With the announcement of Verizon's FIOS-TV (fiber optic delivered TV) coming to Washington County sometime this year, it seems like a good time to start a thread and watch-list for the service. The information here will be updated as I discover more about the rollout, and links to the relevant articles will be posted at the end.

Coverage areas and progress:


Washington County:

On Feb 8th, The Metro Area Communications Commission voted to approve Verizon's plan to provide TV over their fiber-optic system. They are required to provide the service by the end of 2007 to their customers already wired for fiber-optic service, and complete their build-out to the other areas in four years.

The MACC represents the county and thirteen cities within it. All representatives voted for Verizon's plan except for Gaston and Banks, which Verizon was not planning to serve due to their remote locations. North Plains is also excluded because Verizon does not service that city.

Comcast seemed to take issue with this 'cherry picking' service, claiming that Verizon should not be allowed to only choose affluent communities. Fred Christ of the MACC claimed such practices would not be allowed.

Comcast will now compete head to head with Verizon for cable and internet services in cities such as Tigard, Tualatin, Beaverton and Hillsboro.

Each city must approve the service, however, and those negotiations will occur from now through April.


Multnomah County:

Qwest has announced they plan to provide TV service to their Portland customers beginning sometime in 2008. Verizon has started the regulatory process to provide their Multnomah County customers with TV as well, but there's no word on the timeline (probably 2008).


Other Areas:

Verizon says that service will later be extended to the other areas it serves, including Gresham and Troutdale on the East side, and Lake Oswego, Dundee, and Newberg on the West side.


Cost and Service Information:

Channel plans are considered competitive with Comcast, and generally offerred at lower rates. Here's an excerpt from the linked article below:

"Comcast's "Standard" 73-channel package, its most popular, will cost $50.89 monthly beginning March 1. That's a 7.9 percent increase from last year.

Verizon charges $42.99 a month in other areas, according to the company, for a package with most of the same sports and entertainment networks, but with nearly 100 additional channels."


Do I already have fiber-optic cable in my neighborhood?

To see, go to the Verizon FIOS website (link below) and follow the Get Fios links. To double check to see if fiber has been laid in your neighborhood, you can look around in the front yards of nearby houses for a flat, greenish Verizon lid planted flush with the ground. These boxes may vary, but mine is a rectangle approximately 18 x 12 inches, with the words Verizon and Channel.com on it but no indication of it being a fiber hub. Checking for the box might be a good confirmation, as sometimes the website has trouble keeping up with who has the fiber.

http://www.verizonfios.com/?ref=verizon


Here's the official announcement published in the Oregonian today (Friday, Feb 9th) - link (http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/business/117099332136090.xml&coll=7)

It isn't a duplicate thread, but it's best to wait until someone with the service can start a thread sumarizing their HD offerings and coverage area in the first post and keep that post updated periodically.

If you plan on getting the service and want to manage the info in the first post, send me a PM and I'll reopen this thread and add it to the thread Index.

Here's a link to a longer, but slightly older article about FIOS TV in the Portland area. It was written a few days prior to Washington County's approval of FIOS.

An interesting bit from the article is that Banks and Gaston were going to be excluded anyway since Verizon deemed them too remote. No doubt these cities no votes were connected to that assessment.

Feb 2 Oregonian article (http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1170386731166610.xml&coll=7)

It isn't a duplicate thread, but it's best to wait until someone with the service can start a thread sumarizing their HD offerings and coverage area in the first post and keep that post updated periodically.

If you plan on getting the service and want to manage the info in the first post, send me a PM and I'll reopen this thread and add it to the thread Index.


Agreed, let's wait until someone can actually get a hookup. That'll probably be September at the earliest.

Devlin has agreed to keep the first post up to date. There is some value to a thread prior to rollout to monitor announcements for areas or developments that will be coming online.

If you guys hear anything, just post it and he'll add it to the first post.

Nice summary Devlin.

Nice summary Devlin.

Thanks! I'll keep my eyes open for any news bits that come along. :)

Does this tech use a fiber right to your home?

Does it otherwise act like cable including cable cards and the ability to use a TiVo series 3?

I know Verizon laid the groundwork out here in most of the Tanasbourne area in '05 - I just recently moved out here from downtown NW a couple months ago - any way to find out of my area was set-up for this rollout?

Does this tech use a fiber right to your home?

Does it otherwise act like cable including cable cards and the ability to use a TiVo series 3?

Yes the fiber is laid right up to your home from a centralizing, flush-to-the-ground box situated (at least in Tigard) every few houses. This fiber installation was free when it first rolled out, but I have heard unsubstantiated reports that some people were charged for the installation later on. I suspect there was something special about their situation.

The fiber takes the place of your copper wiring, so TV, phone and internet will all come over fiber up to your home. One box will be installed on the outside of your house (usually your garage), and another will be exactly opposite it on the inside. Inside the house, internet data will be carried by standard Cat 5, 5e, or 6 ethernet cable (or wireless), while the phone will continue to use the standard phone wiring, and FIOS TV will flow over std coaxial cabling (AFAIK).

This contrasts with Comcast's fiber plan, which will send the fiber to a neighborhood node but rely on coaxial to go the rest of the way.

From what I've heard in other threads, there isn't a limitation on using cable cards or non-Verizon DVR's. I'll check into this though.

To see if you have fiber-optic in the ground, go to the Verizon FIOS website (link below) and follow the Get Fios links. To double check to see if fiber has been laid in your neighborhood, you can look around in the front yards of nearby houses for a flat, greenish Verizon lid planted flush with the ground. These boxes may vary, but mine is a rectangle approximately 18 x 12 inches, with the words Verizon and Channel.com on it but no indication of it being a fiber hub. Checking for the box might be a good confirmation, as sometimes the website has trouble keeping up with who has the fiber.

http://www.verizonfios.com/?ref=verizon

Thanks!! I'll try and look for the boxes as the website is not the least bit accurate.

I know Verizon laid the groundwork out here in most of the Tanasbourne area in '05 - I just recently moved out here from downtown NW a couple months ago - any way to find out of my area was set-up for this rollout?

I found two different ways to get notified on their website. The first, most obvious way said no. The second, which I found accidently, said yes. The best way is probably to call them. I did when I was transferring phone service to my new house. The CSR offered me FIOS at that time.

Since I've seen this installed, here are some details (you can find many of these details this various FIOS FAQs too):

Fiber will be run from a "tap" (my word) somewhere on your street to the side of your house.

An ONT (fiber to copper transceiver) will be attached to the outside of your house. In my case, I already had a box with cable/phone/cat-5 wires connecting to a UStec box in my house (new construction).

A power supply and battery backup will be attached inside your house, on the other side of the wall from the ONT, and will be plugged into a power socket. Yes, holes will be drilled through the wall.

Cat-5 or coax (I don't know if they're supporting coax) will need to be run from the ONT to an inside location where Verizon's Actiontec wireless router will be installed. This router will also support their TV service, in which case I doubt the coax option will be available because the coax will need to be used to output the TV signal (to a set-top box, I believe).

In my case, the router could have been installed near my UStec box, but there wasn't a free power socket, so they turned the cat-5 coming from the outside into a female connector and plugged in the cat-5 going to the room of my choice. The router was installed in that room. Obviously this means all the other cat-5 jacks in the house are not connected. If I figure out how to connect the router to power at the UStec box, I'll be able to connect it to the socket they made there and hook up four of my cat-5 jacks to the router.

Finally, the computer was connected to the router and I had to go through a sign-up on a Verizon web page. No junk was installed on my computer.

I should also say, the techs seemed to know what they were doing and recognized everything they saw at my house.

Some things they mentioned: TV in about 8 months, which matched the September comment above. They said yes to a DVR. They also said the FIOS internet 15/2 plan should be bumped to 20/5 at that time.

Thanks ZXTT! Good information, especially about that September date. :cool:

My own installation was pretty similar to yours. I'd already run ethernet cable from my computer room to the garage location where the inside box would be, so I just hooked that cable to the inside box, and then the other end to the Actiontec router. I then used that router to run my wired ethernet.

Here's a pretty good article (with pictures) that describes one person's installation of FIOS. Note this is the basic fiber and internet installation, and does not deal with TV service. It also is a Massachusetts neighborhood which runs the cable on telephone poles, unlike most neighborhoods out here which run them underground. It also is using an older version of the FIOS ONT, but aside from all that it will give you a rough idea of what to expect.

http://www.bricklin.com/fiosinstall.htm

well, FiOS internet is available at my place so I guess TV will then as well. Anyone here run their internet service?

I can not wait for FiOS-TV. I can get FiOS internet now but want to wait. I can't get rid of Comcast fast enough. I have two Comcast DVR's and have not gone two weeks without some issue! A speed of 20/5 will be great as well. The d/l is limited by a lot of sites but uploads will be a big help!

I have had FIOS Internet since it came online in Tigard this summer, and I've loved every minute of it. Not much else to say about it except that it's rock solid in my experience.

If there are any specific questions, let me know.

Here's a long-running, non-city specific AVS thread that deals with the hardware setup for FIOS TV. I'll try to summarize some of this for the first post later on.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=621323

well, FiOS internet is available at my place so I guess TV will then as well. Anyone here run their internet service?


I've got the 5/2 or 5/1.5 whatever it is service, had it since July. It's rock solid, has a little bit of latency but overall it's great since it's just about the same price as the DSL I used to have.

There shouldn't be any increase in latency. When I first switched to FIOS I insisted on using my old Linksys router, which I thought was up to the task. Instead I kept getting dropped data packets and thus increased latency. When I switched to the Actiontec router Verizon provides the dropped packets disappeared.

Note that speed tests alone may not show a problem. Try the following link to Broadband Forums for a line quality test.

http://www.dslreports.com/linequality

You can also go outside to the ONT box on your garage and open up the customer-accessible portion. There should be a green status light next to the 100mbps listing. If it's not lit, there's a problem.

There shouldn't be any increase in latency. When I first switched to FIOS I insisted on using my old Linksys router, which I thought was up to the task. Instead I kept getting dropped data packets and thus increased latency. When I switched to the Actiontec router Verizon provides the dropped packets disappeared.

Note that speed tests alone may not show a problem. Try the following link to Broadband Forums for a line quality test.

http://www.dslreports.com/linequality

You can also go outside to the ONT box on your garage and open up the customer-accessible portion. There should be a green status light next to the 100mbps listing. If it's not lit, there's a problem.

Verizon included a D-Link DI-624 router with my 5/2 installation. They brought a Cat 5e from the garage into my den for direct hookup. It has worked great. I added an extended antenna for whole-house (and neighborhood, too, I bet) wireless distribution.

There shouldn't be any increase in latency. When I first switched to FIOS I insisted on using my old Linksys router, which I thought was up to the task. Instead I kept getting dropped data packets and thus increased latency. When I switched to the Actiontec router Verizon provides the dropped packets disappeared.

Note that speed tests alone may not show a problem. Try the following link to Broadband Forums for a line quality test.

http://www.dslreports.com/linequality

You can also go outside to the ONT box on your garage and open up the customer-accessible portion. There should be a green status light next to the 100mbps listing. If it's not lit, there's a problem.


Will try that tonight to see what's going on. Thanks

Yes, how are the Newsgroups regarding Retention and speed?

I have had FIOS Internet since it came online in Tigard this summer, and I've loved every minute of it. Not much else to say about it except that it's rock solid in my experience.

If there are any specific questions, let me know.

The speed and the variety of the newsgroups seem fine, but I don't use them enough to be an authority on the matter. Sorry!

Will try that tonight to see what's going on. Thanks


Came out with 0% latency, but I've noticed that the signal can drop for a second or two just every so often (and I'm hard-wired in on this computer). It's not really a problem and most of the time I don't even know it's happening.

It's head and shoulders above the old 1.5/256 DSL. Now waiting for the tv by the end of the year.

