SubscribeVerizon Selling Internet-Phone-TV Package in FiOS Areas for $95 a Month
One of the reasons StoptheCap! always believed Time Warner chose the cities it did for its cap experiment was to steer clear of Verizon, particularly where the company offers its fiber optic service to homes. Verizon FiOS does not cap Internet usage and has made that well known.
The blowback from Time Warner’s experimental caps wasn’t just limited to the cities “lucky” enough to be chosen. The story went national, and now competitors are moving in to take advantage of Time Warner’s public relations catastrophe and poach their customers.
Verizon is now offering customers in FiOS territories a bundle of services that are priced well below what Time Warner is charging people in nearby cities where FiOS isn’t. For $94.99 a month for the first year ($99.99 a month for the second), they are bundling an unlimited digital phone service, a basic cable package with up to 295 channels and a dozen HD channels, and broadband service at 10Mbps down and 2Mbps up! Oh, and they’ll also give you a $150 rebate in the form of a debit card. I pay $170 a month to Time Warner in Rochester and don’t even get their digital phone product, and standard Internet service here is 10Mbps down and a silly 384Kbps up. Ahhh… competition.
And Verizon will, for $10 more, give you 20Mbps down and 5Mbps up, as well as 350 channels, more than 50 in HD. I have to pay $10 more here and that only gives me “Turbo” Road Runner offering 15Mbps down and 1Mbps up (plus the Powerboost gimmick). That’s it.
Verizon High Speed Internet DSL Service For $18 A Month
Now you see why Time Warner doesn’t dare try their cap experiment in a community where FiOS is available. Why would anyone stay a customer? Heck, even if you wanted to stay with Time Warner for phone and television service, you can buy faster broadband from Verizon on their 10/2 tier for $45 a month, and no caps.
Verizon also gets to target communities where FiOS isn’t yet available, but Time Warner’s threatened caps were, with a guaranteed two year contract-fixed price for DSL comparable to Road Runner Lite for $18 a month. Or they’ll sell their highest DSL tier (7.1Mbps down/768kbps up) for $38 a month and no modem rental fee. No caps there either.
Frontier continues to enjoy smacking Time Warner around for its duplicitous “caps are about you saving money” campaign. In the Sunday Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, they took another shot at Time Warner’s CEO Glenn Britt for accusing customers of “misunderstanding” their plan, where they try and convince customers that emptying their wallets and handing more money over to Time Warner is somehow a good thing.
Thanks to StoptheCap! reader Bob for sending along the Frontier ad. Now, if Frontier had not lost the first self-install kit they sent our way (and are supposedly re-shipping express mail to arrive here today), we could have been hooked up by now.
Other stories of interest:
- Batavia, NY: Welcome to Our World – Caps Are Coming!
- BREAKING NEWS: Frontier Officially Abandons Caps; Will Go On Marketing Attack to Sign New Customers
- Rochester Television Stations Break News About Road Runner Usage Caps
- State Senator Joe Robach (R-Greece) Expresses Concern About Usage Caps; Asks Public Service Commission to Get Involved
- ‘The Business Insider’ Predicts Capped Road Runner Customers Could See Monthly Bills “Over $200 for Internet Access”
How can we convince Verizon to bring FiOS to Rochester?!?!?! THey are all around us, but not here where we would be happy to have them and give them our business.
No one can, that is until Frontier and Verizon agree to being allowed to build on each other’s territory.
That ad is hilarious.
Phil, and any others waiting for Frontier installs, talk to http://twitter.com/FrontierCares Burt is bending over backwards to help Twitter users. Tell him I sent you, he loves me.
Unfortunately, there seems to be an “agreement” between Frontier and Verizon to prevent them from coming here (at least, that’s what I understand from other people here?). However, when I wrote to them begging for them to lay lines here for the unhappy Time Warner customers, I received this response. It’s not much, but it’s a start.
Dear Christine,
Thank you for contacting the Verizon eCenter. I have received your email dated 4/6/09 regarding Verizon providing FiOS in your area. I greatly appreciate your interest in Verizon. My name is John, and I will be happy to assist you. I apologize for the delay in my response, and I regret any inconvenience to you.
You may want to write to the following address:
Verizon
PO Box 9002
Annapolis, MD
21401-9002
Just let them know you are interested in getting Verizon in your area and what would it take to make this happen. They may be able to assist you with this matter. The department to which we have referred you will be able to assist you.
