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There's a new game coming to town for cable subscribers who have been yoked to Time-Warner Cable or Cablevision out of necessity. New York City has finally struck a deal with Verizon to provide competing cable services throughout the five boroughs.
Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Lieber announced at a press conference, "This is a historic agreement that when approved for the first time will bring true cable television service competition in each in every home in all five boroughs of New York."
The City will be collecting 5% off the top of all newly generated cable fees from Verizon. Customers will begin to receive service from the company's new fiber optic FiOS network by the end of the year, when it will be available to 30% of New Yorkers. The goal is to have cable competition available to 50% of potential customers by 2010 and 100% of New Yorkers by 2014.
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Thank goodness. I despise TWC, and they have benefitted for way too long of their quasi-monopoly. Their service sucks, internet is slow as balls, rates are really expensive, customer care is horrendous, and they would constantly bait and switch by offering a certain number of channels for free in their HD package only to later remove them and put them into the premium packages. Hopefully Verizon kicks their asses. Shouldn't be too hard to do considering how awful they are.
Hell has frozen over!
Well some are predicting that the world will end by 2012 so 2014 is 2 years past when I assumed we'd have something that looked like a choice. I hate TWC so much that if I were looking at 2 apartments and all things were equal...I'd choose the one that *didn't* have TWC. Which barely matters b/c I canceled my cable last year.
How does The City strike a deal with Verizon to deliver competitive data services to New Yorkers when it really boils down to retrofitting existing buildings to support the FiOS infrastructure? Every newly constructed building has FiOS but the problem is all the negotiation that happens between landlords and Verizon to get their lines run properly.
I'd love to get FiOS but I don't see it happening in my old ass building in Midtown East.
I've had FIOS since last May, here in Ft Wayne, and I love it.
As in 30 Rock:
"SUCK IT TIMEWARNER!"
Whatever. So now we'll have more than one sucky option to choose from. Think about the cell phone carriers. You can drop your current carrier, but all you're going to get is another one that locks you in to hating them for two years. Competition is none.
Put up those bunny ears and pick up the airwaves. They're free. No need to commit to any contracts. Even over the air HD with a wide variety of channels. The men have the news and sports channels and the ladies have The View, Soaps, and the Home Shopping network.
Plug that TV into that old Cable line and pick up free unscrabbled TwC including NY1.
HALLELUJAH!!!!! Fucking A! Burn TWC and Cablevision. FIOS here I come! Now I'll be able to post on Gothamist three times as fast.
You guys think Verizon is going to be any better to deal with?
Puhahahahahahahhaha
Goodluck!
I'd have to agree with Jaja007... but man, do I hate Cablevision with a passion.
Just be careful with FIOS. It runs so fast, it lets in viruses and spyware. I had McAfee, and when my computer started downloading stuff slower than dial up, I called Verizon. They said, it was my computer (do all isp's get these "techs" in the same place?) and to get it to a shop. I took it to a repair place, they said that the McAfee hadn't been keeping up with the speed of the FIOS connection, and had let in some viruses. They cleaned up my computer, then installed TrendMicro antivirus. I haven't had a problem since, so I'm gonna have to believe the local repair guy, over the tech in New Delhi.
Other than that blip, which cost me $100, I'm happier with FIOS for the computer and tv, than I ever was with Adelphia/TImeWarner/AOL.
Karen - I'm a bit skeptical of what you were told.
As for the rest, real choice will be when each apt in a building can choose their own provider...my sense is the building will get the choice.
FIOS is definitely better than time warner and cablevision. I don't know if some people know this, but cablevision will cap your upload speed if you upload too much within a month.
I have Verizon DSL, and customer service is terrible, however...
A few things (starred don't apply to FiOS):
1. They have their own UseNET services which means lots of fun content to get your greasy fingers on *
2. No packet shaping nonsense like Comcast or throttling like Optimum Online...yet.
3. Fairly tolerant with running services from your side as long as they're very low key.
4. Very good peering, so that your latency is really a matter of distance, and not crappy backbone providers.
5. They have support on the DSLreports forums, so you don't have to call their annoying customer service line.
Don't forget Kojak the FCC just sold some of those free airways too.
I recently moved and I called TWC and Verizon about a week before. TWC scheduled an appointment for the day of the move, a nice contractor came in (I've never met one who wasn't nice), ran cable, hooked the cable modem and cable TV up and made sure it was working. Verizon scheduled an appointment for 2 weeks after I moved in. No one showed up despite waiting for them all day. One jack out of eight in my apartment magically began working. Verizon charged me $50 or something for a line activation charge. TWC charged me nothing.
Let's face it, TWC costs a lot but their customer service is miles above Verizon's.
In the Times article, it's mentioned that the prospect of competition has already had a noticeable effect on TWC's business practices and customer service. It sounds like you had a good experience. My experiences with TWC customer service have been like 'Waiting for Godot' in my apartment and Kafkaesque on the phone.
I knew that this was coming when I received an "offer" from TWC to "lock in" my rates for two years if I signed a multi year service agreement with them--
Actually competition could be good-- rates may go down and they may even offer a month or two of free service to bring you over--- at least that was my experience in another area of the country that had more than one cable provider.....