I'll really be looking forward to hearing some feedback from the early fios TV adopters in the area after the rollout. I recently switched from D* to Comcast and although the increase to full resolution is quite apparent and nice, there's still compression issues that I think could be much better. Hopefully reports of very high quality PQ from other areas that have been rolled out will be duplicated here and things will be looking up within the year!


ron

No problem. I sometimes go to the ISO binary groups to get Linux distros and other things. Faster than web sites but Comcast is now limiting max newsgroup d/l to 2GB per Month!

The speed and the variety of the newsgroups seem fine, but I don't use them enough to be an authority on the matter. Sorry!

Looks like Gaston and Banks are pretty angry about being bypassed, and will continue (with the help of North Plains) to push for fiber extension to their communities. Some interesting facts about the cost of fiber extension.

oregonian article (http://www.oregonlive.com/swweeklytts/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_southwest_news/1171421741286530.xml&coll=7)

I thought it would have been more than $170 million to bring it into Washington County, but like the article stated, the costs are dropping. $20 million to $7 million is almost a 3 for 1 cost now.

Comcast is now limiting max newsgroup d/l to 2GB per Month!
Yeah that makes a lot of sense. Not! So you can easily push 2 GB per day thru B*tT*rrent but they limit Usenet to 2 GB per month???

OT: Heh Heh. I just learned something new. Apparently thou shalt not use the B*T* word on this forum.

Looks like Gaston and Banks are pretty angry about being bypassed
Isn't Banks just the intersection of US 26 and Ore 47? Do those two towns even have one traffic light between them? I wonder why Verizon doesn't just pay for DirecTV or Dish service for every resident? That should quiet them down, and much cheaper than pulling fiber. What would that amount to? 10 households each?

Sorry, just kidding! :)

I think the AVS forum edits out swear words automatically.

Well, the word I was trying to type was B I T T O R R E N T. I don't think that's a swear word. Go to redhat.com and try to download their Fedora Linux distribution. You will find files with a .torrent extension. But I guess that, in this case, everyone must be presumed guilty of copyright violation just because they dare to speak of a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol.

There's a little subdivision near Ibach Park in Tualatin where the lawns are littered with "locate" spray and little flags every 3 feet. A neighborhood kid thought they were for "some sort of cable". My bet is on FIOS. Some yards have 15 or 20 flags in each.

Some observations:

My street had a "locate" done last year for FIOS but nothing else happened. So maybe they're now doing "we really mean it and to prove it we'll use hundreds of little flags" locates. We'll see how that turns out.

It's the middle of February. I'm surprised they're working at this time of year. Maybe it's a consequence of global warming.

Maybe this increased activity is related to the Washington County agreement announced recently.

Posters on TiVoCommunity report mixed results with S3 and FIOS. Plus Cablelabs won't have anything to do with Verizon since they're the enemy. Without an alternative to the garbage SA and Motorola DVRs, FIOS doesn't look nearly as attractive to me as it did.

Posters on TiVoCommunity report mixed results with S3 and FIOS. Plus Cablelabs won't have anything to do with Verizon since they're the enemy. Without an alternative to the garbage SA and Motorola DVRs, FIOS doesn't look nearly as attractive to me as it did.


WHEN I move to FiOS, I'm not taking TiVo with me. The S3 doesn't look attractive enough (not to mention fricken $12.00 or so a month to use it!!) for me to buy one so I'll be stuck with a Motorola box, which is "acceptable" for the mean time. I guess paying $6.00 a month for both my HR10-250 and S40SR40 or whatever it's called is my major sticking point.


Isn't the S3 only able to record one HD channel at a time? Seems I remember reading something about that in the past which reminded me of the HR20 and it's disabling of the antenna signal (at the time), which then reminded me to just stick with my HR10-250 for the meantime. Anyway, is that true about the S3?

The TiVo S2 units have some goofy limitations, not the S3 units. The S3 can record 2 HD channels at a time. Plus you can replace the hard drive in the S3 to increase the storage capacity, something you can't do with a rented box.

You mentioned the $12/mo TiVo fee, but that's only half the story. The other half is the $680 (more or less) initial price tag. When you put those two numbers together, the "acceptable" box from Verizon doesn't look too bad. There are quite a few people who are willing to buy an expensive toy. There are quite a few other people who are willing to pay $x/mo for a toy. However, the intersection of those two sets of people is (in this case anyway) fairly small.

Any chance of seeing any Fios activity in East Vancouver? Or are we doomed because we're in a Qwest area?

Appreciate any comments,
Al Rovner

The TiVo S2 units have some goofy limitations, not the S3 units. The S3 can record 2 HD channels at a time. Plus you can replace the hard drive in the S3 to increase the storage capacity, something you can't do with a rented box.

You mentioned the $12/mo TiVo fee, but that's only half the story. The other half is the $680 (more or less) initial price tag. When you put those two numbers together, the "acceptable" box from Verizon doesn't look too bad. There are quite a few people who are willing to buy an expensive toy. There are quite a few other people who are willing to pay $x/mo for a toy. However, the intersection of those two sets of people is (in this case anyway) fairly small.


aaah, thanks Phantom, I knew it was one of those boxes that couldn't really do "two tuners". And like you said, I'm happy with my HR10-250, of which we paid about $500 for in late 2005 and the $6.00 a month, but shelling out another $700 + $300 for three years worth of TiVo service if I bought the S3 and that's a huge killer.

Maybe things will clear up in the next 6-8 months on the DVR end before FiOS TV is really launched to Washington County.

Any chance of seeing any Fios activity in East Vancouver? Or are we doomed because we're in a Qwest area?

Appreciate any comments,
Al Rovner


Qwest =literally about 10 years behind.

Here's some new news, Verizon is branching out it's FiOS internet service to the south/west side of Portland

http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2007/verizon-to-expand-its-2.html

Well, the word I was trying to type was B I T T O R R E N T. I don't think that's a swear word. Go to redhat.com and try to download their Fedora Linux distribution. You will find files with a .torrent extension. But I guess that, in this case, everyone must be presumed guilty of copyright violation just because they dare to speak of a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol.

Pretty soon that will no longer = swear word. See this article that says they are going mainstream: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/16732868.htm

My apologies if this is a duplicate reply. My first attempt didn't seem to post. Anyone out there know if East Vancouver will be served by Fios, or should we forget about it since we're in a Qwest neighborhood?

Appreciate any info,
Al Rovner

My apologies if this is a duplicate reply. My first attempt didn't seem to post. Anyone out there know if East Vancouver will be served by Fios, or should we forget about it since we're in a Qwest neighborhood?

Appreciate any info,
Al Rovner


You did have a first post, just a couple of posts up. Qwest is about 10 years behind Verizon in the FiOS department.

There's a little subdivision near Ibach Park in Tualatin where the lawns are littered with "locate" spray and little flags every 3 feet. A neighborhood kid thought they were for "some sort of cable". My bet is on FIOS. Some yards have 15 or 20 flags in each.

Some observations:

My street had a "locate" done last year for FIOS but nothing else happened. So maybe they're now doing "we really mean it and to prove it we'll use hundreds of little flags" locates. We'll see how that turns out.

It's the middle of February. I'm surprised they're working at this time of year. Maybe it's a consequence of global warming.

Maybe this increased activity is related to the Washington County agreement announced recently.

Posters on TiVoCommunity report mixed results with S3 and FIOS. Plus Cablelabs won't have anything to do with Verizon since they're the enemy. Without an alternative to the garbage SA and Motorola DVRs, FIOS doesn't look nearly as attractive to me as it did.

FYI I am just around the corner from Ibach and had FiOS Internet installed last Saturday. So I can confirm all the flags and paint are for FIOS. I agree on the TV side the jury is still out for me due to the monthly expense of the Hardware.

FYI I agree on the TV side the jury is still out for me due to the monthly expense of the Hardware.

Are you saying the TV service was offered to you for a specific price and it's available to you now?

Are you saying the TV service was offered to you for a specific price and it's available to you now?

No the TV will not be available here until end of the year. However, the prices are out on the FIOS tv website. For the set up I currently have with Directv service it looks to be pretty much a wash if I add up the programming (1 sd box, 2 HD and 1HDDVR.)

No the TV will not be available here until end of the year. However, the prices are out on the FIOS tv website. For the set up I currently have with Directv service it looks to be pretty much a wash if I add up the programming (1 sd box, 2 HD and 1HDDVR.)

12.99 per HD DVR, 9.99 per regular DVR, per month add up quickly.

Currently I have one of each, so in reality I'm paying 2.99 for the HD DVR and 8.98 for the regular DVR (splitting the DVR fee across both boxes and the mirror fee for the regular DVR). 11.97 a month which is less than the 12.99 for one HD DVR! Add to the fact that the Verizon HD DVR holds maybe 15 hours of HD stuff and it's still most likely pushing me to a Series 3 TiVo (which is not "supported" by Verizon as of now).

Maybe dropping the regular DVR is an option, but I still tape a ton of non-HD stuff on that so it's probably a no go. Of course, FiOS has no HD package price since it's included in the base so that does bring things closer together.

Decisions decisions and it's only February!

.
Here's a mildly interesting story on how Verizon hopes to reclaim those billions it's spending on fiber upgrades across the country. Nothing really surprising or outrageous in my opinion. They claim to spend about $1700 dollars to bring service to each home, and a reporter estimates people will spend about $1500 per home per year. Of course, that $1500 isn't pure profit to Verizon...

(see link in next post)

http://siliconforest.blogs.oregonlive.com/default.asp?item=503685

Better link here, as Devlin's link leads to nowhere. The phone really can't be changed very easily(as it's not copper anymore, and there's really no competition as the internet/Comcast phones don't count) again so that's a good income stream for Verizon, but the tv and internet can change at a moment's notice. Still, a three year break-even point (approx) is a pretty nice investment.

Looks like California just gave Verizon state-wide approval. Why would that matter to us? Two reasons I can think of: one, as goes California so goes the nation (or at least the West Coast). This should help keep the fiber-optic TV ball rolling for both Verizon and non-Verizon areas. Two, with a market as large and as prized as CA, this might help increase the number and quality of channels offered.

Bit of pricing news, though it is for CA. Seems a bit low though - reporter might be quoting the basic lineup.

The top tier FiOS TV package, including 200 channels, would be offered for $42.99 USD per month.

http://www.betanews.com/article/Verizon_Wins_Calif_FiOS_TV_Franchise/1173471030

Pretty sure that the 42.99 is their top tier of channels...sports, movies are all add-on's. HD is free, assuming you subscribe to the non-HD version (subscribe to HBO, receive HBO-HD for free).

FYI...I called yesterday to ask about the FIOS Internet ad in the paper. While talking she said they expect FIOS-TV within 3 Months for the areas already wired!

Wow! Here's hoping that Verizon person knows what they're talking about.

I know...I can't wait. The only thing I thought was bad was when she tried to get me to go FiOS Internet now. She said that the $1200 fee for the equipment will be free! When isn't it!

Wow! Here's hoping that Verizon person knows what they're talking about.


I'm thinking she doesn't know what she's talking about. But it would definitely be a nice surprise. Sell the HR10-250 and pick up a series 3.

Anyone else get a flyer for referring new customers to FIOS tv recently? I have FIOS internet, but the flyer only referenced FIOS tv service. Seemed kind of odd unless they are quickly approaching the date for rolling out the service. Why send a flyer for referrals more than 9 months before service launch?

Probably just a coincidence.

Couple more today:

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/metro_west_news/1174539304104350.xml&coll=7

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/metro_west_news/1174265716266030.xml&coll=7



ron

Verizon is still pushing Triple Play with TV being from DirecTV in markets that don't have FiOS TV yet. That MIGHT be what they were offering.

Thanks for the article posting, R11. Comcast made this threat before, but the MACC board brushed them off, telling them if they want another deal then they should apply for it.

I haven't received any FIOS TV fliers yet, but next time I see a Verizon truck in my neighborhood I'll pester the guys about it.

Talked to a couple of experienced Verizon guys out in Tigard, and they told me that FIOS TV will be here in the fourth quarter of this year. They said they've tried to get a firmer date, but that's all the company will tell them too.

