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With Comcast upping its speeds to 50Mbps in a few markets, Verizon's gotta roll out a big, round number to compete, so they've announced, and then hedged, the upcoming rollout of 100Mbps FiOS service, starting hopefully in 2009.
While AT&T U-Verse lags far, far behind Verizon FIOS in the insane bandwidth race, the boost to 18Mbps downstream for the top tier U-Verse package that starts Nov. 9 nearly doubles the relatively pokey 10Mbps they offered. To put... Read More »
In an attempt to one-up Verizon's FiOS, AT&T has finally rolled out a new software update for its U-verse service that'll let subscribers watch recorded shows on up to eight different TV sets. FiOS only offers multiroom DVR for seven different televisions currently. The feature is already available in San Francisco an nearby subscriber cities, but ought to be rolled out to the rest of the Bay Area this week. While I'm sure this is a welcome change for anyone who's been using U-Verse, I doubt being able to DVR on one extra set will help AT&T gain the ground it so desperately craves. [Wall Street Journal]
Verizon's New Jersey headquarters is a complicated place. Part bunker, part weirdly Buddhist sanctuary, it housed the original AT&T before the government cut it up into little pieces, half of which became Verizon, and half of which have congealed back together, T-1000 style, into Verizon's biggest competitor. I'm told when Verizon moved in, the exorcism cost millions. That's partly the reason they brought me out: To exorcise the notion that AT&T is winning the race to change the way you watch television. Verizon showed me a new version of FiOS TV that will start rolling out to customers any day now, and hitting everyone by end of the year, with a feature set rivals that AT&T's U-Verse, including interactive content, PC connectivity, RSS feeds, even the ability to see what your neighbours are watching in realtime.
If you still rock the bunny ears we salute you. But odds are, you probably get TV one of two ways: Cable or satellite. There's a newer way: IP, that is Internet Protocol, TV--in this case, the TV delivered over the internet by your phone company. Verizon and AT&T push FiOS TV and U-Verse, respectively, in select regions of the country where their fibre networks have been built out. In a lot of ways, it's the TV of the future--in part because most of you can't get it yet. Beyond that, the technology that delivers it to your home, as well as who is doing the delivering, opens up some pretty sweet new interactive possibilities. And even for regular old boob tubing, the way it's architected means its good for HD buffs.
AU: This is very US-centric, but it's still an interesting read for anybody interested in what the future might hold...
PC Mag is reporting that Verizon is looking at a couple different ways to spread the good word of FiOS beyond the projected 18 million homes it'll reach in 2010, maybe by using less, um, fibre after that, according to tech chief Mark Wegleitner.
Verizon FiOS's blazingest 50Mbps downstream/20Mbps upstream package is no longer confined to the pit of the tri-state NY/NJ/CT area and select other locales. Starting next week, it'll be available across Verizon's entire, growing FiOS footprint in 16 states. (Though... Read More »
Gather around, class. I said, shut-up fools! Recess is over and I'm gonna tech you suckas a lesson. See this picture? That's Verizon FiOS streaming a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in HD. Mr. T likes those Red Hot Chili Peppers and Mr. Anthony Keidis with his long, flowin' hair. And Mr. T doesn't mind pointing out that Mr. Anthony Keidis has quite the bicep at 17.73 Mbps.
Comcast has begun compressing HDTV shows in order to deliver more HD channels to you while using the same amount of bandwidth. They didn't use to do this before, but now, when compared to Verizon FiOS, the channels are grainy and blocky and full of artifacts—a result of shoving three channels into a space where only two previously occupied. A guy at AVSForum measured how the new bitrate stacks up against Verizon.
Comcast confirms we'll see the rollout of DOCSIS 3.0—the next-gen data over cable standard allowing bandwidth of 160Mbps down and 120Mbps up—start next year, with 20 percent of its footprint expected to be blanketed in bandwidth goodness by the end of 2008. Even though Comcast isn't saying where it'll fall, markets where there's FiOS are probably going to continue having all of the fat pipe fortune—competition is good for people in those areas, bad for the rest of us. Now for the real bad news:
