Verizon at Home

[#1]

Just over eight years ago, I stood in the middle of a homeowner association park in FiOSCity #1 - Keller, Texas- just outside of Dallas.  Surrounded by more than 200 reporters, consumers, elected officials, equipment suppliers, union leaders and Verizon colleagues, I watched the future unfold as we conducted our first public demonstration of FiOS.

To the sound of “oohs” and “ahhs” and sight of wide eyes, we showed how we could shoot pulses of light over hair-thin strands of fiber optic lines to deliver huge chunks of digital information, paving a new era of connectivity for consumers.

Halfway through the FiOS unveiling, you could have heard a pin drop as one of our executives explained that we would soon be introducing what back then was deemed ultra-fast broadband of 5,15 and 30 megabits per second (Mbps) downstream speeds.

Who’d have thought there was so much power in a hair thin strand of fiber, many asked?

Fast forward to today. The speedometer we used back in 2004 couldn’t fathom the latest big broadband era as we prepare to usher in a new plateau of consumer broadband.  Today, we announced that we’ll start offering considerably faster FiOS Internet speed tiers next month, with the top speed of 300 Mbps, or 10 times as fast as our highest introductory speed announced eight years ago this month.

Ten times faster sounds fast, but many of our 5 million-plus FiOS customers tell us they don’t really know what speed of service they use.  They just know they have fast broadband.  So what good is speed if consumers don’t know what that power represents?

To explain what more broadband means, we’ll be asking a lot of people if their Internet is up to speed in the coming weeks.  We’ll help do that by explaining to existing and prospective customers the industry trends that are redefining how people are using broadband, and why they should care about our planned new speed tiers consisting of a 15/5, 50/25, 75/35, 150/65 and 300/65 Mbps speeds.

So why pump up the volume so much?  It’s not just because we can.  Consumer demand for more bandwidth is growing significantly, and our new FiOS speeds will meet the growing needs of consumers today, and many years into the future.  This is all about providing greater efficiency and productivity for the public. 

Also, the timing is right for these speed increases amid industry trends crying out for high-performing, higher consumer broadband speeds:

• More than 50% of our current FiOS Internet customers today already use at least a 20 Mbps Internet connection.
• By the end of this year, more than 50% of Web traffic will constitute video, up from single digits the year when we first introduced FiOS.
• Today, the average home has seven Internet-connected devices, growing to between nine and 15 by 2015.

While our future fastest FiOS speed – 300 Mbps -- will be twice as fast as anything America has ever seen, the most notable difference between us and our cable-company competitors traces back to our networks.  Our new higher downstream and upstream FiOS tiers will provide customers with sustained speed and reliability of service in contrast to the intermittent speed boosts offered by cable-company competitors whose networks, unlike ours, are not all fiber-optic.

Our new speeds, to be offered in stand-alone and bundled packages, speak to the rapid rise in bandwidth-intensive applications, and the increase in the number of Internet-connected devices being used simultaneously in the same household.  We’ll provide pricing details next month when we start offering the new tiers, and provide that information here.

The new speeds will also support consumers who are watching more over-the-top video programming on TVs and portable devices, and accommodate the rise in Internet-enabled applications like video and audio streaming, home monitoring devices, video chat, multiplayer gaming and online backup services that can simultaneously sap the strength of many home broadband connections.

Each of our planned speed tiers will meet unique needs of consumers as our FiOS Internet speed grid depicts download and upload activity by file size and speed tier.

For example, the 50/25 Mbps tier will best serve a household of three or more users who enjoy lots of music and photo downloading and viewing of videos.  For the highly industrious household, the new 75/35 Mbps tier will best serve families heavy into streaming HD movies to the TV, downloading and uploading big video files and participating in multiplayer gaming contests.

At the fastest end of our tiers, the robust 150/65 and 300/65 Mbps speed tiers are built for households of five or more Internet-connected users who want the best standard- and high-definition video streaming experience on a variety of devices.

As I reflect on our FiOS past to address our future, I’m reminded of the iconic movie trilogy, Back to the Future.  In the first of the series, mad scientist Doc Brown tells sidekick Marty McFly that his time machine (a silver DeLorean) is electrical, but that he needs a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity required to activate the infamous flux capacitor.  If that magical amount of energy is produced, Doc can break the time barrier and propel Marty and the DeLorean back in time to alter the future.

Like Doc and Marty, we’re excited to see how our past strategic decisions are impacting the future.  We’ve invested billions of dollars in an all-fiber-optic network to deliver unprecedented power.  In the story of FiOS, the lightning bolt that powers our flux capacitor per se is that of bandwidth-hungry consumers who’re embracing technology in new ways that require them to need more and more bandwidth to maximize the way they work, learn and play.

[#2]

Comment better late than never.

Cool blog. I believe about August 2005 I was chasing orange pipe around Germantown, Maryland. WOW there was a buried fiber trunk 20-30 feet from my fence. I watched fiber being pulled, like a child watching the Holiday decorations go up. I was on the site every day asking can I get it? Can I get it? Putting in a request. Surprise persistence pays off. But at times, patience pays off also. I can drive myself nut wanting something as cool as FiOS. Like a fever you just can't break.

No 1.2 gigawatts required for FiOS. Passive Optical Networks, which I am sure is much greener.

[#3]

Just provide GPON for my C/O so I too can get 150/65!

[#4]

Still want my flux capacitor!