Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

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beyou
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Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by beyou »

Terrible experience for last month with my cable internet provider. Many were without service for weeks. No show onsite support resulted in billing me as if I was the no show. Widely documented they have done this to others. Support on phone abysmal.

So want to know about FIOS

1) Install mechanics. Have cable modem and wifi router in my basement with coax coming in. Where will they put their equipment ? Basement ? How wired from outside, using coax from cable co or new runs ?

2) I have top quality router, don’t want to rent theirs. I see this is an option on the order, just wondering how smoothly that goes on install day. Location, etc ?

3) Account setup. I have Verizon wireless, will I need a credit check if already a customer ? Would have to unfreeze credit.

4) Billing - will this be on one bill with Verizon Wireless ?

5) Renewals - will i have to switch back after a promo period or do they know when they have competition ?

6) Service quality. Anyone experience large storms, with lengthy outages ? Other reasons for outages ? How frequent and how quickly resolved ?

Thanks in advance for your experiences shared.

update : Planning on internet only, no TV.
I already went to streaming a couple years ago, Sling then Hulu Live, plus others.
Last edited by beyou on Wed Sep 09, 2020 7:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by nisiprius »

1) People around here who have FiOS are happy with it. (I happen to use a different provider).

2) It might be worth keeping faintly in the back of your mind that Verizon has been deemphasizing this part of their business since about 2015. I wouldn't factor it into provider choice, but do be aware that the days when they were on the leading edge, rapidly expanding, latest and greatest, are probably over.

Verizon Pulls Back From Wireline, Internet Businesses
Telecom Giant’s $10.5 Billion Asset Sale to Frontier Hastens Shift Toward Wireless Operations

The company said Thursday that its $10.5 billion sale of assets to regional telecom operator Frontier Communications Corp. will get Verizon out of the market for wireline phone service in three states—Texas, California and Florida....

To complete its exit, Verizon also will part with millions of customers who use FiOS, the fiber-optic network the telecom giant has spent about $23 billion rolling out over the past decade.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by crefwatch »

My optical network terminal (ONT) is in the basement, but I have seen photos of ONTs in interface-boxes on the exterior sill of single-family homes. Obviously the ethernet WAN cable would then start in the interface box, if the ONT is outdoors. My ONT has a lead-acid gelcell built in for 8-hour backup, but I've seen 12-D Cell consumer battery backups for apartment building ONTs. The ONT needs a physical ground connection, not just the line cord for power. My installation required pole work, but they had fiber on my street already.

My ONT is the first generation, so it's being replaced next week so I can get 200/200 Meg service. That premises visit is $125 in northern NJ.

Like most providers, they want you to buy or rent THEIR $299 router. You can use yours and many people have. Of course they won't take responsibility for its working or working well. I just switched to my own router, and it went OK. One reason I wanted my own router is that I don't want (built-in) WiFi antennas to be in the basement. But we have a lot of wired internet, so there's a Switch in the basement, which would have to run back from the router wherever it went. (Right now everything is within 2' of each other, in the basement.)

During the last two hurricanes, our internet (and Verizon Digital Voice, through the ONT) never went out. But I recharged the backup every morning with our portable generator. Because the fiber is much lower on the poles than the electric company wires, a recent tree down on the street (Noreaster storm) did not affect our internet at all. You might ask the installer if the ONT power brick cares about being plugged into a UPS, or if it doesn't matter.

They might offer $10 monthly discount for credit card autopay or bank debit payment, which would perhaps reduce the need for a credit check. No idea.

In MY AREA, Verizon is moving away from annual contracts. But then they can change the price anytime they want.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by GerryL »

nisiprius wrote: Wed Sep 09, 2020 2:36 pm 1) People around here who have FiOS are happy with it. (I happen to use a different provider).

2) It might be worth keeping faintly in the back of your mind that Verizon has been deemphasizing this part of their business since about 2015. I wouldn't factor it into provider choice, but do be aware that the days when they were on the leading edge, rapidly expanding, latest and greatest, are probably over.

Verizon Pulls Back From Wireline, Internet Businesses
Telecom Giant’s $10.5 Billion Asset Sale to Frontier Hastens Shift Toward Wireless Operations

The company said Thursday that its $10.5 billion sale of assets to regional telecom operator Frontier Communications Corp. will get Verizon out of the market for wireline phone service in three states—Texas, California and Florida....

