MaximumPC 2004 10

14 MA XIMUMPC OCTOBER 2004

Verizon Rolls

out 5Mbps

Broadband

A fiber optic–based broadband alternative

may be coming soon to your apartment,

condo, or commune

QuickStart

The beginning of the magazine,

where articles are small

The copper stopper: Fiber

optic cables may be your

ticket to cheap broadband.

Fashionistas love to flaunt their Prada shoes.

Rappers pile on the bling until their sparkle is

blinding. Corporate honchos throw parties with

ice sculptures that pee vodka. So what do geeks do to establish

their place on the food chain? They boast about their fat broad-

band connections.

But pricey 1.5Mbps connections are looking mighty foolish

in Keller, Texas these days. That’s where Verizon first introduced

its fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband service, and it’s

hardly an emblem of privilege for the grossly wealthy. Instead,

residents are capable of pulling down an astonishing 5Mbps for

as low as $35 a month.

Verizon is delivering these truly decadent

speeds using fiber-optic cables that transmit

voice, data, and video. And the company

tells us that speed isn’t the only advantage

offered by fiber-optic transmission. Unlike

cable, bandwidth isn’t shared among cus-

tomers, and unlike DSL, you don’t have to

be close to a central office (CO) to get opti-

mal performance.

Verizon is calling its service Fios (pro-

nounced FYE-ose, an incantation we’ve con-

firmed doesn’t open a portal to Hell), and is

already expanding its service to California

and Florida. The pricing scheme, which the

company tells us is not merely an introducto-

ry offer, touts 5Mbps/2Mbps (downstream/

upstream) for $39.95 a month as a stand-

alone package, or $34.95 a month as part of a

local and/or long-distance calling plan. You’ll

also be able to get a 15Mbps/2Mbps connec-

tion for $44.95 a month as part of a calling

package, or $49.95 a month stand-alone.

Pricing for 30Mbps/5Mbps will be

announced later.

Data service packages include up

to nine e-mail accounts with 30MB of storage for the primary

account and 10MB for each sub-account, an address book and

calendar, 10MB personal web space, a web site building tool,

and access to newsgroups.

We’ve always said that bandwidth is like dollar bills—you

can never have enough. If a year’s worth of ultra high-speed

broadband costs less than a pair of Prada shoelaces, so much

the better.

Internet download 1.5Mbps 5Mbps

Microsoft Windows Service Pack 2

(from http://www.microsoft.com , 266MB) 24 minutes 7 minutes

Human genome sequence data (from

UCSC Genome Bioinformatics, http://

hgdownload.cse.ucsc.edu/downloads.

html , 894MB)

1 hour, 22 minutes 24 minutes

DVD Archive of 9400 classic texts (from

Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.

net/cdproject/ , 4.1GB)

6 hours, 20 minutes 1 hour, 8 minutes

30 SECONDS WITH VERIZON’S BROADBAND

5Mbps is a big trade-up from today’s swanky 1.5Mbps broadband connections.

Here’s how much faster you’ll get these non-copyrighted works available on

the Internet (assuming the server can deliver the goods at these rates as well):