAN IS A FING DUMBA**!!!!!!!!

dady gave me lots of money so i never learned anything in school but i was set for life, now i have all this stuff and i don't know how to use it and be responsible with it. so im just going to ruin the world one simple mistake at a time....

[oriolesfan21218]

hmmmmm... you in the city? praying pleeeze pleeeze!! probably in the county.. dang.. i NEED fios.. the only thing that seems to be changing with comcrap corp is the cost, and who allowed them to pass this BS 10% late fee stuff?? man, on my bill if im 1 DAY LATE its 19 friggin bucks!! up from the flat rate of 5.99!?!? when did the chitty council allow that change?!?!?

[Curious]

I have had FiOS for two years now for both TV and internet and have yet to have any problems. I have the 15/2 plan and my download speeds are always 15 mbs or better and my upload speed is consistently 1.7 mbs. When I had comcast 6 mbs download service, I never got above 4 mbs and the upload was about 384 kps. The picture on a regular TV looks like a DVD and it is superb on a HDTV.

The best thing about Verizon is the home network that you can get, where you can watch any show off your DVR in any of your rooms, up to 3 different shows on 3 different TVs at a time. Plus you can stop a show in one room and pick it up in another. This is done with the existing wires in your home. Isn't competion grand!

[KnowItAll]

An MIT Senior wrote:

As a fun note, standard CAT-6 cable is better then fiber optic cables. When you have a fibre optic cable, the light bounces inside the cable, so even though the cables may be the same length, fibre optic cable is defintely not "the speed of light". While the amount of bouncing varies depending on the materials, and even the angle of the fibre optic cable, the delay to get information from one end to the other is ridiculous. The only real advantage given by fibre optics is higher bandwidth, at the cost of network speed. You 'ping' on a fibre optic cable tend to be anywhere from 20% to 90% higher than on a CAT-6. And you all know about comcast's 'Powerboost', I suppose? Want to know the secret? It will use the fibre optic parts of the network more with larger files, such as when you download images or videos, but uses the higher-speed/lower bandwidth lines for common traffic, such as gaming, which uses very little bandwidth but requires a very low ping.
Honestly, if you people care only about mb/s instead of ping, you should just go for satellite.
(As another note, there is a much larger overhead for reconstructing the light signals, and while it can be done quickly, it's a bit beyond what Virizon gives you for this task. Comcast, on the other hand, can use better hardware to forward signals through the fibre optic lines then forwarding it to you in low-overhead standard methods, making your connection all the faster.)

Was this a joke or are you really serious? If you are serious, I should inform you that every point you made is incorrect. I will not waste my time to argue every point – I will just remind you that bandwidth IS speed. If you are a senior at MIT, your major must be in food service. If you a senior citizen that attended MIT 50 years ago I apologize for being rude and have a nice day.

[Observer]

Comcast tells us they can't offer the NFL Network on regular cable because the customer would have to pay an additional dollar. Then they turn around less than a month later and stick us with MASN (which few want) and raise the bill by two dollars to pay for it! Comcast does this sort of thing over and over. The counties should void their franchise.

[moe green]

comcast has had a monoploy in baltimore county for so long. theis prices keep on going up and the service, both in person and on the telephone stinks. as soon a verizon gets fios to my area, comcat will e shown the door.
i guess the county council and executive will have to decide whom to take political contributions from and whp will give them free service.

[Ted]

Though, if you want to talk about reasons to dump Comcast...
It's not just the ever rising bill that gets me - it's being strong-armed into switching over to digital to get stations from basic cable (CMT, G4, among others)... and then watching as other stations on that one digital set freeze and go blocky, while the other non-digital TV's handle it fine. Calling Customer Service with them just gets agents who actually *encourage* you to change if you have the option.
******* Comcast - moment FiOS comes to Baltimore City, you can kiss my bill goodbye.

[Surf52]

I think Harford County is scheduled to get Fios two years after I move or die, whichever occurs first.

Judging from Comcast's Customer Service, they must actually believe all of the digestive biproducts contained in their ads.

I love the part about having more HD than Fios, but a good percentage is canned and regurgitated, not actually live programming.

[Surf52]

not in the least confused wrote:

Id love to get Comcast out of my house, however FIOS is not available here yet,Niether is DSL, and I live in Bel Air.
So much for deregulation of cable companies...blame it on your state legislature hard at work.

I live in Bel Air and I have DSL.