PolicyBlog

From where we, the consumer stands, it is NOT absurd. You guys have been dragging your feet, kicking and screaming in delivering while over promising and trying to screw every last penny out of your consumers. I take your very denial as proof that it probably is correct. If Apple did not come out with the iPhone we would still be in the dark ages when it comes to cell phones and what we can do with them.

I appreciate the fact Verizon actually invests in its infrastructure, unlike AT&T which is quite happy to milk its decaying copper cable plant for all it's worth. Sadly I live in San Francisco, where I will never get FiOS. Fortunately I managed to escape AT&T's clutches get 20Mbps symmetrical access from an innovative provider that uses apartment buildings' telephone cabling to deliver 100Mbps Ethernet in my unit, and microwave links for backhaul. Most Bay Area residents are not so lucky and get Soviet-grade speeds. I would be delighted to switch to Verizon Wireless as soon as you get the iPhone. Surely, the statistics compiled by the FCC will have to be weighted by population, not by acres. As for your comment on rural vs. urban America, the urbanization ratio in the US is not much different. The urban population accounts for 82% of total population in the US, vs. 82% in the Netherlands, 77% in France, 66% in Japan, 85% in Sweden and 81% in South Korea, all countries that are far ahead of the US in broadband speeds. Definitions of broadband that were originally meant to differentiate it from ISDN are not all that relevant. They must be adapted to common current usage scenarios, such as videoconferencing over Skype, downloading a video rental from iTunes in a reasonable time frame, or backing up my computer to the network. This requires more symmetrical service, and speeds at least 10Mbps down and 2 Mbps up.

I don't stand where you stand. I am consumer. You want my business? Start standing where I stand.

"Our FiOS Internet service is delivering speeds up to 50 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up over fiber" From where I stand this is absurd. In the country I live in our SLOWEST Internet connection is 50 Mbps and our standard in between 100-160 Mbps for the unusually high price of $20 USD/month. Your ISP is jokes.

Verizon, tell the rural communities why you will not deliver services to them. I can agree that you have the most reliable service except for rural areas.I speake with people every day where their cell service is lackluster therefore any of the wireless broadband plans are lousy. You all will not seek grant money from RUS because of the difficulty in making a dollar. You want the baseline so you dont have to upgrade the network. You , AT&T, cable companies wont run copper because the number of people per mile will not bring the money you all want. As long as the Government allows you all to pinch the consumers for every penny you can you will . Your concern is not brining service to all the people but bring service to areas that are heavily populated. When third world countries can have broadband service for pennies on the dollar you guys charge by the byte,or any other penny grabbing means you can. Broadband service should be the same for peole in rural America as it is in Urban areas, i.e. internet, streaming music, video and voip. Broadband does not mean just surfing at 768kbs.

Rural America Zip Code 32648 is desperately seeking services from any reliable carrier. Please advise & provide an address & phone # for us to forward our request to direct!

We are hindered by "slow" high speed internet services in the mountains of North Carolina. Services here are much more expensive than the national average while also slower in speed.

(1) "most advanced wireline" -- how is passive optical splits MOST advanced? (hint: it's not) (2) "will be able to provide 100 Mbps" -- will be? how about IS able? Why did you opt to use BPON initially instead of GPON in all three initial areas?? (3) "If that doesn’t tell you how we feel about increasing broadband speeds" -- oh it says a bunch AFTER I help others read BETWEEN THE LINES. It says you are not customer focused.. but then customers can experience that for themselves. (4) "track real world broadband adoption regardless of speed" -- yes, ignore world speeds because that makes your claims of rapid adoption lacking. ouch. (5) "After all, we live in" -- All I see in whining. Where is silicon valley? Oh yeah.. here. Where was the 'internet' invented? Oh yeah.. here. WHY does policy blog NOT-respect use of white space in submitted comments? This is a new line. This is also a new line. If you do not see this post end with three separate lines this comment has been destroyed *by policy*. This is UNACCEPTABLE.

I think Verizon has gotten very aggressive. small business tv plans at 12.99 a month, top of the line wireless internet, fatastic customer service and speeds unheard of for the home.

