Fios? Sounds like something my doctor wants me to take.

FiOS (pronounced Fy-Os) is coming! Why am I excited? Because it is coming to my area...(or so I have heard). FiOS is the latest broadband product being rolled out in a multi-million dollar gamble by Verizon. Verizon's fiber optics uses true fiber strands that carry laser generated pulses straight to the home (see picture in upper right corner of this page). Though not new technology, as mentioned earlier this year, it is just gaining a foothold now in the US. Because of the inherent lack of resistance to energy travelling along these hair thin, fiber optic strands, a much larger and faster amount of data can be transmitted digitally in light pulses. This also lends to a lack of degradation in the signal, whether it be voice, data/internet, or video. Yes! Video! Verizon is moving into the arena that cable companies have been greedily gobbling up by offering TV, High speed internet, and phone service to their customers. Verizon will now be able to also offer all three services providing, in this writers opinion, some much needed and long overdue competition in the cable television market.
Something that the cable companies should be worrying about, quite frankly, is the ability that Verizon will have to offer high quality phone and Television service, but broadband internet speeds that they will be unable to compete against. Here is a preliminary pricing packages from Verizon's webpage (speeds ate Download/Upload and Mbps=Megabytespersecond):

• The "low end package" at a cost of what I pay for my DSL of just $34.95/month will give you 5Mbps/2Mbps
• The "mid range package", coming in at what the cable companies charge for their broadband service, is $44.95/month and serves 15Mbps/2Mbps. (cable can only provide up to 6Mbps max!)
• Finally, the mother load and quite obviously for business, $179.95/month gives you a whopping 30Mbps/5Mbps!!!

(Pardon me while I catch my breath) Though the speed demon in me salivates at that last speed rating, the economist cannot argue that option #2 is by far the best deal of the three for the home consumer. 15 Mbps is fast enough to satisfy any gamer, any media user, any home business, any..etc..

I applaud Verizon for taking this chance to invest in the roll out (there are trucks on multiple streets in my county) and lay out the Corning fiber optic cabling to take back some of the market share that is being strangle held by the cable companies today. And who wins?

We do....we win on speed, on cost (even if you stay with cable...competition drives price wars which means lower prices), and on choices. I say..keep it up...who is next? Bring it on!!