They say the holdups are both nailing down the details of the city agreements and that Verizon has to finish a new CO for tv distribution.

In the meantime, they're sending a bunch of reps door to door in the SW Beaverton area yesterday to try and get people to sign up for the tv service (yep, not the internet but the tv service). Yeah they're at least 6 months out.

Today the Oregonian had a story that said Beaverton/Washington County has approved Verizon FiOS TV. This IS new news as it had been reported before...but I guess I/we did not realize that it was not a done deal...it now is!

Thanks for the post! Sounds like the first approval came from a lower level board, and the Board of Commissioners had to give the final approval.

Here's the link to the story:

oregonian article (http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/business/1176864928247930.xml&coll=7)

Talked to an installer today (parents were getting hooked up) and he said that Forest Grove/Hillsboro were slated to start off with the tv service, then moving eastward until it hits 217 and then southward.

Nothing is scheduled to go until Feb 2008, and yes the guy did have something in writing on that (but as we know, things can change).

Nothing is scheduled to go until Feb 2008, and yes the guy did have something in writing on that (but as we know, things can change).

:eek: I certainly hope they would offer TV service sooner than that. I've had the internet service for ~6 months now and can't wait to dump Directv!

:eek: I certainly hope they would offer TV service sooner than that. I've had the internet service for ~6 months now and can't wait to dump Directv!



Starting off small, then making it available to the masses. They still haven't built the CO where this is all supposed to come from.

Looks like Qwest is all of sudden going to offer TV service beginning sometime in 2008! Good news for the Portland crowd!

Verizon is also starting the regulatory process to provide TV to their customers in east Multnomah County.

oregonian article (http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2007/04/timeline_for_cable_competition.html)

Here's a longer article talking about comparing cable vs telco as far as TV service. Not many details yet, of course.

oregonian article (http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1177026924107270.xml&coll=7)

Looks like Qwest is all of sudden going to offer TV service beginning sometime in 2008! Good news for the Portland crowd!

Verizon is also starting the regulatory process to provide TV to their customers in east Multnomah County.

oregonian article (http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2007/04/timeline_for_cable_competition.html)


Even if Qwest is given the go ahead, they still have to run miles upon miles upon miles of fiber optic cable, it's not something that they can just flip a switch to activiate. I think many of the telephone companies see Portland and the surrounding communities as a goldmine waiting to be tapped.

Yeah, I thought I read in that article that Qwest was going to use the existing copper line to the home and just rewire main trunks outside the neighborhoods. I don't see how they figure that puts them in the same league as Verizon which has fiber to the home. I guess it's meant more to placate the Portlanders outside Verizon's service areas. And if Qwest is first in and can sign up households for 2 years at a crack, that would get their foot in the door before another competitor strings fiber. It just doesn't sound like a viable long term solution scenario for Qwest, IMO.

Qwest's regulatory approval process marches on with a meeting Monday, May 21st with the Mt Hood Regulatory Commission.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/05/qwest_portland_near_deal_on_ca.html

A story in today's Oregonian on Qwest and its plans to offer TV to Portland. Sounds like they'll start near downtown, and the rates will be similar to Verizon's proposed rates (digital package about 48 bucks a month for 170 channels).

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1179712535312680.xml&coll=7

Just want to let everyone know that the company I work for (EC Electrical Construction Co.) is cuurently working on the FiosTV Center. It is in Hillsboro on Evergreen Parkway next to the Hillsboro stadium. I cant wait. Ill keep you updated.

Supposed to be finished by the end of July I think...then starts the testing and deployment from Forest Grove to the east.

Just want to let everyone know that the company I work for (EC Electrical Construction Co.) is cuurently working on the FiosTV Center. It is in Hillsboro on Evergreen Parkway next to the Hillsboro stadium. I cant wait. Ill keep you updated.

Thanks Chad and Rifle - interesting news from both!

FYI...I just saw a Verizon truck parked outside our house. We can get FIOS Internet now but I asked about FIOS-TV. The guy in the truck said that they expect to start in Forest Grove by Nov. 1st, and work East fast.

The faster the better, heh. :)

Spoke to a verizon CS rep yesterday about the mess-up on the home phone bill. He was located in Seattle and along the way of trying to fix the error, wanted to share with me that our region would "soon" get the FIOS triple play option ( broadband, TV, and home phone).

FWIW, he mentioned the price would be about $130 for all three services. TV included about 200 channels, plus national and local HD channels (DVR would be additional $12.99). Broadband would be 5/2 tier and phone included unlimited long distance and all the usual calling features (call waiting, forwarding, voice mail, etc.). He was adamant that it would be within a "few months."

BTW, he was lamenting how his high-tech friends at Microsoft were all upset that they couldn't get the FIOS service since they lived in Qwest service territory!

Pretty sure you can get Triple Play now in Oregon, the TV service is just DirecTV.

The price of the DVR is not very exciting especially since I heard that if you do record two shows at the same time one must be SD.

I'm not too sure if that info is right, concerning the one must be in SD. They pretty much use the same boxes as Comcast and they can record two HD channels at the same time.

But if true, that pushes me to a series 3 TiVo even more so. Ease of use and actually recording something (As well as expand hard drive if necessary) >>> price

I'm not too sure if that info is right, concerning the one must be in SD. They pretty much use the same boxes as Comcast and they can record two HD channels at the same time.

But if true, that pushes me to a series 3 TiVo even more so. Ease of use and actually recording something (As well as expand hard drive if necessary) >>> price

I do not think the series 3 will help. As I heard it, they limit the bandwidth from their fiber feed so that it can not support two HD shows at once. I wonder if this somehow means that you can not watch two hd feeds on two TV's?

I do not think the series 3 will help. As I heard it, they limit the bandwidth from their fiber feed so that it can not support two HD shows at once. I wonder if this somehow means that you can not watch two hd feeds on two TV's?


Pretty sure your info is wrong.

It would be surprising if Verizon went to all this effort and spent all this money with their fiber pipes and then crippled them with a DVR set-up that was worse than Comcast's.

Of course companies do make lousy decisions all the time.

Haven't heard anyone who has Verizon across the U.S. who has a "cripped" DVR besides the fact that the DVR software sucks.

Nobody hopes I am wrong more than me! :D
I will try to find my source again.

Haven't heard anyone who has Verizon across the U.S. who has a "cripped" DVR besides the fact that the DVR software sucks.
Speaking of software, there is news that a "new" guide is being pushed out through software update this summer. If you haven't seen the photos, check out the link below. Not sure if the guide is 16x9 !

http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/22/verizon-launching-fios-interactive-media-guide/

When Verizon layed fiber cable by my house, I allowed them to enroll me for internet+ phone. I told them it was the TV that was the draw for me. That was over a year ago. I am running out of patience and am close to letting DishNetwork upgrade my service/receivers to Mpeg-4 capability and full HD. My present 921 receiver delivers HD-lite, not a satisfactory solution.
I live in Tigard on Bull Mountain and have had zero success in getting a Verizon person to give me any info.
Does anyone here have any info/guesses as to availability of FIOS TV here in Washington County?

When Verizon layed fiber cable by my house, I allowed them to enroll me for internet+ phone. I told them it was the TV that was the draw for me. That was over a year ago. I am running out of patience and am close to letting DishNetwork upgrade my service/receivers to Mpeg-4 capability and full HD. My present 921 receiver delivers HD-lite, not a satisfactory solution.
I live in Tigard on Bull Mountain and have had zero success in getting a Verizon person to give me any info.
Does anyone here have any info/guesses as to availability of FIOS TV here in Washington County?


September at the very earliest, and more likely in 2008.

Yes, September at the earliest. I'm hopeful that we'll get it this fall though.

...also, in some states, VerizonFios has upped the Internet speeds to 10/2, 20/5 and 50/5 at the same price. As usual they will not tell us when that will happen in Portland. I was at the Wireless store last week and they hope parts of the area will have FiosTV well before the end of the year! Especially 97229.

Well, with the new TiVo HD box out, that's definitely what I'll be purchasing to go along with the FiOS tv when it gets here. Happy Happy Happy, Joy Joy Joy.

A Verizon rep that I talked to this week said October at the earliest. At this point, if it was October and not 2008, I'd be pretty happy.

Spoke to a verizon CS rep yesterday about the mess-up on the home phone bill. He was located in Seattle and along the way of trying to fix the error, wanted to share with me that our region would "soon" get the FIOS triple play option ( broadband, TV, and home phone).

FWIW, he mentioned the price would be about $130 for all three services. TV included about 200 channels, plus national and local HD channels (DVR would be additional $12.99). Broadband would be 5/2 tier and phone included unlimited long distance and all the usual calling features (call waiting, forwarding, voice mail, etc.). He was adamant that it would be within a "few months."

BTW, he was lamenting how his high-tech friends at Microsoft were all upset that they couldn't get the FIOS service since they lived in Qwest service territory!

FYI for you guys out west that price for Triple Play seems high-unless the rep was allowing for premium chs.

the Triple Play rate I've seen is $99.99 for all 3 services(1 yr. commitment) but this does not include box rental or premiums(Movies, Sports, HBO/Max).

we just got the new Media Guide here in Hampton Roads(VA) it's a big improvement.

to address a previous comment the Motorola boxes ARE similar to what Comcast or Cox use but with different software(ironically, Microsoft software)

a big difference in the FiOS boxes is they're IP-enabled. regular TV is QAM-tuned but the VOD/PPV is IP-based. BTW still no HD VOD tho Vz is supposed to be working on it.

and why am I here? curious in general, and on the Verizon website here there is no mention of Oregon anywhere. had no idea it was Verizon territory.

A Verizon rep that I talked to this week said October at the earliest. At this point, if it was October and not 2008, I'd be pretty happy.


Right in the middle of football season, I can still wait as DirecTV for now satisfies my needs.

Just talked to the FIOS tech installing FIOS in a neighbor's house. He told me that they've been told December 1st for FIOS TV.

He said the Hillsboro TV center is up and running, and everything is working fine with it. They're working on the distribution centers that bring the signal to other areas like mine in Tigard.

Well, as long as it's before the Super Bowl, I'll be happy.

Just talked to the FIOS tech installing FIOS in a neighbor's house. He told me that they've been told December 1st for FIOS TV.

He said the Hillsboro TV center is up and running, and everything is working fine with it. They're working on the distribution centers that bring the signal to other areas like mine in Tigard.

Saw a couple of Verizon trucks and techs fiddling with the "manholes" for FIOS in the neighborhood (Greenway area in Beaverton). Stopped and asked one of the techs about the TV signal arrival date, and he also mentioned December for the general rollout. He lived in Newberg and already had FIOS internet!

Well, I signed up for FIOS and phone service Friday. Only a little concerned that what is said at the VZW Store is not how the order comes out. Anyway, the FIOS will be installed 8/28. They came out today, however to measure where to run cable for ONT. The person said FIOS-TV will be available to current FIOS Internet people starting November!

My house is between Beaverton Hillsdale and Canyon at the bottom of the West Slope area. It's not a very high density area (but getting higher density every year thanks to metro :rolleyes:). At any rate, I've been looking forward to FIOS TV like the rest of you but currently there's no fiber in my hood yet.

Getting anxious to know when it would eventually make it to my area I made a bunch of phone calls a couple days ago and finally got ahold of a guy in a local engineering dept who had access to the build out roadmap info. He couldn't tell from initially looking at his database but said he'd check into it and get back to me. This morning he left a voice mail and the news is not great, but it could be worse I suppose. He said my area was scheduled to be completed by June '08, but that they have been trying to get things done ahead of schedule as much as they can. He said that the density of the neighborhoods was the overriding factor when the roadmap was worked up. So, it's not as quick as I had hoped :(, but it's also not as bad as I feared it might be either :). I'll be jealous of you guys who get hooked up right away, but hopefully you all can help them get the bugs worked out of the system by the time they get to me ;).


ron

Heard 2008 now for the earliest install of FiOS TV, still waiting to hear it confirmed in the paper or writing...but it's coming soon.

