FIOS Is Here! But Is It Worth It??

[WAHumor]

After years of mailings and commercials, Verizon Fios internet service has finally arrived in my area.

I'm with Comcast myself, which is fine for Internet service.

DO you have Fios? What do you think of it? How does it compare to any of the cable companies??


Dan

[CorpRebel]

After years of mailings and commercials, Verizon Fios internet service has finally arrived in my area.

I'm with Comcast myself, which is fine for Internet service.

DO you have Fios? What do you think of it? How does it compare to any of the cable companies??

ACK! Sorry to hear you have Comcast. I've never heard anyone say anything nice about them before.

I have several friends here in Newport, RI that have FiOS and like it much better than Cox cable for Internet access. I hooked into it a few times at their place and it's FAST.

But it's only for home owners down here. DRAT!

BUT, I'm looking to buy within the next year soooooo .... Maybe when I do I'll get to change over to FiOS.

I'm using Verizon's DSL now and it's better than when I had Cox cable Internet access.

[grahamg4]

I made the switch from Comcast (never had a problem) to Fios last February. Fios with just TV and Internet we currently do not have a home phone. Comcast was just TV and Internet also.

My decision was entirely based on monthly charge. My Comcast promotion price was going from $150/mo up to $200/mo. Fios was just available in my area and the promo was $85/mo for 3 months then $105/mo. The additional $20, could be $15 don't remember, was for the DVR Server box. This lets recorded shows be replayed on any of the boxes.

Setup took about 4 hours and everything works fine. My only "worry" is that the modem comes with wireless. Wireless is very unsecure and I still need the time to lock it down. But that will be happening very soon.

The savings was a no brainer. I will say though that with Comcast we had 3 movie channels that never were watched. When I looked into dropping them in January 09, Comcast told me that my bill, $150, would actually go up by $10/mo. The guy also refused me any new promos telling me "You've had enough". At the best my bill could have stayed close but hey $50/mo is $50/mo.

Fios has not given me any problems in the 5-6 months we've had it. TV menu is a little different but got used to it. My current, right now, download speed is 16814 kbps and upload speed is 4650 kbps. I don't remember what my Comcast speeds where.

One big difference though is Comcast is shared bandwidth for all customers on a the same node whereas Fios is not. Sort of like the difference between a hub and a switch.

[schemjo]

For years and years I had Bright House Cable for my internet service. The service (both technical and customer service) was very spotty. I had to get several new cable modems from them because they seemed to go bad. When Fios came to the area I was very excited! Verizon's rates blew Bright House out the door - even for faster speed! I pay $39.99 a month for the same speed that BH wanted to charge $54.99 - it seems like a no brainer to me!!

It's been a couple years on Fios now and I still love it. The only problem I've had with it was just two weeks ago. When originally installed they put all the components in the garage. So when I was organizing the garage I accidentally hit the reset button on the power outlet thus draining my battery backup. I didn't realize this until the next day when I had no internet connection. Not believing Fios was actually down I checked all the physical connections and found the problem.

A word of advice - when the technician comes to install everything be there and stay on top of him/her. As I said all the stuff they have to install is in my garage, but some of my neighbors have theirs installed right near their front door which to me is unsightly. Be prepared for the install to take several hours but it's worth it! Also, they'll tell you that you have to install the software but this is NOT true. In my IT experiences the software will actually interfere and causes more trouble.

Hope this helps and good luck!!
Joe
---
http://my-new-sunglasses.com
http://adreamhomecometruefor.us

[retta719]

Im switching to FIOS this week!

our contract with Cox (which is basically Comcast) just ended and I couldn't be more eager to get rid of them. My phone is always out, my internet is unstable at best, and Verizon's prices are so much better. Switching is going to save us about 80 dollars a month, and if we do our sign up online we get to pick from a free netbook or a free flip ultra.... way to win my heart!

[WAHumor]

Wow..it wasn't so long ago I recall seeing mostly negative remarks from others about Fios.

Did they get their act together??

How big a deal is installation?


Dan

[CorpRebel]

How big a deal is installation?

Well ... it's kinda secret. First they have you & family leave the house & book a hotel for a day and a half while they tear out one of the walls to your garage so they can "embed" the "blackbox" into an unknown location.

Of course, when you get back, you have to clean up all the mess.

But somehow it all works just fine!





P.S. Seriously ... I'm told it takes a few hours while they do attach a box to outside of your house and run the cables (fibre) to it. Try to get them to put it in less conspicuos location otherwise they try to put it by your front door.

It's not the best looking box around. As Joe (schemjo) just mentioned earlier.

[schemjo]

I believe I have two boxes in my garage that they installed but it may be three. One is a battery backup and one is the modem-like device that converts the signals called the ONT.

Then there is the wireless router that gets plugged in inside your house. Try and have the router somewhere centrally located in your house to reduce 'dead spots'. I didn't feel like running more wire so I have my router upstairs in the front of the house so my connection is low to medium downstairs in the back.

It really doesn't seem like much but it will indeed take a couple hours.

[Regina]

DO you have Fios? What do you think of it? How does it compare to any of the cable companies??Dan

Never heard of FIOS, I use Comcast and love the speed - but the pricing stinks

[MichaelSchultz]

I called them when FiOS came out and they said the following:

"I sarry sir! ve do not pwovide serdvice in your'd area - 'ave a nice day."

*cries to no end*