 
Rick
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-06
Waterbury, CT
clubs: 
| It could be something else.... Karl says...
"It's a good sign the company is losing a significant number of bundled DirecTV customers to cable"
While that may very well be the case it might be that they're losing them to no one. In these economically difficult times..some people may be just doing away with service entirely.
There's been a ton of layoffs and I think if I were in those shoes, one of the first things I'd cut back would be tv service.
Tough to say until the cable co's release their numbers.
--
The Coyote captured the RR! Roadrunner Rick is now Comcastic! | |
|  | 
Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02 | Re: It could be something else.... Very true. Economy probably plays a role.
Though given they bundle DSL with DirecTV and they've slacked on promoting DSL in favor of FiOS, they by proxy slacked on promoting their DirecTV relationship. | |
| | | Hound
join:2006-03-08
Princeton, NJ
 ·Verizon FIOS
| Re: It could be something else.... Uverse added 170,000
subs and Fios added
176,000. I always wait for Directv, Dish Network, Comcast, Time Warner,
Cablevision, and Charter to release sub additions or losses to get a clear
picture of market trends and whose strategies are working. With Verizon
there was some frustration about their HD rollout had not started. Well it has started. With cable there is uncertainty whether the HD rollouts will
ever start. | |
| | | |
Rick
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-06
Waterbury, CT
clubs:
| Re: It could be something else.... Uverse had a very strong showing this quarter, exceeding even their target of 10,000k new customers per week.
And for them to have matched fios's numbers is even more noteworthy.
While I'll never believe that long term nor technologically it was the right move to go with fiber to the Vrad...then twisted pair to the house..I might have to concede that financially, it does make some sense if that trend now keeps up. One thing they are able to do a lot more quickly than Verizon is to pass homes with the service. And those sheer numbers alone now seem to be producing these results. When you consider the continued bleed of landlines in their minds it was apparently critical to get something out there as a replacement..at the lowest cost possible.
The BIG if here is IF it keeps up. At some point the number of homes passed will stop growing and it really will come down to who wants the service and who doesn't.
Only having 500 some odd thousand customers as they do now wouldn't be giving me too warm and fuzzy a feeling.
But..170k customers in a quarter is nothing to sneeze at and honestly, I would have expected half that myself.
So..some concession is in order on my part and now I'll say it's wait and see.
--
The Coyote captured the RR! Roadrunner Rick is now Comcastic! | |
| | | | | 
supergirl
join:2007-03-20
Pensacola, FL
 ·Cox VOIP
·Skype
 ·Cox HSI
 ·AT&T Southeast
·magicjack.com
| Re: It could be something else.... VZ's marketing sucks to me and they need a billing system that works. I think UVerse is a short-term "fix" for a Bell that has been addicted to all that landline revenue but FTTH is the future (or the hybrid's of Cable Cos).
Comcast ads suck but they are nailing the Bells on price. Cox ads are more informational and nail the price point on phone service. Cable already has most of the TV service so they are aggressive on the phone side. And, if they take the phone, they know they are getting the HSI side too (a free month is a nice idea or 3 months at half price, etc.).
VZ's ads are too complicated. "It's FIOS capable of this and that..." Well, most don't use all that speed, stupid. VZ ads are more about selling a luxury; the Cable Cos are just selling add-ons, and a lot cheaper phone service, than the Bells, which is a simple way of winning them over. Once a person experiences digital phone, like I did, there really is no going back to a Bell's crappy phone service (analog). And, those phone tools are something the Bells, except maybe VZ, can't even begin to offer. Ask AT&T how bad Cox has cannibalized their landline service here.
VZ needs to get its act together or us shareholders might just decide the idiots in-charge need some marketing help, and IBM to come in and fix their crappy billing system that is going to make people leave. In other words, CEO Ivan Siedenberg hasn't executed well. If he doesn't execute NY well, he might just be on the way out.
