Verizon FIOS TV service:

[black.ops]

Dude that's awsome!

Verizon said they are covering all of Redmond, and parts of Bellevue and Kirkland etc by the end of the year, so I'm just waiting for it to start rolling in over here.

God I want my 15/2mb connection, but with TV I'm fine with Comcast for now (though the prices are very high).

[AndyD]

First I need to clarify a few things first. Now I'm a single family home so my existing coax wiring can be used for the TV service. Now Verizon is just starting to roll out an MDU (multiple dwelling unit) optical network terminal that is designed for apartment complexes and condos. The problem today is that the internet requires a cat5e jack and they are very hard to install in condo/apartment units and they are also hard to get the owners to agree to have this done as well. Now the new MDUs can use the existing phone jacks for phone service (as the current ONTs do today) and the existing coax cables for the TV service. Now the new ONTs can offer the internet service using the phone lines using VDSL2 and this can offer all service levels without a problem as it will still be fiber from the CO to the building so the copper from the ONT to your actual condo/apartment can handle all the data fine as its a very short distance. So that is the plan for apartments/condos.

Also the FCC doesn't allow any cable, satellite or phone company to have an exclusive contract with an apartment complex or condo. Even if your place has a contract that is exclusive Verizon can take that contract to court and win very quickly as its illegal to have this type of contract. Now that doesn't mean Verizon can access private property without the owners approval so with that said to run the fiber from the street curb to each building requires Verizon getting approval from the owner of the complex first. I hope this helps you out and also keep in mind that this service will only be offered to customers now and into the future if that customer has access to Verizon local phone service. If you don't have local phone service access from Verizon you will never see FIOS. Right now Verizon is the only company doing fiber to the home. AT&T has a project lightspeed that is fiber to the node which doesn't go all the way to your house and this service has a max limit of 20Mbps down for all service options. So that bandwidth has to be used for phone, internet and video services. The downside of this is that for an HDTV customer the system can just barely handle one stream of HDTV by itself. That means if its HDTV you can only watch one HDTV channel and use your phone. Internet service or another room of TV cannot be used at the sametime as one room is viewing an HDTV channel as they have no bandwidth left. That is a big downside to this service so this offering will be for a customer who has no HDTV sets with no more than three rooms of SDTVs who wants 5Mbps internet service.

I was assumning they had a contract of some sort with RCN as we have no other options for cable/internet. It's either RCN or nothing.

But yeah, I can get Verizon local phone service. Just not DSL. This may be wrong, but I think I remember talking to a csr about the reasons behind this and it was because there is no copper wire in my building (guessing it's fiber already? no rj45 jack though)

That's good to know about Verizon's TV service. I honestly didn't even think that I would have to worry about the service actually having an impact on the bandwidth seeing that this is a non issue with cable companies

[Noctumluvr]

I got my 15/2 connection about 3 month ago in Fort Wayne, IN. I was the first on the list the first day they started installing. (great having friends at Verizon ;) ) Now I am chomping at the bit waiting to get the TV end of it. I hear it will be late this year if not next year before we get it though.

[Drugar]

WOW that FN rocks... They really went all out to set you up, all those workers and days just for one house??

I wish i had this in my area, SBC/AT&T is gonna be the only thing maybe in a few years that will be similar here.

I wish i could get all those HD Chans you mentioned along with the coming soon ones... friggin DirecTV doesn't even have TNT HD yet (yes i know who owns that network). DirecTV is damn slow, we need more HD channels already!!

I recently read about SBC and their plans for upgrading their infrastructure to compete with companies like Verizon. Apparently, the are going to go all Fiber Optics, but only to the neighborhood switching box. From there, it will be copper to the houses. Their reasoning behind it is that it would cost way to much money to completely tear out all the copper lines and replace them with Optical cable. This article stated that it may work for the forseeable future, but in time, SBC will have to go completely Fiber to the houses to stay competitive with other companies as copper will in no way be able to handle such high data transfers.

Verizon on the other hand is installing completely new equipment to the areas that they are moving into, so the cost isnt too significant, and they will recoup the cost in no time.