If you have any additional questions, please let us know. We look forward to serving you. Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business. Sincerely,
John
Verizon eCenter
Good info Christine; Now we we could organize a area wide campaign where we get a letter written and everyone signs a copy and mails it that might help out a bit.
I figure if they get enough letters from the angry citizens of the cities who would’ve been affected by the caps, Verizon may come in like the cavalry.
At least I hope so.
…I really like Frontier’s ad.
I understand the intent of your suggestion, Craig, but I think it would be MUCH more effective for people to write their own letters. Politicians and corporations are much more impressed by 100 people who cared enough to write a letter as opposed to, say, 200 people that copied a link to them or sent them a form letter.
Actually I re-learned this lesson the hard way last week, hearing thru the grapevine that one of the local town supervisors (not of my town, btw) was distinctly unimpressed by being emailed dozens of links to stopthecap.com.
And I hear that online petitions are considered even more pointless.
Look at the dirty tricks TW is up to now, apparently they are lobbying congress also:
http://www.theamericanconsumer.org/2009/04/17/open-letter-to-senator-john-f-kerry/
This was posted in one of phils topics yesturday . . or monday i forget. . but anyway none of my comments on that page go through
Just as an FYI Phil, there is word going around that Verizon is going to be boosting their FiOS packages sometime in June, to 10Mbps/10Mbps, 25Mbps/25Mbps, and then 75Mbps/35(?)Mbps. They’re also removing one plan as well.
Ill never believe for a minute an agreement between Frontier and Verizon was made. Verizon has money and power. Frontier is a small town phone company. Why would Verizon agree to something like that? It all smells like local government behind closed doors again. You’re local Government at its best looking out for you. Just keep the lobby $$$$ coming and everybody is happy except us were stuck. A city like us with politician a less then stellar reputation can make it so miserable for a new company to come in. Naturally everybody is going to get into the act. Twisted laws, manufactured rules made on the fly even a fee for every telephone pole they would use. I wonder if somebody would come up with a fee to charge them to enter my lawn for a hook up. Their minds are always working and I would not put it past them. Our wonderful city and town land of many great schools, the high tech places, the fable of a big boat that sank and a real chance to visit here on vacation just to see plywood, dead bodies, and a real chance to see an mcc class room and a bus station and the now much touted ribbon cutting for a company that’s not showing such a great balance sheet now. None of this will ever come here. It is not that I do not have visions but rather not coming from the people running the place right now.
Just so T.M. dont get ticked at me I did messed up one line but im not going to rewrite the whole thing. Im not knocking the city or towns except their mis use of funds for dead end usless projects. Think of the jobs Verison would make. Perhaps a new building, good jobs for people that run the hardware and software and the army of service people that keep the outside connections running. All good paying long term jobs and it does not need to be built in the city. I avoided that place for years. Still do. TW on MT Hope is ok the frontier building in the city oh boy what a mess. Get out of the car and talk to some of the workers outside they seem as happy as day old clams being in the sun. What was it a couple of days ago I think a steel company but the area could not meet the energy needs they had so off they went and so did the jobs. If you want jobs we lost back we need to make compaines want to come here. Caps dont do that it shifts money around to the other places. Come on now Pen Yan can have fiber and we can not? That borders on being a sick concept and what has become my focus. Without them we are doomed at some point to caps. Im not paying anybody $150 a month for an internet commection. Ill throw the damn thing out the window and be done with it.
It should be painfully clear to everyone at this point that these four cities were picked because customers there had nowhere to go.
Anyone who believes that these four cities were not carefully, strategically chosen by TWC is simply deluding themselves.
If TWC had to do it over again, they would have just gone with Austin, San Antonio, and Greensboro and left Rochester out of it. Rochester is the only reason Massa and Schumer got involved.
How much do you want to bet when this broadband rationing plan is resurrected (and, eventually, it will be) that Rochester is left out of the test market?
I agree, I don’t know if Rochester will be left out of it or not. I’m not going to let my guard down yet.
On the other hand that Verizon FiOS looks damn good. I’ve never been on to care about internet speed which is why I could give two craps about DOCSIS 3 from TWC but if Verizon came to town TWC would be hurting.
It doesn’t matter if Rochester is left out or not the next time around. If Time Warner succeeds in the other majors cities they is enventually bring this stupid plan of theirs to Rochester.
I hope people all around the country continue to band together on this issue about caps. It is to important for the future.
Thank goodness for sites like this one.