Verizon's Fiber is the Only Fix Program

The Motley Fool looks into why Verizon is refusing to fix problems for some customers.

While the "Fiber is the Only Fix" program is fine for customers who live in areas that have fiber - what about all the rural customers whose only choice is decades old copper lines? Many of the customers who live in these areas have come to expect poor service on their old copper lines any time it rains. Many real estate agents trying to sell homes in these areas beg the sellers not to disconnect their existing DSL service because if they do then in many cases Verizon will not offer DSL to the new homeowner. These are real and major issues for people living in these areas.

Fiber truly is the only fix for those people living in such broadband deserts but not in the way that Verizon imagined.

Verizon and NG-PON2

Interesting development by Verizon.

If Verizon chooses NG-PON2 as their standard of choice then that could spell real problems for real-world adoption of XGS-PON.

Do You See a trend?

Cord Cutting more than doubled in 2015. Here's the year by year tally on reported video subscribers cutting the cord:

2015 - 385,000 subscribers
2014 - 150,000 subscribers
2013 - 100,000 subscribers

Do you see a trend?

Cable Bills Explained

The Consumerist has done a very good job breaking down various cable bills from the major providers. Here's their latest - breaking down the Charter cable bill.

Earlier they also broke down the bills from the other major cable companies;

- Comcast

- Time Warner

- DirecTV

RS Fiber - Calix Success Story

Interesting example of a Public/Private FTTH Partnership in Minnesota.

The Internet rates are very competitive.

Speeds and Feeds

Researchers achieve fastest ever data transfer at a speed of 1.125 Tbps. Wow!

Couple of things - the article shows fiber even though the data ran directly from the transmitter to the receiver. Fiber will be added in between at a later date. For an example of how fast 1.125 Tbps is the article stated that speed would allow the transfer of the entire HD collection of Game of Thrones in one second. Another real world example of how this speed may come in handy - consider that the fans in the stands at the recent Super Bowl in San Francisco used 91 Terabytes of data on their mobile devices just taking pictures and videos of the spectacle. Data transfer speeds of this magnitude are going to be needed in the near future.

Can Broadband Really Save a Home $10,000 a Year?

Interesting position that having access to high speed broadband can save an average household more than $10,000 a year.

It was based on the household paying $120 / month for broadband and did not take into account the increase in the value of the home that having broadband creates.

Interesting.