This tip comes to us from Matthew Robb …
I just spoke with Verizon Customer Relations in Ohio, who told me Verizon FIOS (fiber optic network) has no concrete plans to install FIOS in Frederick or Frederick County in the near future–and it may be “years” before we see it. My contact said (a) we definitely aren’t on Verizon’s “2009 & Beyond” list and (b) Frederick isn’t even being discussed as a near-term target.
As anyone knows today, fiber optics is the future of Internet and television, offering transmission speeds theoretically almost unlimited.
At a time when nearby Montomery County, Howard County and even Leesburg are enjoying the blazing speed, reliability, and low cost of Verizon FIOS–a service Consumer Reports recently rated #1 nationwide while Comcast placed second from dead last on its list–Frederick and Frederick County still aren’t even on Verizon’s radar. In short: We aren’t worth their bother–not yet. While Verizon Customer Service suggested we will eventually get FIOS, no one knows when this might happen.
Meanwhile, all those glorious FIOS television commercials keep airing in Frederick County.
Thanks for the info Matthew. It kind of burns me up that we (Frederick County) are being passed up for this kind of service even though it’s being implemented all around us. I wonder if there is some technical issue that prevents this or just a narrow view of the Frederick market?
~Guy~
26 responses so far ↓
Matthew R // April 11, 2008 at 8:59 am
Guy, another Verizon contact told me the major sticking point is logistics and money. Installing FIOS, especially in older neighborhoods, is seriously expensive.
In Montgomery County and Leesburg, for example, Verizon has had to dig trenches from their street-based main FIOS lines all the way to the house of each and every single customer. That’s lots of money, manpower, and time.
Apparently, Verizon is grabbing the low-hanging fruit now. Frederick County just isn’t yet worth their while. One Verizon official told me it could be 8 to 10 years before most of Frederick County gets FIOS, but said no one really knows.
I’m wondering if there are ANY small, isolated neighborhood in Frederick County getting FIOS right now, even as an “experiment.” My understanding is no, but one never knows.
Denman // April 11, 2008 at 9:53 am
Montgomery county…..large urban areas with dense population…… 2006 there were 932,000 people.
Frederick County, same census….223,000…. do the math and you will understand why (unfortunatly) we won’t be seeing FIOS any time soon.
Matthew R // April 11, 2008 at 10:09 am
Believe me, Denman, we all get the math.
By the by:
Leesburg: small “urban” area with a population 28,000.
Lou // April 11, 2008 at 2:54 pm
This exclusion stems back to the old RBOC term, LATA (Local Access Transport Area), which defines the telephone companies juristiction. Each LATA has a differnt set of rules and regulations and funding. Frederick and Washington counties are in LATA 240 where, in the past, the density was so sparse that costs to implement new technologies was not cost effective. Look how long it took to get DSL from the phone company.
Montgomery County, on the other hand, is in LATA 236 which includes all of Washington, DC and most of Northern Virginia (I think as far south as Fredericksburg. Its been a while). Therefore, the funding for the infrastructure upgrade to support FIOS has already been established and approved. Baltimore is in LATA 238 and also has funding for infrastructure upgrades. So, you cant really blame a small town in one of these LATAs for having FIOS. Its just the luck of the draw, unfortunately.
Today, we see more and more residents in Frederick county, but the RBOCs still have the old mentality that the ROI will not be worth their while and therefore do not put up the funding for the infrastructure upgrades. It takes much more than people digging trenches and laying fiber to homes. You need the network equipment in their COs and POPs within Frederick County to support it. Fiber optic equipment and the ability to support multiple DWDM streams is expensive.
RBOC = Regional Bell Operating Company
ROI = Return on Investment
CO = Central Office
POP = Point of Presence
DWDM = Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing
FrederickFan // April 11, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Lou, thx. for a good explanation of the situation. Makes it (almost) understandable for me!
Living in an isolated but newer subdivision in the Damascus area, I was surprised that our neighborhood turned out to be among the first in Montgomery Co. to get FIOs…first Internet, followed by TV service a few months later.
But to everyone feeling “stuck” with Comcast and disappointed about Verizon and FIOs: No need to get too worked up. While I’m aware of the Consumer Reports evaluation, IMHO, you aren’t missing out on much, if anything, at this point.
