November 25th, 2006

Documenting the FiOS Rollout-1

Posted in  Technology 
Author: Tom Giovanetti || Location: London, England, UK

I live in a fairly rural town in Denton County, Texas called Copper Canyon.

From a telecom standpoint, Copper Canyon is served by Verizon. But, up to now, neither cable nor DSL have been offered in Copper Canyon. I've always gotten a kick out of mentioning in testimony and op/eds that I live in a "historically underserved" area.

In fact, until about 3 years ago, I was still using ISDN at home to get the fastest Internet service available in our area. I was told by a local Verizon technician that I was probably the last person in Texas still using ISDN . . . but it's the best we could do.

About a year ago we were told that Copper Canyon was on the list for buildout of Verizon's FiOS fiber-to-the-home system. Ever since, I've been chomping at the bits to get FiOS installed in my home. I almost (but not quite) had a sign made for my front yard to say "FiOS Me First!"

Anyway, a few months ago they started trenching in town and laying fiber conduit, installing switches, etc. Maniac that I am, I started taking pictures of what they were doing. At first, the workmen always assumed that I was mad about something and was trying to document it. Like maybe I didn't like that they were trenching too close to my trees' roots or something. But no, it was much simpler than that--I was just ecstatic about every little step toward getting a fiber optic cable running into my house.

So I've decided to post some of the pictures and descriptions here on the blog, in case anyone is interested. Some of them go back several months, so I'll try to post them in some logical order so it makes sense.

Once the service is installed, I'll describe our experience with the service.

But for now, and completely out-of-chronological-order, I got the phone call I've been waiting for Tuesday evening: Verizon sales telling me that FiOS was now available in my town. Of course I was going to sign up, and I kept telling the woman on the phone that "yes, I understand the great features of FiOS, could we just quickly get to the part where I sign up?" But I obviously understood the need for her to pitch the average homeowner in Copper Canyon.

She did a great job of signing us up. I wonder if she could hear my heavy breathing on the other end of the phone line!

Then, Saturday, only 3 days after the sales call, the guys show up in my driveway to install the cable to my house. That's pretty quick service. I thought I wouldn't hear from them until after Christmas or something. So I'm impressed with the speed of Verizon FiOS installation service--so far.

Here is what it looked like Saturday afternoon before I left for London: they had trenched up to my house and put a loop of fiber optic cable on the side of my house!



Don't believe it's fiber? Here's proof:



The crew had to trench about 925' to get to my house. Running backwards from the side of my house, that means down my driveway and then left down about 850' of road frontage.



Near the farthest extreme corner of my property, the trench ends at this buried green cylinder, the significance of which I do not know.



Now, consider this: A two-man crew, plus equipment, worked at my house for about 3 hours and trenched about 925' just to get the cable to my house. They haven't connected it to the house yet, or installed the free wireless router, or the UPS, or any of the other equipment that is required.

Here is why Verizon shareholders are worried: They aren't charging me ANY installation fee. And not only did they waive the installation fee, but they also are giving me the service discounted for the first 3 months.

My guess is that, before Verizon is through, they will have spent THOUSANDS of dollars getting FiOS installed at my house. And no installation fee.

Those who think former traditional telecom companies like Verizon, Quest and AT&T are just fat monopolies collecting fees aren't paying attention. These companies are making enormous investment and taking enormous risk in order to build out the next-generation broadband networks that we all say we want built.

Is it any wonder that companies like Verizon are asking for a chance to make a profit on these networks? There is enormous expense related to building out these networks, as my experience has and will continue to indicate. And these networks won't get built if the companies are saddled will the same kinds of regulations (think network neutrality) that stifled innovation in the old analog switched telephone system.