... I'll be jealous of you guys who get hooked up right away, but hopefully you all can help them get the bugs worked out of the system by the time they get to me ;).

ron

Ron,

All things being relative, we'll be thankful when FIOS TV arrives. I guess a few months late won't be that bad. We should all feel sorry for the non-Verizon territory stuck with Qwest technology !

HZ

That's true! Really, the Comcast I've got now is not terrible. Outside of some pixelation on the most challenging programming it looks good. It will be very nice to have a completely clean picture on even fast action programming though. And I'll be happy to have HDNet Movies again too. What prompted last weeks renewed interest in the FIOS was a locked up DVR about two thirds of the way through watching the movie "Inside Man" last weekend. I had backed up to re-listen to some dialog I missed when it decided to lock up and in my frustration and button pushing I accidentily changed the channel and lost the buffer on the movie :(. Luckily I found it playing again last night and recorded it this time so I'll finally be able to finish watching it tonight :D. The lagginess of the Comcast DVR can be a major PITA sometimes...


ron

...and the lag seems to have gotten VERY bad in the past week or so! Seems like it has never been this bad before.

... Speaking of DVR and FIOS, the bad news here is that Verizon is dispensing the same Motorolla box for the HD-DVR (160 gig) drive, and the same baggage of occasional bugs! Also, if you follow the FIOS-TV forums it seems that Motorolla boxes (Comcast and VZ) are limited to 160 gig addressable drive (no USB external drive for these boxes, it seems). :(

…the news is not great, but it could be worse I suppose. … my area was scheduled to be completed by June '08…Be thankful you're getting it at all. I'm on the tail-end of Verizon territory, right at the border intersection of Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties - on the Clackamas side, in the Mountain Park area - where they have no plans to install; and even if they did, they'd have to deal with TWO HOA's to get to my place - one for my condo complex (for which I'm on the board, so hopefully that won't be a problem), the other for the entire Mountain Park area, which has very strict rules for cable deployment (read: it *must* be underground, and the area around which the cable was installed *must* be returned to the same condition in which it found itself before the ground was interred) - only to serve a handful of customers with no potential for growth. I'm not saying it'll never happen… it's just not likely until the very end.

Really, the Comcast I've got now is not terrible. Outside of some pixelation on the most challenging programming it looks good. It will be very nice to have a completely clean picture on even fast action programming though.Don't get your hopes up in this regard. Verizon passes the same bit-starved sources that Comcast gets, and assuming you believe their "We don't recompress" company line (judging by our 750MHz network and the lack of additional content over the last year, I do), Verizon will look no better. You'll have to start looking toward HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray to see an improvement in that regard (but man, is it an improvement!).

And I'll be happy to have HDNet Movies again too.Absolutely. HDNet is the network I have missed the most since dropping Dish. Screw Comcast and their INHD monopoly.

What prompted last weeks renewed interest in the FIOS was a locked up DVR about two thirds of the way through watching the movie "Inside Man" last weekend. I had backed up to re-listen to some dialog I missed when it decided to lock up and in my frustration and button pushing I accidentily changed the channel and lost the buffer on the movie :(. Luckily I found it playing again last night and recorded it this time so I'll finally be able to finish watching it tonight :D. The lagginess of the Comcast DVR can be a major PITA sometimes...That's why TiVo makes two Series 3 HD TiVo's. :) I was right there with you up until about June, when I noticed that since the beginning of the year they had jacked our "rental" prices to $12/mo… a price INCREASE for a box that, A.) should be getting cheaper as time goes on, and B.) hasn't improved much - if at all - over the last 2½ years, certainly not to any degree that would warrant a price hike.

That was the sledgehammer that broke this camel's back… I ordered the Series 3 HD on the last day of the $200 Father's Day rebate, signed up for 3 years of service up front, plus added a 750GB eSATA drive… now I'm sitting pretty with a terabyte HD-TiVo for a grand total of $900, and I save $12/mo+tax on my cable bill. The $900 was a bitter pill to swallow, but for a much more functional DVR and considerably more storage space, I'll take the loss of VOD (which I rarely used) and PPV (which I never used).

Unfortunately, I picked up a PS3 around the same time and signed up for Blockbuster's Total Access (when they still had it price-competitive with Netflix), and I've been swimming in Blu waters ever since… I've had so little time to watch the TiVo, that terabyte is nearly full! That's going to have to change in a couple weeks, though. :o

I grew up in Lake Grove and remember when Mt Park was but a hill with trees and grass fields. My mother was a Girl Scout Leader for a while back then and they had their summer campouts up there :). Times have changed and it's a "mature" neighborhood now...

Regarding Comcast practices, all I've ever heard about them was that they don't downrez any material. And I believe that. Beyond that, I don't think they're any different than anybody else. Not too long after I got the Comcast service I checked in to see how the PQ on "CARS" (cropped to 16:9) was and it looked good... until the faster race sequences began and the usual pixelation broke out. A while later I found that they actually had the movie up on the HD on-demand free movies queue in full 2.35 widescreen. So I watched it from there and not only was the aspect ratio full, but the PQ was solid. No pixelation at all.... Now some might say that the crop job on the regular version may have contributed to the worse PQ it had but I don't think it would have made nearly that much difference. I just think they were providing adequate bandwidth to support it via on-demand.

At any rate, the general consensus from people that have had both seems to be that the FIOS PQ is a level better. Since I won't have access to it for a good six months anyway I'll let the PDX "early adopters" tell me if it's worth the switch or not :D.


ron

I grew up in Lake Grove and remember when Mt Park was but a hill with trees and grass fields. My mother was a Girl Scout Leader for a while back then and they had their summer campouts up there :). Times have changed and it's a "mature" neighborhood now...I bought my unit from the original owner, who had been there since 1980; at that time, there were no other buildings around, above or below, and she could see clear to the valley from where they launched their hot-air balloons. Now I can't see 50ft without another rooftop; but I like it, it's like living in a forest - it smells just like Mt. Hood. :)

Regarding Comcast practices, all I've ever heard about them was that they don't downrez any material. And I believe that. Beyond that, I don't think they're any different than anybody else.Not just downrez, but manipulate the bitstream in any way… if the content provider offers full-bitrate 18mbps, Comcast passes it through. Again, there are exceptions - supposedly the Bay Area is a notorious 550MHz holdover - but those are more from acquisitions which have not yet been upgraded. We have been upgraded - rather significantly - but we're still not top-of-the-line. Of course, switching off analog would mean we wouldn't need to be.

Not too long after I got the Comcast service I checked in to see how the PQ on "CARS" (cropped to 16:9) was and it looked good... until the faster race sequences began and the usual pixelation broke out.Starz (as well as Showtime and HBO) outputs a realtime MPEG-2 variable bitrate 14.3mbps MAX bitstream, with encoders that detect the 3:2 cadence of film-sourced material and attempt to encode accordingly (and look better doing so), but unfortunately lose track of that cadence when the action gets too intense - thus the usual pixelation in the faster race sequences; it can look no better than that, unfortunately, without better encoders on the content provider's end. You want to see Cars the way it's meant to be seen? Pick up the Blu-Ray this November… while you're at it, check out Ratatouille (only the best movie of the year!!1) and the Pixar Shorts Collection…

A while later I found that they actually had the movie up on the HD on-demand free movies queue in full 2.35 widescreen. So I watched it from there and not only was the aspect ratio full, but the PQ was solid. No pixelation at all.... Now some might say that the crop job on the regular version may have contributed to the worse PQ it had but I don't think it would have made nearly that much difference. I just think they were providing adequate bandwidth to support it via on-demand.Yes, the 2.35:1 aspect ratio helps, but more from the lack of picture on the top and bottom (black is a lot easier to compress), not so much from the "crop job" - which in this case wouldn't have been a "crop job" as it is a digitally-rendered animation; they can reframe however they see fit.

But also the fact that it's encoded ahead of time - offline instead of realtime - can make a big difference; unfortunately, they face similar - if not even more stringent - bandwidth limitations, and I would beg to differ on the point of "solid" PQ. I've seen several Starz/Encore HD on demand titles which were anything but "solid;" Blade in particular stands out in my memory as a truly horrendous encode… of course it was an anamorphic-shot film that they cropped to 1.78:1, and the transfer looked about as soft as I'd ever seen, but that actually should have helped the compression… it didn't, there was macroblocking everywhere. Unfortunately, you're not going to escape that on any kind of broadcast or narrowcast solution; bandwidth will always be a battleground fought over by hundreds of invading hordes.

At any rate, the general consensus from people that have had both seems to be that the FIOS PQ is a level better.Again, it depends upon the cable company and their respective network in your respective location. Here in Portland, we're fairly well-off with what Comcast provides now, but we also have no room for additional content at this time; so either they have to start recompressing, upgrade the network, or start turning off analog; either/both of the last two would be fine by me.

Since I won't have access to it for a good six months anyway I'll let the PDX "early adopters" tell me if it's worth the switch or not :D.I should think it would be worth it on price alone… plus bandwidth to burn that cable will not likely match in the near future… and HDNet… :)

Moorebid:

I think cable can not match FIOS bandwidth because FIOS TV only sends stations you are watching or recording. So, no matter how many stations the "can" place on the cable, you only get what you need. ie: if you have a few TV's and a few DVR's they may be only sending you 6 stations. At least that is how I was told they can get so much b/w and not even sweat it!
The cable co's need to place all of them on the cable. I think FIOS actually does have a certain number on the line anyway, but nowhere near the max of the system.

IPTV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPTV) is to what you're referring, which AT&T is using with their U-Verse service, but they're the only major deployment thus far; Verizon has plans for it, but are taking their time as it's still in its infancy. There's also no technical reason why cable couldn't use it as well (and may do so if they feel the need), but that's a long road, with a lot of development left to go… not to mention a wholesale swap-out of equipment - both head-end and end-user - for both providers; but cable's definitely more entrenched, and will require a much larger effort to convert.

Regardless, fiber has cable beat in pure MHz alone (or GHz in their case)… that's how fiber can send out analog CATV and still have plenty of room for everything else; cable's going to have to start shutting off some analog channels before they can squeeze anything more into their existing infrastructure. Cable does has a few tricks left up its sleeve - not the least of which is DOCSIS 3.0 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOCSIS), combined with IPTV - which may allow them to see impressive gains, assuming they ever come to fruition; but fiber will always have more spectrum with which to work, there's no getting around that…

Comcast can easily shut off analog 32 thru 71 after 2009 to free up bandwidth. One analog equals 2 full HD channels or probably 10 SD channels. Then, years later, they can shut off analog 2 thru 31.

OK, I got Nov 15th in the FIOSTV pool!

Verizon hung a notice on my door that FIOS is coming soon (but there have been previous false alarms).

Can anyone who is familiar with any or all of (DirecTV, Comcast, FIOS) post a brief comparison?

I'll start with DirecTV vs Comcast. Generally satellite quality is worse than cable, because of excessive compression. However pricing is much better. For example, with DirecTV I get SpeedTV for "free", while it's in a separate sports tier for Comcast. Satellite HBO is only $12/mo while it's $16/mo from cable. Also I only pay $5/mo for a TiVo, while Comcast DVRs are much more expensive (especially when mirroring is included).

This topic has been extensively covered in many other forums. I'm just looking for a brief summary to help me decide if there's any reason to switch to Verizon. Without some compelling advantages, why change from the status quo? The only reason I can think of is that many, many, many people "hate" the cable company. :)

I received a pleasant letter today informing me that my FIOS internet was increasing to $47.99 per month. That's an increase of $12.00 per month. Anyone else seen a similar increase?

I received a pleasant letter today informing me that my FIOS internet was increasing to $47.99 per month. That's an increase of $12.00 per month. Anyone else seen a similar increase?

No, not yet. That's outrageous! What are your connection speeds? I have the 5/2 for $34.99, just recently raised after my 1st year intro price of 29.99.

