As NBN visits, Verizon insists FTTP is “superior” to HFC

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news One of the US telcos visited by the NBN management this month, Verizon, has deployed a new advertising campaign with the aim of ‘making it clear’ to Americans that “there is a difference” between the dominant HFC cable broadband service and Verizon’s own “superior” FTTP-based ‘Fios’ offering.

Like AT&T, Verizon is a predominantly US-based telco that emerged as one of of the largest players following the consolidation of the former ‘baby Bell’ group of telcos, operating both fixed-line and mobile networks in the country. Like its rivals, Verizon operates both fixed and mobile networks.

When it comes to fixed-line broadband, most US telcos are currently focused on upgrading traditional HFC cable or copper (ADSL) broadband networks.

This mimics the approach taken by the Coalition Federal Governments in Australia, which have shifted our own National Broadband Network project from the Fibre to the Premises model originally used by the previous Labor Government to a so-called ‘Multi-Technology Mix’ model incorporating the copper and HFC cable networks owned by Telstra and Optus.

However, in the US, Verizon has chosen to focus on deploying a mass-scale Fibre to the Premises network instead of using legacy networks for broadband. The company’s Fios network currently reaches about 20 million premises in more than a dozen states, and offers broadband speeds of up to 500Mbps.

Late last week, Verizon deployed a new advertising campaign in the US which explicitly focused on informing customers of the difference between the HFC cable and FTTP technologies. You can watch the company’s TV advertisement online.

“Verizon’s new TV spots for its Fios product make clear the difference between our 100 percent fiber optic network and plain old cable: fiber optics move at the speed of light,” the company said in a statement.

“Which is why, over the last ten years, Fios has received more awards for Internet speed and customer satisfaction than all cable networks combined. Specifically, 52 awards for Fios compared to seven for cable. Those awards include the #1 rating in PC Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Survey for Internet speed for 10 years running, and the J. D. Power Award for “Highest in Customer Satisfaction among Residential Internet Service Providers in the East Region” for three years in a row*. ”

“The new TV spots are intended to do one thing: make it clear to cable customers that there is a difference between Fios and cable,” said Tami Erwin, senior vice president and group president, Consumer and Mass Business Sales and Service.

“Our Fios network is based on superior fiber optic technology, which means only our customers enjoy upload speeds as fast as download speeds at a better price than cable can offer. On top of that, our Fios network has been recognized by the leading customer satisfaction surveys year after year. That’s something we’re very proud of.”

The new campaign comes as the NBN company has recently visited US telcos such as Verizon, Comcast, AT&T and Google to ascertain the direction of the US market.

The Financial Review newspaper reported last week that NBN chief executive Bill Morrow had led a delegation of NBN executives to the US to meet with those specific telcos.

However, Morrow returned with a very different message to the one which Verizon is using in its new advertising campaign.

The AFR reported that Morrow had said with respect to the Google FIber rollout — which also uses a FTTP architecture similar to Verizon’s Fios — that customers did not use the gigabit speeds it enabled yet, and that Google’s FTTP rollout was only done to force other telcos to conduct similar broadband upgrades.

It is not clear what message Verizon passed on to Morrow regarding its own Fios rollout.

Like the NBN company, fellow US giant AT&T is pursuing a mixed technology approach to its rollout, upgrading its copper infrastructure with Fibre to the Node-style hardware. However, AT&T has also been prompted by the Google and Verizon FTTP rollouts to follow suit with the technology.

For example, in April 2014 AT&T revealed it would deploy Fibre to the Premises infrastructure in 100 major US cities in the United States, delivering gigabit broadband speeds.

Image credit: Verizon

77 COMMENTS

    • You don’t know all the readers here that well then….. The resident LibTrolls will find something to argue about.

    • Sure, planes are faster than cars. Doesn’t mean they are better. Fit for purpose. Verizon’s Network is less than .1% HFC, so of course they overbuilt it, it allowed them to simplify their network. Verizon’s board has put a hold on Verizon building more FTTH.
      Probably due to the poor return. It is costing google $500,000 to $1,500,000 per mile to build their FTTP. Hard to put DOCSIS in cost per mile. Maybe if a $15,000 port feeds 5 mile, $3,000 per mile. That is 10,000 less per mile in upfront cost. You can pay for additional maintenance a long time with that difference. No surprise there are limited DOCSIS 3.1 customers, the technology only recently or not even GA yet.
      Facts are more important then feelings.
      Surely FTTP is “superior”, and makes us feel better, but the fact is, humans won’t and don’t see a true difference. Are they happier, yes, because they hate the cable company.
      My 2 cents.

