FIOS questions/availability

[PC person]

I apologize if these questions have been asked before, I didn't see a sticky on various connection type, nor does Verizon's FAQA of FIOS internet answer what I want to know.

Do other phone companies offer FIOS service as well? As far as I know, fiber optics are not patented by any specific telcom company, that more than one company could use them for delivering internet service, if so I think this is a very good thing, since phone companies must share the same lines and as many companies could offer it, and they could compete, so no longer would cable have a monopoly on broadband, and be able to give you crappy service, knowing there are no competitors you can choose.

Is FIOS like DSL, at all? Where, you have a PVC to the central office, so you don't share it like you do with cable on a neighborhood node? Also, is FIOS distance sensitive like DSL is and you must be a certain distance from the central office? Light can't bend, only reflect, if the the fiber optics do, so I wondered if this would be an issue

Finally, can you have more than one FIOS modem in your house? I am currently on a wireless network router hooked up to our cable modem, and plan to get FIOS just for me in my room, I see it uses cable jacks, and I already have a TV hooked up to the one in my room. I don't want to share the bandwidth with other people in my house, and they will probably eventually want thier own FIOS connection to share in our house, I wondered if they could have say 5Mpbs, and I could have my own modem with 10 or 15Mbps, or if it's one modem per household.

For some reason, many websites say that FIOS internet is available in my town in Massachusetts, but Verizon says it isn't, I'm signed up to hear when it becomes available here, but I wonder why so many websites are misinformed.

[johnwill]

I have Verizon FiOS, and it's nothing like DSL! There is no practical limitation to how far the FiOS can be transmistted. I can't get DSL, but they have no trouble getting FiOS to the house.

You can only have a single ONT at a single location, if you want another one, you'd have to pay for another FiOS account. Frankly, I can't imagine needing 15mbit service all the time, especially if you're using DSL currently.

The router I got with the Verizon FiOS service is an Actiontec MI424WR, and it has QoS capability. This means you could configure one of the ports to receive a large part of the bandwidth if that floats your boat.

I have never seen a time where a speed test didn't turn in the full 15mbit/2mbit bandwidth that I subscribe for. Your fiber connection is passive all the way to the telephone company CO, no splitting or amplifiers along the way. They do combine the individual strands into one larger multi-strand bundle at junction points, but you still have one of them dedicated to your service. The bandwidth available to your ONT is gigabits, so the service is only using a small fraction of the available bandwidth. The only outage I've had is when a tree took out all the lines up the street, hard to blame Verizon for that one.

I have no idea what companies other than Verizon offer fiber service, I'd suggest doing a search for your local area.

As far as availability, FiOS was available in my township for some time before it was available to me. It's dependent on when they actually wire your neighborhood for the fiber trunks.

[PC person]

[quote]

Originally Posted by johnwill

I have Verizon FiOS, and it's nothing like DSL! There is no practical limitation to how far the FiOS can be transmistted. I can't get DSL, but they have no trouble getting FiOS to the house.

I didn't say I thought it was, I just wondered if it was distance sensitive, this is good news for me.

You can only have a single ONT at a single location, if you want another one, you'd have to pay for another FiOS account. Frankly, I can't imagine needing 15mbit service all the time, especially if you're using DSL currently.

I looked up ONT and I'm still a little confused, is the optical network terminal the thing that splits the fiber different ways if you are getting more than one fiber optic service (in this case, service meaning TV, phone and internet) internet is all I am interested in at this point, so all I want is the FIOS modem, not sure if the ONT is that or something else. Since it will only be on my system, I won't need a router/modem combination.

As for 15Mbps, I may just get 10Mbps downstream, as 15 may be more than I'm willing to pay now, perhaps it will come down eventually, and as more competitors offer FIOS internet, but I want all the bandwidth to myself, it helps also with torrents and other downloads from multiple sources, which we can be pretty sure won't give me the full 10Mbps download speed.

As far as availability, FiOS was available in my township for some time before it was available to me. It's dependent on when they actually wire your neighborhood for the fiber trunks.

Maybe it is available in my town then, just not my neighborhood.

[johnwill]

The ONT is required for any FiOS service, all I have currently is Internet. That is the "FiOS modem".