[Heyitsrick]

I was just visiting my Mom in the Villages. She switched from Comcast to Centurylink last year. I was amazed to see that there limitations to the HD service in that if you have more than two*** HD TV's on at any one time, any subsequent sets trying to view are limited to standard definition.

(***Another relative is limited to ONE HD "stream" at a time in their Villages neighborhood!)

I personally would find that to be unacceptable. This is fiber optic cable we're talking about, and the whole idea behind fiber optic is that its pure digital and has extremely large bandwidth (the "pipe" or the amount of data that can be passed on the cable).

In my area in NY, we have Verizon FIOS fiber optic service. If you've got an HD box connected to any set in your house, you've got HD service, and that's the way it's supposed to be. Of course, you're paying for each HD box rental, but that's the way this kind of service works.

I had to call CenturyLink on Mom's behalf on a separate issue, and asked about this situation. The rep had almost nothing to tell me about upgrades to service where this wouldn't be an issue.

I'm just wondering if it's truly door-to-door fiber optic or if they are using older infrastructure in some areas where fiber only goes so far, and then it's funneled into an older coax topology. Anyone have any clues about this? It's quite odd in this day and age.