FINALLY - getting Verizon Fios in Bryans Road today.

[birdonamission]

Been waiting for 2 years since we moved to northern Charles County. They laid the fiber on our street last fall and I guess the infrastructure stuff is complete and I was able to order service last week. Was so tired of the very expensive patchwork of three different providers for TV, Internet, and landline. And the TV programming falls FAR below what Fios offers (I'm getting the Ultimate package to start with). And Internet was spotty at times.

We had Fios when we lived near Baltimore and was happy 90% of the time (no one is perfect) so I'm looking forward to getting them back. Don't worry, I read the trash talk against them on here but "as for me and house" we are more than glad to get rid of our current set up and go back.

I originally signed up for 300 over 300 but this morning the Verizon customer service guy offered to upgrade me to 1 GB over 1 GB and pay less. Nice!

So, fellow Bryans Roaders -- we have options!

 

[Editor]

It looks like fiber and wireless is the "future."

I recently attended the Commissions of St. Mary's meeting regarding the re-upping of Metrocast's franchise in the county. A few choice statements were made:

-- Verizon has no interest in upgrading their copper cable plant (no surprise here)

-- Metrocast only wanted to renew the franchise for another 10/ten years. The current agreement is for 15/fifteen years.

-- The FCC does not regulate the ISP/Internet component of a cable TV provider.

My interpretation of all of this was that within 10 years, the industry expects cable TV to be DEAD. I assume that classic television will all be provided as streaming over the internet. Not sure what the cable plant will be: cable, fiber, wireless, or all of the above.

I also assume that once everything is streaming, the FCC will be out of the picture and the internet providers will be free to do whatever they wish and charge customers until they bleed (that's what destroying the Net Neutrality is all about). I also expect that all entertainment packages will be unbundled and while people will be able to pick and choose what they subscribe to, they will pay far more overall than they pay today --- all of those 9.95/mo and 14.95/mo will add up very quickly.

 

[birdonamission]

Agree with your assessment. I'm old enough to remember the "technology" of 70's television and what we have now in comparison is mind-blowing, never mind what could be dreamed up in the near and far future.

At least you seem to be trying to keep up with what's going on (attending the commission meeting and what not). Thanks for sharing.

 

[awpitt]

It looks like fiber and wireless is the "future."

I recently attended the Commissions of St. Mary's meeting regarding the re-upping of Metrocast's franchise in the county. A few choice statements were made:

-- Verizon has no interest in upgrading their copper cable plant (no surprise here)

-- Metrocast only wanted to renew the franchise for another 10/ten years. The current agreement is for 15/fifteen years.

-- The FCC does not regulate the ISP/Internet component of a cable TV provider.

My interpretation of all of this was that within 10 years, the industry expects cable TV to be DEAD. I assume that classic television will all be provided as streaming over the internet. Not sure what the cable plant will be: cable, fiber, wireless, or all of the above.

I also assume that once everything is streaming, the FCC will be out of the picture and the internet providers will be free to do whatever they wish and charge customers until they bleed (that's what destroying the Net Neutrality is all about). I also expect that all entertainment packages will be unbundled and while people will be able to pick and choose what they subscribe to, they will pay far more overall than they pay today --- all of those 9.95/mo and 14.95/mo will add up very quickly.

Thanks for sharing the info. I think you're right about the future of CATV versus Internet streaming. I do think the FCC will find it's way back into the picture though.

 

[BernieP]

Thanks for sharing the info. I think you're right about the future of CATV versus Internet streaming. I do think the FCC will find it's way back into the picture though.

Let me say I'm not surprised by either Verizon or Metrocast. Over the last two decades (or more) there hasn't really been any competition for the St. Mary's franchise.
That's meant minimal improvements as new segments were added (new developments).
Way back I talked to a commission member who said that the larger cable companies didn't want to touch the system in St. Mary's because it would cost to much to bring it all up to standards. Metrocast has had the luxury of bit parting it over time.
Knowing there is no competition for the franchise give them some leverage.


I'm waiting for Verizon to pull the plug on DSL. My guess is that DSL is a shrinking part of their business, but cost wise, it's probably up there.

 

[awpitt]

Let me say I'm not surprised by either Verizon or Metrocast. Over the last two decades (or more) there hasn't really been any competition for the St. Mary's franchise.
That's meant minimal improvements as new segments were added (new developments).
Way back I talked to a commission member who said that the larger cable companies didn't want to touch the system in St. Mary's because it would cost to much to bring it all up to standards. Metrocast has had the luxury of bit parting it over time.
Knowing there is no competition for the franchise give them some leverage.


I'm waiting for Verizon to pull the plug on DSL. My guess is that DSL is a shrinking part of their business, but cost wise, it's probably up there.

You have to realize that the CATV infrastructure, here in St. Mary's, has been owned by quite a few different CATV companies over the years. It's not something that MetroCast built from scratch. I can't even remember all of the different names. I do remember that American Cable was the CATV provider when I first moved here in 1988. I do have to give MetroCast a little bit of credit because the cable infrastructure is a lot better now than it was when they first came into town.

 

[Gilligan]

I'll sure be glad when fiber reaches us. Tired of Metrocrap....and it's proven time and again to be too unreliable for our business connection so we're stuck with an expensive package of third-party services running on an ancient and slow copper T1 connection.

 

[GURPS]

... an expensive package of third-party services running on an ancient and slow copper T1 connection.

there were still ISDN lines for radio station connectivity when I worked at Six Flags

and we had 2x T-1's for Internet

 

[Gilligan]

there were still ISDN lines for radio station connectivity when I worked at Six Flags

and we had 2x T-1's for Internet

Verizon quoted us a major upgrade last year. It would have given us practically unlimited bandwidth...anything we were willing to pay for. The upgrade was 58 grand, as I recall...no idea what the monthly bill would have been.

 

[GURPS]

Verizon quoted us a major upgrade last year. It would have given us practically unlimited bandwidth...anything we were willing to pay for. The upgrade was 58 grand, as I recall...no idea what the monthly bill would have been.

converted over to XO [still verizion lines ofc] and upgraded to 30 and 100 mbps for less than the 4 T-1's

30 meg for general internet and 100 meg routed to the Texas Data Center for internal networking

 

[BernieP]

You have to realize that the CATV infrastructure, here in St. Mary's, has been owned by quite a few different CATV companies over the years. It's not something that MetroCast built from scratch. I can't even remember all of the different names. I do remember that American Cable was the CATV provider when I first moved here in 1988. I do have to give MetroCast a little bit of credit because the cable infrastructure is a lot better now than it was when they first came into town.

Oh, I know, it's crap. The county hasn't required much of the cable provider, if they did require something like a system upgrade and proper installation of the network, they probably wouldn't get a bid at all. What I've heard is the majors, Cox, Comcast, etc. have certain corporate standards that they need to adhere to. The cost to do so would be far greater than the potential revenue. Hence you get what you get.
The said part is, it's a monopoly that's not even available county wide. Because of geography there are places that are just to uneconomical to reach.

 

[BernieP]

I'll sure be glad when fiber reaches us. Tired of Metrocrap....and it's proven time and again to be too unreliable for our business connection so we're stuck with an expensive package of third-party services running on an ancient and slow copper T1 connection.

you (and I) will be long gone by then.
I've asked and the answer is, no plan. No on their roadmap. Where? :lol