Verizon's Fios

[jimking]

As we speak, I'm having Verizon's Fios fiberoptic internet installed at my home. I've been told that the Verizon's lowest internet package is 3 times faster than cable. Plus it's $20 cheaper per month. Anyone have any experience with Fios?

[Mynock]

Can you hear me now?

[jimking]

Not yet. The Verizon guy is still drilling holes in my closets!

[balou]

I've never heard of it. Is it available to people that live in the boonies or only city dwellers?

[jimking]

It's where they lay their fiberoptic cable. So you'll need their cable laid near you. They laid the cable here about a year ago and I do live in the burbs. My hunch is where ever regular cable is laid, fiberoptics is soon to follow.

[Logo-Mechanix]

I have Verizon DSL and I have been very happy with it. It's fast enough for me and it is about half of what the cable company offers, although theirs is faster.

[jimking]

I have Verizon DSL and I have been very happy with it. It's fast enough for me and it is about half of what the cable company offers, although theirs is faster.

You do realize Fios is different from DSL? My bill will be $24.99 a month. I pay close to $50 with cable. Logo-Mechanix you're in Jersey, it would seem to me they (fiberoptics) would be coming around you soon.

[Logo-Mechanix]

Of course I know Fios is different than DSL, lol. I'm not sure about the fios in my area though, I havn't seen any advertisements for it so I am guessing it's not available yet. The price you are paying is about what I pay for DSL in fact A little cheaper I think.

[jimking]

Well, I've got my Fios hooked up and it's lightning fast. I thought cable was fast!

[Logo-Mechanix]

They want like 60 bucks a month for the cable hook up where I am, and that is rediculous the DSL is plenty fast enough and about half the price.

[jimking]

When they hooked the Fios up I'm now wired for digital phone and digital tv. I believe I can purchase a cell phone that can carry my home phone number which is still hardwired to the house. Does that make sense? I still have not change my tv service yet. I'm going to compare prices. One thing I like is your tv, internet and phone will be on one bill.

[jimking]

I just had Verizon's fiber optic tv hooked up and it's the best cable tv I've ever seen. I have 3 TVs rangeing in age from 23 to 3 years old. On every tv, every channel looks like you're playing a dvd, incredible picture, flawless. I was paying nearly $70 for expanded basic. Now I'm paying $34 for more channels plus some free pay perview shows. You also have the free option of viewing music concerts, history, home & leisure shows were you can fast-forward, pause etc. What's strange about the hookup is that they have this black box that plugs into your internet router and somehow the tv signal is passed through the old tv cable already wired to your house. Now I receive one bill instead of three--tv, internet, and phone for at least 30% cheaper. If you have this option in your area--get it! If your local government is thinking about letting Verizon install this package, tell them you want it now! The State of Maryland is only a few miles from me and some leaders in Montgomery county are trying to stop Verizon from installing their whole package. So there's a lot of politics involved. But in the 25 years of paying for cable this is truly a great deal with the best quality and service. What gets me is it took a telecommunications outfit to deliver flawless DVD quality video were as my old cable company, the 2nd largest cable company (Cox) in the US absolutely sucked at everything. One reason I think Cox is pathetic is because they outsource everything they can, including customer service and installers who want you to tip them when they perform a service call.

[JPnyc]

So do you have to dialup everytime you boot like you do with DSL or is it always on like cable?

[jimking]

Always on. The black box thing I guess is some sort of digital delivery from their fiber optic cable to the Fios router. Were I get lost is how it's piped into Cox's cables. Which is great because your tvs are already hooked. However they do require cable boxes. Verizon has 3 types. Hidef, the box that allows you to preprogram your viewing-recording and the basic box which I have. And it's only $3 a month opposed to Cox's $12.50 a month.

[JPnyc]

Well it ain't in NYC yet. It's in the burbs of Boston though, my friend has it.

[jimking]

Well, NYC is definitely wired. I hope politics doesn't get in the way there. Here in Fairfax County the County officials wanted better competition in the cable market and we got it. What's good about this Fios internet is you have a choice of 3 tiers of download capability, which is great for graphic designers. I think the tiers are--3.5 megs per second, 8 megs and somewhere between 10 and 20 megs per second download.

[JPnyc]

I think 8mb would be about the limit you could need. Any faster than that and you'll exceed nearly all servers upload ability. Remember it's not just your speed, but the speed of the server as well.