To complete its exit, Verizon also will part with millions of customers who use FiOS, the fiber-optic network the telecom giant has spent about $23 billion rolling out over the past decade.
Regarding Verizon's pulling back on its FIOS business:
I started was with Verizon phone and and internet (DSL?). They dug up a spot in my yard to install their FIOS. (I had to call them to come out and fix the minor damage.) Years later -- and years ago -- they sold their Oregon business to Frontier. Just this past year, Frontier has sold out to a new company called Ziply. (At least this time I did not need to change the ISP on my email address(es).)

The FIOS works fine, but you can expect pricing and maybe ownership to be ... fluid.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by MangoMama »

crefwatch wrote: Wed Sep 09, 2020 2:39 pm My optical network terminal (ONT) is in the basement, but I have seen photos of ONTs in interface-boxes on the exterior sill of single-family homes. Obviously the ethernet WAN cable would then start in the interface box, if the ONT is outdoors. My ONT has a lead-acid gelcell built in for 8-hour backup, but I've seen 12-D Cell consumer battery backups for apartment building ONTs. The ONT needs a physical ground connection, not just the line cord for power. My installation required pole work, but they had fiber on my street already.

My ONT is the first generation, so it's being replaced next week so I can get 200/200 Meg service. That premises visit is $125 in northern NJ.
It took us a while to figure out why our Fios was very intermittent after a power outage. Turns out we had to pull the power to the ONT and disconnect the battery. Other than that it's rock solid.

Surprisingly our bill with them for Fios is exactly $39.99.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by pointyhairedboss »

crefwatch wrote: Wed Sep 09, 2020 2:39 pm In MY AREA, Verizon is moving away from annual contracts. But then they can change the price anytime they want.
I have found those annual contracts to be misleading. Yes, the base price won't go up, but there are enough line items that aren't fixed that can go up.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by dukeblue219 »

As for the cabling, there are two choices. For speeds of 100mbps and less they can use existing coax wiring in your house. The ONT converts fiber optic to coax, then somewhere in the house you'll need a modem (usually Verizon) to convert coax to wifi, ethernet, whatever. Some people then have an additional router beyond that, for example if you want a mesh network.

Above 100mbps they'll use Ethernet throughout your house. This is easier to use IF you already have it wired, otherwise they may put the router in a weird location to keep it near the ONT (which in this case converts fiber to ethernet). You won't need a modem, but still a router of some type.

I recall that if you use your own *modem* you may lose the on screen guide on your TV, but I can't remember the details. If you have the Verizon modem you can always disable its wifi and use your own router and network system of course.
Last edited by dukeblue219 on Wed Sep 09, 2020 3:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by dukeblue219 »

pointyhairedboss wrote: Wed Sep 09, 2020 3:52 pm
crefwatch wrote: Wed Sep 09, 2020 2:39 pm In MY AREA, Verizon is moving away from annual contracts. But then they can change the price anytime they want.
I have found those annual contracts to be misleading. Yes, the base price won't go up, but there are enough line items that aren't fixed that can go up.
The fixed price they have now is pretty well fixed. We don't have any hidden fees on our internet+TV+DVR setup.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by TomatoTomahto »

If you have gigabit Fios, you don’t need to use their router at all, just plug the Ethernet into your router. It can be plugged directly into eero, google mesh, Orbi, etc.

ETA: we recently lost power and Fios for 16 hours, but neighbors had Comcast working. We rely on decent internet, so I will probably add Comcast as a fail safe.
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by BuddyJet »

Here is a good wiki on how to use your on router with fios including how to maintain att.

I use att but saw the wiki searching for other things.

https://www.wikihow.com/Use-Your-Own-Ro ... rizon-FiOS
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by rob »

Expect an ever increasing bill.... but it's FAR better than cable.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by beyou »

Thanks all for your sharing.

Note that historically Verizon was NYNEX, a northeastern company. Not only are they still actively marketing here in NY, I read they rolled out in Boston too, not long ago. I agree they may not retain their technical edge, but I have nothing but a terrible experience with our cable company from a technical standpoint. They now claim to have new tech, but they like to market new tech only to new customers, and some of the new tech is not recommended by their own field techs. I would rather have tried and true FIOS fiber and not have my cable co experiment on me with their new fiber rollout (which is not offered to me now anyway).

