Thursday, October 4, 2007

FiOS is a fiber to the premises (FTTP) telecommunications service offered in some areas of the United States by Verizon. According to Verizon, "Fios" is an Irish (Gaelic) word for "knowledge". In mailings to New Jersey customers, however, Verizon states that it stands for "fiber-optic service." Verizon has attracted consumer and media attention in the area of broadband Internet access as the first major U.S. carrier to offer such a service. Verizon has also launched a television service with its fiber optic lines. FiOS started as a pilot program in Keller, Texas, but availability of the Triple Play service has expanded to many states.
Television (FiOS TV)
Basic — includes 15 to 46 channelsExpanded Basic — includes 175 to 270 channelsLa Conexión — Spanish-language package, includes 130 to 150 channelsMovie Package — 44 movie channels (Starz!, Showtime, Encore, TMC, Flix and Sundance)Sports Package — More than a dozen sports channels including Fox College Sports, Outdoor Channel, Gol TV, and the Golf ChannelMovie & Sports Package — All the channels from both the Sports and Movie PackagesPremium Channels — HBO and/or CinemaxInternational Channels — Individually priced international channels including ART, TV Japan, RAI, and TV5Spanish Language Package — More than 20 channels of news, sports, and movie telenovelas in SpanishOn Demand library (with over 1000 Free programs) (not including movie channel subscriptions)All service tiers beyond basic require a digital set-top box or CableCard to receive the television signal and decode for display on the television set.TV is not available on FiOS business installations, though in some circumstances Verizon will install a second ONT to provide TV to a location that already has business FiOS.
Verizon FIOS is a passive optical network. Voice, video, and data travel over three wavelengths in the infrared spectrum. To serve a home, a single-mode optical fiber extends from an optical line terminal (OLT) at a FIOS central office or head end out to the neighborhoods where an optical splitter fans out the same signal on up to 32 fibers- thus serving up to 32 subscribers. At the subscriber's home, an optical network terminal (ONT) transfers data onto the corresponding copper wiring for phone, video and internet access[3]. .One of the three wavelength bands is devoted to carrying television channels that are compatible with Cable television products. The other two wavelengths are devoted to all other data, one for outbound and the other for inbound data. This includes IPTV video, telephone and internet data.This allocation of wavelengths adhere to the ITU-T G.983 standard, also known as APON or BPON. Verizon initially installed slower BPONs but now only installs gigabit PONs [GPON] specified in the ITU-T G.984 standard. These bands and speeds are:1310nm for upstream data at 155 Mbit/s (1.2 Gbit/s with GPON)1490nm for downstream data at 622 Mbit/s (2.4 Gbit/s with GPON)1550nm for RF (non IPTV) video with 870 MHz of bandwidthOne misconception[citation needed] about FIOS's support for IPTV video support is that it is assumed to be the same as support for internet video. Another common[citation needed] misconception about FIOS television is that it is all IPTV, when in fact only pay per view, video on demand, and guide data services are delivered via IP. All other video originates from a traditional cable head end that combines analog channels with digital QAM channels. The RF signal occupies 870 MHz and is modulated onto the 1550 nm wavelength. This optical signal is then coupled with the two other wavelengths passing data between the OLT and ONT. At the ONT located at the subscriber's home, the RF video is sent over a coax connection most typically to a FIOS hybrid set-top box that handles both RF and IPTV video. The ONT provides internet connectivity via an RJ45 connector, but also transfers IPTV video and internet IP packets onto coax using a 1.1 GHz channel to provide 100 Mbit/s of bandwidth as specified by the MoCA standard. Alternately, analog video may be played by any cable ready device, and traditional digital video may be accessed by any Cablecard certified television or digital video recorder such as a Tivo Series 3. However, services such as VOD and PPV are delivered by IPTV and are only accessible through use of one of FIOS's hybrid set top boxes manufactured by Motorola to support RF as well as the IPTV video. The FIOS STBs play IPTV only from FIOS delivered via MoCA and not from video sources on the internet. FIOS's IPTV implementation does not follow cable television formats and conventions for two way television and instead follows the DVB standard[4].MoCA is also used by FiOS for streaming video from the FIOS's "media hub" for the home, whose role is currently filled by Motorola's QIP6416 hybrid QAM/IPTV digital video recorder (DVR). There are several limitations to video connectivity in the home via FIOS. Only streaming of standard definition (SD) resolution video to STBs is allowed. Shows recorded in High Definition (HDTV) may be accessed, but only after first being converted to lower resolution SD video. Transfers of shows between DVRs or is also not allowed. Transfers to DTCP compliant devices via firewire is possible, but nearly all digital content except ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and locals are flagged via CGMS-D as "copy once" and so may not be transferred.Most of the optical network terminals (ONT) being deployed by Verizon are Tellabs 1600 series ONT. This ONT provides up to four provisionable voice telephone ports, a 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet interface for data traffic, and one coaxial connector for CATV services. The Motorola ONT1000V is rarely used.Verizon includes the Actiontec MI424-WR coax-enabled broadband home wireless-G router with installation of the service. This device is used for both FiOS TV and FiOS internet. Verizon initially used the D-Link DI-624 router but has since switched to the Actiontec for the added MoCA capabilities.

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