[jimking]

I chose the 3.5 meg download, the other numbers I'm guessing at. One other thing, Verizon also installs a battery pack backup in your home. If the power goes out you'll have about 4 hours to shut down your internet. However, it just dawned on me, what about the computer?

[EC]

You can get a generator thing for your computer too, I used to have one -- it just gives you enough time to power down properly. Man verizon sounds awesome. I pay so much for everything up here it drives me mental, I couldn't find any info. that their service is available up here. :(

[JPnyc]

I just made a fascinating discovery. You can combine wireless internet with dialup. Right now my laptop is connected via both means and pages load faster than either of them alone.

[jimking]

EC, what choices do you have in Anchorage, (I would love to be there now) and what do you pay? I used to tease my wife that one day we'll give up this rat race and go pan for gold in Alaska! Now I'm getting up in age and the cold scares me. :D

[EC]

Choices?

We have cable and dsl. I have cable, and I pay around $65 per month. Plus about that for cable tv (basic plus hbo, wow). And the phone bill is about $55 a month (just a landline that I hardly ever use, but because I'm a "business" and for no other reason, that's just how much it is they say *sigh*). Plus the cell phone. *sigh* Very little competition up here which really sucks.

It's quite lovely here, but it's very expensive. Don't even ask about the housing market in Anchorage. :)

[jimking]

You're paying about what I was paying except my phone bill was higher until now. We have 1 cell phone that my wife uses from her job. It really does boil down to compitition. It is very expensive where I live because of it's location to Washington DC, amount of jobs and all the blow hards. The County I live in is known as the "Silicon Valley of the east". I bought a house here about 11 years ago for 200 grand it's now creeping towards $1,000,000. The taxes are killing me. I couldn't sell my house and buy another near me. Could Anchorage be worse?

[EC]

It may not be as bad as where you are. I'm looking to buy a home in the $150k range (or even a condo in a cool neighborhood I'd consider) but for that you can get bulldozer material if you're lucky or you could buy a trailer off a crack dealer. lol There is a cute little house for sale across the street from me, totally run down and not all that big (I would guess in the 1200 foot range) so I grabbed a flyer -- $699,000. Too rich for my blood.

[jimking]

Almost $700,000.00 for a 1200 sf fixer upper? How much land does it sit on? I live in a area were supply and demand is one of the reasons for the price. Why is it that expensive in Anchorage?

[JPnyc]

Cuz it's one place that polar bears never frequent.

[EC]

Almost $700,000.00 for a 1200 sf fixer upper? How much land does it sit on? I live in a area were supply and demand is one of the reasons for the price. Why is it that expensive in Anchorage?

The same reason. We're in a bowl -- mountains all around us and ocean on the other side, so there's no land to build on.

[EC]

Cuz it's one place that polar bears never frequent.

That too.

[jimking]

It sounds like Anchorage is worse as far as price.

[JPnyc]

Why do ya think she has no pants?

[Neuro]

That's interesting. I have never heard of FIOS before. We recently dropped Verizon DSL due to connection problems and their lack of help to correct it. I think the line to the house is faulty and they didn't patch or repair it correctly. I just got tired of no connection and not getting any help. I know it's all in personal experience. A lot of people love Verizon DSL and if it works right I don't blame them. I liked it until we started having issues.

Sounds like you are paying a good deal for good service. I'll have to see if I can find out more info on it and see if it's in my area for possible future use.

[JPnyc]

I'm very hesitant to try anything where verizon is concerned. They're neck and neck with UPS for the most incompetent company in these united states.

[jimking]

Verizon's service and follow ups have been good so far. I have heard that once you start having problems you may have a problem getting them to correct it. When Verizon laid their fiber optic cable on our street they pushed our carport up 3" above our sidewalk and also cracked it. This happened to many homes. Within a few weeks they replaced our carport. Not repave but replaced. I was very surprised.

[JPnyc]

Well here in NY I can't begin to tell you the rep they have. I got their DSL ys ago, and i joined during a promotion, 44.95 a month for 768 down. They promised me that price over the phone. I was never charged it, I was charge full price (49.95) at 1st, then 59.95, then they started charging that price TWICE. I canceled right then and never looked back

[jimking]

I think what may keep these companies straight-I hope- is compitition. If Verizon pulls a stunt like that (Cox did the samething to me) out they go because I'm tired of it.

[sonnymoon42]

I have Verizon FIOS (for about a year now) and it is a HUGE leap from the 56k dialup modem I had before. So far, I haven't had any complaints.