I am pretty sure Verizon doesn’t think there is much demand in Alexandria for FIOS. Why do I think this? Well, if you go to their site, which I have done a few times to check on the status of FIOS in my neighborhood, you will see what I mean.The site is set-up to get you excited about the opportunity to drop whatever other option you might have, which in my case is an internet technology that works well, but only during the 50% of time it is up. I have had the cable company out to my house at least 25 times in the past few years, and they have yet to figure out why my cable internet works intermittently.
Anyway, that is not my point. If you go on the Verizon high-speed internet website and check to see if FIOS is available in your area, if you live in Alexandria, you will find Zippo. Why is this, well it has to do with digging, and a bunch of other reasons, some of which I think are social economically based. But if Verizon is using the sign-up for FIOS and the ‘Alert me when it gets to my area’ link as a way to find out demand, well they are in for a shock.
When you go to sign-up on the site to be alerted when FIOS is available, not that I wouldn’t see them digging up my front yard, the sign-up doesn’t work. You fill out all your information and click ‘yes’ to sign-up and it just hangs. It does this on FireFox about 50% of the time, and at least one version of IE. It doesn’t do anything, just sits there. But, here is the kicker, if you select ‘No’ it says ‘Thank you’ and goes to the next page.
Most likely someone at the HQ of Verizon is looking at reports and saying ‘look I told you Alexandria didn’t want FIOS, there are barely any people on the waiting list.’
This is frustrating, because I am sure this is being used by the management to defend their case on where they dig and where they build out. It is also frustrating because I have been waiting for FIOS for over 4 years, and we are nowhere close to getting access to this technology.
This is the one time I wish I lived in Europe, as their internet is so much faster over there!