While we did leave Comcast Internet/TV for FIOs Internet/TV early on (and added local/long distance FIOs phone service), I can’t say we’ve saved any money. Moreover, we have found some disadvantages with FIOs TV service. FIOs offers fewer HD channels than Comcast. We’re lacking movie service now (an extra-cost upgrade with FIOs) that had been included within the comparable Comcast service tier. Also, comparing Comcast’s On Demand service vs. the FIOs equivalent, there were many more–and better quality–movies airing for free with Comcast than with FIOs. Finally, a minor point, but we found Comcast’s on-screen menu and navigation system less confusing and more user-friendly than that of FIOs. It took awhile, but we’re OK with the FIOs system now…though navigating through the menus, etc., still strikes us as more cumbersome than Comcast’s system.
Oh, and lest I forget, once Verizon started the disruptive process of digging and laying fiber in our neighborhood and yard, we began experiencing chronic phone service problems….buzzing and static on the line, sound levels fading in an out. Repeated calls to Verizon didn’t solve the problem…some technicians blamed our wiring arrangement for the difficulties, while others pointed the finger at Comcast for its own digging and cable line activity. (More than once, when we were experiencing cable outages along with our virtually useless telephone service, we found ourselves caught in the crossfire of Comcast blaming Verizon and its digging as the cause of our problems, and Verizon just as insistently blaming Comcast!!!)
One final note: When it comes to Reliability, I do agree with Consumer Reports: FIOs beats Comcast. (Though my real problems were with Comcast’s Internet–not TV–outages).
mcpd20874 // April 19, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I’d settle for DSL if I could get it here in New Market!!! I hate paying comcast $60 a month for high speed internet.
lizfrog // April 19, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Tell me about it! We live in rural Ijamsville and we have to pay for satellite internet…$79/month (no discount for cloudy days, ha!). I would love it if we could get cable tv or internet. We also have to have DirectTV for television. That’s two dishes on the roof.
Matthew // April 20, 2008 at 10:02 am
Liz, I don’t see rural folk getting major technology upgrades for many, many years. Given the low population density in Ijamsville and elsewhere, it’s just not worth the huge cost to lay fiber optic cable. I’d like to hear LOU weigh in on this, but satellite may be your only option for 10, 20, maybe 30 years.
mcpd20874, DSL is 1980s technology. If you ain’t got it now, you won’t have it even by 2015.
Guy // April 20, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Melisa e-mailed this comment so I thought I would share it here ..
Matthew // April 21, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Not surprising. Being on the Montgomery County line is all-important, hence my intro above: “I’m wondering if there are ANY small, isolated neighborhood in Frederick County getting FIOS right now…”
My guess–yes, just a guess–is the other 99.9 percent of Frederick County doesn’t have FIOS and won’t get it for quite some time.
Chip // May 17, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I hear the next place Fios is going is Prince William County Virginia. Imagine that. Most of Prince William County was independent until Bell Atlantic merged with GTE.
Brian // May 28, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I also live on the Montgomery/Frederick County line, but just inside Frederick County. I have had FIOS Internet since I moved in in July of 2006, but still don’t have TV service. I believe Verizon has to sign franchise agreements with individual counties to broadcast their TV service. I suspect that they don’t have enough FIOS cutomers in Frederick County to make the franchise agreement worthwhile.
Matthew // May 28, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Dear Verizon, if you have no intention of bringing FIOS to Frederick County in the next 5 to 10 years, please stop sending me marketing materials touting how amazing your FIOS service is.
Your FIOS television commercials broadcast via cable TV in Frederick County are quite enough, thank you.
Cygnus // May 28, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Dear Matthew,
And you are . . .? (/David Spade)
Sincerely,
Verizon
(I was on the receiving end of a marketing gaffe when I worked at a boat insurance agency. Our parent company mailed gobs of quote request forms to folks in the Five Boroughs of New York. Too bad no one from marketing checked with us, or we could have told them that none of our companies would write policies within the Five Boroughs.)
Jay // June 4, 2008 at 7:40 am
I have spoken with two different Verizon customer service agents, one yesterday and one today. They both said that Frederick should be getting FIOS anytime now. But what Verizon’s definition of “anytime now” is hard to tell.
Darrell Russ // June 4, 2008 at 8:28 am
I was thinking of that this morning. FIOS should be here now!!
Matthew // June 4, 2008 at 9:00 am
No, not “anytime” now. I’ve talked to the regional planners. Nothing is in the works for many years, so they said.