  1. Renai, it’s worth noting that Verizon actually over built their own PSTN and HFC networks while passing those 20 million premises.

  2. Our Fios network is based on superior fiber optic technology, which means only our customers enjoy upload speeds as fast as download speeds at a better price than cable can offer.

    Good to see Verizon understand the importance of faster upload speeds. Clearly this is something the coalition clowns have long ignored and would rather continue to ignore so I’d expect GimpCo and king clown Morrow to keep quiet as possible on the subject as well. The $70 billion MTM patchwork mess will struggle in this area so they wouldn’t want to highlight networks that are making a point to promote it.

  3. Verizon, has deployed a new advertising campaign with the aim of ‘making it clear’ to Americans that “there is a difference” between the dominant HFC cable broadband service and Verizon’s own “superior” FTTP-based ‘Fios’ offering.

    Well who would have thought they would do that, their main competitor is Comcast at present upgrading their HFC to DOCSIS 3.1.

    surprise-surprise at their advertising campaign!

    lol

    • Alain, Verizon overbuilt their own PSTN and HFC networks … wow, hows that for an inconvenient fact for you MtM boosters?

      • You let the DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade slip through with no comment I see and the vast majority of Comcast customers are on HFC.

        How are those ‘inconvenient facts’ Mr MtM Basher?

        • He didn’t really, because surely if DOCSIS 3.1 was as grand as you say it is, they would have only overbuilt their PSTN with Fibre, and then just completely the obviously better option of upgrading their HFC.

          Nah, too logical for you. Best to resort to attacks on the person instead of employing actual reading comprehension skills.

        • So devoid why do people on FTTN only getting up to 25Mbps then having to pay 10K+ for FOD when people on HFC get a free upgrade to 3.1 when the CBA said we only need 15Mbps by 2023

        • How many DOCSIS 3.1 customers are there compared to FTTP in the USA Alain?

          Not many by comparison, oh and what are Comcast doing, that’s right building new FTTP, DOCSIS 3.1 is only for existing cable areas.

          • Yes MTM (FRAUDBAND-NODAFAIL and FAILED HFC)…

            Yes the same MTM you posted about, as part of your spiel on the 18/3…

            “By June 2017 we will have more FTTN premises Ready for Service than FTTP.”

            The “faster (lol)” MTM FTTN part of the shitty network hasn’t even equaled FTTP yet (according to umm, YOU). In fact it’s still over 12 months away.

            Plus of course you also referred to HFC as failed networks many times in the past.

            So yes your MTM model :)

            You’re welcome

        • Just to note, Comcast is rushing to build FTTP.

          http://www.fierceinstaller.com/story/docsis-31-likely-set-trend-cable-broadband-not-fttp/2015-08-18

          But they still going with DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade, in which they only started earlier this year.

          The main point is that, both technologies offer very large download speeds, compared to Fraudband Buffering Network, which will deliver substandard speeds.

          But however, only one technology can deliver pure universal speeds, and that’s Fibre all the to the way premises.

          http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/03/itu-gain-consent-for-new-40gbps-fibre-to-the-home-broadband-standard.html

        • “You let the DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade slip through with no comment I see”
          Lol how long do you plan on continuously embarrassing yourself, Alain?

          • No embarrassment whatever Rizz, I was wondering when you were going to bring Hotcakes out of retirement.

          • NEWSFLASH:

            Alain disagrees with Verizon (and Mal and Morrow and everyone else) FTTP is not superior.

            Then can’t address his previous contradictions and goes the foolish route.

            Welcome to groundhog day

            My pleasure, you’re welcome

          • Don’t worry about it R0nin…

            With every contradictory, hypocritical, infantile and cyclopic comment from alain, it just demonstrates to everyone else that he has NFI, is here on a crusade (not for meaningful and friendly exchanges of info/ideas) and therefore everything he says should simply be ignored or taken with a grain of salt…

            Which is perfect IMO

    • And he’s gone…. That fact was obviously too much for his tiny little LibTroll mind and he’s gone back to the other threads to post his partisan troll b.s.!

