FTTP VDSL != FTTH: Verizon’s deceptive practices
Article modified for clarity and updates.
Previous setup: individual ONT in the basement of a small apartment building, ran MoCA coax around the outside of the building into all apartment units. Provisioned at 25/25.
Current setup: Motorola 6000 MDU ONT using VDSL1 to run to the units. Motorola 6000 VDSL router with 20/5 provisioning.
Order: over the phone, 25/25 FiOS Internet. No mention of the inability to provision 25/25 given the MDU ONT used.
Install problems: Tech shows up at 1:30pm for a 8am – 12pm appointment. Isn’t familiar with VDSL installs. Leaves by 3pm. VDSL modem won’t pick up the signal. Says a friend of his will finish the job later. Other tech shows up 7:30ish carrying a Motorola 6000 router and replaces the ZyXel 681 installed by previous tech. Finishes up by 8:30pm. Speed tests indicate a problem. Only 15/2 max speeds. He tells me to call tech support.
Next day I spend 45mins running speed tests for the tech. Tells me Linux is not supported so I use my old Mac Mini to run tests. Agrees to send someone out to investigate. Note that I indicated I was pretty sure it was a provisioning problem but was ignored.
Next day tech runs some speed tests. Keeps telling me that it may need to be “optimized.” Network tech on phone finally realizes its provisioned to 15/2. Sets it to 20/5 and the speed tests give back expected results.
Tech problems: its a garden apartment complex. There is no physical or technical reason to use VDSL to the units. Either by using individual ONTs and existing coax for MoCA or ethernet or a MDU ONT outputting either would bring everyone up to default tiers. VDSL2 would do more or less the same.
It should be a simple upgrade. These MDU ONTs appear to use individual cards which presumably can be individually upgraded. If I ask for some provision above the 20/5 VDSL provides then upgrade my circuit. Or ramp up the VDSL provision offering some. It should handle 52/16 over phone and 85/85 over coax.
Pricing problem: I ordered 25/25. I got (in the end) 20/5. No warning. If I wasn’t tech savy or paid attention to the details it is easy to imagine that I would have missed this fact and been charged for far less than I asked for. 4/5 the download and 1/5 the up and they want to charge me $65/month instead of the 25/25′s $70/month. I called back and was told that they could probably discount it more but needed to wait for promotionals to be added to the system. The “You are about to get FiOS” paperwork that I received *after* the install indicated I was to get FTTP_20M_5M meaning they knew but never told me.
So… why shouldn’t I go to my neighbors and ask them to get an individual ONT, run coax across the yard and have the bill come to me? Why do they refuse to look into upgrading to the unit systems on demand?
So if you live in a multi dwelling unit be sure to check if you get FTTP/FTTB or FTTH. You want the latter. Your options though are limited if the former. Verizon seems unwilling to upgrade or work around the existing install limitations.
April 8th, 2011 at 12:47 am
There’s nothing wrong with VDSL – I use VDSL and VDSL2 in my neighborhood network and it’s great. The reason you don’t want to run VDSL down the street is that it has speed fall-off with distance. By running fiber to the building, they’re giving you a copper run that’s as fast as possible – at 50 feet you’ll get the full VDSL speed. The reason they don’t use coax is that the phone company doesn’t do broadband, and it’s much more expensive to have customer premise equipment that uses coax. Are you getting the 20/5 you’re paying for with reasonable latency and jitter characteristics? If so, consider yourself to have an excellent Internet connection (for the US anyway). There’s nothing magically better about fiber unless you have massive RF interference in the area, you have very long distances to run, or you’re running through water. For regular purposes, a copper conversion is often the most practical option (and you’re likely not going to be feeding fiber into your PC anyway).
April 8th, 2011 at 6:09 am
There is something wrong with VDSL. VDSL1 in particular. It’s max provision is 20+/5. They bring in a techology which can handle much greater speeds and throw VDSL on top limiting the relative potential. And they cap it at speeds much lower than VDSL’s potential? Providing 1/5 the upload speed and 4/5 the download and then expecting people to pay $5 less? And being unwilling to upgrade or work around these issues?
I wasn’t talking about using coax for the long run. With individual ONTs you generally run coax for MoCA. Or ethernet in some rarer cases. That’s how my older place was setup and I lived further away from my individual ONT then than I do the MDU ONT now.
Bottom line, I ordered 25/25. I got 15/2. They fixed it to 20/5 only after many hours of in person tech visits and on the phone hassle. They didn’t tell me till after the install that it was going to be VDSL to the unit and offer only $5 difference for 1/5 the speed. I could just as well have my neighbor order VZ FTTH FiOS, get a individual ONT and run the coax across the yard and get better service. There is no good technological (or financial AFAICT) reason for them not to 1) use VDSL2 and offer the same tiers as those who have individual ONTs with MoCA/Ethernet 2) install a MoCA MDU ONT and use existing coax 3) install individual ONTs in a central location and use existing coax.
VDSL1/2 may be fine where it’s faster or the same as other to the unit technology… but here it’s not. My neighbor 20 feet from my window can get an individual ONT, run coax from it and get 150/35. I on the other hand am stuck with at most 30/5 and pay far more for it per Mbps. As such it appears to be oligopolistic laziness or deception rather than any sort of practical or technical problem. “The landlord won’t let us run microduct.” is no excuse given the layout of the MDU.