My 5/2 also recently increased to $34.99 from $29.95. I called them to confirm, and the csr gave me a $10 credit for 6 months, which effectively wiped out the increase for a year.

Clever of Verizon to raise their prices to Comcast levels. They're effectively a duopoly. Why bother competing on price? Why bother competing on anything? Your choices are the phone company or the cable company!

Verizon wants you to bundle your phone and tv (DirecTV currently).

I received a pleasant letter today informing me that my FIOS internet was increasing to $47.99 per month. That's an increase of $12.00 per month. Anyone else seen a similar increase?

This was apparently meant to be for people who opt out of 1 or 2 year committment (and select month-to-month service). I mentioned this to a friend who had a similar concern. He called verizon and got the 1 year deal for $5/month more than his promotional rate.

Now, where the heck is our FIOS? They laid the fiber in the neighberhood almost 5 months ago, and still no news!!!:(

Sherwood just approved the VZ franchise for FiOS TV earlier this week, I'd post the link to the article, but since this is my first post, I can't do so just yet.

The article basically stated (3rd paragraph) "later this year".

Since there's only 3 months left in the year, my guess is that it will probably be sooner rather than later, and this was the most solid evidence I've seen that it will in fact be an '07 rollout.

I'm switching my comcast internet service over to VZ FiOS the first week of October, and believe me, I'm ready for some Cable competition, and I'll be having a lengthy discussion with the installer to see what info I can pry from him for the FiOS TV rollout.

From the silicon forest blog on oregonlive.com

Verizon to begin testing cable TV service

Posted by The Silicon Forest Blog September 25, 2007 11:02AM
Categories: Phone & Cable, Washington County
(Photo by Brian Lee)

Using fiber-optic cable, newly installed in much of Washington County, Verizon plans to compete with Comcast in the cable TV business

Verizon tells me this morning that it plans to begin testing its new FiOS cable TV service in Washington County within the next 30 days, and the company is now confident it will begin offering service by year's end. (Click here for background.)

Verizon built a new fiber-optic network to customers' homes in Washington County, creating the capacity to offer super-fast Web access and cable TV with a service it calls FiOS. Verizon hopes to take business away from Comcast, which currently holds a monopoly on cable service throughout the metro area.

Verizon hasn't set Washington County rates yet, but in other markets it charges about $8 less than the $50.89 Comcast charges for "Standard Cable" in Oregon.

By the end of October, Verizon cable TV service will be available to employees and perhaps a few select customers, spokesman Kevin Laverty tells me today. It will roll out sometime later in the fall to the general public in most of Washington County. The company also plans to offer service in parts of Multnomah County where Verizon is the local phone carrier, but hasn't set a timetable to do so.

Qwest plans its own cable TV service in parts of Portland as early as next year. Its proposal won approval from the Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission last week, and goes before the Portland City Council next month.

Be nice to have it before the bowl game season, as well as the Super Bowl. Be nice to tell DirecTV to GFY.

I'm in SW Gresham and am eagerly awaiting the FiOS TV rollout! I'm also keeping my eyes glued to this thread to see how it progresses. Thanks for everybody's research!

DAN

I'm in the Beaverton/Aloha area. My wife and I have been painfully tolerating Comcast's limited basic cable offering for the last two years awaiting Verizon's FIOS TV roll-out. We dropped Comcast's extended basic after the constant fee increases got out of hand.

We are ecstatic that FIOS TV is almost on our doorstep and that we should have access to decent content again. :cool:

Anyone know how to get onto their "select customer" list to get an early deployment??

I'm in the Beaverton/Aloha area. My wife and I have been painfully tolerating Comcast's limited basic cable offering for the last two years awaiting Verizon's FIOS TV roll-out. We dropped Comcast's extended basic after the constant fee increases got out of hand.

We are ecstatic that FIOS TV is almost on our doorstep and that we should have access to decent content again. :cool:

Anyone know how to get onto their "select customer" list to get an early deployment??



Move to Forest Grove/Hillsboro. It's coming W to E.

The FIOS Kiosk at the Tanasbourne store (across Evergreen from Old Chicago) says FIOS TV rolls out middle of November. 6 weeks away. They are handing out pamphlets from "North Texas" region that shows channel lineups. Offering FIOS Triple Freedom package for $114.99/mo which includes 15/2 internet, unlimited phone dialing in the US and "over 200 all-digital channels". Can't sign up until they can offer the service.

I saw over on broadbandreports something about an $84.99 triple play package for "winback" accounts (you switch your phone service from another provider), but in NY area. Didn't mention whether this was anywhere else. No idea if "triple play" is the same as "triple freedom".

I'm in Tigard and already have FIOS internet. Wondering if the Nov. 6th date advertised at teh Kiosk at Tanasbourne relates to all of Washington County or just the western most portion.

They said middle of November in this area (Beaverton/Hillsboro).... which is about 6 weeks from now. I didn't say Nov 6. I didn't ask them about other areas. But you can call your nearest VZ store and ask them. Post here what you find out.

Oh, BTW... they said their people are getting trained on the FIOS TV stuff starting this week and the local network data center that handles all the FIOS TV stuff is going through its final tests now.

They came thru my street doing stringing fiber yesterday!

So I read up on FIOS and PON on Wikipedia. The technology seems straightforward enough. So there really shouldn't be too many "teething problems" with TV.

For TV, all they do is put about 870 MHz worth of NTSC and QAM stuff on the fiber (one of the three DWM wavelengths being used). The telco box on the side of your house converts it to coax. So it looks very much like Comcast cable once it comes out of the telco box.

Quite different from AT&T, who is doing IPTV over a fancy version of DSL. From AT&T you get 25 Mbps to your house. Good for 1 HD channel plus a few SD channels. They talk about "bonding" DSL to give you 50 Mbps. It's so sad. It almost seems like I made that up! The articles I read about AT&T were a few years old, maybe they've seen the folly of their ways.

For FIOS your existing TVs with NTSC or QAM tuners will work (for unencrypted channels). For IPTV you need a telco box next to each TV.

They came thru my street doing stringing fiber yesterday!Lucky! I've just about given up hope of seeing the fiber run down my street. :(

Quite different from AT&T, who is doing IPTV over a fancy version of DSL. From AT&T you get 25 Mbps to your house. Good for 1 HD channel plus a few SD channels. They talk about "bonding" DSL to give you 50 Mbps. It's so sad. It almost seems like I made that up! The articles I read about AT&T were a few years old, maybe they've seen the folly of their ways.Unfortunately, no they haven't… that's exactly what U-Verse is; that's their state-of-the-art. Fortunately, it doesn't mean much to us; AT&T (formerly SBC) doesn't serve anything near Portland.

I was re-running guided setup on a Series2 TiVo last night and one of the cable lineups you could select was Portland Verizon FiOS (as opposed to Comcast Portland Regional and Comcast Tualatin Valley Regional)...woohoo, must mean it's very close if TiVo is already seeing it as a legit TV lineup for sending guide data!

just thought I'd share.

If Verizon FiOS TV in Washington County will be able to get the new Comcast Sports Northwest channel that premieres at the end of October.

I sure hope so, as I want to see those Blazer games this season, most of which will be on that channel.

That may be a make/break point for me for switching to FiOS TV when they do in fact "flip the switch" and go live in the next 3-4 weeks.

If you want to look at the FIOS tv lineup for Portland go to tivo.com , click on browse tv listings, plug in your zip code and select Verizon FIOS Portland and it will show the whole lineup.....

at least according to the channels showing on tivo.com for Verizon FiOS Portland that they are carrying Fox Sports Net or the new Comcast Sports Net...maybe they are still in negotiation to carry those channels. Also, it doesn't look like they have the KOIN-DT channel (806) on their lineup it just shows KOIN while the other local hd's have the -DT suffix. That might be a deal breaker especially for Sunday NFL games. I'm sure they're still refashioning/refining the lineup prior to public rollout, but very interesting to say the least.

Comcast SportsNet hasn't launched yet… it doesn't appear in the list of channels for Comcast-Portland either (supposed to be channel 37, but History's still there). We'll have to wait until November 1st, or at least until guide data can be populated for the network - maybe the next day or so, at the earliest… though how they'll handle listing both History Channel and Comcast SportsNet on the same channel at the same time, I don't know.

Anyone know if we are going to get FIOS in SW portland multnomah county hillsdale area. why are outliying areas getting it and not the core area. bummer.

Multnomah County isn't getting it yet because the Verizon's franchise agreement for content only covers Washington County at this time.

I think us kids out west are guinea pigs. Willing experiment subjects, but guinea pigs all the same. :rolleyes:

Verizon: More channels coming for Oregon lineup
Posted by The Silicon Forest Blog October 22, 2007 11:29AM
Categories: Phone & Cable, Washington County

Verizon has an important clarification on its Oregon channel lineup, which I blogged about last week.

Company spokesman Kevin Laverty tells me that the Oregon lineup is not complete, and that a full listing won't be published until the launch date (sometime later this year). Importantly, he adds: "(W)e do carry Fox regional sports programming and Comcast sports channels in other markets where FiOS TV is operational."

As for how the Oregon channel lineup got on TiVo, Kevin says "One of our media partners mistakenly placed a tentative list of channels on the TiVO website which we are taking down."

If the TiVo listing is wrong then why does Verizon have the MACC regions in their listings?

Head to verizon fios tv page, click on channel lineup, then enter any 972xx zipcode in the Washington County Area.

:)

97007 works as well. I can't wait.

Anyone heard any updates in the last week? I am waiting anxiously for the launch date, whenever it may be.

I had a Verizon door-to-door salesman stop by trying to get me to sign up.

I guess they are now taking pre-orders with install dates starting next week.

Dale

Wow! Maybe I'll actually answer the door when I see as salesman is at it, lol!

Heard the Rock Creek area was going live Jan 6th, FWIW.

My FIOS internet was installed this last weekend in the clackamas county part of Tualatin and the installer said Fios TV was coming out beginning of December for my area.

I live in the Bethany area (between Hwy 26 and West Union), and was hoping for a November rollout for our area...one can always hope I guess, but if I hear anything I'll try to post as well.

Comcast just ditched MSNBC...which I don't really give a rat's *** about, especially since I won't have to see the grill of Keith Olbermann as I'm flipping channels in the evening...my wife likes MSNBC and mentioned to me that "we'll get it back when Verizon comes out, right?"...I said yes, and she was happy.

I'm still interested to see if they add Comcast Sports Net and Fox Sports Net to their lineup. As of right now, it's not listed. CSN is going to be the primary carrier for Blazer games and that may make/break people signing up for Verizon TV at this time of year. If they push out till after the first of the year, it may not have that big of an effect. My guess is that they're still trying to negotiate deals with those particular stations.

I don't think that Comcast "ditched" (P)MSNBC. They just moved it to a (small slice of a) digital channel, and thereby freed up nearly 6 MHz of very valuable spectrum. Math is 1 analog SD = 6 MHz, 1 digital SD ~= 0.6 MHz.

Countdown with Keith Olbermann is the ONLY show that doesn't act as a shill for corporate America. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

I don't miss Hallmark or Oxygen but I think there were other channels they could have removed such as Fox noise.

I'm already a Verizon DSL and phone customer so if Verizon offers a good package of HD programs I'll definitely sign up for all 3 and ditch Comcast.

We should probably steer clear of political debates, but I will say I was disappointed and a bit suspicious of Comcast's motive of shuffling MSNBC off to the 100-level desert.

Just one more reason in my mind to dump Comcast ASAP.

will skyrocket for Comcast now that MSNBC has moved to a digital tier and off the extended basic analog grouping. (sarcasm off)...the ratings for some of their (MSNBC's) shows are just hideous.

Oh well, still looking forward to some announcement from Verizon...all this waiting will hopefully be worth it...

