OUR VIEW: High-speed service options for area residents
Published: October 1, 2009
Updated: October 1, 2009
» Verizon, nTelos expand communication possibilities to Culpeper residents via fiber optics
You probably have seen Verizon’s television commercials.
“This is FiOS. This is big.”
FiOS — or fiber-optic service — is a bundled Internet, television and telephone service offered by Verizon in which fiber-optic lines are run directly to the customer’s home or business instead of traditional coaxial cable. Fiber-optic lines enable much faster broadband speeds than copper wire.
Well, FiOS is now available, but its local footprint isn’t too big. Verizon recently made FiOS — or fiber-optic service — available in parts of Cardinal View, Elizabeth Crossings, High Point, Magnolia Green, Meadows Edge, Mountain Brook Estates, Mulberry Court Condos, Mulberry Greens and Pelham’s Reach.
That’s good for residents of those areas, but what about the rest of town? We’re sure there are people in other parts of town, or even the county, who would love to have this service available.
Perhaps Verizon officials are privy to more market information than we are, but we’re curious as to why they didn’t just set the infrastructure and roll FiOS out for the whole town. It would seem to make more sense to us than targeting a few select neighborhoods.
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We also want to give kudos to nTelos, a Waynesboro communications provider that is expanding its business service into Culpeper, Madison and Warrenton. The company has invested $4.5 million in its fiber network to offer metro Ethernet, wide-area networking, and integrated voice and data services to local businesses.
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We also give kudos to local residents Howard Mills and Jeannette Walls.
Mills, a Navy veteran of World War II, is up for a Congressional Veteran Award for his service.
Walls, a renowned author, recently served as a presenter at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.
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Reader Reactions
I would dump ComCast in a hearbeat. Their Internet service is expensive, their raising the rates to rent modems that we’ve paid for many times over and I can’t get the phone service they keep advertising.
Wow I wonder about the folks at this paper sometimes… FiOS isn’t available to the rest of the town yet because Verizon hasn’t yet installed the fiber for it. As the new subdivisions were build the infrastructure for fiber was installed for these neighborhoods. Older neighborhoods obviously are not ready for FiOS until the fiber network has been installed by Verizon.
I remember a reader who was teli-working here in Culpeper complaining because their highspeed internet was down for several weeks. With FiOS now not only can they lose internet service that is soooo crucial to their lives and yet no backup plan in case it’s down (ROFL). Now the phone service will also be down so we won’t read about their problem. The perfect solution, except I believe this individual is out in the country a bit further.
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