Verizon FiOS (fiber optic internet service) -- opinions, please

In My Humble Opinion
1

Both commasense and jdc started threads about Verizon’s fiber optic internet service about eight months ago, but I didn’t want to create a zombie thread.

My wife and I have had Verizon’s DSL service for something like 7 years now, and we’ve been pretty happy with it. Our current service is 768k/128k, I think. But a few weeks ago, Verizon called us to pimp fiber optic internet service in our neighborhood. After doing some research (mostly my wife), we decided to go for it. It’s supposed to get installed Monday, and now we’re supposedly going to have 15M/2M – basically, 20 times faster than our current DSL service when it’s operating at its peak.

As confessed geeks and internet junkies, I can tell you that we’re both very excited about this. Not only for the lovely download speeds, but because we’ll be able to get cheaper phone service as well. Verizon would not let us drop our regular phone service while we were using DSL, but apparently we don’t need them anymore. So instead of paying almost $100 a month for DSL and phone service, we’ll be paying about $80 for much faster internet and Vonage.

At any rate, I’m curious to know if there are any more people out there who have tried FiOS and have impressions of it. How consistently do you get the speeds you’re paying for? Have you had any problems with your service?

For the record, we have Dish Network and don’t have any plans at the moment to sign up for FiOS TV. However, please feel free to share your experiences in that regard as well. Many thanks!

2

We’ve had FIOS for a couple of months now, and switched our phone service and our TV service to Verizon as well. (We had Verizon phone before, but Comcast TV and internet.) The internet service is incredibly fast and very reliable; we’ve had no problems. The TV service is fabulous, far more channels and crystal clear digital service (for four TVs) for considerably less than we were paying for craptactular Comcast analog – and if we’d had Comcast digital for four TVs, we’d be paying far, far more than Verizon. We did increase our phone plan to an all-inclusive US/Canada/etc. plan so that bill went up, but that was our choice. Oh, and when we’ve had to call customer service, they’ve been quick to answer and very helpful.

So we’re definitely happy customers. We’re in the DC area, by the way, although I don’t know if it will vary by location.

3

I have had the base level FioS (5 Meg down / 2 Meg upstream) for $34.95 per month since July. It has not gone down yet. I think the price now for a 1 year committment is up to $39.95. I highly recommend FiOS over Cable service.

I switched 2 business phone lines to the fiber and the connections are much cleaner. I left the home line on copper, as the install guy mentioned that in a power failure you’ve only got outbound calling on FiOS and that battery backup does not last that long. So leaving the home line on copper seemed like a good move.

The big advantage besides better reliability than Cable (which I had for 6 years prior) is the much better upstream speed. I do WebEx demos and share my applications or desktop and in these types of presentations the low cable upstream speed of 300K is a real bottleneck compared to the 1.7M ot 1.8 M upstream I get with FioS. When I test connection speed, I get a very reliable 5m downstream and get btw 1.7 and 1.8 of the advertised 2M upstream.

I used to put my laptop in the webex in order to make sure I did not outpace the refresh, and I don’t need to do that with FiOS.

When they come to install, they will be running a pre-made optical cable to a converter box somewhere in your house, then will run Cat-5 up to a router. I did the Cat-5 inside wiring myself, and also drilled the holes to run the fiber cable into my basement, but my guess is that you are better off with the Verizon installers rather than letting the typical Cable contractor do anything they don’t absolutely have to do.

4

I’m not overly concerned about the power outage issue because it happens so rarely out here in Southern California (outside of when the power companies are fleecing us and forcing brownouts). In the nearly six years that I’ve lived at my current address, I think we’ve lost power twice, and never for longer than an hour. According to Verizon, our battery backup will serve us for about four hours in the event we lose power, and I’ve heard someone say it would actually last for four to eight hours. Besides, we have our cell phones, so the only real problem would be an earthquake that kills the power for several days.

I’m really happy to hear that the service has been reliable for you folks. It sounds like we’re making a winning move.

5

I live out in the boondocks. I will never see fiber connections in my life time.

I hate you all…

I do have good service from Wildblue Satellite so I am not totally in the dark ages. 1500 down and 256 up.

I have a cousin in the DFW metroplex and he has that “V” fiber thing. I hate him too.

I think the government should have the “Rural Fiberopticalation of America” (RFA) like they did in the 1930’s with the “Rural Electrification of America” (REA) as it is a necessity in these times IMO. < VEG >

6

FioS has been a good experience for us as well.

We’ve had a couple of outages as it was installed in neighboring homes. Apparently if they connect it wrong there, it takes us offline. That has happened twice.

As noted, though, they were responsive and helpful. So… put me down in the “Pro” column…

7

Well, it only took about two hours for the installation and we’re up and running now. I have to say, we’re VERY impressed so far. Streaming video that starts playing the second you click on it? Whoever heard of such a thing?! It’s a little hard to believe that I’ll be taking this kind of speed for granted at some point. But I’m certainly going to enjoy the feeling while it’s new and fresh!

