You've Got FiOS!

The Montgomery Gazette is trumpeting a deal reached by MoCo and Verizon to introduce competition (!) into the delivery of cable television in our area. At first blush, this would appear to the Western MoCo Observer to a good thing, since we all learned in our econ courses in college that competition generally drives prices - in this case hopefully downward. It may also have the consequence of improving services, as the competing cable companies vie to deliver the best quality of programming, features and reliability. Again, this is surely a good thing.

Of course, those of us who opted for satellite delivery of television signals have watched with amusement as the citizenry of MoCo dealt with Comcast and all the sturm and drang that a near-monopolistic cable provider in our county dealt to the TV viewing public (RCN is apparently another provider of cable service in MoCo, though for the life of me I've heard of them before, nor do I know of anyone who uses RCN as a provider - but then again that may be because I live in Darnestown which is somewhat akin to living in the Middle Ages).

This FiOS thing - prima facie - appears to be awesome. It can deliver not only cable television, but it's potential as an ISP is incredible. The Verizon website says it is super high-speed internet access - sort of like Comcast High Speed on steroids. From what precious little I know about fiber optics, the technology itself is more advanced and perhaps more reliable than that of Old Skool cable. In any event, those speeds they're touting (upwards to 30 Mbps!) seem incredible to this semi-knowledgeable and jaded observer of all this new-fangled interweb stuff. Hell, I think I'd sign on even though there's little likelihood that I'd ever need internet access speeds remotely approaching those promised by FiOS. Guess I just don't want to be seen as an internet Luddite in the Land of Plenty.

In any event, The Gazette published a map of Verizon's planned roll-out of the FiOS service, designed to be completed in seven years (note to self: how long did it take to build the Great Pyramids in Egypt? Must check on that).
Aside from being so small as to be nearly unreadable, the map teaches us two things: 1) Crappy, indistinct graphics only serve to frustrate and, 2) a good deal of Western MoCo will come up on the short end of the stick with service introduction.

The article notes that "Under Verizon’s plan, Bethesda, Potomac, Germantown, Damascus and Wheaton would receive the service first — within one to three years after the agreement is approved. Other areas, including Silver Spring, Rockville and Takoma Park, would receive service within three to five years; the Gaithersburg area within five to seven years."

Pressing my face to the screen to study the map, and doing my best to divine what those fuzzy shades of gray mean, it looks like those of us in the Poolesville, Darnestown, Gaithersburg regions will have to wait - quite a while it would seem. This may be a good thing, as we wait and see if the promised level of service actually becomes reality in those areas first-served by Verizon. In the meantime, we'll get to see people like Mike Knapp, Doug Duncan's hand-picked Go Montgomery! operative in District 2, attempt to secure a favorable constituent approval rating as he duns Verizon to make good on their promise to deliver FiOS to every home and barn in the Ag Reserve.

In any event, it's obvious to this observer that Verizon's clearly going for the low hanging fruit by introducing service initially in higher density communities - which is probably sensible, given that it maximizes the reach of this new cable competition, and may speed the introduction of new services (and hopefully lower prices!).

Whatever the schedule or outcome, the Western MoCo Observer sees all this in a positive light (except that Western MoCo must take a place at the back of the FiOS line). To quote the Gazette once again, "‘The big winners today will be our constituents who will finally have a choice of cable provider,” said Councilman Philip M. (destined to wait 5-7 years for FiOS service) Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg."