Fiber War of Words
Verizon, Operators Spar Over Claims
by Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 4/7/2008 2:00:00 AM
Who can boast supremacy in the delivery of digital products over fiber?
Both cable operators and the nation's second-largest telephone company, Verizon Communications, are staking that claim.
Verizon touts its superiority in a new round of commercials, featuring customers raving about the picture clarity and fast Internet upload and download speeds (see page 40).
Those characteristics are attributable to Verizon taking fiber all the way to subscribers' homes, said Verizon executive director of marketing communications Geoff Walls. The fiber-to-the-home architecture of its FiOS plant can provide almost unlimited bandwidth to provide services.
Cable companies must “raid their video service capacity or drop channels” to offer more advanced services or increase Internet speeds because incumbents' plant is only fiber to the node or, at best, to the curb, according to Verizon.
Cable operators counter that the emphasis on fiber to the home may just mask other problems Verizon is facing in rolling out its TV and Internet services.
“Maybe Verizon is feeling some heat over failing to deliver on its own promises to consumers — like delivering free HDTVs to new customers within four to six weeks,” responded Cox Communications vice president of product marketing David Pugliese.
Also, fiber is nothing new to cable operators. Cox began using fiber more than 10 years ago and deploys it in a fashion typical of other cable operators: to neighborhood hubs called nodes. From there, coaxial cable reaches individual homes.
If consumers are confused it may be because Verizon has tried to differentiate on its network infrastructure “when it's really about the services delivered and the quality of customer experience,” Pugliese said.
Cable operators also note they have more fiber in place nationally than Verizon. “We do have more fiber, and have been using it longer and better everywhere, not just in select areas,” added Comcast senior director of corporate communications Jenni Moyer.
This has allowed Comcast to deliver more than 275 million on-demand views a month in its TV service. With its Internet service, it supplies consumers with 1.1 billion Web-page views and delivers 57 million e-mail messages per day, she said.
Comcast does it better while Verizon plays catch-up, she asserted, noting that as it increases data speeds — the company last week said it's offering 50 Mbps connections, starting in Minneapolis-St. Paul (see page 3) — that throughput will be made available across the country, “not just to a select few,” she said.
But fiber-to-the-home does give Verizon an advantage, according to at least one viewer who compared high-definition pictures side-by-side and posted the results to the Web. (“Squash Match,” March 31, 2008, page 9).
“From a strategic and technical standpoint, Verizon has an advantage over cable,” said Vince Vittore, senior analyst, broadband solutions with The Yankee Group. Verizon's architecture serves to “future-proof” the network. That means once it is built out, “they won't have to dig in the ground anytime soon.”
Cable operators say they can meet any future capacity needs by reducing the number of households served by a node, using switched digital video to send programming only when requested and by other technical means.
Walls said cable providers confuse consumers with their claims to fiber architecture. As examples, he cited commercials from Cox Communications (an animated spot that asserts the phone companies are a decade behind Cox as far as fiber investment) and Cablevision Systems (the voiceover states that “they're” talking about fiber but “a lot of their network isn't”).
Cable's claims to a fiber network on par with that being built by Verizon is “like saying a Volkswagen and a [Rolls-Royce] are the same because they both have tires,” he said.
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I had both comcast & verizon and I will say that verizon has a good product but lousy customer service. My nightmare began from the moment I placed my first call to sign up in Dec 07 (took three hours to sign up, after signing up they missed the installation date a month and half later). My experience with Verizon is very sad especially when a company that touts to be the second coming (in the telcom world) with deep pockets and can't get their customer service right. To make a long story short their customer service is no laughing matter for those of us who have experienced the poor, lack of and inability to resolve issues. Verizon refuses to make the investment necessary to make their billing system more accurate when issuing bills. They are too departmentalized for simple/minor request. I went back to comcast and I refused to ever have Verizon in my home again for anything. I made an over payment of $40 on my final bill to ensure no problems would arise and WOW was I ever so wrong. They found a way to continue billing me to this day and will not disconnect my fios after numerous request. My next course of action to hire an attorney to get this matter resolved. I spend at minimum an hour and 30 minutes on the phone with customer service each time and I am tired of the whole thing. However great their product might be to anyone I ask you to please think twice. They don't get it and I don't think they ever will.
Paul - 8/7/2009 9:08:53 PM EDT -
I also have had multiple problems with Verizon: see attached letter. It is amazing that the consumer has no advocate: avoid Verizon at ALL cost.
We are a prime example of Verizon at it’s worse. The following is a detailed nightmare as we have struggled to get our phone repaired since May 1, 2009. Verizon has failed miserably in every single point that is outlined in your Corporate Responsibility. I can assure you as you review the next few pages regarding the detailed problems we had with our phone line for the last two months the Verizon Corporation and your stockholders would be astounded on how badly Verizon failed at every core value: integrity, respect, performance excellence and accountability.
We have been without phone service intermittently for the past 63 days and have been visited by no less than 7 different technicians. Each technician told us a different source of the problem on why we had no dial tone. We attempted to get supervisory support to facilitate resolving the ongoing problem by contacting Sandra Arnette at Media Relations but our case was unceremonious dumped on a Dorcie Cooper (whom we never talked to) and then finally landed into the lap of “Michelle” at the Consumer Advocacy bureau at Verizon. We have been hung up on, coughed in the phone, major attitudes and smart mouths from your employees and down right rudeness from Verizon call centers as well as we have wasted no less than 3 complete days waiting for technicians who did not arrive as previously scheduled. Throughout this entire event trying to resolve a simple dial tone problem, Verizon lacked any integrity by their pompous and uncaring attitude. There was a lack of respect from the supervisory level down to the service level: we were inconvenience many days waiting for repair personal, our DSL line was not functioning due to the trickle down effect from the land line phone, I am an essential government personal and first responder in any public health crisis and my employer had to change telephone tree contact phone numbers, our cell phone is “pay as you go” and we had an increase in cell phone charges while our primary telephone communication was not working. It would be interesting to gather the 7 different technicians into one room and do a case study on how each one of these people assured us the phone problem was corrected 4 different times to only have it break again.
I am hoping that the CEO of Verizon can be the one person that is committed to taking responsibility for the deplorable actions of your employees. The Verizon team as a whole lacked communication, team work and with all certainty has let the customer down. Verizon has left us wondering: if this is the definition of a great company one that “ puts its’ customers first by providing excellent service and great communications experience” what went wrong?
Sincerely, Dwight and Lynn Jones
Lynn Jones - 7/18/2009 10:50:24 AM EDT -
I too am having trouble getting Verizon to install what I was promised. In frustration I wrote to Verizon's Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg, 140 West Street, New York, NY 10007. I mailed my letter on 3 May 2009. To date (6-17-09): No Response. Is this typical of Verizon customer service??
Peter DeMeyer - 6/17/2009 12:44:41 PM EDT -
I'm finding the same. Using the letter, operators who claim to work for Verizon tell me that the offer in the letter, signed by Geoff Walls, isn't valid - and the pricing (of course) calls up. I'm trying to find the CEOs name and address and see what (s)he thinks. These people must have been trained by Comcast.
charles gaynor - 3/21/2009 4:26:31 PM EDT -
I agree with the other post, I just called and then they tell me they do not knwo what I am talking about. One should not do business with Verizon, they are a scam. And Geoff Walls should be held accountable.
Mary Kelly - 1/25/2009 12:52:45 PM EST
Fiber Awash In War of Words
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