Entering the Twenty-First Century - Jonathan Pryor's web log
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Entering the Twenty-First Century
As a child (late 1980's/1990's) I remember reading books stating that in the future we'd all have fiber-optic cables going to our houses (Fiber To The Premises, FTTP). I got the impression that fiber optic had been promised since the 1970's.
Last Friday, that nebulous future became reality, as Verizon came by my house to install FiOS, their FTTPH (Fiber To The Home) technology, providing phone, Internet, and TV service. Installation took six hours.
It's 99.999% of my childhood memories of FTTP. With FiOS, the optical fiber terminates outside my house; from there, it's a Coax cable to a Router, which acts as a cable-modem (Coax input, Cat-5e output) that my computer can plug into. (It's missing 0.001% of my memories as the pictures I saw had the optical fiber running directly to the computer in question, and I have ~50' of Coax cable between the Optical Network Terminal outside my house and my computer.)
Installation involved involved drilling a new hole into my laundry room -- the system relies on a battery backup to allow phones to work in the event of a power failure -- and terminating lots of cables. The biggest holdup was transitioning Verizon's network to use the optical network for my telephone instead of using the (no longer used) 12-V phone line. A supposedly 10-minute operation became a 60 minute operation as a part at the tel-co needed replacement, a part that apparently never breaks. (It would break for me, wouldn't it...) The next biggest holdup was setting up the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) -- plug it in, and it starts downloading...something (program guide, etc.), and it takes awhile for it to get downloaded.
Observations/thoughts:
- Verizon wants out of the power business. Currently all normal phone lines supply 12V -- this allows phones to work in the event of a power failure. Fiber Optic is un-powered, and Verizon isn't installing a parallel 12V wire to go with it, hence the need for the battery in the laundry room.
- When I asked Comcast last year about their phone service, they said that they would also install a battery for precisely the same reason (service during a power failure).
- I'm still not entirely convinced that a battery will provide 99.999% (five-nines) of uptime for the entire system. However, given that any major event that would kill power (hurricanes) would likely also tear down many phone cables anyway, it's probably not significantly different overall. (Ignoring the fact that my phone/cable lines are buried.)
- The installer mentioned that Verizon wouldn't be offering this service if the FCC hadn't ruled that they could keep the entire system proprietary (i.e. companies like Cavalier can't provide services over the FiOS network), because this is a huge (expensive) undertaking for Verizon, and they want to make sure they get a profit. Apparently they can't ensure the same profits if they share the line, as the FCC sets line sharing costs for telephone lines, not the tel-co, so profits are limited up-front (even if the costs are not). I'm not entirely fond of this either -- it would be better if the optical cable could be shared, but that the true costs of maintenance were shared instead of set by the FCC.
- Integration -- the ActionTec MI424WR Router they provide combines my current Cable Modem, NAT Firewall, Wireless Router, and network switch (though my switch has 8 ports and their router only has 4). It's rather large.
- The return of the Set Top Box. I last dealt with one in 1999, and it was annoying -- in order to tape anything on the VCR I had to make sure that the set top box was set to the correct station first, which was difficult/impossible to do with roommates who would forget about the taping schedule. Those days were banished when "everything" (of interest -- TV's, VCR's) had built-in cable support and could tune into all channels w/o a set top box. Life was good.
- Alas, my TV can only tune to ~100 stations, and my VCR only ~130, while FiOS provides hundreds of channels (not all of them used, but the channel numbers go beyond 500). Obviously, my TV/VCR can't handle this, so the Set Top Box has returned. Fortunately the set top box can be (is) a Digital Video Recorder now, so the loss of easy VCR use isn't especially painful.
- The DVR was designed primarily for HD setups -- it provides no Coax output. Since I only have a Standard Definition TV, and don't intend to get a HDTV anytime soon, this is slightly inconvenient, as the only way to connect the DVR to the TV is through the Component Video input. There's nothing wrong with this per-se, it's just that (1) my Playstation (DVD player) uses the component video input, and (2) when the TV turns on it defaults to Coax input, not component video input, so the first thing I'd see after turning on the TV is static. Fortunately a ~$25 RF Modulator at Radio Shack can turn the DVR component video into Coax input for the TV, so all is back to normal.
- I am somewhat annoyed about the loss of Fair Use rights though. The VCR made moving between TV's convient; the DVR is (currently) tied to a single TV. Apparently Verizon has a Home Media DVR that will allow viewing the DVR from any TV in the house, but I still can't take that video and view it elsewhere (it's tied to the set top boxes on the other TVs). Fortunately I can still route the DVR through a VCR for archival purposes, but it would be nice if I could get the saved programs onto my PC. Of course, permitting that would make piracy much easier, but it's a pity that Potential Piracy trumps Fair Use. :-(
- Verizon blocks Port 80, so it's currently not possible to host a web server. Actually, you can, it just can't be on port 80 -- most of the other ports are open, permitting e.g. remote SSH access.
- I now get four services from a single company -- telephone, cell phone, TV, internet. I hadn't intended to deliberately do this (redundency can be good), and it likely won't last the year (I want an OpenMoko phone, which is only for GSM networks), but it's still somewhat interesting.
Finally, why did I do this? Largely because of Comcast -- they keep upping the prices of their TV+Internet service, such that it's currently ~$101/month just for "basic" cable (~70 channels) and Internet, and it goes up every year. With FiOS, I'll be getting a slightly slower Internet download speed (5Mbps vs. 6Mbps download, though (1) FiOS has a 2Mbps upload compared to a few hundred kb for Comcast, and (2) the installer mentioned that Verizon will likely bump the low-end download speed to 10Mbps) for over $10/month less. FiOS also provides TV service, which is also cheaper. At present, it looks like I'll be getting Verizon TV + Internet + a DVR for less than Comcast.
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