Anybody with experience with FIOS?

I learned that it may be available in my area (major city). I’m told by people that know a lot more about it than me that it is something to go for. I currently have Time/Warner cable and personally I think that Time/Warner is the epitome of a poorly managed company that just happens to be too big to fail. Simply, they suck!

I was also told, by the Verizon guy in the street, that although the service is available in the area, the building has to allow them to install the system into the building.

Can anyone here with some experience give me the Straight Dope?

My building just got it and I signed up immediately, to get away from the horror that is Cablevision’s Internet service. Cablevision had gotten worse and worse, to the point that I couldn’t even stream Hulu videos at 8:00pm, because their shitty network was so saturated.

Anywho, Verizon bribed our building to let them wire it up for FIOS, and I signed up as soon as it was available. The Verizon guys came and poked a hole in my wall for the fiber line, which terminates in a large box that connects to the Verizon-supplied Ethernet/wifi router and VoIP phone terminal. They also threw in a free UPS.

(An advantage: since Verizon is an RBOC, if you order VoIP from them, they are required by law to guarantee power to the equipment, which is why they give you the free UPS.)

The bandwidth is fucking insane. I fired that shit up and streamed a Hi-Def YouTube video, a movie from HuLu, a movie from Netflix, and a TV episode from NBC.com simultaneously while browsing a graphics/flash intensive website. Didn’t skip a beat.

Disadvantages: Verizon has one of those fucktarded DNS-hijacking things that inserts a “help” page when you type in a domain that doesn’t exist. I haven’t yet figured out a way to turn that off, although I suppose I could just switch to a proper DNS server.

FIOS is pretty much the best consumer Internet connection in North America, though a DOCSIS 3.0 roll out might change that.

Also: 8.8.8.8

That’ll be the day. There’s still DOCSIS 1 equipment all over the place. DOCSIS 2 doesn’t even support IPv6.

Who needs IPv6? It’s not like we’re going to run out of IPv4 addresses any time soon.

IPv4 exhaustion is like three months away.

I have had FiOS for 3 years. I live in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., and had Cox Cable before that.

I have a bundle with TV, phone, and Internet (25/25) for around $125 a month for the baseline service. But you also pay extra for every set-top box, plus taxes, etc., etc.

The service quality is very good. Bandwidth is generally as good as advertised. I have had very minimal service interruptions, barely noticeable. There are a lot of cool tools, like being able to program your DVR from the Web, view photos and videos on TV that reside on your computer, etc.

Cable modem/router device is proprietary. It is included in the price but I don’t know if it’s possible to get an aftermarket one if you need another router.

Set-top box options include analog output, HD, DVR, and HD DVR, in ascending order of price. I have an HD DVR, an HD boxes, and two analog boxes.

At first the billing was absolutely terrible. I had a bundle price, but the 12-page bill I would get was so convoluted I couldn’t tell if I was being charged properly. They fixed that after the first two years and now I get a very clear, readable bill.

Customer service isn’t very good. The reps are not very well trained. I have made at least a dozen calls to resolve an issue with my phone and it still isn’t fixed. It’s an extremely unusual issue that very few people, maybe only one person, would have to deal with.* My impression is that, like many ventures like this, they rolled out technology before the company infrastructure was able to support it, and it will take another couple of years before Customer Service has their shit together.

But dealing with them is still better than the cable company and I’m happy I have it. On balance I recommend it.


*I had two phone lines, and decided to drop one. The one I wanted to drop was the primary account line, and it took several phone calls for them to change the account so it could be dropped without cancelling the entire account. In the process they had to re-enter the remaining phone number, and twiddled two digits by mistake. So every time I call, they have no record of the actual phone number that rings in my house and try to tell me that’s not my number. Meantime the phone number listed on my bill is a dead line. This is not resolved after 14 months and causes a problem every time I need to call Customer Service.

Don’t use verizon dns. Most routers let you specify the DNS server. So it automatically give that out to clients connected to the router.

I’m a big Comcast hater and if FIOS comes to my area I’ll switch in a heartbeat.

But that doesn’t help you - sorry. Good luck! Let us know how it works for you.

Hell, we could just NAT the whole net! :eek:

Yup. I’m an OpenDNS fan. An added layer of security (since of the telcos happily hand your traffic data over without subpoenas… I have nothing to hide, and yet hate being watched. After all, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. :smiley: )

We switched from a combination of COMCAST TV and Verizon DSL Internet access service to a Verizon FIOS all-in-one bundle about eighteen months ago and everything’s been running fine here.

The only time we’ve had to call Verizon’s customer service was when a falling tree branch snapped the cable leading into our house. A guy with a truck showed up the next day and fixed it.

I have the HD DVR and 2 standard definition boxes, it came with one very nice feature that Comcast did not have. I can access the DVR from the other two boxes. This is a fantastic feature, they also now have something that can stream to a mobile device, but I don’t use that, so I don’t know if it’s any good.

The service has overall been excellent. Of course, there were initial billing issues, but that’s Verizon, and they were able to take care of that once I called.

I got it 3 years ago when it came to RI (at least my corner of it) and have liked it. I signed up very early in the game, and got a fairly good deal since they were still offering “we will take a bit of a loss leader in order to reach a critical mass of customers” promos. I have yet to re-up my TV service, since I would have to pay significantly more per month to get more channels then I get now. The package I got back then is no longer offered, but it is still honored for the most part.

The only problem I see with FIOS is it’s generally not available outside of urban areas. And those that have it have gotten several speed upgrades and I still don’t have it.

It’s amazingly fast. It moves as fast as you can think/type. It connects at, like, 18Mbps or something like that. Considering that I’m at 0.4 (yeah, really) right now, it’s like a wet dream. I really, really want it in my building.

What’s the upload rates?

It is 5 - 25 Mbps depending on your plan which is way better than most. I have Fios too and would not give it up for anything.

We switched from Comcast to Verizon FiOS, and while the service is technically reliable, I’m unimpressed with the service personnel. Three guys on separate visits were unable to get it installed on my computer, so my friend came over and fixed everything in half an hour, by trial-and-error. The billing has also been confusing. Two weeks ago the bill-payment website lost its security certificate and a strange pop-up appeared asking for account and password (while the page asking for account and password was grayed out beneath it) and I called Verizon and was ultimately told “we have no idea why it’s doing that, don’t put in your password.” Duh! I started a ticket on the problem, and when I called back, everyone was like “What problem? The website has been working fine.”

So my prediction to my wife has been fulfilled: “The switch will probably just give us different people to hate.”

I’ll consider them the day they get their act together here and they give me a straight answer on what my actual monthly bill would be, taxes included. Their rep came by the neighborhood when it rolled out and gave one figure, calling them I got another, and the same rep when doing a followup quoted a 3rd price. I might add that all three quotes were still higher than I pay for my current Cablevision package. So screw 'em.

Don’t joke. ISPs are seriously considering it.