Jay // June 4, 2008 at 11:07 am
Got to love the telecoms and cable companies. If there wasn’t confusion, there wouldn’t be a thought process at all.
Becky // June 4, 2008 at 1:54 pm
My boyfriend works for a power company. He says everyday he gets asked by people just driving down the street or people coming out of their homes if they are installing FIOS. Even though he works for power company people get so excited thinking they are getting FIOS installed in their neighborhood. He says they get very upset when he tells them he has nothing to do with it.
Frederick Fan // June 5, 2008 at 12:05 pm
To those Frederick folks who have been “Passed up again” by Verizon and FIOS–especially anyone “excited” at the prospect of getting FIOS–I offer my unsolicited opinion/observation that you may not find as much difference between cable (e.g. Comcast) and FIOS as you’d hope or expect to, given the hype.
As a former Comcast customer who’s had FIOS for about a year now, I covered some aspects of my experience in an earlier post so I won’t re-visit that territory. While it seems that fiber optics offer more future potential, on the whole I honestly can’t say the move to FIOS offered a clear advantage over our service with Comcast. But, I realize everyone welcomes choice and wants the chance to evaluate for him/herself what’s better. I may be the lone voice in saying I’m underwhelmed by FIOS and would be interested in others’ experience.
Matthew // June 5, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Consumer Reports disagrees with your anecdotal experience. CR based their ratings on statistically valid methodology based on customer satisfaction evaluations from tens of thousands of Verizon, Comcast, Cox, and other customers.
Verizon FIOS ranked #1 nationwide–by a huge margin. Comcast ranked second to last. The difference wasn’t even close.
Matthew // June 6, 2008 at 4:42 pm
published Jan 15, 2007
YONKERS, N.Y., Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Consumers looking for
Internet, television, and telephone service should consider Verizon FiOS. In
Consumer Reports’ latest survey of several major telecom providers, featured
in the February issue, Verizon FiOS, whose network is fiber-optic based,
received superior scores for reliability and performance for its Internet,
television, and telephone services.
Because the availability of Verizon FiOS is as yet limited, many consumers
should also consider other options for these services. The article also
includes Ratings of services typically bundled from various providers based on
reader scores.
Consumers interested in services provided by a cable company may not have an
option when choosing a provider because a majority of homes only have one
cable company available in their area. According to CR’s survey, better cable
companies include Cox, Bright House and Wow, which are fine alternatives to
Verizon FiOS in areas that they are available and also offer Internet and
telephone services.
If television service is a priority, satellite service may be a fine option.
DirecTV scored significantly higher than all the major cable companies and
Dish Network, the other major provider of satellite service. It also offers
hybrid bundles of its TV offerings and DSL and phone service from telephone
providers Qwest and Verizon. DirecTV’s television service stacks up well
against services offered from the best cable companies and requires getting a
satellite dish and other equipment, typically free or at discount in exchange
for a contract agreement.
ALSO THIS: Comcast HD - Significantly Worse Than Verizon FIOS
Sun, Mar 30, 2008 (No Ratings Yet)
“bfdtv, a user on AVS Forum took the time to do a competitive analysis of the new re-compression Comcast is doing in order to fit more HD channels on the same network without chopping out a significant number of analog channels to compensate. The end result is that your once gloriously untouched HD channels are now going to look about 10-20% [worse] and there is nothing you can do about it, bfdtv explains:
Until recently, most Comcast systems passed all HD as is from the content provider, without any added compression or quality reduction. In response to competitive pressures from DirecTV and Verizon FiOS, Comcast recently decided to sacrifice some quality to improve quantity. By early April, most Comcast systems will recompress and degrade their HD, much like DirecTV and Dish Network do on their MPEG-2 channels. This creates room for new HD channels without the need to eliminate a significant number of analog channels.
Frederick Fan // June 9, 2008 at 12:49 am
Matthew— I’m a CR subscriber and was well aware of both the Feb. 2008 report cited in the wire report you copied and CR’s March 2008 customer satisfaction survey on digital TV service. But I still stand by my “anecdotal” observations as stated here in my original post of April 11.
I take no issue with the high level of satisfaction expressed by the 35,660 CR subscribers with Verizon FIOS, as evidenced in the survey results published in the March magazine, and acknowledge the advantages connected with fiber optic technology. (I’m no telecoms engineer, but it does appear that fiber optics technology will increasingly marginalize cable as time goes on.) My point here was not to challenge the satisfaction many have expressed with FIOS, but to caution against overly high expectations and to suggest that the choice to switch from Comcast or whatever is still one that should be carefully considered.