      • Comcast has more than half of USA internet customers, Verizon don’t care?

        ok Chas, if you say so.

        lol

        • That’s because there is very limited choice in the majority of the USA. It’s not worth over building the compact network in most cases. Hence why an nbn is a better solution than waiting for private enterprise to provide the solution.

        • “Comcast has more than half of USA internet customers”

          Because unlike The Coalition, the US has raised the minimum broadband speeds to 25/3…Comcast has cable which is currently the largest in-place broadband besides FTTP (which is just rolling out). That is changing rapidly by the way…
          As the other HFC companies have finally figured out, HFC is VASTLY more expensive to run…more than 12 times as much as FTTP.
          http://tinyurl.com/jr8oumb

          Comcast is on its way out…

          BTW, nice link on the Verizon of 2014…please read it (if you can).
          It tells us that Verizon’s Fios was quite profitable, and that they were just dumping their losses from other areas into that segment for tax purposes and to shore up expenses. The losses came from Fios TV, Wireless, and the Special Business sectors, not FTTP…

        • Comcast is a Cable TV company they are locked in, their only avenue for upgrade is doc3.1. Retailer
          The company’s customer satisfaction often ranks among the LOWEST in the cable industry. Comcast has violated net neutrality practices in the past; and, despite Comcast’s commitment to a narrow definition of net neutrality, critics advocate a definition of which precludes distinction between Comcast’s private network services and the rest of the Internet.Critics also point out a LASK OF COMPETITION in the vast majority of Comcast’s service area; there is LIMITED COMPETITION among cable providers.[23] Given Comcast’s negotiating power as a large ISP, some suspect that Comcast could leverage paid peering agreements to unfairly influence end-user connection speeds.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast

          • So copying a large lump from Wikipedia about Comcast says what exactly about using the Telstra and Optus HFC for the NBN in a deal where the same amount of money was paid to purchase the HFC asset as Labor was paying to shut it down for BB use?

          • “So copying a large lump from Wikipedia about Comcast says what exactly about using the Telstra and Optus HFC for the NBN”

            That their analogues are already demonstrably failing in other parts of the world…
            Do you have any idea what costs we are now responsible for when the cable is shut down? The purchase was not even close to free…the costs of decommission are astronomical.

            As an analogy, a nuclear plant may be expensive to build, but many are more than $1 Billion to close down. The costs of decommissioning the HFC network will be many billions

          • “You don’t have to worry about it, you need to catch up, the NBN Co is not decommissioning the HFC network anytime soon”

            I see…so leaving the massive costs to our children is OK by you, just as long as it doesn’t hit this political cycle. Kinda sums it up…

          • Interesting point of view, so what do you think Labor will announce about HFC as part of their 2016 NBN policy statement?

          • “so what do you think Labor will announce about HFC as part of their 2016 NBN policy statement?”

            Now that the Coalition have stuck us with the huge clean-up bill? I really don’t know what they CAN do…except maybe forego the huge cost of HFC upgrades where possible and convert the FTTN to either FTTP or FTTdp ASAP.

          • “You don’t have to worry about it, you need to catch up, the NBN Co is not decommissioning the HFC network anytime soon, next step is DOCSIS 3.1.”
            Oh, you mean that ~$1B HFC network that was deemed unfit for purpose?

          • Tell us again how FTTP NBN couldn’t help but be completely successful… as you did years ago.

            …and then explain why you then argued and still argue, against this (your words) can’t help but be successful (for all Aussies, including you and your family) network, as you did/do?

            Go…

            You’re welcome.

          • Oh it WILL happen…

            Remember you told us HFC is a FAILED (your word) network…

            You’re welcome

        • Read the link and see my post above…you need to read more than the headlines to understand things.

          ” the plan has been to not upgrade or even fix the copper wires but to force customers onto more expensive wireless plans”

          This is the reason they stopped Fios…Wireless is more profitable.

          • BTW, this is also a good example of why a publicly owned monopoly infrastructure makes far more sense than leaving it up to private industry.

  4. “and that Google’s FTTP rollout was only done to force other telcos to conduct similar broadband upgrades”

    And that is supposed to be a negative?

    • Are Google still doing their rollout or was that just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons?

