anyone interested in trying this new service? http://www.getfision.com/index.htm 10 to 100 Mbps high-speed Internet: FISION will deliver speeds up to 100 Mbps to your very own home. To give you an idea of the amount of speed that we are talking about here - your minimum connection speed will be 10 Mbps symmetrical (equal speeds both ways), which is eight times (8 x) the speed of a T1 line! Imagine your download capability, the amounts of files you can now transfer and the very simple fact that your basic internet applications such as email, instant messaging and file sharing will now be supported with incredible connection rates previously unseen here in Houston. In addition to your standard 10 Mbps connectivity, you will be able to upgrade to: Telephony (Local and Long Distance): In addition to Video and Internet, FISION will offer voice services including local and long-distance, 911, call-waiting and voice mail box. Simply put, you want your phone to work when you need it. And when you subscribe to our Triple Play Plus™ package (Video, Internet and Voice) from FISION, you will get a tremendous savings for obtaining all three services. 400 Channels of Digital TV: FISION's video and audio signals are all-digital, sent from our central office in Houston all the way to your television sets. This quality provides our customers with the same signal quality that TV networks send to us. Our programming line-up consists of 400 video and audio channels that include TV networks such as DISCOVERY, OUTDOOR LIFE, USA, SCI-FI, SHOWTIME, HBO, and Starz, in addition to all of the local networks such as NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and UPN. Plus, FISION will have the most High-Definition (HD) TV channels of any video provider in Houston with channels such as HDNET, DISCOVERY HD, HBO HD, SHOWTIME HD, HDNET Movies and all the local TV channels broadcasting in high definition for those of you who demand incredible picture quality from your HD Television set.
I signed up for the early adopters thing two weeks ago. I haven't heard word one from them yet. But yeah, I think it's cool.
Very interesting - no prices or a good channel lineup yet. In one of their news releases of a few months ago they only had 300+ channels, now it is 400+. They are still missing some basic channels, CNN, FOXNews, ESPN, TNT, History Channel. Maybe in a few more months they will get those.
Well, it sounded like a scam to me, too. So I figured, if this was a serious media company, there's probably an article in the Chronicle about it somewhere. a quick search found this: (link) FISION viewers to get Starz Optical Entertainment Network, the Houston-based Internet Protocol Television company, has reached agreement to carry the Starz group of premium channels via its subscriber service, FISION. The deal makes all 13 Starz and Encore channels available to FISION subscribers, along with Starz HDTV and Starz On Demand. OEN provides fiber-to-the-home service, offering video, Internet, phone, home security and video on demand in the clearest and fastest way possible. It has reached content agreements with 450 channels, including all major networks. FISION is available only in Houston and in limited neighborhoods. For details, go to getFISION. com. -- Doesn't necessarily mean it's legit, though. Somebody who lives in the area of "Beltway-8 and 59 south, just past the Bissonnet exit" should drive by and tell us if there is a building there with the words Fision, OEN or Optical Entertainment Network on it. But then again, there's no way this is legit. Imagine the project scope and funding necessary to string fiber cable into homes throughout the city. That's a friggin' huge project. Now, if Time Warner or some other giant was talking about it, I might believe it. But I can't imagine that coming from a rinky-dinky company like "Fision". I'm reading through their articles now to learn more about this (link)
This is the wave of the future for all media, make no mistake. In 10 years, copper cable to homes will be a huge bottleneck, not to mention that copper is getting scarcer and scarcer. For now, the lineup and the price are the dealmakers. They gotta have sports and a decent price for me to give 'em a whirl.
THEY-MUST-BE-LATINOS wake up call: Out of 71 channels on their so-called 400-channel lineup, 14 listed on this page are Spanish-speaking. We're taking over, baby... ¡¡¡¡Arriba!!!!!
So, they offer services that are available now, or is it more of a "future" thing? Do they offer a minimum speed of 10Mbps RIGHT NOW? If so, for how much and how do you sign up for it?
If you break down the channel providers by ownership you can see what they are missing: Don't have it-ESPN, the Disney Channel, ABC Family - owned by Disney (E! co-owned by Comcast, Disney, Liberty Media, Lifetime co-owned by Disney and Hearst, and Hearst owns 20% of ESPN) Don't have it-BET, Comedy Central, CMT, Showtime, MTV, TNN, Nickelodeon, TV-Land, VH1 - owned by Viacom Got it-Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC (w/ Microsoft) - owned by GE Don't have it-Cartoon Network, CNN and related, HBO, TBS, TNT - owned by AOL Time Warner Don't have it-Fox News, FX, Fox Sports - shockingly, owned by Fox Got it-Sci-fi, USA - owned by Vivendi Got it-Encore, Starz, QVC - owned by Liberty Media Got it-Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Learning Channel, Travel Channel - owned by Discovery Communications (which, in turn, is controlled by Liberty Media) Don't have it-A&E, History Channel - owned by A&E Television Networks (which, in turn, is owned by GE, Disney, and Hearst) Don't have it-AMC, Independent Film Channel, WE, and a bunch of the regional Fox Sports channels - owned by Rainbow Media (which is co-owned by Cablevision and GE) Looks like they have 6 more contracts to work out.
I always love this quote about copper being a bottleneck. In a sense it's true, but you know how long they've been saying copper is going to be the bottleneck in communications? Back when they were trying to get past 9600 baud speeds with modems... lol. "You'll never be able to push past 9600 on standard POTS lines!" Umm... sure. BTW, fiber optic lines have been implemented in the Dallas and San Antonio areas already. SBC and Verizon are slowly rolling out FIOS/FTTC services throughout Texas.
SBC and Verizon users in the Dallas and San Antonio area are getting 20 megabit/sec speeds and up I think. They're going to max them out at either 25 or 50 mbits from what I remember. *EDIT* : Oh, and sorry, but I believe the pricing is going to be around the same or less than cable modem service - around $40-$50/month. But that could change once the rollout gets going. I think that may be only for the Internet part, and not for the tv channels. I'm not sure about that, though.
I watched their video - the are currently talking to Disney/ESPN and they said they intend to offer EVERY channel.
