Last week, our T1 and Verizon copper-fed fax line went down for a few days, supposedly due to flooded manholes, according to our carrier. Of course our cable modems weren't affected, and the Vonage service was still available for use. (VoIP saved us from being completely incommunicado!)

While discussing the situation with one of the carrier's service reps, he asked me if FiOS was available. It is, in fact Verizon almost refused to give us service on our existing copper feed, until they got it though their thick skull that we had existing copper service that we wanted to "expand" (read - different department).

The rep went on to explain that fiber is fiber, and Verizon is still obligated to re-sell their fiber just like copper. I was under the impression, from much of the discussion here, that the whole reason Verizon is pushing FiOS is that they don't have to share their infrastructure.

The rep claims that they're doing this all over now, providing fiber-based T1 service at huge discounts over previous fiber circuits, because Verizon has done the leg work. I haven't looked at the rates yet, but I know that even requesting a T1 from Lightpath (who used to have an office in our building, and the building is "lit") was not nearly as cheap as our copper T1 is.

Not only that, but we were considering switching out two cable modems (one is dedicated to support our ESI IP extensions) for the FiOS service anyway, (with static IP's) and switching from copper T1 to a SIP gateway. (with T1)

What do you think of our options? Does Verizon do this?

They sure do it here, at least in Northern VA. I think that the deciding factor is whether or not they have existing fiber facilities within the building. In most places here, if a customer orders a T1, it is usually on copper otherwise. Verizon pretty much calls this shot.

I can assure you that they are not going to build-out a fiber extension into a building for just a handful of circuits.

Someone else may need to correct me if I'm wrong, but I am pretty sure that Verizon maintains two separate fiber networks in the last mile environment. One is for traditional bulk transport, for example to feed multi-tenant buildings. The other (separate) distribution network is exclusively for FiOS services. I think that they are intentionally keeping the legacy distribution separate so that they can sell one or the other off at a later date.

So would it be safe to assume that if I order FiOS, Verizon will be more than happy to pull it from the street into the building (if no one else in the building already had it). But if my carrier just ordered a fiber circuit, Verizon would charge an arm and a leg. If I order FiOS, then cancel, my carrier could get Verizon to provide the service on that fiber?

Probably not, since they maintain two separate fiber networks for transport vs: FiOS distribution. Yes, you can probably get them to bring fiber in for FiOS, but that is only for FiOS, A.K.A. POTS. That service doesn't provide any kind of T1 circuit. A leg of a transport fiber cable would have to be branched into your building, something that Verizon isn't likely to do for just one or two T1 circuits.

I wouldn't consider FiOS to be exactly POTS....

Are there any pitfalls for being the first subscriber in an office building?

I think I'm leaning more towards just using the fat data pipe and reliability that FiOS offers, and a SIP gateway to handle our long distance traffic, which isn't much, usually never more than 6 or 8 channels. We have 26 800 numbers (used like DID's to our desks or fax-email server) pointed into a LD-only T1, and occasionally run a fax broadcast for customer updates.

If you are considering using something like SIP for your trunking, then by all means FiOS would work. The problem is that copper-type services (A.K.A: POTS) provided by FiOS are limited to standard loop-start emulations of copper lines. This (might) work for your fax lines, but it analog data via VOIP is hit or miss.