Verizon to Up FiOS Speed; Prices Too

The last Verizon FiOS offer ended on Saturday, and today there is already a new commercial advertising FiOS packages, the most notable one being home  phone, internet access and television, for $119 pr month. The thing which is supposed to assuage your feelings of being ripped off because the price just went up $20  per month in two days is that the folks at Verizon are throwing in a netbook.

This is nice, but the fact that saving $20 per month would allow you to buy a similar computer, or, the money could be used for whatever else you might want.

Of course, you are going to get better speeds than before, mostly in the up direction, as that is much easier for the company to ratchet up, without making huge demands on the network (most people will not use the extra upload speed more than momentarily, and the contract expressly forbids the running of a server, where the upload speed would be used on a constant basis).

As pointed out in Ars Technica -

Download speeds have long been the key metric that ISPs have used to hawk their wares, often burying abysmal upload speeds in the fine print. But Verizon has now more than doubled upload speeds across its FiOS fiber-optic connections and is now using upload speeds as a talking point in its battle with cable.

Verizon has just boosted speeds across its FiOS network, but the focus isn’t on downloads so much as it is on uploads. Verizon believes it can set itself apart by appealing to those customers who want to “fully participate in today’s interactive, multimedia Web.”

Download speeds are increasing today; the base-level 10Mbps package gets a bump to 15Mbps, and the 20Mbps plan jumps to 25Mbps.

But the real action is on the upload side of the equation. The base-level plan came with a 2Mbps upstream connection, but today that’s being boosted to 5Mbps. The 20Mbps plan will see upload speeds increase from 5Mbps to 15Mbps.

“Verizon has good news for people who want to enjoy interactive applications like video chat, quickly back up their hard drives, upload photos and videos to e-mail and social networking sites, or send large files to co-workers or clients,” said the company today. “The ultra-fast downstream and upstream speed you need every day is here. It’s widely available, affordably priced, and there are no artificial limits placed on how much you can use.”

“No artificial limits,” of course, is a not-so-subtle dig at the cable industry, which has tried on occasion to limit the use of its limited upstream bandwidth.

So it is nice that speeds are increasing, but as has been pointed out, it costs little to nothing to do this (look at the articles on the internet about speeds offered in Japan or the most densely populated parts of Europe) and yet the costs are going up by more than a small amount (20% in the plan I pointed out, and, lest you believe that  the aforementioned netbook made the entire difference, the previous offer included a $150 prepaid debit card).

Verizon clearly doesn’t get that there is a recession. Bolstered by the reports of families giving up other things while keeping the broadband plan, they have decided to push the customer.

While I am a customer (not FiOS, however) I really think it is time for the customer base to push back, at least a little, as the company also has discontinued the Usenet coverage it used to offer.

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