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Verizon Wiring Up 500K Homes With FiOS To Settle Lawsuit

NewsBot — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 13:00:00 +0000

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Verizon has agreed to bring FiOS fiber-to-the-home service to another 500,000 households in New York City by July 2023, settling a lawsuit over Verizon’s failure to wire up the entire city as required in a franchise agreement. “Today’s settlement will ensure that 500,000 households that previously lacked Verizon broadband access because of a corporate failure to invest in the necessary infrastructure will have the option of fiber broadband and create critical cost competition in areas where today only one provider exists,” NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office said in an announcement last week. The settlement’s full text is available here. New York City sued Verizon in March 2017, saying the company failed to complete a citywide fiber rollout by 2014 as required in its cable-TV franchise agreement. At the time the lawsuit was filed, Verizon said it had brought its fiber network to 2.2 million of NYC’s 3.1 million households. The settlement will cover many but not all of the remaining residential housing units where FiOS is currently not available. As of July 2019, Verizon had brought FiOS to 2.7 million households, a number that will rise to 3.2 million households once Verizon complies with the settlement, de Blasio’s office told Ars today. The city estimates there are now 3.45 million households, so about 250,000 will be left without FiOS. With the settlement providing coverage of over 90 percent of households, “this is part of our overall strategy to increase competition in the market,” a de Blasio spokesperson told Ars.

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Source:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/12/01/0151244/verizon-wiring-up-500k-homes-with-fios-to-settle-lawsuit?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Comcast To Enforce 1.2TB Data Cap In Entire 39-State Territory In Early 2021

NewsBot — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 22:40:00 +0000

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comcast’s 1.2TB monthly data cap is coming to 12 more states and the District of Columbia starting January 2021. The unpopular policy was already enforced in most of Comcast’s 39-state US territory over the past few years, and the upcoming expansion will for the first time bring the cap to every market in Comcast’s territory. Comcast will be providing some “courtesy months” in which newly capped customers can exceed 1.2TB without penalty, so the first overage charges for these customers will be assessed for data usage in the April 2021 billing period. Comcast’s data cap has been imposed since 2016 in 27 of the 39 states in Comcast’s cable territory. The cap-less parts of Comcast’s network include Northeastern states where the cable company faces competition from Verizon’s un-capped FiOS fiber-to-the-home broadband service. But last week, an update to Comcast’s website said that the cap is coming to Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The cap is also coming to parts of Virginia and Ohio where it wasn’t already implemented. In all, Comcast has nearly 28 million residential Internet customers. “Comcast’s overage charges are $10 for each additional block of 50GB, up to a maximum of $100 each month,” notes Ars. “Customers can avoid overage charges by spending an extra $30 a month on unlimited data or $25 for the ‘xFi Complete’ plan that includes unlimited data and the rental cost for Comcast’s xFi gateway modem and router.”

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Source:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/11/23/2126237/comcast-to-enforce-12tb-data-cap-in-entire-39-state-territory-in-early-2021?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Verizon Is Cancelling Home Internet Installations During the Pandemic

NewsBot — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 02:03:00 +0000

According to The Verge, Verizon is canceling scheduled appointments for internet installation and repairs, “[leaving] Fios subscribers without wired internet at a time when they’re likely relying on it for work and to see friends and family during the COVID-19 pandemic.” From the report: “We are minimizing our in-home installation work to critical needs to keep our employees and customers safe and to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” Verizon says in a support document. “To reduce the spread of COVID-19 and keep our employees and customers safe, we are making every attempt to perform work without going into homes or small businesses and are limiting in-home installs to medical emergencies and critical installations,” Verizon tells The Verge in a statement. Self-install options are also available for “qualified service orders,” the company added. However, Verizon actually changed the language in the support document sometime on Tuesday morning, according to Business Insider. Previously, the site said that “our technicians will not be able to enter your home or business to install new services or to do repair work.” Here is the previous language, from a version of the page archived on Monday: “As a result of COVID-19, we are taking precautions to keep our employees and customers safe. At this time, our technicians will not be able to enter your home or business to install new services or to do repair work. Qualified orders will be provided self-install options, or you may proceed with placing an order for a technician-required installation and it will be held for future appointment priority. You will receive notification to select an installation date when we resume operations.”

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Source:
https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/20/04/07/2111217/verizon-is-cancelling-home-internet-installations-during-the-pandemic?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Verizon Will Finally Sell You TV Without a Contract

NewsBot — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 02:45:00 +0000

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Verizon is changing the way it sells its internet and cable packages as customers are increasingly seeking ways to cut the costly cord. The company is eliminating bundles and contracts, Verizon announced Thursday. Instead, it will sell its Fios TV and internet services separately. Long-term contracts are also being trashed in favor of charging customers month-to-month. That is similar to how streaming services charge customers. Verizon is calling the new offers “Mix and Match on Fios.” There are now three internet packages and five Fios TV packages. Notably, Verizon will continue selling Google’s YouTube TV for $49.99 per month as a TV option under an agreement the two companies signed last year. A home telephone package will also be sold for $20 per month. The new bundle-free packages offer more price transparency for customers, Verizon claims. Not all surcharges are going away though. “Verizon will continue charging a $15 monthly fee for routers in some of its internet packages and a $12 set-top monthly fee in most of its Fios TV packages,” the report adds. “But other fees it previously charged, including for regional sports networks, will now be included in the total Fios TV price.”

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Source:
https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/20/01/09/231223/verizon-will-finally-sell-you-tv-without-a-contract?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Frontier Refuses To Waive Router Rental Fee For Customer Who Brought His Own

NewsBot — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 01:30:00 +0000

Ever since Frontier bought Verizon’s Texas network in 2016, the company has been charging some customers a $10-per-month router rental fee even if they’re using their own router. Rich Son of Texas purchased Verizon’s FiOS Quantum Gateway router for $200 in order to avoid monthly rental fees. He said: “[the router] worked well for me until the takeover happened with Frontier and I began getting charged for using my own equipment. I have continued to call Frontier and was repeatedly assured that the fees will be taken off my bill.” But that didn’t happen. Ars Technica reports: Son filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission; Frontier responded to the complaint but stuck to its position that he has to pay the fee. A voicemail that Frontier left with Son and his wife said the company informed the FCC that “the router monthly charge is an applicable fee, and it will continue to be billed.” Another voicemail from Frontier told them they can avoid the monthly rental fees if they purchase a Frontier router. “We can reimburse you if you purchase a Frontier router. We cannot reimburse you if you have a Verizon router — we are not Verizon,” the voicemail said. “You can choose to use your own router, however you will be still charged the monthly fee… the difference is we do not service the router that you choose to use.” “It’s $10 today — but how much will it cost us tomorrow?” Son said. “I’d consider letting it go if their customer service blew me out of the water, but they’ve been terrible ever since Verizon forced Frontier on us.” When contacted by Ars Technica, Frontier said that it refuses to stop charging the Wi-Fi router rental fee even when customers use their own router and claimed it does so in order to cover higher support costs for customers like Son.”

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Source:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/02/2117231/frontier-refuses-to-waive-router-rental-fee-for-customer-who-brought-his-own?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed