Northern Virginia governments want to develop their own backbones, saying that telecomm companies are lagging on customer service

Both Arlington County and the City of Alexandria in northern Virginia are working on plans to offer corporations or public organizations ultra high-speed backbone Internet, believing that telecomm companies are dragging their feet.  Patricia Sullivan has a Metro Section story here.

  

The article results that Verizon FIOS fiber optic is still not available to all residents. It also claims that the best fiber-optic is 200 times faster than Comcast’s normal cable Internet. 

   

But Google networks in a few cities (like around Kansas City and in North Carolina) seem to be of that speed.  

CU compares cable, fiber-optical, dish, Internet streaming services for most families

The Aug. 2015 issue of Consumer Reports has a valuable piece on p. 56, “How to win at TV”, comparing cable companies, direct TV and bundled Internet, link here. 

  

Direct TV may work better in areas subject to frequent storms, where maintaining a hard-wired connection is more labor intensive.

  

The report gives higher marks to some or regional local cable companies, like WOW in the Great Lakes states. Verizon FIOS does well, but Comcast XFinity got lower marks.

  

The report recognizes that many bundled services gives consumers many specialized channels they never watch.

  

It discusses Amazon Prime and Netflix streaming (both of which I have). They may not work as well if multiple streams run at the same time within a family.  It also notes that some major movies are not available for streaming or DVD for months, and some films disappear from streaming.  A large number of films can be rented legally on YouTube for $1.99 to $3.99.

 

"Motley Fool" video predicts the demise of cable

I’ll pass along this video from “The Motley Fool”, “Dear Comcast: It’s Over”, link here.  The link appeared on AOL’s homepage today. 

True, I see Facebook posts from friends who want to cut cable altogether and go to video on demand. But you usually need a "paywall" Cable subscription to see a lot of episodes from TV presented in VOD format. 

  

It promises stock tips related to the idea that the traditional cable TV business will vanish to video on demand.

   

I have to admit some annoyance to cheesy techniques.  It doesn’t tell you how long the video is, and it does that pop-up “leave this page?” when you cut it off.  That’s rather tacky and rude.