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The end of DSL?

tweedpig

I have read many posts concerning recent snail's pace DSL service and intermittent outages. Two days ago I answered the phone and was greeted by my weekly (it seems) push to switch to FIOS. I asked about DSL issues, and the salesman said it is due to the fact the Verizon is dropping DSL and going totally to FIOS. I get so much junk mail from them, I probably tossed any notice that I received. He explained that is why the DSL is slow, and "sooner than later" it is going away. Has anyone else heard this, or is it just a sales ploy to get me to switch to FIOS?

Comments

lasagna

Well ... there is possibly some grain of truth in there somewhere but it's certainly not an entirely accurate story. It's no secret that Verizon would like to convert as much of their install base which has accessibility to FiOS onto fiber (as well as convert other broadband customers to FiOS) and in areas where they have both systems installed presently, certainly they have a desire to reduce their maintenance and administrative overhead by consolidating around a single platform. That only makes good business sense.

In fact, if you read their TOS, there are even statements in there which give essentially say that if you have both fiber and copper available to you, that at their descretion they can drop support for the copper and require you to move over the fiber. In other words, as long as it works you can have it, but if it ever gets to the point that we can't fix it or fix it economically, we can pull the plug and tell you to move over to fiber.

Now, have I actually heard of any scenarios where they've done that? No.

Have we heard of reports about DSL being slow? Yes. Do I think it's a great conspiracy to motivate people to move? No.

I think however it could well be an aging copper infrastructure that perhaps isn't getting as much maintenance and attention as it once was in favor of their preferred fiber based solution. Verizon however hasn't been making any FiOS expansions lately at least that have been widely announced -- so in area where fiber isn't already in place, they're likely to be in the DSL business for quite some time.

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On a personal note however ... if you're living in an area where you actually have FiOS available to you and you're still slumming it on DSL, what are you waiting for?!? I got it as soon as it was available in my neighborhood and haven't looked back since ... YMMV, but I certainly am lovin' it. Yes, there is a cost difference, but it's well worth it IMHO.

jmw1950

I'd echo Lasagna's comments. I also went to FiOS as soon as it became available. FiOS with TV and Internet was about the same price as I was paying for DSL and DirecTV. I no longer lose either my TV or Internet connection in bad weather (it used to be if I could hear thunder, my DSL was down). FiOS is weather proof.

The other difference is many complain that they are getting less DSL performance than they thought was promised. With FiOS it isn't up to xxMbits/sec, whatever is promised is pretty much what you get, every minute, of every day, and if you want it and are willing to pay for it, you can have almost 20 times the bandwidth that is available to most DSL subscribers on the downlink, and almost 70X on the uplink. With FiOS you move from a garden hose to a fire hose...

tweedpig

Thanks for the info. I guess I am "slumming" it with DSL since that is all I really need. I don't do online gaming, and the speeds I get are fast enough. When the time comes, and I am forced to switch, I will switch.

spacedebris

@lasagna wrote:
Well ... there is possibly some grain of truth in there somewhere but it's certainly not an entirely accurate story. It's no secret that Verizon would like to convert as much of their install base which has accessibility to FiOS onto fiber (as well as convert other broadband customers to FiOS) and in areas where they have both systems installed presently, certainly they have a desire to reduce their maintenance and administrative overhead by consolidating around a single platform. That only makes good business sense.
In fact, if you read their TOS, there are even statements in there which give essentially say that if you have both fiber and copper available to you, that at their descretion they can drop support for the copper and require you to move over the fiber. In other words, as long as it works you can have it, but if it ever gets to the point that we can't fix it or fix it economically, we can pull the plug and tell you to move over to fiber.
Now, have I actually heard of any scenarios where they've done that? No.
Have we heard of reports about DSL being slow? Yes. Do I think it's a great conspiracy to motivate people to move? No.
I think however it could well be an aging copper infrastructure that perhaps isn't getting as much maintenance and attention as it once was in favor of their preferred fiber based solution. Verizon however hasn't been making any FiOS expansions lately at least that have been widely announced -- so in area where fiber isn't already in place, they're likely to be in the DSL business for quite some time.
----------
On a personal note however ... if you're living in an area where you actually have FiOS available to you and you're still slumming it on DSL, what are you waiting for?!? I got it as soon as it was available in my neighborhood and haven't looked back since ... YMMV, but I certainly am lovin' it. Yes, there is a cost difference, but it's well worth it IMHO.

Actually, they have already started forcing the upgrade to FIOS in some small areas. My street and the one behind me are an example. They came door to door and informed people that Verizon needed access in order to install the ONT if they wished to stay with Verizon. 2 people down the street that I know of refused the fios upgrade and was sumarilly disconnected from Verizon. they were forced to go to another company. All DSL service was terminated from these two streets. Granted its only a small area but it has started. Verizon had stated when FIOS first came about, that their goal was to have 80% of the Verizon footprint converted to FIOS by 2025. Now they have actually slowed that down a bit, but switching to fios is still their goal.

I agree that fios is the way to go for me at least but the writing is on the wall.

zig29

I will be amazed if they swap out DSL for FIOS everywhere. Sure, maybe in the cities, but I live in a semi-rural town of about 3,500 people, some 70 miles away from significant population centers. I would be shocked if they spent the money to bring FIOS into such a small community.

My DSL is flaky and often drops or loses sync when the phone rings or when my wife joins the network on her computer, so I'd like to see a more robust option, but one drawback of small town life is that new and better technology is slow to arrive.

Dudly-do-DSL

To make matters worse Verizon won't even own up to the pathetic speed results when I use their online test page.

I get dial up speeds on a DSL plan and they try to tell me they're checking from their end and say the speed is up to spec end of subject. In other words screw me.

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