Cable Vs Fiber

It’s the same all over department…

Cable companies across the country are having to deal with Verizon’s FTTH network and are coming up short. In response to a real fiber network they are trotting out an advertising blitz claiming that they have a fiber network too. This is, of course, a blatant attempt to mislead. Verizon’s advantage lies in the fact that it carries the fiber that every (every) carrier has in the backbone all the way, all the way to the home.

According to multichannel news the strategy is widespread:

[Verizon exec] Walls said cable providers confuse consumers with their claims to fiber architecture. As examples, he cited commercials from Cox Communications (an animated spot that asserts the phone companies are a decade behind Cox as far as fiber investment) and Cablevision Systems (the voiceover states that “they’re” talking about fiber but “a lot of their network isn’t”).

Cable’s claims to a fiber network on par with that being built by Verizon is “like saying a Volkswagen and a [Rolls-Royce] are the same because they both have tires,” he said.”

Now Verizon is suing…

Verizon Communications filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against Time Warner Cable, alleging the cable operator’s TV ads make “blatantly false” statements about its FiOS services in an attempt to dissuade customers from switching.

It would be good if the courts would find that such advertising is an attempt to deceive the consumer and hence illegal. It is certainly nice that Verizon, with legions of legal staff to rival AT&T’s, were to establish this for all the EATels and LUSs of the country.

Without such a finding expect the same sort of advertising here…in about 9 months.