Our experience may not be representative, but for those in my household, FIOS didn’t present quite the level of improvement we’d hoped for–or make the amount of difference we’d expected–in several respects compared to our previous service with Comcast. And it became apparent there were no cost advantages, either, despite the misleading figures presented by the young FIOS salespeople visiting our house. (Perhaps most of our expectations were unrealistic based on FIOS marketing claims.)
To be frank, I suspect that we were mildly disappointed by our own failure to make the best possible “apples to apples” comparison between the service tier offerings and pricing we’d had with Comcast and the comparable offerings with Verizon FIOS. (Comparing offerings and costs can be quite confusing, but that’s no excuse.) We found that, for our viewing choices, Comcast offered more programming and more HD channels for less money than FIOS. We were similarly mildly disappointed in comparing video on demand (VOD) offerings–Comcast seemed to us the better value, especially in terms of free VOD movies.
Also, the viewers in my household, as well as friends/relatives who have visited both before and after our switch to FIOS, honestly feel there is no discernable difference in picture quality across the range of channels–digital and non-digital, as well as HD. I’m not taking anything away from FIOS, but merely making the point that everyone may not be able to count on seeing a clear improvement in picture quality (which is pretty subjective anyway) compared with that from their previous provider (despite what the FIOS ads say).
When it comes to customer service, I must admit to true surprise at the high ratings Verizon FIOS received in the “Support” (i.e., customer service) category of the CR survey. In today’s world of menu-driven, often frustrating, automated customer service systems, I can honestly say that I’ve never encountered a system worse than Verizon’s. (I found Comcast comparatively user- and customer friendly. At least real people are still accessible. Yes, really!) With its layer-upon-layer of convoluted menus presenting inappropriate choices that lead nowhere–and the near-impossibility of reaching a live person–Verizon is my hands-down winner in the customer abuse and frustration category. Recognizing that the CR survey respondents saw fit to give the full red circle to Verizon for “Best” customer “Support,” I can only conclude that I hail from a different universe and experience the world in a different way.
Anywho…..While I don’t expect my voice and those of my family and friends to hold much weight, I nonetheless hope my experience with FIOS vs. Comcast as a local subscriber can be of benefit to someone weighing the switch to FIOS–especially someone whose expectations may be too high.
Foxman // June 12, 2008 at 7:34 am
I had FIOS when I lived in Mont Co, I now have Comcast internet. There is no comparison between the two services. Verizon customer service is better, and their service is better. I could easily download on-demand movies via the internet and peg my connection at 15megabits, with Comcast I’m paying for 16megabits, but I rarely see that speed, if I do it’s for a brief second, usually it’s in the 8-10 range. Comcast also doesn’t offer “unlimited” service - they claim to, but if you are in the top percent of bandwidth users, you get a nice call from them telling you that if you do it again, they’ll disconnect you. Of course, they won’t tell you what the bandwidth limit is, or give you any way to monitor it.
http://comcastissue.blogspot.com/
http://www.physorg.com/news94981460.html
Verizon on the other hand, doesn’t care how much you download. These days, DirecTV utilizes your internet connection for On Demand, and HD on demand streams can be large.
On a side note, when I lived in Mont co, I asked a Verizon tech when he thought we’d get fiber, he told me it would be a long, long time (years). I had the service 9 months later.
I don’t think any of us will truly know what Vz is doing until we see the trucks rolling around our neighborhood. Here’s to hoping it happens soon.
Brian // June 18, 2008 at 10:21 am
I know someone who works for Verizon and they haven’t even begun negotiations with Frederick County to get a franchise license for FIOS TV serivce. She said it looks like it will be a while before we see the tv service in Frederick County.
Danielle // June 25, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I live in Leesburg, I don’t have FiOS - I cannot get FiOS. It is not installed in my Leesburg community. It takes time for the installation. If Frederick isn’t in the plans though 2009 it is most likely in the 2010 2011 plans. While the rest of Leesburg has had FiOS for probably a year, I saw my first Verizon installation truck a couple month ago. I still don’t have FiOS available (although I have seen the fibers above ground). So it seems installation to 1 community in Leesburg takes months… Leesburg is closer to DC. I’m sure DC is a popular area to get teched out
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