Pros/cons of switching from Comcast to Verizon FIOS

[Dougmeister]

Current setup

1) Verizon local phone service
~$30/month
no long distance (use cell phones)
no caller id
yes call waiting

2) Comcast internet
~$42.95/month
6 Mb/s down, 768 Kb/s up
"shared" bandwidth (right?)

3) Comcast cable TV
Extended digital basic (channels 2-80, 100-240; 190+ are in HD)
~$30/month
(I'm either on a special promotion or they screwed up my account; should be more like $60/month?)

So I'm paying approx. $105/month already.

Verizon if offering phone (unlimited local/long distance, caller id, call waiting), FIOS internet (10 Mb/2 Mb), and FIOS TV for $100/month and no installation fees.

I summarize it as:

a) faster Internet by a factor of at least 2
b) gaining caller ID
c) gaining unlimited local/long distance (not that big of a deal, but won't be constrained to use cell phones for LD)

for the same price. Am I missing anything?

Oh, and I have a TiVo Series 3 (HD) and it took Comcast *forever* to get the cablecards working correctly. I was told by a Verizon CSR that they would provide cable cards, but that is still a gray area in my mind.

 

[kg4icg]

to tell you the truth, switching to fios from comcast will put you into a peaceful state of mind. no connection throttling to worry about. constant speed connection with no worries about neighbors sharring the bandwith at peak times. there really is no con when going from cable to fios.

 

[JackMDS]

At the moment the FIOS combo is less expensive and better technology.

I do not know what the pricing scheme in your area is, but where I am FIOS id $99 for the first year, and then the price probably would double.

 

[Dougmeister]

Well, they're *telling* me that the price is not a promotional offer, that it won't go up after X number of months, etc.

They are giving me dif't stories on whether or not I need to pay for cablecards and for activation.

 

[kevnich2]

FIOS is a relatively good product, the billing on it however, I don't think you'll ever get the same story. Verizon has so many employees, you'll literally get a different answer for every person you speak to. That's my only complaint with my FIOS is the billing and if you have problems trying to get ahold of someone to get it taken care of. Luckily FIOS doesn't have that many issues. The only problem I'm having with mine is that it's a 2 hour DHCP lease on the FIOS and it doesn't ALWAYS get a new IP when it expires so my internet basically goes down until it gets a WAN IP address.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: kevnich2
The only problem I'm having with mine is that it's a 2 hour DHCP lease on the FIOS and it doesn't ALWAYS get a new IP when it expires so my internet basically goes down until it gets a WAN IP address.

That bad, eh?

I had my PPPoE (over DSL, Verizon) go down for the first time a few days ago, I lost internet for a few minutes until I went into the router and manually retried the connection attempt several times until it "took".

 

[kevnich2]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: kevnich2
The only problem I'm having with mine is that it's a 2 hour DHCP lease on the FIOS and it doesn't ALWAYS get a new IP when it expires so my internet basically goes down until it gets a WAN IP address.

That bad, eh?

I had my PPPoE (over DSL, Verizon) go down for the first time a few days ago, I lost internet for a few minutes until I went into the router and manually retried the connection attempt several times until it "took".

Well, my cable internet never had this problem. The FIOS infrastructure is great, the ONLY problem I've had is this 2 hour DHCP lease NOT renewing sometimes. Bad thing is, trying to call verizon and letting them know this, they basically seem clueless on the phone. I had to get a level 3 tech on the phone before anyone even understood what I was talking about, not sure if the problem was really ever fixed or not. I don't know if this is just an area thing or the entire verizon FIOS network as a whole?

 

[yinan]

I love my Verizon FIOS, never had a problem with it, and I have even upgraded to business class so I can host my own servers and stuff.

 

[kevnich2]

How much does your business class cost and what tier of service do you have? How much extra are you paying over your residential FIOS price?

 

[Thetech]

FIOS is better overall. Since I switched to it I've noticed that I get close to as much speed as I'm paying for. Unlike with comcast. Besides Verizons fiber optic network is a HELL OF A LOT BETTER!

 

[Tbirdkid]

just remember, each box you use from fios, is more money.

 

[yinan]

Originally posted by: kevnich2
How much does your business class cost and what tier of service do you have? How much extra are you paying over your residential FIOS price?

Middle tier 20/5 with 5 external IPs I think costs me about $120 a month. Not too bad. Billing most of this to my friend who I work for cause I host a site for him

Originally posted by: Tbirdkid
just remember, each box you use from fios, is more money.

No its not. I have about 15 VMs (which from a networking perspective is a unique machine) and I was never charged any more. Where did you get this idea?

Yinan

 

[kevnich2]

Originally posted by: yinan

Originally posted by: kevnich2
How much does your business class cost and what tier of service do you have? How much extra are you paying over your residential FIOS price?

Middle tier 20/5 with 5 external IPs I think costs me about $120 a month. Not too bad. Billing most of this to my friend who I work for cause I host a site for him

Originally posted by: Tbirdkid
just remember, each box you use from fios, is more money.

No its not. I have about 15 VMs (which from a networking perspective is a unique machine) and I was never charged any more. Where did you get this idea?

Yinan

What he means is each STB (Set top box) costs extra with verizon, and it does. It's what delivers the TV on the FIOS.

 

[Tbirdkid]

thanks kevnich...