Parts of Dorchester, Roxbury, West Roxbury and Roslindale could be first to get FiOS

{ long gripe about Verizon lies regarding "wireless service" vs. "bringing fiber to the curb" deleted just in case it turns out that Verizon may actually do something more than bait and switch us with wireless stuff re-branded as FiOS .. }

Is FiOS really worth switching for? You know. Asking for a friend...

The pink area showing West Roxbury-Roslindale would be that service area that is managed by the Verizon (VZ) central office switch station (CO) located on Belgrade Ave at the railroad bridge (near Lords and Ladys Salon). The original New England Telephone Co was in the building now occupied by the Sons of Italy organization on Birch St in Roslindale Sq, and later built out in a building in the Beech Street neighborhood. That was then later moved to the current building on Belgrade.

The suggestion here is that those with a telephone exchange of 617-323, 325, 327, 469, 363 will get one of the first build outs. There has long been fiber in the Belgrade Ave building - large trunk - which then feeds both DSL and telephone service to this service area. Of note, the Parkway Telephone Answering Service, that little brick building next to Aldrich Cleaners on Belgrade Ave does have a fiber line feeding it as well as several hundred copper lines for its business answering phones. I know because I worked there for a period of time. So there is plenty of commercial fiber in the area already. I'd also note there is fiber on Washington Street in Rossie Sq. The rebuilt Rossie community center has fiber feeding it - 100+ MB worth. And I speak from first hand experience on that. In fact I've tested their lines to well into the 130 MB range. It's awesome (However the city's Wicked Free WiFi that runs off it is throttled to 1 MB per user. Really? I mean, really?)

Fiber is normally run underground so that it is not compromised by weather as well as other environmental risks, such as auto accidents or fires. If they option to run fiber on telephone poles they could be risking those situations where if a telephone pole goes down so do all the customers, and for weeks.

It is important to note that while copper wire can be spliced and twisted together for repairs, glass fiber cannot. They must measure a specific length of glass fiber and run that from the nearest splitter box directly to each house.

There may be latitude for them to run fiber to a cluster of homes then run standard CAT (cable) lines at high speeds the remainder of the distance. Again, I have a friend in TX that has a similar set up in his neighborhood. This should be generally acceptable and would match how cable systems do it now.

Once FIOS comes, and is installed in a building, all service including telephone is transferred to that new service and the copper wire is removed - forever. You will never get a copper wire back.

The current copper network has back-up generators at the CO stations so if power goes out, those will snap on and power the copper old-fashioned telephone network giving you emergency telephone service. FIOS on the other hand requires being powered at the house for a converter box where the glass fiber comes in and which is then used to translate the glass fiber signal to standard CAT (cable) connections that runs through the house. So people getting FIOS will need to have an electrical outlet available for this to work where the converter box will be mounted, or have one installed. Plan ahead. The translator box also has a back-up battery (wet cell like in an automobile) that is about the size of your fist which will power the system in the event of a localized power outage, but it is dependent on how much it is used and may only last for 4-6 hours at the most. After that nothing works.

It is due to this that some people do not want to give up on copper wire as it will still work during emergencies. It's worth noting that by law all telephone lines (copper) now in homes must have a dial tone and must at least offer 911 service so anyone can connect to emergency services until a regular phone service is turned on, or if regular service is terminated for other reasons. Fiber and cable do not have this safety net.

In some areas where FIOS is taking hold, people have been keeping their copper lines by reducing service to bare minimums and when FIOS arrives putting that in another family member's name. VZ will resist but you can force them to keep the copper line in and under another name. They will do everything possible to not allow that but you need to push if you want that safety net.

VZ is in fact getting itself out of the copper wire industry and has been going to FIOS or wireless where possible. They have already sold off their copper networks in ME, NH, VT, parts of W. Mass, FL, CA, and regions in the Pacific Northwest and around the Great Lakes area. The new company, in this region Fairpoint Communications, is taking over an aged and unserviced copper network, and raising rates for less service. Once FIOS and its piggy-back wireless is installed we can look forward to VZ selling off what is left a few years down the road.

As to the "5G" wireless service, do not confuse that with cell phone 3G and 4G (LTE) systems. Nor confuse it with 5G speeds off a WiFi router in the home. The VZ 5G service simply means a higher rate of speed. However as with any hotspot, it will be limited in how much can be exchanged by the number of people connecting.

I'd expect VZ to note that they cannot run FIOS glass lines to some neighborhoods or buildings for what ever tech reason and offer the wireless instead. The question will be just how much of that crap they will try to pull. Keep your eyes open for that and share if you hear this.

As may be obvious, I remain skeptical as to what VZ will actually roll out and we all should be even if they do claim it to be fiber to the home. So far they have been calling their wireless service that is powered by glass fiber to be a part of their "FIOS" service and toying with people by misusing terms.

Our elected officials need to be educated to this and be mindful. When I sent them the story from the Huffington Post about the possible bait and switch (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/more-exposed-verizons-fio_b_10564756.html) none of them were aware of it. The state delegation for Boston also needs to be on board and keeping an eye on this as well since they have a finger in regulation. This needs to be monitored pro-actively before anything is switched.

For the record, I'll definitely switch to glass fiber when and if it comes, but their wireless may not be something of interest.

Also carefully note in the contractual tech docs that this roll out will not include FIOS TV - at least at the start. This will be Internet and telephone only until they get a TV franchise contract with the City of Boston, so again don't think that FIOS "service" includes FIOS "TV" at the outset.

More than likely this will be middle mile fiber with the copper delivering the last connection to residents and businesses. Bear in mind though that Verizon wants out of the fixed wireline business. Massachusetts and Rhode Island are next in line to be sold off to Frontier.