So, this means that I am in the same boat as all other SBC customers. I am hoping Verizon comes to Oklahoma real soon!

[SeaClearly]

Just for kicks I called Verizon to ask them if I could get a massive discount on their 30/5 internet tier. Well because I get all services and pay over 200 bucks a month for my extra stuff they said that if I agreed to stay with them at my new service level for 1 year (I could pay a pro-rated 250 dollar fee if I downgraded) they would offer me their 30 megabits per second download/5 megabits per second upload tier for only 15 bucks more per month. So with the money I'm saving I have both Road Runner and this new internet teir so my Verizon will only be used for downloads and such but I most likely will cancel Road Runner within a couple of months though. So this is what I'm getting with Verizon now.

Phone Service.

Verizon Freedom phone plan with unlimited long distance calling to anywhere in the USA and Canada and a few other areas. I have all calling features as well as an extra phone number and a fax number.

Internet Service.

Their most high-end tier which has speeds of 30Mbps down and 5Mbps Up. They discounted this by almost 100 bucks a month just with one phone call as it would cost 180/month because I get Phone and TV service. I'm paying 59.95/month for it so its a savings of 120 bucks per month to be exact so I can't complain can I.

TV Service.

I have 3 HD DVR boxes with expanded basic to start. I also get their HBO/Cinemax package plus their Movie/Sports Combo package which gets a few sports channels and Showtime, TMC, Starz and Encore. So I get all premium channels. This is how my bill is brokendown below.

99.95 - Phone, Internet and TV FIOS Bundle.

4.95 - Extra phone line.

9.95 - Fax line.

14.95 - 30/5 upgrade.

14.95 - Movie/Sports Combo.

24.95 - HBO/Cinemax Combo.

12.95 - HD DVR.

12.95 - HD DVR.

12.95 - HD DVR.

208.55 Subtotal.

5.00 - Movie/Sports Combo Discount.

5.00 - phone/fax discount.

198.55 Subtotal.

26.86 Total Taxes.

2.36 - Wire Maintance Fee.

Granted Total of 227.77 per month. The taxes above are just the total figure but they include all kinds of taxes such as sales taxes and tons of smaller phone based taxes.

I know I didn't have to provide specifics like I did but I felt you might like to know how they break it all down. I used to pay between Verizon (same phone services) and Bright House Networks for Internet and TV service with the same exact stuff about 280 bucks a month. I know I payed 212 rounded off for BHN and I payed about 55/month for Verizon phone services. So I'm getting better service all around for a much cheaper cost and I'm not in a promo so these prices above are regular prices for me. Also note that I begged for this bundle price of 99.95 but once I asked to speak to a supervisor and explained to him how much I was going to order he gave me almost anything I wanted. They also had no problems giving me the upgraded speed their for the prices above either and they kept the bundle in as any add-ons or changes can be done without changing any promo price. BHN has to redo everything and I mean everything to add something on as it kicks out any special pricing you have. Verizon's billing system is designed to just have extra services added-on instead of replacing something. So in my case the bundle includes their 15/2 service so you would think I could get kicked out of the bundle by getting this extra speed tier but instead they leave everything alone and just add an upgrade line to my account with the difference.

I know I keep going on but they have got quite a few things right that BHN still after five years can't fix. I love the Verizon service and they have bent over backwards for me and given me pretty much everything I have wanted including discounts (as long as they were within reason) and this alone has made me more loyal to Verizon than I've been with any company in my life. If Verizon keeps this up and treats all their customers even 50% like they have me they will make a killing in this market as they are the better offering today with ease but their service has put them over the top. Did you know that one of my DVR boxes died about three weeks ago and I called in upset at about 4pm and they offered to send a tech out within the next two hours to replace my box and that the tech would call about 30 minutes before he would get to my house. Well 30 minutes after I hung up the phone the tech called saying he could be at my house within ten minutes but if I needed more time to get home he would just wait for me. Well I for kicks left for 20 minutes and came home to find a nice Verizon truck sitting in my driveway. Ten minutes later he had my new box hooked up and activated and checked the signal levels and found that they were very bad. Well he spent the next hour running another coax cable to this box at no extra charge. He also replaced another coax cable in my bedroom as that room had bad signals as well. Well I had several pixel type problems but nothing bad since I got the service along with VOD not working every so often. Once he replaced the cables I asked him if these problems could have been caused from that and he said 100% yes.

