FiOS well positioned in the "HD arms race"

Which service provider is going to offer the largest array of high definition content in the long run? It's too early to tell, but Verizon's FiOS is in a great position to compete according to this article from Cable360. The piece speculates that Verizon has plenty of bandwidth, and that FiOS is in a better place than most cable providers for a couple of reasons:

• FiOS already employs a relatively small portion of its video bandwidth for analog channels, and by February 2009, FiOS will reallocate even this segment entirely for digital TV.

• Verizon can allocate the entire 860 MHz for downstream standard definition and HD TV channels. On cable, some of this bandwidth is allocated for upstream and downstream VOD and Internet access. On FiOS, traffic for VOD and Internet access is carried on different wavelengths (for upstream and downstream) over the fiber plant and does not subtract from the 860 MHz for linear TV.

Bottom line: this is good news for FiOS subscribers. Once Verizon finishes upgrading the network components that are currently causing the bottleneck, the sky is the limit for FiOS bandwidth. Check out the article for the full scoop.