FIOS has been available a long time in my area, and cable internet since late 90s. But after recent sale of our cable co to a global giant, service went to zero. I had been hesitant year ago to switch to “new” tech, and reluctant to deal with Verizon more than already, but my cable co lowered the bar so much on service it can’t get any lower.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by BuddyJet »

TomatoTomahto wrote: Wed Sep 09, 2020 4:02 pm If you

ETA: we recently lost power and Fios for 16 hours, but neighbors had Comcast working. We rely on decent internet, so I will probably add Comcast as a fail safe.
Switching the cable between the providers is pretty simple but if you want it done automatically, look at a dual wan router. I’d go with fail over and fail back mode

https://www.asus.com/US/support/FAQ/101 ... hKey=Dual/
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by pondering »

Decent service. Support can be a challenge. Please get a mesh network, and I've never been able to get mine to work fully, so I'd buy theirs.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by WardnerMan »

My household hooked up to Ziply about one month ago. We have determined that to get the full WiFi speed from the gigabit service we need to upgrade our computer WiFi cards to WIFI 6. One or more of our computers and our smart TV may not be upgradable. Coax cable speeds are not affected.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by WardnerMan »

We bought a gigabit capable modem/router and connected the old one downstream to feed our legacy devices.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by queso »

dukeblue219 wrote: Wed Sep 09, 2020 3:56 pm As for the cabling, there are two choices. For speeds of 100mbps and less they can use existing coax wiring in your house. The ONT converts fiber optic to coax, then somewhere in the house you'll need a modem (usually Verizon) to convert coax to wifi, ethernet, whatever. Some people then have an additional router beyond that, for example if you want a mesh network.

Above 100mbps they'll use Ethernet throughout your house. This is easier to use IF you already have it wired, otherwise they may put the router in a weird location to keep it near the ONT (which in this case converts fiber to ethernet). You won't need a modem, but still a router of some type.

I recall that if you use your own *modem* you may lose the on screen guide on your TV, but I can't remember the details. If you have the Verizon modem you can always disable its wifi and use your own router and network system of course.
I just did the upgrade from 75 Mbps to 1 Gbps so can shed some additional light on this. MoCA is the technology that sends "stuff" over coax vs. ethernet and, as dukeblue219 points out, any FiOS speeds of 100 Mbps and up require ethernet. I was using my existing coax before the upgrade so knew I would have to switch when the technician was at my house doing the upgrade. The important point to remember here is that ethernet is only required from the ONT to your router. All your TVs, etc. stay coax so in my case we were only talking about one run that follows the existing coax run from my router to the ONT (in my case installed on the outside of my house next to my meter). Rather than have a Verizon guy running around in my attic drilling holes I talked to the installer the day he arrived about the upgrade and he was more than happy to have a helper (especially since it meant he didn't have to come in the house at all during covid). He gave me the ethernet cable and I took it inside and ran it from my router and through the attic to the outside wall where my coax already exited. I drilled my own hole and then fed it down to him outside the house and while he hooked up his FiOS stuff I siliconed the hole and cleaned up my mess. If you plan it out ahead of time I am sure you can do the same thing so should be able to put the router wherever you want in your house. You may have more than one option with the ONT, but I know back when I got mine installed (10 years ago) it had to be relatively close to the electric meter. Sounds like that may have changed and now the ONT can be inside the house?

I rather like the on screen guide and other features for TV so I have retained their router, but turned off wifi capabilities and installed a Ubiquiti mesh system instead.
Last edited by queso on Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by KlangFool »

https://www.verizon.com/discount-program/

OP,

Check out whether you qualify for an additional $10 discount on your Verizon Fios and Verizon Wireless. This is on top of whatever package that you sign up. It works for both existing and new customers.


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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by chw »

Customer service is about the worst you've ever experienced x 2.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by vasaver »

We paid $99 to skip the credit check in the signup process. Mainly because we were doing a refi on our mortgage and I didn't want any issues. They refund the $99 after 12 monthly payments.

I was tired of playing the comcast game to get the discounted price every 12-24 months. Verizon's new Mix and Match no contract pricing structure makes the 200/200 $39.99 price attractive (actual speed it 300/300). The upload speed is nice because we just got a gopro and are uploading more video these days.