I am resoonding to this blog, your filing and Mr. Young's 9-21 speech at the Brookings Institutions. As a consumer, in some ways I think that Verison gets a bad rap for what OTHER ISPs have done or are doing. My Young is trying to stave of more regulation of the Internet so that ISPs can have maximum efficiency in operating the network and protecting abainst a host of bad actors threatening the entire system. However, he has an uphill battle for the following reasons: Version is only 1 of the ISPs. Even when Verison's policies are reasonable and consumer oriented, others are not so. Unfortunately, there is no self regulation of the industry and we must regulate for the WORST of the ISPs not the best. Verison aggrivates this porblem by not publicly sondemning its less scrupulus ISPs. This leads many to see the small ISPs as stalking horuses to see what they can get away with to extact more from the consumber. Later Verison can follow suit or stay at a distance. Separate your company where your policies are oppsoed to that of others. One big example is Skype. To its credit, Verison does not block what might be seen as a competitor in the phone business, But others do, and Version is pretty silent on the subject. Mr. Young mentioned it, but does not attack the practice. So if anyone is suspicious, all they know is that Version is not doing this YET! Take a stand on the right side of these issues that follows your practice. A second reason Mr. Young has a difficult time, is those of us whoa re marginally involved or who have stock or investments in the tellcomminications industry, continuously see and hear at tellecommuniactions industry meetings the following from many ISPs. The market for basic services is getting too comoetitive--its a commodity. We have to find some way of maintianing our margins and one of the real opportunities is to give some customers premium service -- protecting them from traffic jams etc. We also have to protect our products and services by being able to not let competitors use our pipes to eat out other revenues. There is no doubt that many ISPs WANT TO be able to block certain traffic and keep competitors at bay. People are not stupid. When they hear the mid level ISP staff talking about these potential assaults on network neutrality, they know that the top managment is not opposed to the idea. I personally am alarmed not bywhat the opposition saysm but by what I hear representatives of ISPs say in other contexts--and occasionally even Version staff. Another problem that is undermining your position is that of blocking certain domains for "security" and "spam reduction" purposes. Most of us have had one or more of our domain's blocked by one or more ISPs because "OMEBODY" has made a complaint. There is no hearing avaialble to refute the charges; one cannot face the accusor (who often is a competitor) and worst of all it is very difficult to get these problems reversed if there is a mistake made. No ISP that I know of will compensate those companies where the ISP made a mistake. There is no private accountability and thus there is strong motivation for consumers to seek public accountability. Based on our experience, Verison has been no where near as bad as Bell South or Pac Bell, but THERE IS A PROBLEM THAT THE INDUSTRY IS NOT ADDRESSING. There is no way to get a fast remedy to a mistake that the ISP makes or to force an investigation of the allegations. It is a one way power, that is not balanced by ANY accoundtability. Tranparency is another problem. The ISP's, including Versison, do not tell consumers what is happening to their traffic. What are the policies if there are traffic jams. We do not know who, what , when or where and have no clue as to if we have a question where we shall go to have it answered. And who we can talk to if there has been a mistake made. Mr Young argues rightly that tranparency is something that could be improved throughout the industry, not just for the ISPs. However, the rest of the industry is not so critical for most of us. The other firms can inconvenience me and my business, but they cannot destroy is or hurt us badly. You and the otehr ISP's can and have in some cases. ISP's are like the electric and water companies. Sure we can change ISP's but great damage can be done until the switch is made. As Mr. Young pointed out, you don't want to disclose enought details so that the bad guys can avoid your sucurity procedures. However, many of us would like to hear some general policies like: Under no circumstances will we prioitixe traffic for any of the following reasonsL Political considerations, moral considerations, favoring our bigger customers, favoring businesses in which we have investments or vested interests, disfavoring competitors or critics, using credit worthyness as a criteriafor prioritizing service. Last, and this is the one really weak link in the present Verison system, although your services are generally excellent, and the prices very reasonable generally, your technology excellent, your customer service is terrible, Calling Version for a problem is PAINFUL with a huge waste of consumer time. The system is designed for things going right, but when there has been a mistake, it is a nightmare. You must know this. One joke is that Version is even as bad at customer service as a cable company and they are the worst of the worst. So even when you provide a terrific product or service at excellent prices, when the time comes that a customer has a problem, there is nothing be anger and a feeling that these people are too smart and technically capable to have circular voice menus, repeated demands for phone or customer number for the same incident and call, option lists that do not include many problems and options. The suspicion is that you WANT IT THAT WAY. That you do not care about consumers. Then Mr. Young sounds like the most reasonable person in the world who will use techology to the advantge of the customer and the company, but the suspiciion is that he does not really speak for the company. He talks and it is business as usual with the terrible telephone and internet access system that you have. (Again it is just time consuming for most problems, but for many that are not on the menus, it is a disaster. I personally have been on calls with 3 different Verison officials who each have a different version of the status of our order even though they all are supposedly working form the same network. They are slaves to the computer. They are paralyzed if what the computer says is simply not so. "Yes, that wire was burried last Tuesday" "hen why is it still hanging from the tree on our property?" "You must be mistaken. "Thecrew came and burried it" That's just one example. A few months ago when one of your engineers apologized that the business office messed up our internet service by prematurely switching to new IPs we ordered, I asked the business office for the number of someone to whom I could make a complaint--a consumer affairs department. They said that was their job and a supervisor was as far as it could get. So the only choice for a consumer is to complain to the same unit that not only messed up the problem but doesn't even understand what they did wrong and why it is a problem--"You got the IPs you ordered." Unfortuantely, customer contact alwyas trumps service and product quality, and erodes TRUST. And in effect, Mr. Young asks that the public trust Verison. But Version makes that a little hard to do sometimes although it seems to have the finest products--phone, internet and cable TV.