I’ve been eying FIOS for a few years now – I know Doug has it and likes it – and was just inspired by a commercial on cable to pop by the Verizon site to check on FIOS in Brooklyn. Almost immediately I was shunted into a chat with “Philip” who proceeded to offer me DSL. Phil then encouraged me to “check back” with some regularity, something that would be swell if I cared enough to check back regularly.
What is it with third-generation networking systems? Carriers refuses to plug in anything, whether it’s fiber or WiMAX or real 3G, and then wonder why their revenue is so low. It took carriers a good decades to really bring in 3G – I remember Japan whizzing around on wireless networks in the 1990s and the European telecom I worked for in 1998 already implementing 3G in Poland. It can be argued that we didn’t really get 3G – or any devices that could actually use 3G – until the iPhone.
Sorry, Philip. I won’t be checking back. I’ll keep my eye on wireless technology like the MiFi from Novatel. There will be a day that you drop a little box in your living room and all your wiring problems are solved.
Fine: I’m a crank. But don’t offer me something I can’t have and shunt me over to your lesser and less valuable offerings when I’m asking to pay for your crown jewels
oh my god john, PNG
ummmmm…..I hate Verizon as much as the next guy…but no 3g until the iPhone????
I had an HTC Cavalier running smoothly on 3g in a nice sized service area before the 2g iphone came out.
John I know you are a self-proclaimed apple fanboy and all but seriously dude, you really don’t know what your talking about when it comes to 3g and AT&T clearly.
What amazing stuff were you doing on that Cavalier besides downloading email a little more quickly? Did it have a really good browser?
Not trying to be difficult but 3G didn’t SHINE until good browsers came along.
Browser wise it may have been lacking but that was not soul purpose for 3g. I am a heavy data user, so at the very beginning simply being able to stream internet radio and have it not automatically send all of my phone calls to voicemail is an initial god send.
But I use orb very heavily as well and the passing of data quickly really allowed 3g to shine.
Also using Remote VNC software was only accessible via 3g.
So while yes some of the nicer browsers such as Skyfire were not around at that time it isn’t the iPhone that is completly behind that innovation.
Thunderhawk existed allowing full real web-page loading a few years back. It did move at an ungodly speed however on EDGE but that innovation already existed.
I suppose we will have to agree to disagree, as I really don’t feel that web browsing alone makes 3g worthwhile. And frankly I am still not completely thrilled with Mobile Safari, it has a lovely render but its still lacking some key things Opera and Skyfire have really really nailed.
Granted I will give you Windows Mobile still doesn’t have that perfect browser…but neither does the iPhone.
I’m really hoping that Sprint’s ownership in Clearwire for the WiMax technology can change this a little, I’m getting a bit tired of the current crap. I need someone to sell me internet for all my devices in a single package – home internet, cell phone, laptop, maybe my car someday, etc.
I, too, am FIOS-less in Brooklyn.
What I love is that every time I check on line, magically within a few days I get snail mail and calls from Verizon- trying to sell me “high-speed” DSL Internet at a whopping 768kb!!!
Sure beats my pokey Time Warner/Roadrunner- NOT!
Listen people, things could be worse…you could be in Pittsburgh with no FIOS, T-Mobz 3G, or temperatures about zero. We are in dire need of the GOOOOOOOD Stuff (read: super bowl rings) here in the rust belt, where you @ Phil?
There are lots of places around Pittsburgh with FIOS. No T-Mob 3G, but I use AT&T anyways and an iPhone. And it sucks becuase it is -6 degrees out with a -25 degree windchill. I kinda wish our Stillers and Baltimore game was today.
Well to be fair, you were a bit of an ass. If you talked to me like that I wouldn’t offer you FIOS even if I had it.
Weatherman:
Peter was not being an ass at all. Peter adopted a reasonable attitude towards these scripted homogenized moronic customer service agents. Recently I found out after 2 phone calls and 2 emails that swear words get action. Next time I have to call a customer service department I will be a jerk and use cuss words because my time is valuable and this way they are disinclined to waste it.
ROCK ON PETER!!!
Those “homogenized moronic customer service agents” are people. Real people who probably can’t find a better job, sloughing it out in the call center trenches making $6.50 an hour. They are fed limited amounts of information, they are told exactly what to do every minute of the day, and are probably under constant fear of losing their jobs if they say what they actually want to say to most of the assholes who call in and abuse them.
Aleluia!!! Where do I sign?
“I know Doug has it and likes it”
Erroneous! I want it but the only thing available in Boston is Comcast. FIOS is available in just about every surrounding community, but not inside the city itself. I blame the mob, whether they have anything to do with it or not.
I understand your irritation with FiOS, John. I live in SE Michigan which is straight locked into an AT&T death spiral that dates all the way back to the Bell monopoly of the 70s and 80s. Because of this, Verizon is looking to sell what little incumbency it has in the midwest to the highest bidder in a package called “GTE North.”
I will never have real internets. Sigh.
I live in Upper Manhattan and they don’t offer it. WTF?
awesome!
All of you guy’s are tools and noob’s. I was on a 3G network on my Samsung A900 well before the thought of an Iphone hit anybody and I would tether hat phone to no end. Had great connections speeds and even played online using it. Something that even with the 3G iphone, the iphone users and owners still cant do.