I assume this means it's only a matter of time before this is rolled out to all FiOS markets?
Or, are there technical limitations that could delay some regions?
I'm in the NY/NJ region and have been holding out switching until there was an HD PPV channel (I'm a UFC nerd), and MLB EI (displaced BoSox fan).
...So, this is exciting news if it will be delivered to my region in a reasonable timeframe.
There is a technical limitation in some regions that will delay the roll-out to those areas until the fall. Basically, Verizon is doing two things concurrently - they're eliminating analogs, and they're expanding their network. They are doing those on a region by region basis, and within each region they have to make the change at each individual cable office. They came out with a schedule for this transition per each VHO (regional office) - e.g. here in the Philly market (which includes Southern NJ and Northern DE) we're set to lose our analogs starting on 6/23.
I believe Northern NJ is set to lose their's at the same time, and I think (if I remember right) NY has already been done. Which means that NY/NJ/SE PA are going to be earlier in the process for getting these new channels - I keep hearing end of July for our region - this would make sense.
Unfortunately some states - TX, FL, CA - aren't set to lose their analogs until October, which would delay the roll-out of these new channels. They're starting with IN and OR for two reasons - first both have been analog-free for some time (OR was created, along with Pittsburgh, without any analogs to begin with, and IN lost their analogs very early in the process). Second, they're both pretty small markets, making them ideal test-beds for these changes.
If I had to guess, I would say that we would start seeing these new channels in this region by the end of July.
As an aside, when Verizon is done with this expansion, they'll have ALOT of room. They're migrating their system to use the full 870MHz bandwidth spec'd to QAM currently. Which comes out to 135 QAM channels. Each QAM channel can carry 2 HD channels, or 9 - 10 SD digital channels, based on Verizon's set-up (meaning running MPEG-2, and without Verizon doing any compression on the signals). Verizon is talking about 150 HD channels by end of 2008. Assuming they reserve that much space for their HD channels, based on their architecture, that works out to 75 QAMs dedicated to HD. That leaves 60 QAMs for SD - which works out to close to 600 SD channels. All without additional compression (great PQ).
No cable provider gives that, that I'm aware of. I think Verizon should fix the PSIP information, so that things map correctly (e.g. if I want Philly's ABC affiliate's HD feed, I should just be able to put in 6-1). Comcast seems to do a much better job of providing that mapping.