We were in the middle of a 24 month contract with Comcast/Xfinity. Verizon will pay the ETF Fee
https://www.verizon.com/myvzwidgets/Wid ... fview.html

Looks like fios has a prepaid version as well (https://www.verizon.com/myvzwidgets/Wid ... fview.html)
Last edited by vasaver on Thu Sep 10, 2020 1:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by Da5id »

chw wrote: Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:15 pm Customer service is about the worst you've ever experienced x 2.
I rotate among RCN, Xfinity, and FiOS internet. Switching to get their signup bonuses every year or so. And let me say the customer service of all 3 is pretty poor. I've personally found Xfinity the worst, but I think people have terrible experiences with all ISPs.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by RJC »

vasaver wrote: Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:18 pm We paid $99 to skip the credit check in the signup process. Mainly because we were doing a refi on our mortgage and I didn't want any issues. They refund the $99 after 12 monthly payments.

I was tired of playing the comcast game to get the discounted price every 12-24 months. Verizon's new Mix and Match no contract pricing structure makes the 200/200 $39.99 price attractive (actual speed it 300/300). The upload speed is nice because we just got a gopro and are uploading more video these days.

We were in the middle of a 24 month contract with Comcast/Xfinity. Verizon will pay the ETF Fee
https://www.verizon.com/myvzwidgets/Wid ... fview.html

Looks like fios has a prepaid version as well (https://www.verizon.com/myvzwidgets/Wid ... fview.html)
I just switched to this plan as well. Do you think the price will stay $39.99 over time?
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by vasaver »

RJC wrote: Thu Sep 10, 2020 1:30 pm I just switched to this plan as well. Do you think the price will stay $39.99 over time?
I hope they keep the price or grandfather existing customers like they do for cell phone plans. If it goes up much I will just have to look at what comcast/xfinity is offering.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by tennisplyr »

Had Verizon for both TV and Internet when I lived in NY, was generally satisfied.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by nisiprius »

Here's an odd detail. We just moved and our old provider doesn't service our new location. So we signed up with Verizon FiOS, and I was gobsmacked to discovered that...

Verizon FiOS internet service doesn't include an email account.

I never even thought to ask, because for over twenty years (my first ISP was world.std.com if that means something to some people) they always have. Verizon certainly did when we had Verizon DSL internet service about ten years ago.

It seems like cheap and cheesy chiseling to me, but not worth fussing over. It's not a question of paying for it, they don't offer email at all.

Who's ever heard of an ISP not offering email?

Weird.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by Supergrover »

They pushed all their e-mail stuff to AOL maybe 5 years ago. I still use several Verizon.net addresses. You just have to set it up pointing to AOL. I thought it was a stupid move but they didn’t ask me.

I do hate how their rates go up every time you turn Around. I’m paying $50 more than 3-4 years ago, they raise the bill $3 every few months it seems.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by bluebolt »

nisiprius wrote: Sat Sep 24, 2022 6:10 pm Here's an odd detail. We just moved and our old provider doesn't service our new location. So we signed up with Verizon FiOS, and I was gobsmacked to discovered that...

Verizon FiOS internet service doesn't include an email account.

I never even thought to ask, because for over twenty years (my first ISP was world.std.com if that means something to some people) they always have. Verizon certainly did when we had Verizon DSL internet service about ten years ago.

It seems like cheap and cheesy chiseling to me, but not worth fussing over. It's not a question of paying for it, they don't offer email at all.

Who's ever heard of an ISP not offering email?

Weird.
Why would you tie your email address to an ISP from whom you may switch away in a year or two or three? I never considered using an email address tied to an ISP because that would limit my options when it came to switching, so not offering an email address isn't a relevant factor for me. There are plenty of free & cheap email providers.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by nisiprius »

bluebolt wrote: Sun Sep 25, 2022 12:41 am
nisiprius wrote: Sat Sep 24, 2022 6:10 pm Here's an odd detail. We just moved and our old provider doesn't service our new location. So we signed up with Verizon FiOS, and I was gobsmacked to discovered that...

Verizon FiOS internet service doesn't include an email account...

Who's ever heard of an ISP not offering email?

Weird.
Why would you tie your email address to an ISP from whom you may switch away in a year or two or three? I never considered using an email address tied to an ISP because that would limit my options when it came to switching, so not offering an email address isn't a relevant factor for me. There are plenty of free & cheap email providers.
Verizon not providing something that is usual and customary one definitely falls under "what to expect."

