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Verizon FiOS HDTV

2M views 19K replies 1K participants last post by  Marcus Carr 
#1 ·
I have heard about the new Verizon FIOS internet and TV services being rolled out across the country. My question is since they are using fiber optics to transmit their signal and with giving them additional bandwidth, will Comcast be ready to compete with them for pure channel capacity?
 
#12,661 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by URFloorMatt /forum/post/18673233


As has been pointed out on DSL Reports, FiOS is officially dropping four HD feeds on or about June 21, 2010:


ActionMax West

ThrillerMax West

TMC West

TMC Extra West


No word on what will replace them. And until I hear otherwise, I'm assuming all of us on 2009 Extreme HD won't get them when they do come.


Verizon is now the first provider to actually drop HD channels for reasons other than carriage disputes.

So they are near or at capacity?

I thought fiber had a big advantage over regular old copper?

They may have to come up with some new commercials.
 
#12,662 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joel Clemons /forum/post/18682695


Yeah, I believe those are the ones. I do know that one of them was located between ION-HD and USA-HD...aren't those national channels?

Virtual channels 2-49 and 460-549 are local channels, but I was referring to the physical locations, channels 63-65 and 67-78 are used for local broadcasts, and 127-128 for local P/E/G channels. In Dallas, KUVN (Univision) HD is on 69.1523, and KSTR (Telefutura) HD on 67.1520. NYC has WXTV (Univision) HD on 70.1053 and WFUT (Telefutura) on 70.1052.
 
#12,663 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by clemon79 /forum/post/18681496


Hopefully this doesn't get lost in the shuffle of the other discussions, but I've been meaning to ask about this, as I am considering making the switch (because I have been screwed repeatedly by Comcast in 2010 and am sick of giving them money)...


Comcast is running a HUGE ad campaign in the state of Washington that states directly "Verizon FiOS is leaving Washington!" Now, I know that Verizon is selling off part of their assets to Frontier, but I was under the impression that this was only the copper-wire assets, such as landline telephone and DSL, because Verizon was shifting their focus to their fiberoptic offerings.


So my questions are: am I correct about this, or is the Washington FiOS service also part of the Frontier sale, and if I AM correct, how the heck is Comcast getting away with blatant false advertising?

Verizon is selling all their business in "rural" communities to Frontier except for their wireless phone service. In Oregon, the wireless has already been decoupled from their other lines of business for billing purposes. Comcast has been running similar ads about Verizon leaving Oregon in newspapers and billboards. So it's not false advertising.


Good link posted by DCFan.
 
#12,665 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by clemon79 /forum/post/18681496


Now, I know that Verizon is selling off part of their assets to Frontier, but I was under the impression that this was only the copper-wire assets, such as landline telephone and DSL, because Verizon was shifting their focus to their fiberoptic offerings.


So my questions are: am I correct about this, or is the Washington FiOS service also part of the Frontier sale, and if I AM correct, how the heck is Comcast getting away with blatant false advertising?

There's a lot of lying going on. E.g. shortly after the initial Verizon announcement, a door-to-door FiOS salesman (employed by a contractor firm) claimed to me that Verizon was only selling the copper. I knew that to be a lie, but he probably didn't.


A lot of time the "big lie" works. E.g. if you watched SNL you thought that Sarah Palin said "I can see Russia from my house". What she really said to Gibson was much more nuanced, but guess which version is the more popular "impression"?
 
#12,667 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantom Gremlin /forum/post/18688090


I knew that to be a lie, but he probably didn't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bicker1 /forum/post/18688371


You do realize, I hope, that if someone doesn't know something, that it isn't a lie, but rather a mistake. There's a difference.

"Remember, it's not a lie if you believe it to be true."
 
#12,668 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by bicker1 /forum/post/18688371


You do realize, I hope, that if someone doesn't know something, that it isn't a lie, but rather a mistake. There's a difference.

He was a salesman, that's prima facie proof he was lying.



Even if he didn't know, I'm sure his management knew. This was about a month after Verizon agreed to sell to Frontier. It's not possible that the salesman's management didn't educate themselves on exactly what had occurred. Perhaps they were lying by omission to their salesmen. (Much like how cable company management allows their CSRs to perpetuate many falsehoods). Or maybe the salesman was simply lying in trade.


Whatever. Plenty of lies to go around from both Verizon and the cable companies. It's all purposeless semantics to try to spin it any other way.
 
#12,671 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantom Gremlin /forum/post/18688090


There's a lot of lying going on. E.g. shortly after the initial Verizon announcement, a door-to-door FiOS salesman (employed by a contractor firm) claimed to me that Verizon was only selling the copper. I knew that to be a lie, but he probably didn't.


