Network neutrality exists as an issue primarily because there is little real competition for residential high-speed Internet service. |
In most of the United States there are only one or two ISPs — that is, a monopoly or a duopoly — offering residential Internet connections — if there are any high-speed service offerings at all. A number of technologies have been touted as a potential “third wire” (after the phone line and cable coax) into the home, but none has shown much deployment. |
Where I live, not far from where Scott works (also where I work, for what it’s worth), we have more than three wires going into the house, and past us on the street. We have Comcast cable, Verizon DSL (phone wire), RCN fiber and Verizon FiOS (also fiber). Since Verizon offers the best Internet deal — 20Mb symmetrical service — we go with them. (And yes, it rocks. Worse, it spoils. I only upload large numbers of photos when I’m home. And they all go up in seconds or minutes.)
What Scott has me wondering is if Verizon is only offering its symmetrical service where there are also two or more competitors. Anybody know?*
It would be interesting data, if true, and an argument on behalf of a robust marketplace.
* CZ does, and notes in the comments below (also on his blog) that Verizon offers symmetrical service to all its FiOS customers. When I ordered the service, and got on the horn with a technician to shake down the setup, he told me it was only being offered in certain areas. Maybe that was wrong information, or right only at that point in time, which was several months ago.
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I live in Dorchester, across the Charles. We can get Comcast, Verizon DSL, and I *think* we can get RCN. But no Fios, not yet.
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Doc, Symmetrical FiOS is offered to all FiOS customers. CZ (w/ Verizon)
http://policyblog.verizon.com/policyblog/blogs/policyblog/czblogger1/463/symmetrical-is-for-all-fios-customers.aspx -
Doc–
A Google search of FiOS symmetrical brings up the PR push last October.
From Gizmodo last month: “Verizon is kinda sorta using their total lack of filtering as an underground marketing thing already, which is especially effective when coupled with FiOS’s insane speeds.”
Doc: what sort of marketing strategy do you suggest they pursue? It seems like they are following your old advice: speaking directly to their early adopters on the particularly online communities where they regularly visible (and not, say, doing a massive TV blitz).
Jon
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Doc,
Just to clarify: are we just missing the word “symmetrical”? The website says “Now, get up to 15Mbps for downloads AND uploads!”
I also wanted to clarify– at some times the NN crowd makes symmetrical bandwidth a moral issue. I just think it’s an economical issue. I’ll be happy when FiOS comes to my corner of Brighton, but I’m not about to move just yet or uptick my Speakeasy toll.
Also, I read Scott’s column. This phrase jumped out at me:
“The FCC has been painting a picture of competition in the residential ISP market that almost no one believes.”Now, I’m not a regular reader of Bradner or NetworkWorld (and rhetorical hocus-pocus like this don’t encourage me any further), but I presume that somewhere somebody’s been digging into the substance of this matter. The FCC *has* the data on this, here. So, let’s ask: do they have the right data? According to Table 16 of their most recent report, 66% of zip codes have one or more cable provider, 47% of zip codes have two or more ADSL services, 40% have one more SDSL services, 44% of zip codes have three or more cable or DSL. (There’s also 90% served by mobile wireless and satellite, but I don’t think these have the upload speeds you’re looking for.)
Maybe somebody else has better numbers, such as dslreports. But that’s where we expect IDG and NetworkWorld to illuminate the data.
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Ok– I stand a little corrected. Google result #8 brought me to this techdirt article FCC Releases Its Bogus Broadband Data Once Again. And the uproar over bad data has been going on long enough that Senator Inouye (D-HI) introduced a bill last October (S.1492) to order the FCC to improve their reporting.
Why this has been held up I don’t know, but I suppose that John Czwartacki at Verizon might have a little more pull than your or I. But, when I searched the Verizon blog, I didn’t see any preference statement either way.
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