8

I won’t mention the 100-megabit-per-second fibre service that Telus provides to the Cityplace development in downtown Totonto, then. :slight_smile:

9

Reviving this not-quite-a-zombie thread to mention that I’ve just signed up for installation of FIOS TV, Internet, and phone on May 1. (They could have done it sooner, but I’ll be busy or away for most of the time between now and then.) I haven’t called to cancel Comcast yet, and plan to keep both for a little while at least, to do A-B comparisons.

So I’m interested in your experience after nearly two months, Asimovian, and that of anyone else who has FIOS. Still as good as you first thought? Any downside or disappointments? Anyone else?

10

I’m happy to tell you that the experience so far has been fantastic. The speed remains mind-blowing, and although I haven’t put it to much use, the faster upload time is what is really helpful. I haven’t noticed any hiccups in the service.

We dropped Verizon’s phone service and switched to Vonage, so we’re now actually paying less for super high-speed Internet + VoIP than we were for DSL + regular phone service before. The quality of calls with the VoIP has been indistinguishable from regular land line service so far. And we used Yahoo Messenger the other day to have a voice conference with my sister-in-law, and the sound and duplexing was flawless.

The new-car smell has worn off to some extent in that we aren’t quite as giddy everytime we launch a browser window anymore, and some things like newsgroups aren’t really able to take advantage of the jump in speed. But we still see vast improvements in speed in the little things we do from time to time that surprise us. Overall, this has been a tremendously positive change for us, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity.

I’ll be curious, commasense, to hear your opinion of FIOS TV. We aren’t really tempted to switch because we’re pretty happy with our DishNetwork service, and the prices are comparable. But I’d like to know if there’s another solid option out there beyond cable should we ever have the need to make a change.

11

Thanks for the quick reply, Asimovian. I’ll let you know about the TV package. I have high hopes.

I had DirecTV for several years before moving to a condo in which I couldn’t see the satellite, so I had to switch to digital cable (including, ultimately, HD with a DVR). I had been happy with DirecTV, but I liked the cable much more. Not only more channels, but all the other digital options: on demand, etc. And no rain fades.

Although there are only minor differences between my current cable channel lineup and the FIOS package, I’m expecting better picture quality and less of the occasional breakup of the digital signal that I sometimes see on cable, especially late at night.

I also hope that the FIOS DVR is a little more sophisticated than Comcast’s.

I’ll let you know.

12

I’ve read that the router supplied by Verizon has problems dealing with large numbers of TCP connections, which causes grief for bit torrent users. You’re stuck with their broken router.

13

Hmmm. Since I already have a wireless router hooked up to my cable modem, I was hoping to do without theirs, and just leave my existing network in place. Do you think that will be possible, Asimovian (or anyone else)? Or does their router also serve as the fiber modem?

14

Okay, here’s my report after a week of FIOS.

It’s been great, with only a few minor snags. The installation went well. The technicians were very good: competent, polite, considerate, and just nice guys. They had a few problems, not of their causing, and one of them stayed until 7:30, but got everything done.

The main problem is that the person who took the original order got several things wrong, so I didn’t get one of the movie packages I asked for, I’m not seeing all the HD channels I’m supposed to get, and she signed me up for the Home Media package, which is only relevant when you have multiple TVs, which I don’t. I’ve called several times to have this fixed, and it was supposed to be done yesterday (a week after the original install), but it wasn’t. The guy I spoke to today says it should be done today. We’ll see.

But the service, TV and Internet, is great. More channels, better quality, faster speed. Although the speed tests I’ve run have been strangely inconsistent, some as low as 5 Mbps, I’ve seen some as high as 15. They had to replace my existing wireless router (which I was hoping to keep in place) with their own cable modem/wireless router combo, but they simply patched into the wiring I already had in place for both Internet and TV. In other words, the last 10 feet from the Optical Network Terminal (ONT), where the fiber comes in, to the modem and the set-top box (STB) is coax, just like Comcast. I wonder if that might be a choke point in terms of speed or signal quality?

I like almost all aspects of my new STB, a Motorola QIP6416-2 HD DVR, compared to the Scientific Atlanta HD DVR I had with Comcast. It cures most, if not all, of the quirks of the other unit, although it does have a few of its own. The SA unit wouldn’t let you record a show at a certain time every Monday, say. It let you record either every broadcast of a show at any time on any day, or at a certain time, regardless of the day. This was annoying with many of the HBO series I watch, because they routinely replay episodes later in the week, often at the same time. So I’d end up with multiple copies of the same episode. The Motorola doesn’t do this, and it also lets you select only new episodes, rejecting re-runs, which the SA wouldn’t do.

The Moto allows you to start recordings several minutes early and end them after the scheduled times. This is useful for sporting events that may go long, or for shows that may be delayed after sports events. The SA couldn’t do it, except by manual programming.

For some reason, Verizon has not implemented Picture-in-Picture on the Moto, although the buttons are there on the remote. The SA could do it, and I used it occasionally. This is one of the only significant things I’ve lost by moving to FIOS.