I do use a free provider although I have considerable reservations about privacy. As they say, on the internet if you are not paying for the product, you are the product.

I have long used my ISP-provided email account for situations where I expect to be spammed, or don't really want to give my "real" email address.

Durability of email addresses is a problem even if you are not using an ISP-provided address. For example, I used to have about six email addresses that were included with my web hosting service, and recently they announced that they were discontinuing that and transitioning to Microsoft 365 email at a cost of $1.99 per month per user.

My wife has long used Yahoo! email, and it continues to be available but over the past couple of years has experienced considerable nuisance issues. Yahoo! email is undergoing some kind of transition and she has had to deal with various warnings and procedures, I don't know the details.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by beyou »

nisiprius wrote: Sun Sep 25, 2022 7:13 am
bluebolt wrote: Sun Sep 25, 2022 12:41 am
nisiprius wrote: Sat Sep 24, 2022 6:10 pm Here's an odd detail. We just moved and our old provider doesn't service our new location. So we signed up with Verizon FiOS, and I was gobsmacked to discovered that...

Verizon FiOS internet service doesn't include an email account...

Who's ever heard of an ISP not offering email?

Weird.
Why would you tie your email address to an ISP from whom you may switch away in a year or two or three? I never considered using an email address tied to an ISP because that would limit my options when it came to switching, so not offering an email address isn't a relevant factor for me. There are plenty of free & cheap email providers.
Verizon not providing something that is usual and customary one definitely falls under "what to expect."

I do use a free provider although I have considerable reservations about privacy. As they say, on the internet if you are not paying for the product, you are the product.

I have long used my ISP-provided email account for situations where I expect to be spammed, or don't really want to give my "real" email address.

Durability of email addresses is a problem even if you are not using an ISP-provided address. For example, I used to have about six email addresses that were included with my web hosting service, and recently they announced that they were discontinuing that and transitioning to Microsoft 365 email at a cost of $1.99 per month per user.

My wife has long used Yahoo! email, and it continues to be available but over the past couple of years has experienced considerable nuisance issues. Yahoo! email is undergoing some kind of transition and she has had to deal with various warnings and procedures, I don't know the details.
Wow, my 2 year old posting back to life !

I have not used the ISP provided email that was assigned many years ago. The practice to provide this free with ISP acct dates to before the days of free email. Things change, good for verizon changing with the times. Also they owned Yahoo (now only 10% since a year ago) so why redundantly offer a similar service ?

If you want privacy, best to pay for it. Proton mail and many others offer the option of free/paid premium “secure email”. I use proton free with limited storage but they claim they are outside the reach of our govt, and encrypt all data. I can pay a premium to get more storage but easy to use free as a trial. There are many such services. This one also has secure cloud storage (new product).
Last edited by beyou on Sun Sep 25, 2022 11:44 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by beyou »

As a follow up, I never switched since my cable provider seems to have stabilized. Minimal downtime since my post 2 years ago. They also gave me a good price, pay about $43/mo for 400 speed (download 35 upload). Speed is as-advertised, less downtime (a few mins maybe once or twice in last 2 years). They also offer to upgrade to a faster fiber connection to better compete with FIOS, though 400 download more than meets my needs.
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Re: Verizon FIOS - tell me what to expect please

Post by Novice2020 »

I moved last year and used the opportunity to switch from Comcast to FIOS, even though I was pretty content with Comcast. I must say, I've been disappointed with FIOS almost every step of the way. Setting up the account with them was time consuming for various bureaucratic reasons. The internet is fast, so no complaints there, but I find the TV service lacking. The interface isn't as welcoming/well organized as Comcast XFinity in my opinion. My biggest complaint by far: I can't get the FIOS app on my iPad to allow remote downloading of programs that I have DVRed. This was very easy on Xfinity and when I had long plane flights, I'd catch up on shows and other things that I'd recorded by downloading them on my iPad. The FIOS app seems to have this capability, but then none of my programs ever have the option to download. I tried calling FIOS to inquire about this but I kept getting the runaround, and have ultimately just abandoned trying.

I will probably keep FIOS for another year or two (I bought the $299 router/modem), but will switch back to Comcast as soon as practical.
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