To finish it off these last three weeks I've had no pixel/breakup problems at all and VOD has never errored on me and I notice that picture quality is a little sharper than before. I just can't say how great customer service is and the tech also told me that he only does service and install related jobs and they have payed him overtime to work some days until 11pm to take care of customers. He also told me that any problems that require techs they have been getting the techs to customers houses within 2 hours after the call nearly everytime even on weekends as Verizon feels that as long as its not past 8pm why should a customer wait another 12 hours. If the customer is willing to have the tech come out late at night between 8-10pm they would just send the tech out. Verizon figures it this way. They must spend the money and send the tech out the next day so why not send the tech out today and avoid ticking off the customer. That is the attitude I've been waiting to see and the tech I had was also a union worker so he was very good, well trained and did the job right like he had something to lose. You could tell this guy wasn't a screwed contractor and that he cared how he did and had something to lose you know. Hey it may cost extra on Verizons part but they have a customer for life if they keep it this way as I would never bother with another company. Even if another company offered a better deal and the same customer service I would tell that company you had your chance and I would rather not wonder when you go back to your old ways of bad customer service.

Sorry again for making this into a very long post but I didn't want to say all of this because it might look like I'm a big Fan Boy of this service. You know what if I'm a fan boy of this service. Yes I'm a big fan boy of this service now that I think about it and why wouldn't I not be a fan boy of great customer service, pricing and service offerings. Wouldn't you be a fan boy of this too.

[Maxgator]

I'm in Tampa also and am considering the switch to the Fios service.

Sounds like customer service is great.

I like the Fios channel lineup better than BHNs because of the extra HD stations and sports stations like Espn 2 espn u - although I do like the INHD channels and HDNET which Verizon doesn't have.

One thing I'm most curious about is the DVR. I use mine ALOT. How is the software, how well does it work compared to BHNs (not that Bhn's works well)? Can you record 2 and watch one?

Also, is it only 10 hours of HD really? Not too sure I'm going to like that since I keep stuff on my Dvr. But if it is because there is less compression - that's great.

As for internet - I may not switch from road runner just because I have had my account for a long time. But, I use outlook with roadrunner and don't get much spam. Sounds like you might use fios the same way - how does it compare. And - is there pop3 access to emails?

thanks.

[kjordan2001]

Depending on the quality of your set, you may be able to notice slight differences. The real benefit comes in the freeing up of bandwidth for more HD content.

Also depends on the quality of the encoder used by the station. It could in fact be worse than the current MPEG-2 transmissions.

[Hawkeye]

I've been hearing about their awesome prices and offerings. It's a shame they'll probably never get franchise rights here in Brooklyn.

Chris, don't be surprised if it happens sooner rather than later. As you probably already know, Verizon has been rolling out their FiOS service all over Staten Island (where I live) since last year. It wouldn't be all that hard for them to do it in Brooklyn, even with having to compete with Cablevision. Although it likely won't be available until sometime in 2007.

But then again, Cablevision offers a far better cable TV and Internet package than Time Warner (only TW is available in Staten Island). The fastest package you can get from Time Warner's Road Runner service is 8 Mbps down/512 Kbps up. The one through Cablevision's Optimum Online Boost service is 30 Mbps down/2 Mbps up. So Verizon stepped up to the plate in Staten Island and totally beat TW. FiOS has been available in my area since late last year, and FiOS TV is coming probably by the summer. In fact, as a current Verizon DSL customer (with 3 Mbps down/768 Kbps up), I can upgrade to the FiOS 30 Mbps down/5 Mbps up package and pay only $54.99 a month for it! It's really just a question of whether I really need it or not. lol

This is what I get for not checking this forum often enough.

I can't wait for FiOS TV to become available. Reading some of the things in this thread make me want it even more. :)