According to this link...more HD through FiOS tv will be available in '08. Good news for those planning to switch to FiOS tv from Comcast in our area.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071101/nyth108.html?.v=101

Found it in the master programming HD thread for Verizon.

consensus jump will be to Verizon FiOS TV in the sense of changing from Comcast, Dish, or DirecTV? I guess I naturally believe that switching from Comcast will be the most prevalent, then satellite next. My FiOS internet service installation went off without a hitch, I'm hoping the same goes for the TV service as well. I'll be switching from Comcast extended basic to the FiOS premier lineup.

I noticed today that the FiOS TV web site does not allow you to put in the zip code for our area and pull up a channel list any more. This was live as late as yesterday. It can still be found on Zap2it.com though.

I just got a call from someone at Verizon who said we are showing as having service Jan 6, 2008. However, the Kiosk says the beginning of November. Anyway, since I have FIOS now, she gave me a $5/Month credit 'til TV is available. I did a Verbal signup, but that does NOT take effect 'til they can sell it and offer special packages! Also, if I say to forget it, there is no problem and I keep the credit anyway.

consensus jump will be to Verizon FiOS TV in the sense of changing from Comcast, Dish, or DirecTV? I guess I naturally believe that switching from Comcast will be the most prevalent, then satellite next. My FiOS internet service installation went off without a hitch, I'm hoping the same goes for the TV service as well. I'll be switching from Comcast extended basic to the FiOS premier lineup.

I noticed today that the FiOS TV web site does not allow you to put in the zip code for our area and pull up a channel list any more. This was live as late as yesterday. It can still be found on Zap2it.com though.

A big factor for me will be the quality of their hd dvr. Unfortunately, I've read the FIOS dvr has a small hard drive--that could be a real problem for recording hd programming.

A big factor for me will be the quality of their hd dvr. Unfortunately, I've read the FIOS dvr has a small hard drive--that could be a real problem for recording hd programming.



Buy the HDTiVo. If you hate Comcast DVR's, Verizon uses pretty much the same boxes with a little different system software.

Buy the HDTiVo. If you hate Comcast DVR's, Verizon uses pretty much the same boxes with a little different system software.

Actually, I'm currently with D* and use the Directv HR20 and HR10-250. I've added a bigger hd to the HR10-250, which provides me a good backup for the problems I've had with the HR20. And I think the Dish DVR is an even better unit.

There's just no way I would spend $$ on the HDTivo when I got my current dvrs for almost free through promotions. As much as I like Tivo, I'm afraid their business plan is hurting compared to freebies or heavily discounted dvrs offered by other providers. And I say this as a diehard Tivo fan, having had the HR10-250 since 2005.

Looks like they pulled down the local channel list.

Actually, I'm currently with D* and use the Directv HR20 and HR10-250. I've added a bigger hd to the HR10-250, which provides me a good backup for the problems I've had with the HR20. And I think the Dish DVR is an even better unit.

There's just no way I would spend $$ on the HDTivo when I got my current dvrs for almost free through promotions. As much as I like Tivo, I'm afraid their business plan is hurting compared to freebies or heavily discounted dvrs offered by other providers. And I say this as a diehard Tivo fan, having had the HR10-250 since 2005.


I have the HR10-250, but even if I stick with DirecTV, it's still not going to receive all of the HD channels that DirecTV is pumping out these days. Not a fan of the HR20 at all, but am more a fan of that than anything Comcast has for a DVR box (which is what Verizon currently uses).


TiVo is that much better IMO.

I believe that Beaverton will get FIOSTV Nov 9th with the rest of the Portland area to follow a week later.

Nov 9th!!? That early?

BTW, anyone in Tigard been contacted yet, and if so, how did they do so (phone, email, etc)?

I live in S. Tigard, and no contact yet. I've had internet FIOS for over a year.

I'm on Bull Mtn. and we were among the first to be wired (fibered?) in Tigard in Aug. 2005. I've heard not a peep from Verizon.

That's what I'll be if in fact beaverton/wa county is slated for rollout for Nov. 9th. But I guess we'll all find out together on Friday...as previously stated, I had FiOS internet installed about a month ago now, basically in preparation for the TV rollout (having the ONT already installed should save some time).

I have a Series 3 TiVo, which will accept cablecards, so I'm interested to see the technicians and their approach with those types of installations. I currently have extended basic cable with OTA antenna for HD locals.

Here is what happened. I WAS contacted at the end of last week to Pre-Order FIOSTV. They gave me a $5 per Month discount until we get it. She said that since I am a current FIOS customer I would be able to get it soon as most of the work is already done. I asked (or is it axed) when and she said by Jan 8th. The local, Tanasbourne, office told us Friday that it would be Nov. 9 in Beaverton and the rest about a week later!

So on Nov 9th, people will start getting calls, mailers, door-knockers, etc... ? Would imagine so since I don't think anyone has a firm install date for the tv.

***UPDATE***

I just looked online (Google FIOSTV) and for the first time it said Good News, FIOSTV is available, but I could not order online. I had to call! Then when I looked at packages it, too, said I am good to go!

as I've been talking this up with my friends and hopeful for its sooner than later arrival...I hope it's all worth it. I haven't made the cable card jump with Comcastic service because from what I've read, it can be very painful with Comcast to do so.

FiOS TV on the other hand seems to be getting rave reviews with Series 3 TiVo owners except for a pixelization issue on occasion, which from much trial and error was found to be caused by the signal being "too hot" coming into the TiVo. An attenuator seems to do the trick for cooling down the signal a bit.

It's a little disconcerting the channel lineup has been taken down from the verizonfios.com web site. Not sure what to make of that other than they don't appreciate people commenting on what channels "should" be in the lineup that aren't or (still in negotiation).

Gave me the following message:

http://mysite.verizon.net/ruvic/verizonfios.gif

***UPDATE***

I just looked online (Google FIOSTV) and for the first time it said Good News, FIOSTV is available, but I could not order online. I had to call! Then when I looked at packages it, too, said I am good to go!

You can start the order process online NOW for FiOS TV packages. I was not able to select "cablecards", they would only offer set top boxes (at least online)...going to have to call on that one.


www.verizonfios.com

Click on packages and pricing and it will begin to walk you through the steps...

EDIT:

I'm online with customer service agent and she said that once the e-mail confirmation comes for your installation, there will be a local office number to call to "edit" your order and switch to cablecards vs. set top box.

SEE THE CHAT TRANSCRIPT BELOW...

You are now chatting with 'Cheniqua'

Cheniqua: Hello. Thank you for visiting our chat service. How can I assist you with ordering?

you: It looks like I can order FIOS TV for the BEAVERTON, OR / WASHINGTON COUNTY, OR area...but I can't view a channel lineup.

you: Can you tell me if the channels (Comcast Sports Net NORTHWEST) and (Fox Sports Northwest are included in this channel lineup?

Cheniqua: I will be happy to help you with that.

Cheniqua: May I have your zip code?

you: 97006

Cheniqua: We do not currently offer the Comcast Sports Net or the Fox Sports Network in your area.

Cheniqua: Thank you for waiting.

you: Appreciate your help, do you know if Verizon is in negotiation for those channels?

Cheniqua: No, unfortunately I do not. However, we are compiling a list of channels that are customers are interested in to determine which new channels to provide in your area.

Cheniqua: I will add both of these channels to our list.

Lucky!!! I am in the Tanasbourne area - Cornell and 185th and have had fios internet since the launch but TV still says unavailable for me......

Now it's only letting me order internet and TV together...once I found out they were not carrying FSN and CSNN, I halted my order.

Since then, I've not been able to order TV alone by itself. This is only trying to order online as I have not tried to call Verizon directly.

One online CSR said he didn't even have any TV information for our area (but could tell me those two channels were not in the lineup - ironic).

They'd be stupid to not offer Fox Sports NW at the very least. Comcast channel is going to take awhile before anyone besides Comcast has it.


Checked it earlier today and it wasn't available to sign up for. Will wait for a bit if FSNW isn't available.

I still can't order (online) TV by itself and when I called in, they're "computers are down" right now - of course.

When I completed the "double-play" option, the earliest installation date was November 20, 2007. I did not complete the order, as I just wanted to see what the availability was for installation. I did notice that when I wanted to change my installation date, there were no weekend options available, even into December.

Yeah, the install isn't a quick one by any means......I am glad I had everything set up and installed a while ago for internet. installing cable should be a pretty simple deal now, at least one would think.....

I got the "pre-order" information and that it would be rolled out in late December / early January for our area. I told him that I could order the "double-play" online right now...as his computers were down, he really couldn't help me too much.

When I click on channel lineup on the FiOS TV web site, it gives me an error and won't load. I wonder if they're updating the list for our area. The number I called was 800-483-4000. The guy said he'd call me back tomorrow once the 'puters were back up and running.

If anything this gives me time to empty out the old DVR now........late December/early Jan seems to be the most common answer right now.

After trying the 1-888-GET-FIOS number, I was given the 1-800-483-4000 number to contact my "local Verizon office." When their computers came back up, they told me it would be "January 8th or sooner."

The website now shows no availability when I enter my phone number, but shows FIOS TV is available when I "qualify by address."

I suspect the computer crash, loss of guide data, and 1/8 launch date are all related. I'm hopeful when we wake up tomorrow they will all be fixed and we'll be able to order asap.

Gave me the following message:

http://mysite.verizon.net/ruvic/verizonfios.gif

I got the same and called but I was at work and didn't have my acct #.

Called again a few minutes ago and was told it wasn't available. I called the 800-483-4000 # and they confirmed that they're doing pre-sell right now and installs in 4th qtr, but couldn't enter my info because the computers were down. She'll call me back tomorrow to let me know that she entered it.

They actually got back to me last night and got me signed up for Triple Play. They'll be doing the install next week but they couldn't confirm whether TV will be able to be installed then. If they can they'll do it otherwise they'll have to come back when TV is available.

Other than waiving the activation fee I didn't get any discount. I'll be interested to hear if anyone else is able to get one.

Received a call back from Verizon this morning and basically took down the pre-order information...he said the expected rollout is First Week of January.

If it comes sooner, those on the pre-order list will be contacted first for an installation date/confirmation that they do in fact want to switch/add FiOS TV.

No other news to report really...it does look like you can still order the "double-play" off of the web site though at this point. My gut feeling is that it's much closer to rollout than January.

I can confirm that Verizon is in discussions with Comcast Sports Net Northwest (CSNN) to carry that channel.

For whatever it's worth, this is what I was told yesterday by the people at the Verizon Wireless store, in Tanasbourne east of 185th, sort of near Target...

They'll start taking pre-orders as early as this Friday, 11/9. It may slip; possibly as late as 11/25 (or more). They won't know for sure until sometime tomorrow (Wednesday). Sales training has supposedly already started.

The pre-order rollout will be done a local area at a time; the first will supposedly be Aloha/Beaverton area. Once the process is going more areas will be added, one each week.

The sales staff at the fios display is keeping a list of people to call when orders are possible. That list may be restricted to people who already have fios installed; that wasn't clear to me.

How meaningful the above is of course depends on whether the sales staff when I was there really knew anything...

Hopefully the above is correct. I live about a mile from that Verizon store and I alrady have FiOS installed. Just waiting for TV!!! The conversation I had with the installer at that time knew I was also waiting for TV and we went over what would happen - should be as simple as a coax run.....nothing more. All I need is the box, I'll do the rest tonight!! :D

I was inspired by these tales, so even though I'm in Tigard, I called the 1-800-Get-Fios number and successfully preordered my FIOS TV. Supposedly it will be available beginning Jan 6th.

So the process is that once Jan 6th gets near (or whatever the rollout date for Tigard is) they'll call and set up the installation. I just went ahead and ordered the Triple Play (or is that Comcast's term, lol?). BTW, be prepared to tell them some details such as if you have all the coaxial outlets you need and how many and what kinds of digital boxes or DVR's you require.

Latest word from the same Tanasbourne Verizon store...

It's still possible that ordering might open up by Friday, 11/9, though ify. They won't know for sure until tomorrow night (Thursday night). 11/25 is more likely. Once ordering for these early installs open, install delays should be around a week.