Neither Verizon nor Comcast have implemented the ability of their boxes to let the user connect additional external storage. The Moto reportedly has the capacity for 20 hours of HD programming or 80+ hours of standard programming. I think the SA had 30 hours of HD capacity. I’d like more than 20.

There are two downsides with the new TV service. Comcast assigned many basic channels (Comedy Central, Speed, CNN, ESPN, etc.) to the channels below 100 that my VCR and DVD recorder could receive directly through their tuners, where Verizon sends only the local broadcast channels. This means that the VCR and DVD recorder are now essentially useless for live or timed recordings. There have been occasions when I was recording two shows on the DVR, and wanted to record a third as well. Rare, but it happens. Or I may want an old movie from TCM that I know I’ll want to keep on DVD. Before I could have just recorded it straight to DVD. Now I have to either record the output of the STB (which means I can’t watch something else at the same time) or record the show on the DVR and later copy it, in real time, to DVD.

I’m actually toying with the idea of signing back up for the basic cable channels with Comcast, just to keep this capability. I probably won’t, but this is probably the worst aspect of FIOS service.

The other problem with FIOS is having to memorize a whole new set of channel numbers after years of using Comcast’s numbers. Comedy Central is now 170, not 58. HBO HD is 851, not 228. Twenty years ago my brain could have handled this easily, but as the man said, I’m getting too old for this shit.

15

I’m glad to hear that things have (mostly) gone well for you. Our TV use is pretty simple, so I think that if we ever do sign up for FIOS TV, we won’t have to deal with the same issues that you have, although it’s good to know what we’re up against. We don’t have an HD set in the house yet, but if we did, we would definitely want the ability to record more than just 20 hours of broadcasts. Our bedroom DVR only holds 30 hours, and we’re constantly running up against that limit.

How does the cost of FIOS TV compare with your Comcast service?

16

I haven’t gotten the first bill yet, but it looks like $140/month (before taxes and fees) compared to $175/month for Comcast (with taxes and fees). But after the first six months, the Internet goes up by $10. So ultimately maybe $20-25 less than Comcast for more channels, a better DVR (although with lower storage capacity), and 3x faster Internet.

There’s so much more I’d like my STB to do, in addition to extra capacity and PIP. For instance, why can’t it be a network device that I could program remotely from within my home network or over the Internet. I was in traveling on business a couple of weeks ago, and heard about a show I wanted to watch. It would have been great if I could have just gotten on the Web and programmed the STB.

I’d like more options to customize the menus and settings and make the thing look and work the way I want it to.

It would also be nice to be able to transfer recordings directly to DVD or another computer as digital files, although I know there are rights issues with capabilities like that.

I remember reading somewhere about how a law had recently been passed, or was about to be passed, that would require provides to let consumers to purchase their own STBs from third parties. But I haven’t been able to find anything about it. Can someone remind me of what’s going on there?

17

I use a Linksys G router, not the free one from Verizon, works fine. Verizon installer said that you could use any router you want, just that tech support would not support a non-Verizon supplied unit.

My service has not been down since the install in July 2006.

My neighbor just did Fios and had the Verizon guys do the inside wiring and she reports that they did a nice neat job.

18

Did they run a Cat 5 wire from the ONT to the router? I have a coax cable coming in from the outside service closet where the ONT is, and it’s split to the TV STB and the router/cable modem, just as my Comcast cable was. The installer (who was a 17-year copper wire guy, not a computer guy) said that with the Internet/TV combination it was better to use their router, although he didn’t explain why exactly.

Using their router is not a big deal. It works fine, AFAICT, and running an extra CAT 5 line from the ONT at this point would be a bit of a pain. It just seems a shame to have spent $175 two years ago for a piece of hardware that’s now going to collect dust in the closet. I’d probably get about $5 selling it on eBay.

19

My county PUD has laid fiber optic cable all over town, and then made their network available to all the local ISPs. I’ve ended up with a package that includes Internet and telephone for $49.95/month. For a few bucks more we can add TV.

I’ve had it for almost three years, and yeah, I do take it for granted now. One downside is that my connection is faster than the connections at the server end of many of the sites I visit, so I don’t notice much improvement there. And the SDMB isn’t noticeably faster :smiley:

20

I finally have all the channels I ordered, nine days after the installation. I had spoken to at least four or five tech support people over the last week, all of whom said they’d make sure the order went through. But nothing happened. So today I asked for a supervisor right from the start. The rep I got didn’t give me a supervisor, but he seemed a little better informed than the rest of the people I had spoken to, so I let him try and, long story short, an hour and a half later everything’s good. Finally.

A few other comments.

I like Verizon’s ability to remove channels that you don’t watch from the listings. Comcast didn’t have this.

I like Verizon’s program search feature better than Comcast’s: Comcast lets you select the first letter of the program, then you have to scroll through every show starting with that letter. Verizon lets you type in the title. But then they undercut this by alphabetizing programs with “the” and “a” at the start of titles. I just hate that! It’s so ignorant, it leads to confusion, and it wastes time and effort. Whatever else was wrong with Comcast, they did alphabetizing right.

I’ll think of some more things later.