As far as Vonage, I give them another year till they are in bankruptcy court trying to hold onto whatever 3 customers are left. The Big Boys watched, studied, and are pouning on them. Price is nice but if you have to spend hours making it work, rather than the 30 mins. Cox spent setting up everything at my house, most non-tech people will go with the provider that makes it simple not complex.
--
Saving the world keeps me busy. However, I find Earth very primitive from my home planet of Krypton.
-Supergirl | |
| | | | 
got the day off
@windstream.net | This quarter verizon sold to fairpoint a small # of fios customers,net adds are down by the # of customers sold. The sale of 1.6 million landlines + 230,000 dsl customers may be part of a bundle with directv customers. | |
| | | DonLibes
Premium,ExMod 2001
join:2003-01-19
| Another explanation is that there are just more and more alternatives to pay TV services. For example, I no longer watch TV for news but get it from web sites. CSPAN from their web site. Many TV shows from their respective web sites. Movies from Netflix. And if I really want to rot my brain with hours of meaningless video, there's Youtube and 100 other Youtube competitors. | |
| | 
Dogfather
Premium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA | My guess would be that people just downgrade (eg drop HBO), not dump pay TV all together. | |
| | | bgraham
join:2001-03-15
Smithtown, NY
·Verizon FIOS
| Re: It could be something else.... That's exactly what we did. We are not serious TV watchers and honestly there is not much worth watching on the pay channels and while the number of channels is vast, how much golf, crab fishing (now on 24/7 I think), arctic truck driving and Romanian soccer can you watch. We don't have kids, we don't watch music channels and we don't speak Spanish so half the channels never get watched. | |
| curls310
join:2007-09-26
Hillsdale, NJ | Needed more HD Their TV service is currently lacking the HD channels to attract new subscribers. Anyone who cares for HD will see the D* service and go in that direction. The infusion of HD channels along with the top internet should jump start new sign ups. | |
| jc1350
join:2004-09-23 | slow growth - what a shock gee...VZ saw slow growth with FiOS? Hmm....well...when you refuse to service areas, your growth won't be as good as it could be. | |
| bamabrad
join:2006-01-27
Port Orange, FL | More HD to get more customers? With the ability of fiber, why don't they use new interactive services to attract customers-I mean that I would like to see action films in HD but I really don't need to watch my news or dramas in HD-use what you've got to create new services! | |
|
Dogfather
Premium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA | They charge too much When FiOS first rolled out here they were a great deal, but since they raised programming and hardware rates to where they were significantly more expensive (for the programming and HW I wanted) that both cable and DBS. | |
| | kz121
join:2003-10-04
Islip, NY
| Slow Growth Shouldn't be Due to Service Hope you don't mind me butting in here, but I agree with the consumer economics angle. People may be slow to move due to the uncertainties with the economy. I also agree with the slow rollout playing a part.
Strangely, I found it odd that many potential customers initially see the "2yr contract" with Vz as being a "bad thing" and as such have shied away from it. This is odd to me because with the cable companies raising rates at what seemed to me to be quarterly and still offering atrocious standard def with no other service improvements I just can't figure out why you wouldn't want to have the contract to prevent bill increases during this time.
I do know that the cable companies have been offering aggressive discounts to customers after they've left to draw fleeting customers back before they see the service quality difference. When I switched it took them a bit before the offers rolled in but by that time I already saw the difference and said "you can give me it at half the price and I'm still not coming back".
I still haven't been able to figure out why anyone once seeing and using FiOS would even consider going back to the snail speed of cable service that even even the fasted Cablevision's Boost service is still slower in practical use coast to coast then Vz's 20/5 in actual data transmission.
As far as TV is concerned, every time I go to a friends house still using cablevision, comcast or Time Warner I literally cringe at the picture quality unless it's Hi-Def and even at that I still long for my FiOS at home.
and no - i don't work for vz - i swear...
