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Verizon FIOS GPON in Nine States – New installs in those states now all GPON
Here comes the shift. GPON finally sees some volume on the horizon.
Telecom, Meet Web 2.0
Google (GOOG) appears to be buying GrandCentral, a company that merges VoIP and advanced calling features. They provide you with a single phone number and web/mobile interfaces to manage call redirection, voicemail, address books, etc. Think of it as VoIP on steroids and EPO, simultaneously. Click over to their Features page for a better description and familiarize yourself with how outdated a plain landline has become.
AT&T Lightspeed Gets More Expensive
All is not well at the Death Star today. AT&T (T ) announced that capex for the U-Verse IPTV & Fiber to the Node initiative (known as Project Lightspeed) would increase from $4.6B to $6.5B. They also announced the scope of the project was being reduced from 19M to 18M homes.
This is a sizable increase (41%) in capex for a project that was designed to minimize cost. It is indicative that the decision AT&T made to substitute advanced technology to deliver an incremental solution in favor of laying fiber isn’t going as planned. The price of mediocrity just went up.
Everyone Wants an NGN
Those of you in the component, equipment, or carrier businesses should listen to the latest strategy presentation from Carphone Warehouse, a competitive carrier that offers broadband, voice, and mobile services in the UK. It offers a stunning picture of how low the economic barriers to entry have become when building a greenfield network. Now that the price of owning one has dropped, everyone wants a Next Generation Network (NGN), and no one wants an albatross of old telecom kit.
FTTH Stakeholders /= FTTH Shareholders
People tout the big benefits of fiber but refuse to allow those who put capital at risk to make big profits. They seem to be afraid that someone, somewhere, might actually make some money.
A report from the Broadband Stakeholder Group summarizes ongoing worldwide fiber to the home (FTTH) projects . The report highlights the need for FTTH in the UK, something BT (BT) has steadfastly refused to do.
I cannot blame BT- asking them to deploy an expensive network and then be forced to lease it out to competitors (with no downside investment protection of course) is a ridiculous thing to expect of a profit driven entity.
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Who Pays for the Online Video Boom?
Everyone talks about the explosion in Video traffic. Everyone talks about the explosion in the bandwidth required to carry it. No one talks about who is going to pay for it. There is one likely source: transit bandwidth inflation.
Squirrels Ate My FiOS
It’s not just a catchy title. I lost my FiOS connectivity Saturday morning, rendering my Verizon tripe-play package of voice, data, and television inoperative. The culprit? Squirrels. Continue reading
Broadlogic and Cable’s Analog Ghetto
Broadlogic announced a chip today that provides a high density solution for converting Digital Cable TV channels to Analog. It’s a slick solution but I don’t think it will see mass adoption. Here’s why.
Pulling the Plug on Tivo
I’ve pulled the plug on Tivo (TIVO) after three years of great service. With my recent FiOS TV subscription, I needed HD capability and I cannot justify paying $800 for hardware I get for free from Verizon (VZ). I just wish I had tried to cancel my Tivo service earlier as they offered to cut the per month fee in half if I stayed. That’s a bad leading indicator for the health of this company.
I’m not off to a great start with Verizon FiOS TV. Installer pulled a no show at my home this morning. No call, no warning, nothing. I phoned in and spoke to the same lady who took my order. Her explanation? Their systems ‘changed’ and my order was ‘lost’.
Unbelievable. I’m waiting for a call back to find out when I can spend another morning waiting for an installer to show.
Update: – Verizon executes about as good of a recovery as one could expect. They rescheduled me for a Saturday, tomorrow, and credited me $100. Plus, they didn’t try and hide the fact they screwed up.
