I was in a rant mode, pissed as it were, on my way home from doing nothing.  (Brits commonly refer to being drunk as being “pissed.”)  Before I could even start on why I was pissed, I got doubly pissed because the music service I signed onto yesterday is not working on my Squeeze Box as it should.  Take that however you wish…

It is a web-based music service, as I guess they all are less, Sirius, called Radioio.  I am getting “404 – page not found” errors.  I have been using a music service, Rhapsody, for more than six years and that error is a new one to me…as far as the music service goes.  It is obviously a common error message encountered when browsing the web.

No matter, I am pissed!

I am getting a little pissed off at bicyclists riding on the sidewalk when there is a perfectly good road to ride on.  Mostly they are teens who are too inconsiderate to signal when they are coming up on you and/or to slow down when they are passing you.  I know from plenty of experience that bikes can come up on you with no warning at all and scare the piss out of you when you notice they are right behind or right next to you.

On all the dual-use trails  in the area there are signs explicitly restricting bicycle speed limits and requiring that you use a bell or horn to alert those who you are approaching from the rear.  There are no laws in Virginia that say one cannot ride a bicycle on a sidewalk  but they do require that you “give an audible signal before passing.”  Unfortunately there are no signs posted on the sidewalks that make people aware of the regulation.  Perhaps the state thinks that riders will be considerate enough…right!

Prior to October 31, 2007, if you lived in an apartment complex, you had no choice on who your cable TV service provider was.  On that date, the “FCC voted to retroactively prohibit exclusive agreements between apartment firms and video service (cable) providers,” as noted in this release from the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC).  The NMHC cites all sorts of reasons which the decision was bad for the consumer.  The primary reason is that the apartment complex management companies could purportedly negotiate lower fees for their residents.

I have lived in an “Equity Residential” apartment for four years now.  When I got here, Cox was the cable provider and it still is.  I had, and still have, no other options for cable TV.  I can recall nothing as relates to my agreement with Equity Residential that gives me any benefit or deal with Cox because of that agreement.  All transactions that I have made with Cox have been exclusively through myself, not through Equity Residential.

According to the previously cited release, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit as recently as May 26, 2009, upheld the FCC’s decision.  Yet, a year and half after the initial decision, I still have no options  available to me other than Cox cable in my Equity Residential managed apartment.  Most  galling is the fact that multi housing managerial concerns believe that negotiating an exclusivity agreement for telecom services is best for their renters.  I certainly agree that that might be the case when it comes to utilities, gas and electric, and services such as trash removal, recycling, and landscaping, but for something as personal as TV, the resident has to be able to make the final decision.

Verizon’s FIOS (fiber optics vice copper to the home) has been touted as God’s gift to digital TV and broadband Internet access.  (Disclaimer, my brother-in-law works for Verizon, does FIOS installs, and has FIOS TV and Internet.)  I have been resonably impressed with the TV service, usability, functionality, on-screen menus, DVR, and such.

However, if one had DirectTV and wanted only FIOS Internet access from Verizon, for example, they would have to pay five dollars per month more for the Internet access if they didn’t bundle IP phone service with the deal.  See it here.  To me this is close to a deal breaker and for posterity, it would be a deal breaker.  I haven’t had a land line for eight or ten years and surely wouldn’t get one to save five bucks a month on Internet access…which is probably what Verizon is betting on.

I understand that Verizon wants to make money and that bundling phone service with Internet access theoretically is a good deal for the consumer.  Realistically, it is only a good deal if you are still using a seriously outdated landline service that you should have bailed on years ago.  For me, ditching a landline pretty much paid for my Internet access.  Why should those of us who saw years ago how the telecom cards were going to fall be penalized for being early adopters?  Why would we want to pay for a service that we’ve given up and never missed?  Shouldn’t someone like the FCC be investigating these cheesy marketing practices?

Verizon generally has a good thing going with FIOS but the technology is the only thing that saved Verizon in the broadband wars with the cable companies.  FIOS I am sure was conceived as an alternative to DSL which could never compete with cable’s pricepoint speedwise.  From my experience DSL was much less reliable, and often harder to configure, than cable Internet access.  DSL was always, and still is, severely hampered by distance constraints.   If you are located more than 15,000 feet from the nearest  presence of your phone company, you’ll be lucky to get download speeds of .5 Mbps compared to the 15 Mbps for Verizon FIOS’ basic package.  Yet, even with the prevalence of FIOS, cable Internet access still  dominates  in rural areas.  It just isn’t cost effective yet for Verizon to roll out FIOS in rural and small town USA.

Now, I have Cox for Internet access and TV.  I pay for 5 Mbps downloads but often see download speeds similar to those promised by FIOS.  Go to DSL Reports to check your download and upload speeds.  I pay the same amount per month for my Internet access as I would for FIOS’ basic package.  I do not see much in the way of speed differences while web surfing at home as compared to web surfing at my brother-in-laws house.  I don’t know if watching TV and using the Internet at the same time is any different on FIOS than it is on cable.  I assume there are some Quality of Service (QOS) standards that ensure at least that your TV signal has the bandwidth that it needs, even at the expense of Internet access performance.

Nonetheless, at the rates that I get for what I pay,  I can, and do, stream music for hours every day while web surfing and downloading files to my heart’s content.  I can also watch movies on demand from Netflix without any problems.  I guess that what I am trying to say is that  I am not sure that Verizon FIOS is all that, especially if, to save five dollars, I would have to get phone service I’d never use.