        • No announcement about expanding to Australia, you have sent a invitation I hope?

          I am sure they would love to roll out giga fibre here and hand over wholesale access to all.

          :)

          • Completely off topic as usual, just piss off when a conversation doesn’t concern you or your LNP party line towing.

            Bozzza asked if Googles rollout was still going or was it to just throw a curveball and get the other Telco’s doing ~something~, so I answered that question.

            My link has nothing to do with saying Google should rollout in Australia, so stop with your word twisting bullshit.

            Also, why should ~I~ send an invitation? I’m not the Government, if anyone should do it, it should be your beloved LNP as they are the ones in power controlling the NBN and Parliament. Piss off back under your bridge, LibTroll.

          • So why constantly refer to the Google model if it has no application to Australia?

            BTW Off topic is not defined by ‘I don’t like your response’.

            Typical arrogance of the pro FTTP and MtM bashers here:

            ‘We own and set the agenda.’

          • “So why constantly refer to the Google model if it has no application to Australia?”

            Notice that I didn’t refer to it at all in reference to Australia, reading comprehension abilities need to be engaged. RichardU started this comment line, not me, I was replying to someone asking about the current state of Google Fiber in the US, nothing to do with referring to Australia.

            “BTW Off topic is not defined by ‘I don’t like your response’.”

            Irrelevant. Your response WAS off-topic, as explained above, my comment had nothing to do with talking about Australia and I was replying to someone asking a question about Googles rollout in the US specifically.

            “Typical arrogance of the pro FTTP and MtM bashers here:

            ‘We own and set the agenda.’”

            And trying to twist every single comment into an argument about FTTP VS FTTN isn’t you trying to set your agenda? Your hypocrisy is astounding.

            Once again, piss off back under your bridge.

          • @ alain.

            You can read, yes (supposedly)?

            Understand English, yes (supposedly)?

            Verizon and Google were both mentioned in the article and therefore part of the topic/agenda.

            Just because you don’t like the embarrassing for you, topic/agenda doesn’t make it wrong.

            Enjoy your daily lesson on how fucked MTM is and how wrong you were and still are.

            You’re welcome.

        • Sweet, I should perhaps have kept reading but I’m too connected to, um, like 5000 things at once: yeh, i wish! (lol,……… NOT!)

          Cheers!

  5. Arguably this isn’t comparing apples with apples.

    nbn & Verizon (also Google) are operating under different models with different objectives. Yes fibre is good (that isn’t up for debate) but in the context of the statement of expectations and what the nbn is (a wholesale only provider who offers ~1/2 the overall link) – MTM is a perfectly coherent argument.

    • @ Michael R: ” MTM is a perfectly coherent argument.”
      Only where you already own and are maintaining the infrastructure to be reused.

      Even telcos in this position (BT) are looking at pushing fibre closer to the customer.

    • “nbn & Verizon (also Google) are operating under different models with different objectives”

      True…but those differences do not include the cost of rollout or operation. FTTP has been demonstrably cheaper and more efficient overall for many years now, and that fact is true for all models of business and deployment. It is also exponentially more upgrade-able for a very small cost…

  6. @ Michael. R

    “MTM is a perfectly coherent argument.”

    Ten years ago, sure.

    But you have actually seen what’s occurred with MTM, now in 2016?

    As much as $26.5B blow out over the fully costed $27B (cheaper) ready to go plan.

    The “for all Aussies” promised date years behind, even with the ready to roll out (faster) plan.

    Huge maintenance bills for copper/HFC.

    Huge replacement/upgrade bills for copper HFC (largely killing off the re-use claims).

    Giving the keys of Australia’s comms back to Telstra.

    All for a vastly inferior product for all of us, that even those themselves called fraudband (when it was viable) and admit FTTP is the end goal anyway… and an end goal which they stopped mid stream to revert to this retrograde MTM.

    No sorry, MTM has proven in actuality that it is completely non-coherent.

  7. Before roads there were no roads apparently!

    Yehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

    (?)

    • @ bozza,

      One of alain’s/reality’s more humorous, nonsensical analogies from a few years ago, when desperately and unsuccessfully (sounds familiar) trying to bag the big, bad, socialist monopoly, FTTP/NBN, he was being forced onto, against his will…

      *shrugs*

Comments are closed.