High fiber-optic diet

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, July 30, 2006

MILL CREEK – Kelly Anderson, a foot soldier in the battle over broadband Internet access, hooked up a fiber-optic line to a plastic switching box outside a newly built home.

The fiber-optic network technician for Verizon tested to make sure the line was working well, mounted the box to a wall and then wired up everything. The installation took him and a colleague a couple of hours.

“It’s a little more labor intensive” than installing traditional copper phone lines, Anderson said as he started the job under last week’s afternoon sun.

Verizon’s tiny battalion of local fiber-optic technicians have done this at about three dozen homes over the past few weeks. As a result, those households are trying out the newest, fastest way to get onto the Internet.

It’s called “fiber to the premises.” In a few areas of Snohomish and north King counties, Verizon’s offering voice and data services carried by rapid pulses of light blazing through tiny glass fiber-optic cable, which is hooked up directly to customers’ homes.

The telecommunications giant, which provides traditional telephone service to much of Snohomish County, is betting this service, called FiOS, will attract new customers eager for high-speed Internet service. The fiber optics can deliver download speeds of up to 30 megabits per second.

In addition to also carrying digital phone service, the fiber-optic lines may eventually offer television channels.

“We see this new network as future-proof when it comes to offering all these services: voice, data and video,” said Kevin Laverty, spokesman at Verizon’s Northwest headquarters in Everett. “We’re going into this with the idea in mind that we’ll be able to get customers by offering that triple play.”

Until now, Verizon has been at a distinct disadvantage to its local cable rival, Comcast. Verizon’s DSL service is available in limited areas and is generally slower than the speeds offered more universally by cable Internet service.

With FiOS, Verizon offers speeds either equal to or faster than Comcast. So far, it’s available to 6,300 customers in areas between Mill Creek and Kirkland.

By the end of the year, Verizon hopes to make it available to 60,000 households in the area. To check availability, check www.verizonfios.com or www.verizon.com.

The work isn’t easy. Verizon’s contractors hired to install fiber-optic lines have been slowed by unexpected amounts of rock below ground near Kirkland and Juanita, where the fiber is being installed along older copper phone lines.

In new neighborhoods, Verizon is laying the fiber-optic lines before new streets are paved. In those areas, the company’s not bothering to install outmoded copper lines at all.

“There’s no point in us going in and making a copper connection at this point,” said Scott Sollinger, another Verizon fiber technician.

That means new neighborhoods will get their basic phone service through fiber to the premises, even if residents don’t take advantage of the network’s other services, Laverty said.

Dawn Clark, who was moving into her Mill Creek area home last week, is getting fiber-optic service for her Internet and phone. The blazing speed will be helpful when she tries to review files at her medical billing business in Edmonds from home, she said.

Sollinger, who has DSL at his home in Silver Lake, is looking forward to FiOS’ expansion to his neighborhood, which could come before the year ends.

His supervisor, Brad Jones of Machias, knows he’ll have to wait longer for the network to expand his way. For now, he relies on Comcast’s cable Internet access.

“I’m a gamer. If I could swing my sword just a little faster … I’d like to have it,” Jones said.

Verizon’s rivals aren’t sitting still, of course. Last week, Comcast announced that its offering its cable Internet customers a free “power boost,” which will give them bursts of download speed of up to 16 megabits per second.

Consumers should enjoy the heated up competition between Verizon and Comcast. Verizon boasts that its basic level of FiOS, with download speeds of 5 megabits per second, starts at $35 for those who also use Verizon’s phone service and $40 for those who don’t. Comcast’s cable Internet service, starting at 6 megabits per second, is about $46 for customers who also get cable TV from the company.

Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.

Just how fast is fast?

Here’s look at the optimum download speeds offered by various Internet access technologies from Verizon, Comcast and competitors in Snohomish County. A megabit is equivalent to 1,000 kilobits.

Dial-up: 56 kilobits per second

DSL: 768 kilobits to 3 megabits per second

Cable: 6 megabits to 16 megabits per second

Fiber optic: 5 megabits to 30 megabits per second