-kz121 | |
| |
Zen6
@rr.com | Re: Slow Growth Shouldn't be Due to Service Two year contract, two week wait for service call to fix dsl that was just too slow. You can keep your fios. | |
| | | kz121
join:2003-10-04
Islip, NY
| Re: Slow Growth Shouldn't be Due to Service Please don't misunderstand - I make no claims to DSL whatsoever. There's no such thing as a slow connection with FiOS. Either its blazing at 20/5 (or whatever you subscribed for) or you have absolutely no service...
With my 20/5 svc I typically transfer large files over my Draft N wifi at speeds in excess of 1.5MBps (15mbps) or higher (up to 2.1MBps) and consistantly when file sharing maintain 5mbps upload speeds. I'm in NY and that's x-country to cali.
With cablevision, the next fasted in the country, I cound't even sustain 2.5mbps coast to coast even though I would get 25mbps to thier servers from time to time.
Did I mention when my TV went out with cablevision, they checked it remotely and said "Its fine" and all i had was snow on everychannel on every tv. they said they couldn't even look at it for a week.
VZ when I had an issue with my WiFi Mocha Modem they were on site in 2hrs...
You don't know what you're missing - maybe its better for you that way... | |
| Artec
join:2003-02-23
Middletown, NJ
| To Honest I feel there is either a work slowdown or layoffs, Example
Parts of the section of the town I live can get FIOS, They just lit only a small part of my Area where I live, Fiber is been ran in my section of the town, they lit one hub about 2 1/2 weeks ago. People like me who are lit on the Hub still cant order.. And the rest of the area, they have yet to finish and they are no where to be found.
So go figgure? | |
| majortom1029
join:2006-10-19
Lindenhurst, NY | hmm I am curious anywhere i can find the numbers of fios vs cablevision? or Does Verizon only publish whole country numbers? | |
|
VZ FiOS
@verizon.net
| FiOS TV needs to be in all of their FiOS markets FiOS TV needs to be in all states and markets where FiOS Internet is available. That would allow them to expand on the amount of video customers without having to deploy new fiber lines. This should be their other focus besides rolling out in new areas. | |
| | Hound
join:2006-03-08
Princeton, NJ | Re: FiOS TV needs to be in all of their FiOS markets Fios needs local video franchises in all areas. There are
areas where there is Fios Internet but no local video
franchise. | |
| internetphon
join:2008-07-29
Arlington, MA | No To Verizon They keep knocking on my door and will not take NO for an answer.
Internet Phone | |
| tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Floral Park, NY
| price increases.. lead to subscriber loss, who knew Now that the price increases have worked their way into the triple play total subscription cost.. IE the bill amount you pay, FIOS ain't such a great deal anymore. Verizon raised standalone prices on ALL three of it's services over the past 12-18 months and it is now coming back to bite them in the ass.
$4 to $5 gasoline did something similar.. got many drivers out their cars for local alternative transportation in droves. Since the government didn't do anything about it, they now lost billions in tax revenue because the OIL/GAS industry played lets see how far we can take prices higher to break the back of the consumer. Only, this behavior didn't stop now that gas prices are retreating... consumers still choose to buy less gasoline. | |
| | | voipdabbler
join:2006-04-27
Kalispell, MT
| The real interesting data will be that for this year. The interesting data to see for all consumer-based information services will be for this year. Let's face it, inflation is ramping up and the downturn in the economy is deeper this year (and economists are predicting that it will continue until at least the 2nd Q of next year, if not longer). Despite what broadband report readers may think, the average consumer doesn't consider high-speed Internet or FIOS and HD TV as an essential service in economic hard times. When people are having real problems making their dollars stretch to cover the true essentials of food, shelter and energy (for the home and the car), they start viewing many things as expendable luxuries. I think the baby bells and cable companies are going to lose market ground if they don't make a radical sea changes and leave rates at present levels (and that includes the not-so-slight-of-hand rate changes poorly disguised as "caps") or actually lower them. If you aren't providing a service essential for day-to-day living, i.e., shelter, food, energy, you'd better make sure you offer real value or face losing customers. | |
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Verizon Hides Their Video Troubles
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