Fiber optics. It sounds fast (it is). But it also sounds expensive (it is). So expensive, it turns out, that Verizon has announced that it’s winding down expansion of its FiOS network. It will keep plugging away in markets that it has already announced—Philly, New York City, and D.C., chiefly—but it won’t be looking at expanding FiOS to any more major cities. The AP report gives a sense of how expensive the endeavor was for Verizon:
Verizon has faced scepticism from investors over the project because of the high costs. Wiring a neighbourhood for FiOS costs Verizon about $US750 per home. Actually connecting a home to the network costs another $US600.
Oh well. I guess now you’ll just have to hope that your mayor was wacky enough to get Google’s attention. [AP]
bdhamilt
Monday, March 29, 2010 at 9:06 AM$1350 for a one-time cost to get one’s home wired with GOOD, SPEEDY fiber opticsd doesn’t sound bad! We paid about $1500/$1600 for our DirecWay (now HughesNet) satellite dish and tripod set-up (included training and pointing devices). We would be willing to pay the installation cost if we could spread it out over a year or two. The only draw-back is we can’t take it with us in our motorhome as we can the satellite dish.