Verizon was a little more forthcoming as to their expected rollout dates/locations, etc. So many people are ready and waiting, why not throw them a bone already. Oh well, what's that saying, "good things come to those who wait..."

Verizon was a little more forthcoming as to their expected rollout dates/locations, etc. So many people are ready and waiting, why not throw them a bone already. Oh well, what's that saying, "good things come to those who wait..."

They can't be more forthcoming. They have to slow-play this rollout for two reasons. First, there will be inevitable bugs. (The pioneers get the arrows in their backs). Second, each install is very labor intensive. There isn't an army of trained installers just sitting around, waiting. What would happen if 20,000 people signed up in one week?

They can't be more forthcoming. They have to slow-play this rollout for two reasons. First, there will be inevitable bugs. (The pioneers get the arrows in their backs). Second, each install is very labor intensive. There isn't an army of trained installers just sitting around, waiting. What would happen if 20,000 people signed up in one week?

Labor intensive? For those already with an ONT and FiOS internet installed, two cablecards and the flip of a switch is all I need...don't need any additional outlets or even a set top box.

Agreed on the untrained installers and the masses signing up...that probably wouldn't work too well.

They can't be more forthcoming. They have to slow-play this rollout for two reasons. First, there will be inevitable bugs. (The pioneers get the arrows in their backs). Second, each install is very labor intensive. There isn't an army of trained installers just sitting around, waiting. What would happen if 20,000 people signed up in one week?



Should provide it first to existing FiOS customers first, and then roll out to the rest. I don't really want to move my router from where it's at, which is not anywhere near the tv, but also don't want to run coaxial from it around the house to the existing wiring already. Worst case, I move the box from one telephone jack to another and go wireless on the main computer.

Labor intensive? For those already with an ONT and FiOS internet installed, two cablecards and the flip of a switch is all I need...don't need any additional outlets or even a set top box.

In some cases it will be easy for Verizon. But even in your case, maybe Verizon will be like Comcast and do a "truck roll" to get you the cablecards. Even assuming nothing goes wrong, that truck roll is time consuming and expensive.

There will be others with an existing ONT and existing FiOS over twisted pair. Those people might need coax routed around their house.

There will be other people, like me, who have an empty Verizon plastic pipe crossing under the street to my house. For those people, Verizon will need to come out with a piece of fiber, connect it to the FiOS tap, fish it under the street, dig a trench thru my yard to the side of my house, add an ONT, maybe add twisted pair, maybe add coax. Then make sure everything works. Very labor intensive!

The latest word, again from the same Tanasbourne Verizon store...

The goal is to physically start early installs roughly 11/25, again just for the first test area. Preordering for these installs could open any time next week. These dates will only happen if Verizon thinks they're ready.

In some cases it will be easy for Verizon. But even in your case, maybe Verizon will be like Comcast and do a "truck roll" to get you the cablecards. Even assuming nothing goes wrong, that truck roll is time consuming and expensive.

There will be others with an existing ONT and existing FiOS over twisted pair. Those people might need coax routed around their house.

There will be other people, like me, who have an empty Verizon plastic pipe crossing under the street to my house. For those people, Verizon will need to come out with a piece of fiber, connect it to the FiOS tap, fish it under the street, dig a trench thru my yard to the side of my house, add an ONT, maybe add twisted pair, maybe add coax. Then make sure everything works. Very labor intensive!

The trenching and stuff would take place before your install date. Which is why customers who don't have FiOS already running in their homes would probably have 1 week out install dates then customers who have it already.

My install date is Wed. but I got a call this morning saying that were at my house doing prep work and wanted to get into my crawlspace. I'm not sure what that was about. :confused:

Anyway, I'm still hoping they'll install TV but I doubt it'll happen.

Rather than the real installer (who just deals with the ONT box and inside the house issues) that sounds like the non-Verizon contractor crew that strings the FIOS cable from the street to the best spot on your house (usually your garage). In my case they meant well but weren't as careful as I would have liked. I had to patch oversized holes in my foundation's wire vent grates when they could have just clipped a couple little wires.

In short, be sure to double check the work they did. You don't want to end up with mice in your basement because they were too sloppy.

Here's some info from the pre-order I just placed. Hopefully it's helpful to others.

If you pre-order, and your services are already bundled, you receive a $5 discount which starts immediately.

The Premier package w/ 2 HD DVRs was 68.97 per month. The HD DVRs are priced at $12.95 per month each. When you add the bundle discount, that drops to $55 per month.

They are running a promotion that allows you to add a movie package (either Stars+Showtime or HBO or HBO+Max) for $20 which includes an HD DVR. In other words, for another $8, you can get one of the movie packages.

After adding such a package, my bundle price rose to 148.97 ($61.23 of which was the TV portion). That doesn't include taxes -- they don't have an estimate for taxes in Oregon yet (or at least she didn't).

Cable cards are available for $2.99 each for TIVO owners/fans.

Basic service ("Premier") includes Fox Sports Northwest since that is our regional Fox Sports affiliate. The rep lives in Seattle and has FIOS TV and she receives FSNW. That doesn't necessarily confirm that they have the same licensing agreement worked out in Oregon yet.

Finally, as far as install dates, she still quoted the 1/6/08 date for the launch of service. She said that is the date all of the state licensing takes effect, so she didn't expect it could or would happen sooner.

Caveat: the sales rep made two or three statements that suggested she wasn't very familiar with the technical aspects of their service, so some of her info may not be completely accurate. e.g. she thought the Home Media Hub ($20/month) could stream HD video to the other HD receivers in the house. I have read in several places, including Verizon's web site, that it can only stream non-HD content. An update is expected in 2008 to allow HD streaming.

Not directly relevant for those of us with Verizon, but the Oregonian is running an article that suggests Qwest is backtracking on providing TV to their Portland customers.

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/business/1195014339326610.xml&coll=7

While in some other states, Verizon does try for a state-wide license (e.g. Texas), that's not true in Oregon. Verizon is getting franchise agreements from individual cities and cable tv commissions. On at least the west side, most/all of those are in place.

The difference might be due to Verizon having no intention of providing service to the entire state of Oregon; just to the old General Telephone (now Verizon) serviced areas.

Yesterday, I called to reconfirm my "pre-order" for FiOS TV. Everything was good to go and when they're ready to install the service, I'll get a call.

The only thing holding me back is the Comcast Sports Net NW channel...especially the HD version of such. I was at a friend's place last night watching the Blazers vs. Pistons on ch. 788 (comcast) in HD and was very impressed. CSNN has the leverage against other service providers (verizon, dishn, dtv), especially if the team continues to play well. Hopefully something will be worked out by January or whenever the TV service comes online for our area.

Well the installer just left - no TV but the 15/2 is looking pretty nice. The install went fast, only 2.5 hrs. He said they were rolling out the TV in Aloha first, starting tomorrow, then Hillsboro a little later. He's going to give me a call when it's available for me.

Rather than the real installer (who just deals with the ONT box and inside the house issues) that sounds like the non-Verizon contractor crew that strings the FIOS cable from the street to the best spot on your house (usually your garage). In my case they meant well but weren't as careful as I would have liked. I had to patch oversized holes in my foundation's wire vent grates when they could have just clipped a couple little wires.

In short, be sure to double check the work they did. You don't want to end up with mice in your basement because they were too sloppy.

They ended up going under my driveway because I wasn't home. I still can't figure out why they wanted into the crawlspace since they'd have to then come back towards the front of the house to get to the garage. My grass is a little worse for wear and they dug up a flower bed which I'll probably hear about for the next 6 mos. but overall not a big deal.

Hopefully it will come to Beaverton/WA County/Bethany area sooner than the stated Jan. 6th.

Yesterday, I called to reconfirm my "pre-order" for FiOS TV. Everything was good to go and when they're ready to install the service, I'll get a call.

The only thing holding me back is the Comcast Sports Net NW channel...especially the HD version of such. I was at a friend's place last night watching the Blazers vs. Pistons on ch. 788 (comcast) in HD and was very impressed. CSNN has the leverage against other service providers (verizon, dishn, dtv), especially if the team continues to play well. Hopefully something will be worked out by January or whenever the TV service comes online for our area.Hey jtrain, when you say you were "very impressed" just how impressed was that? :). The reason I ask is because the first HD CSNNW Blazer game looked good except there was moderate blocking on the close shots with movement. When I watched the game last night the blocking was much worse. Are you saying you actually saw clean PQ last night?


ron

Well, Verizon has started a tele-marketing command to get people on the pre-order list for fios tv. All the person would say is Jan. 6 or earlier.

TV Now Available!


Well, not quite but it's showing up on the Channel Lineup now (see the bottom left purple box). I still get the "Good News...TV not yet available" when I do the check.


http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/5862/channellineupxd1.jpg

Hey jtrain, when you say you were "very impressed" just how impressed was that? :). The reason I ask is because the first HD CSNNW Blazer game looked good except there was moderate blocking on the close shots with movement. When I watched the game last night the blocking was much worse. Are you saying you actually saw clean PQ last night?


ron


I was watching the game on a 42" Vizio, through Comcast Cable box and the quality was tremendous (speaking of the Pistons/Blazers game on Tuesday evening). The picture was definitively clear, there was never any breakup and even the up-rezzed SD commercials looked good. I can't see Verizon negotiating too heavily to get the HD version of CSNNW unless a lot of customers write/request for it to be added to the channel lineup...and I emphasize A LOT.

I'm unsure as to how many RSN's (Regional Sports Networks) with an HD simulcast channel are picked up by Verizon nationally. The only one I've actually heard/read of is the CSNMA - which I'm supposing is either Massachusetts or Maryland. But there may be more. Talk about a pleasant Christmas surprise...CSNNW HD on the Verizon channel lineup.

That channel lineup still doesn't show FSN or CSNNW, even if you add the Sports Package to the Premier Package. I hope they get that sorted out sooner than later with those negotiations...I did notice that an additional HD channel has been added since the last time the channel lineup was available...Discovery HD.

Hmmmm... when I try the channel linup web page today, it doesn't work 97006 or 97123 (what was shown above). It does work for 97005, showing as region "Beaverton MACC".

Hmmmm... when I try the channel linup web page today, it doesn't work 97006 or 97123 (what was shown above). It does work for 97005, showing as region "Beaverton MACC".

97006 works for me. Beaverton, Hillsboro, and Washington County show up in the City/Region list.

97006 works for me. Beaverton, Hillsboro, and Washington County show up in the City/Region list.

Same here...so close yet January 6th seems so far away...hehe

I think I found out why I didn't see 97006; the Verizon web site might have something cached locally. Using a different browser with a different cache directory, I can now see a lineup for 97006.

Got something in the mail yesterday saying FiOS TV was here. Didn't read it but saw the big letters in passing.

Latest prediction from the Tanasbourne Verizon store; FIOS TV by 12/7.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2007/11/a_price_and_launch_date_for_ve.html

I can confirm that my zip 97124 (Hilllsboro) is set for Jan 6 release. I have an appointment for that date in the queue.

here's to hoping that Christmas comes early (or on time) for those of us ready to have something other than Comcastic/Dish/DTV service and that FSN and CSNNW contracts will be hammered out by Verizon as well. I'm also set for Jan. 6th, but hoping it comes sooner and was told it could possibly be sooner than that.

I read jpistacc's post and what they have in his pre-order of FiOS TV and the service. Can you give a few more details about it. How much your phone service is (and what package it is), what Internet plan you got, etc.

I am quite interested in knowing what promotions they are doing and what discounts you are getting with their bundles (doesn't show up on their web site). Anyone else have their freedom bundle (Phone, TV, Internet, and Wireless)?

Does sound like a great deal you got, jpistacc. Great price on the TV package and you intend to get Two HD DVRs. I plan to order one HD Home Media DVR and a standard box (for the bedroom). I sure like the streaming feature of the Home Media DVR.

We pay about $150 a month now for Comcast Triple Play (Digital Voice, 6 Mbps Internet, Standard Cable with digital box) and FiOS will give us SO MUCH more for the money.