A lot of time the "big lie" works. E.g. if you watched SNL you thought that Sarah Palin said "I can see Russia from my house". What she really said to Gibson was much more nuanced, but guess which version is the more popular "impression"?

You're equating an SNL skit to something said by an official FIOS representative? So SNL really wanted me to believe that Peyton Manning invented the three-can beer hat?
 
#12,672 ·
PG apparently doesn't understand what the purpose of satire is or how it works. I don't believe Verizon is in the satire business, though their customer service operations often feel like a big joke.
 
#12,673 ·
Any news regarding a newer FIOS box? I really miss my PIP with TW and the defunct Passport... And I'd love a bigger hard drive. I don't archive anything and it's still difficult to record weekly shows and jockey through them in time.
 
#12,674 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by LL3HD /forum/post/18697672


Any news regarding a newer FIOS box? I really miss my PIP with TW and the defunct Passport... And I'd love a bigger hard drive. I don't archive anything and it's still difficult to record weekly shows and jockey through them in time.

Waiting with baited breath myself for the new huge
360 gig DVR. It will be expandable so that is at least good. I don't know if PIP will work but on Moto's it seems like it won't.


I am told 3rd/4th quarter.
 
#12,675 ·
But how easy will it be for existing subscribers to get the new DVR?
 
#12,676 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Speck's Dad /forum/post/18696620


You're equating an SNL skit to something said by an official FIOS representative? So SNL really wanted me to believe that Peyton Manning invented the three-can beer hat?

Let me make up some statistics to illustrate my point. Do a simple survey (e.g. Jaywalking) of a bunch of random voters off the street. You will find (of those who have an opinion):

greater than 50% believe that Sarah Palin said "I can see Russia from my house"

less than 1% believe that Peyton Manning invented the three-can beer hat
So the "big lie" or "smear" worked quite well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by URFloorMatt /forum/post/18697028


PG apparently doesn't understand what the purpose of satire is or how it works. I don't believe Verizon is in the satire business, though their customer service operations often feel like a big joke.

To try to remove my (perhaps ill-advised) political statements from this thread, here are similar non-political statements about HDTV:

because of clever advertising together with mis-information by CSRs, greater than 90% of cable and/or FiOS subscribers believe that you must rent a box from the company before you can receive any HD, even local HD channels

because of clever advertising together with mis-information by CSRs, greater than 90% of cable and/or FiOS subscribers believe that you must subscribe to an expensive digital programming tier before you can receive any HD, even local HD channels
We can quibble about the percentages above, which I pulled out of somewhere, but the general idea holds. Cable/FiOS has told a "big lie" about what services are available and at what cost. That big lie is believed by many more people than understand the actual truth. Because (at least where I live), you can get local HDTV from either Comcast or Verizon without renting a box and without paying for an expensive package.
 
#12,677 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantom Gremlin /forum/post/18698663


Let me make up some statistics to illustrate my point. Do a simple survey (e.g. Jaywalking) of a bunch of random voters off the street. You will find (of those who have an opinion):

greater than 50% believe that Sarah Palin said "I can see Russia from my house"

less than 1% believe that Peyton Manning invented the three-can beer hat
So the "big lie" or "smear" worked quite well.




To try to remove my (perhaps ill-advised) political statements from this thread, here are similar non-political statements about HDTV:

because of clever advertising together with mis-information by CSRs, greater than 90% of cable and/or FiOS subscribers believe that you must rent a box from the company before you can receive any HD, even local HD channels

because of clever advertising together with mis-information by CSRs, greater than 90% of cable and/or FiOS subscribers believe that you must subscribe to an expensive digital programming tier before you can receive any HD, even local HD channels
We can quibble about the percentages above, which I pulled out of somewhere, but the general idea holds. Cable/FiOS has told a "big lie" about what services are available and at what cost. That big lie is believed by many more people than understand the actual truth. Because (at least where I live), you can get local HDTV from either Comcast or Verizon without renting a box and without paying for an expensive package.

You win. All good points.
 
#12,678 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantom Gremlin /forum/post/18698663


...Because (at least where I live), you can get local HDTV from either Comcast or Verizon without renting a box and without paying for an expensive package.

I'm not really understanding your point. Most of us desire content, especially high def channels, and are not satisfied with just receiving the standard local channels. Why would anyone subscribe to FiOS to receive just a few network channels???
 
#12,680 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Hef /forum/post/18700894


I'm not really understanding your point. Most of us desire content, especially high def channels, and are not satisfied with just receiving the standard local channels. Why would anyone subscribe to FiOS to receive just a few network channels???

Someone who can't receive the channels OTA, and wants a fast Internet connection.
 
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