wgatchell
Jr. Member
Posts: 22
|
 |
« on: December 06, 2005, 02:54:36 pm » |
|
City joining the net set
Verizon’s FiOS will come fully online next week
By Doug LeDuc
dleduc@news-sentinel.com
The waiting is over for Nancy Brown, and it’s about to end for most Fort Wayne residents who have been looking forward to some of the fastest Internet connections available to consumers.
Verizon Communications plans to turn on FiOS, its new fiber-optic system, in south and southeast Fort Wayne on Wednesday, and in the north and northwest areas of the city on Monday. New Haven and northeast Fort Wayne have been online since last month, and the city’s southwest side since October.
Brown, who lives near the University of Saint Francis, said she began using the service Wednesday, upgrading from Verizon DSL, which was priced the same, but provided about one-third of the megabits-per-second connection speed.
“This does seem a little bit faster, and when you’re connecting to things, it doesn’t get stuck,” she said. With the DSL service, “sometimes, it was a little choppy, and this (FiOS) was not at all.”
It took about five hours for a technician to install an optical-network terminal, a power pack and a battery pack, run cabling to a small silver router near her primary computer, then connect the router to two computers in the house. The installation is free for one computer, and $75 for each additional computer; the router will accommodate four.
Jane Howard, a local Verizon spokeswoman, said 36 of its employees have been walking neighborhoods in the city on Saturday mornings and hanging FiOS announcements on door handles. The foot traffic and group presentations have helped sell at least a couple of hundred subscribers on the new product, she said.
The company plans to send some marketing experts to help with special promotions, which will include statement stuffers and other advertising.
“Our focus is on residents first, and second is the home-based business. Then our next area of focus will be on the small business with four or fewer lines,” Howard said. “We’re working on the solution for the medium-size business and working on agreements with multiple-dwelling units, apartment complexes.”
FiOS offers three Internet connection speeds for $39.95, $49.95 and $199.95 monthly. Discounts of $5 monthly on the first two services and $25 on the third are available when purchased as part of a qualifying calling package. Its chief competitor, Comcast, offers two speeds for $57.95 and $67.95 a month. Discounts of $15 monthly are available when purchased along with the company’s cable-TV service or the phone service it plans for the future.
The midpriced service was designed for families with multiple computers, which could be downloading large media files simultaneously, and Howard said the company expects it to be the most popular option. Verizon expects many home-based businesses and avid online gamers to sign up for the high-end service.
The company offers a service similar to cable television through its FiOS system in some of its markets, and plans to offer it in Fort Wayne and New Haven after completing required local franchise processes, Howard said. She declined to elaborate further.
Verizon announced in January that Fort Wayne would become its first Midwest market to get the new fiber-optic systems. The company said it would build the network to reach 65,000 homes and businesses within two years at an estimated cost of up to $75 million.
The project is adding about 200 permanent jobs, mostly for technicians and engineers, to Verizon’s area employment of about 2,200, Howard said.
________________________________________
Verizon’s FiOS Internet service
♦ $39.95/month: 5Mb download/2Mb upload
♦ $49.95/month: 15Mb download/2Mb upload
♦ $199.95/month: 30Mb download/5Mb upload
Discounts of $5 monthly on the first two services and $25 on the third are available for the services when purchased as part of a qualifying calling package.
Comcast high-speed Internet service
♦ $57.95/month: 6Mb download/384Kb upload
♦ $67.95/month: 8Mb download/768Kb upload
Discounts of $15 monthly when purchased along with the company’s cable-TV service or the phone service it plans for the future.
(Mb: megabit-per-second Internet connection speeds. Kb: kilobit-per-second speeds.)
|
Home