Will post more as our install goes through.

I already have the Freedom Bundle. The figures quoted in my original posting don't reflect the $40 for cell service. That amount is in addition. We have the basic phone service and the 5/2 internet service. The current total, including taxes, etc., comes to about $130 for phone/cell/internet. That's about $45 for cell, $35 for net and $50 for phone (including all taxes). the taxes on the cell, net and phone total about $20 alone. Presumably, those would be the same for everyone, regardless of service provider.

I signed up for 2 HD DVRs because the Home Media DVR does not yet stream HD content to the other boxes. Since most of what we watch/record is in HD, we need the 2nd DVR.

I'm curious if other pre-orders found similar pricing, or if my salesperson was off her rocker.

I read jpistacc's post and what they have in his pre-order of FiOS TV and the service. Can you give a few more details about it. How much your phone service is (and what package it is), what Internet plan you got, etc.

I am quite interested in knowing what promotions they are doing and what discounts you are getting with their bundles (doesn't show up on their web site). Anyone else have their freedom bundle (Phone, TV, Internet, and Wireless)?

Does sound like a great deal you got, jpistacc. Great price on the TV package and you intend to get Two HD DVRs. I plan to order one HD Home Media DVR and a standard box (for the bedroom). I sure like the streaming feature of the Home Media DVR.

We pay about $150 a month now for Comcast Triple Play (Digital Voice, 6 Mbps Internet, Standard Cable with digital box) and FiOS will give us SO MUCH more for the money.

Will post more as our install goes through.

I'm curious if other pre-orders found similar pricing, or if my salesperson was off her rocker.

For 5/2 FIOS I-Net, phone, and FIOS TV, we were quoted $99 for the base triple package plus another $26 (I think) for two set-top boxes and one DVR.

I was told $116 total for all three services, but that doesn't completely jibe with what I was told for individual prices. I get the impression that the package discount is $10-$20/mo.

We're really looking forward to dumping the basic cable cable we've been tormenting ourselves with for the last two years as a form of protest against Comcast's pricing practices. They're still shooting for Jan 6th based on what they told my wife on the phone when they called to confirm the installation appt.

Got a recorded call about 2 weeks ago from Verizon to call to find out more/pre-order FiOS TV. We were about to leave town for 10 days so I passed. In yesterday's mail I got a letter with a similar invitation. So I called the 888 number and am now on the pre-order list.

We currently have Verizon for land phone, 2 wireless phones and FiOS internet 5/2. I use Comcast for TV/HDTV with one DVR (3416) and one HD non-DVR box (besides my "free" aging OTA setup).

I was told there would be an opportunity to decline going forward with the TV installation at the time a scheduler will call. I need to know definitively what the channel lineup will be before I take that step. The rep, who was in Ventura,CA, wasn't quite sure about exactly what HD we would get here in Wash. County, OR. I think Verizon is trying to add the new Comcast SportsNet and is in discussions with them. But I would also miss VersusHD, USAHD, TBSHD, mostly for the golf coverage I enjoy. I don't swee these on the Verizon master list.

And I guess that's where the uncertainty lies. I don't see a way to replicate the "packages" Verizon offers from looking at their website. Hopefully, by the first of the year there will be a better representation of what we can sign up for. On the surface, it appears I would be able to save a few bucks by consolidating with Verizon. I was quoted $99.99 for the Freedom Essentials pkg. that included the NFL Network with HD (can I really believe that?), HDNet and HDNet Movies besides the locals and other HD channels. $12.99 for the HD DVR and $9.99 for the non-DVR HD box. This package includes the land line with unlimited long distance, etc. and the 5/2 internet. Then I get an additional $5 off my wireless arrangement by adding it to a One Bill feature (I already have that and get a $5 discount but this is in addition to that).

I currently have HBO w/Cinemax from Comcast and I don't know what that pricing may be from Verizon. We'll cross that bridge when I know better what the channel offering will be when they call for the installation.

Unfortunately, they have jacked up the prices for the Beaverton rollout. They now have two prices for DVRs - 12.99 for a non-HD DVR and 15.99 for the HD-DVR. Cablecards are 3.00 each.

If you sign a 2year deal, you can get 15/2 internet, phone w/free long distance, and their premier (42.99) FIOSTV deal for $114.99. The 1yr deal costs you $124.99. Set-top boxes are on top of that cost.

NFL Network is INCLUDED with their regular 42.99 200-channel TV package. They do have a sports tier for an extra $8/mo (??); that adds a bunch of fox college sports, golf channel, outdoor channel, fishing network, horse racing TV, Tennis, blackbelt channel, and so forth. But they definitely have NOT put NFL Network into their sports tier.

At least that's what Steve at the Tanasbourne store showed me. All this stuff is online at the verizon.com/fios web site. In the upper right of the page - enter your location - put in 97006. Then you can navigate to the FIOS TV page, see the pkgs and prices, extra add-ons (boxes and such). They don't have any "bundle" prices posted online yet.

I currently have HBO w/Cinemax from Comcast and I don't know what that pricing may be from Verizon. We'll cross that bridge when I know better what the channel offering will be when they call for the installation.
HBO/Cinemax combo is $26 on top of the $43 for their "premier" 200-channel deal. You add the $26 on top of any bundle deal. Plus you add any converter boxes or DVRs as well.

i've heard of no negotiations for comcast sportsnet. don't know where that tidbit came from. latest date for release is 12/10. "friendlies" coming online 12/1.

i've heard of no negotiations for comcast sportsnet. don't know where that tidbit came from. latest date for release is 12/10. "friendlies" coming online 12/1.

I'll have to search but I thought I read that in the Oregonian.

Release of what is scheduled 12/10? What are "friendlies"?

OK, I think this is where I saw it: http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2007/11/a_price_and_launch_date_for_ve.html

Perhaps as a blog reference maybe the source isn't credible. :confused::) But it does give one hope ....

"friendlies" = employee test accounts.

general availabililty for fios tv oregon is slated for 12/10.

In case you have not heard, new subscribers (after January 20th) are set to see a 12% price increase. More detail can be found on:

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6504425.html

Ain't competition great ?;)

Unfortunately, they have jacked up the prices for the Beaverton rollout. They now have two prices for DVRs - 12.99 for a non-HD DVR and 15.99 for the HD-DVR. Cablecards are 3.00 each.

If you sign a 2year deal, you can get 15/2 internet, phone w/free long distance, and their premier (42.99) FIOSTV deal for $114.99. The 1yr deal costs you $124.99. Set-top boxes are on top of that cost.



This pricing jives with the pricing I got when I pre-registered last week. My total was $141 for the 15/2, phone, and TV with the HD-DVR. I wasn't offered a 2 year commitment, I guess. I will likely be going to cablecards for TiVo, after I try out their box for a while.

Does anyone know if there is any "additional outlet" charge from Verizon?

If I got Verizon TV I'd want to use TiVo HD units instead of Verizon's DVRs. Would I pay Verizon $3.00*2 for two cablecards for each TiVo I add? Or would I also need to pay extra for the programming? I think Comcast charges an extra $7/mo for programming for each "outlet" after the first.

aside from activation/installation, there is no additional monthly charge. standard installation includes 3 wired outlets. add'l wired outlets are $20 and it is in the $55 range to wire a new outlet.

you'll pay $3 for each cc every month, but no programming charges.

aside from activation/installation, there is no additional monthly charge.

btw my activation charge was waived since I currently had DSL through Verizon.

btw my activation charge was waived since I currently had DSL through Verizon.

Likewise waived, but I have their FiOS 5/2 internet not DSL.

Likewise waived, but I have their FiOS 5/2 internet not DSL.

I, too, have 5/2. Are you going to spend the extra $10 to go to 15/2? I am thinking of keeping my 5/2. For me the 2 up is great. Down depends on the site we connect to.

If you bundle tv, phone, FiOS internet, and wireless (three of the four or even four of the four), you get bumped to the 15/2 tier.

If you bundle tv, phone, FiOS internet, and wireless (three of the four or even four of the four), you get bumped to the 15/2 tier.

I'll have to follow up on that. I will have 4 of 4 when TV is added. The sales person who signed me up said nothing about a speed bump for internet. That was not an important element for me - I'm satisfied with the 5/2.

Any of the bundle deals specifically says 15/2. Might as well get it when you're bundling it all together. I think we're going to wait until after the Super Bowl before bundling as we have Verizon for everything else as well. Sometimes when you bundle stuff together, you lose services that you're paying for currently (call-waiting ID for one is not included in any bundle).

If you bundle tv, phone, FiOS internet, and wireless (three of the four or even four of the four), you get bumped to the 15/2 tier.


Well...yes, and no. It still is not free as it is $10 less if you get that package and keep 5/2. I thought the same but if you dig you find out that 15/2 is not a free upgrade!

I saw their pricing sheet at the store; it had both 15/2 and 5/2 triple-pay bundled tiers, priced at 114.99 and 104.99 respectively (that is without set top boxes, premium channels, and additional taxes for phone such as subscriber line charge, etc). I think you have to add on like $8-$10 of taxes to whatever they quote you.

I did not see anything about bundle price for 15/15 symmetric service at the store, but online yesterday I could order it.

Oh, and it looks like they do plan to raise the 200-channel TV service by $5, from $43/mo to $48/mo for anyone who subscribes starting in January. So perhaps now is the chance to lock in the $43/mo price with a one or two year contract. I can only assume the bundle prices would also rise accordingly but who knows....

Hrmmm I was told $99 + $10 for 15/2. Maybe those price sheets already reflect the $5 bump???

Just got off the phone with Verizon Fiber Operations:

1. They're starting the FIOS TV rollout on 12/6.
2. If you have an order in the system they'll call you around this date to confirm order & schedule install date/time. From how it sounded one will probably get scheduled within a day or two of the phone call.
3. They're pulling in extra install technicians from WA to assist with "regular installs" (Internet) while the OR techs focus on "video installs" (TV).

Sounds like the 1/6/08 install date was a month off!

Now I just have to wait for my phone to ring...

On a whim, I just tried my phone number in the online Verizon "Do you qualify for FIOS TV"? For the very first time, it answered yes, and showed available packages. Everytime before it went to the future notification page.

I do already have a pre-order in, they're supposed to call when installations can be scheduled....

So it might be getting VERY close.

You may be right. Until this evening, the availability site alternated between "not available" and "available but no online ordering." Now it allows me to start the online ordering process. It also confirms that I have an "order in progress" which is where it stops me.

I tried going through the Tanasbourne Verizon store. I now have a FIOS TV order with a firm installation date; 12/10. It could have been 12/6 or 12/7 if I'd been available on those dates.

Got a call this morning to schedule an install. The message said they have openings on the 7th, 8th, & 9th. Unfortunately, I can't get through to anyone now - it's either a busy signal or I just get dropped. Their phone system sucks!

Got a call from Verizon. My install date is Dec 12th.

Hope everything works.

Got a call from Verizon. My install date is Dec 12th.

Hope everything works.

Nice! Did they call on Sunday? I never did get through on Saturday but I'll try again this a.m.

I just got scheduled for the 8th!

I asked about the prices on the STB's also and was told that the prices just went up. Anyone that had pre-ordered got locked in at the lower rates.

I just got scheduled for the 8th!

I asked about the prices on the STB's also and was told that the prices just went up. Anyone that had pre-ordered got locked in at the lower rates.

Which number did you call? I called the 800 483 4000 number and was unable to schedule an installation. They basically said, wait until we call you...

Any word on Comcast Sports Net NW or Fox Sports NW? I'm still not seeing either in the posted channel lineup on Verizonfios.com.


On the phone now (12/3 - 12:05p.m.)...1-888-553-1555...is the number I was able to get some legit help for scheduling an installation...

For you early installees, can you let us know if FSNW shows up in your actual channel lineaup after installation?

I called the 1-800-483-4000 number and received a 12/17 install date. They had availability on 12/10 as well.

Scheduled install for 12/10 @ 3p.m.

Two cablecards for Series 3 TiVo...