Verizon Fios

[JeeberD]

Who has it? Do you like it/love it?

The house that the wife and I are in the process of buying is currently wired for Fios. Our real estate agent said that he has it and it runs him around $190/month. Now, that's quite a bit more than we're currently paying for cable/internet with TWC (we don't have a landline), but we haven't been very happy with them lately.

Is it possible to get Fios without the phone service? Their website isn't a whole lot of use to me since they only list their options after you give your phone number/address...and they keep telling me that the address already has service. Alas.

[SteveMax58]

Not sure whether you want all the movie channels and the lot...but I only pay $130/month for video, internet, & phone. That includes 4 STB's(1 is an HD box), 10Mbps DS, ~750kbps US, and nationwide long distance, caller ID, etc.

As far as the website, it is slightly anecdotal evidence of what to expect. Outstanding performance, but when/if you have a billing issue, good luck. But this should not be confused with Service Repair, which (if you can wait through the sometimes long hold times), is generally excellent.

I had a significant role in the original FiOS video build, so I can definitely tell you their network is solid, and quality is equal to or better than anything else available. And they are in the process of rolling out some very ambitious HD offerrings right now.

Overall...as somebody who is "in that business"...it's what I choose for multiple reasons.

[JeeberD]

Looking at the options, we would definitely get HBO, or possibly the HBO/Skinemax package. We would want two regular STBs and an SDVR (does a DVR count towards the 3 STBs for $12.99 deal?). But that price sounds pretty decent...

[SteveMax58]

I'm not sure how the SDVR's count, but I think it may be an extra charge as I do not have the DVR functions enabled in my HD STB, as it would be extra(I want to say ~$9.99/mo, SDVR could be cheaper, not sure) and I never really use it.

Also...I think my US is 2Mbps, not 750kbps. Not that it really matters much for most people, but I ran a quick test and I was around 1.6 - 1.8Mbps on it.

[Subby]

FIOS is the shit. We have 15/2 internet, tv and phone with them and it runs $165/month. For the tv portion we added on HBO, two standard set top boxes and a HD DVR that records content that can be viewed on the other set top boxes. The DVR software is significantly improved and as a former Tivo lover/user I can happily say that I actually like it and don't miss Tivo all that much.

The HD picture is great and they are promising a ton more HD channels this year. They just started rolling out HD video on demnad. We used to have DirecTV and the standard def channels looked like complete shit on our plasma, but the FIOS standard def channels don't look as bad. Plus we don't have to deal with rain fade or the compression that cable has to run on their channels to get them all in the pipe.

Anyway - yeah...I love it.

[Alan T]

I love Fios, I pay $70 for 5/2 internet and have few to no problems with it. Tv is not available in my area so dont have it.

[JeeberD]

Thanks, guys. I forgot that my sister also has it and that she and her family love it. That combined with what y'all have to say makes it pretty certain that's the route we'll go...

[evil homer]

in NYC, we can't get the TV yet (hoping for this year), but we pay $65/month for phone and 20/5 internet. the speed tests out at about 19.5 downstream when wired (a little slower on the wireless).

[korme]

What is 5/2, 15/2, and 20/5 internet? I have never even heard of fios.

[Subby]

download/upload speeds

15/2 would be 15mbps download and 2 mbps upload

Fios is a fiber optic communications service from Verizon - worth a five minute wikipedia visit.

[Subby]

Great news for Verizon FiOS customers...

Verizon Unveils their Vision for the Web-Connected TV

Written by Sarah Perez

In the U.S., Verizon FiOS customers will soon receive an update to their set-top boxes that will connect their TVs to the web in an entirely new way. The company is preparing a major upgrade to their TV widgets platform which currently serves basic info like weather and traffic. The upgrade will open that platform up to third-party developers. To demonstrate the capabilities of the upcoming SDK, the company built widgets that integrate both Facebook and Twitter with your TV viewing experience. In addition, DVRs will soon be able to access internet content from YouTube and several other video-sharing portals. And all of this web content is seamlessly woven within Verizon's on-screen guide alongside traditional programming information.

Is that Twitter on My TV?

Any serious Twitter user will tell you that half the fun of watching a major television event or popular show is tuning into the backchannel provided by those twittering their thoughts and reactions to what's being broadcast. An excellent example of this type of live backchannel was seen during President Obama's recent public address - a hotly tracked item on Twitter where the hashtag to follow was #NSOTU (aka "Not State of the Union.") Even lawmakers were getting in on the action by twittering from the House floor while listening to Obama speak.
This real-time view into the reactions of the crowd has been at times insightful, at other times humorous, but is always an interesting and interactive way to participate in any event, including something shown on TV. Yet when it comes to Twitter and the television, it's often a two-screen experience involving a web-connected laptop or phone and the TV itself.



But with Verizon's new widget platform, developers will be able to build widgets like this one which displays Twitter updates on your TV. But unlike Twitter's own search tool that only lists the trending topics, Verizon's widget demonstrates how Twitter could enhance your TV-viewing experience in a whole new way. When launching this widget, for example, one of the options is "current channel." Select that and all of a sudden you're seeing the tweets related specifically to the program or movie that you're currently viewing.


Another widget, this one for Facebook users, lets you update your status with a message about what you're watching. It also provides access to your friends and your photo albums.


These two widgets were built in-house by Verizon engineers and won't necessarily ship with the upcoming update to the DVR... but they could. In a recent demonstration of the software's capabilities, Joseph Ambeault, Director of Consumer Product Development Video, hinted that the company had talked to various internet companies about their providing widgets for the new platform. However, he would not confirm any specifics. (There were some very cagey head rolls - half nods, half shakes - when providing the non-answers, though!). We specifically asked about Twitter, but the Verizon representative said he could not comment. We're taking the decided ambiguity to mean talks began but nothing is official.
In fact, seeing the widget in action makes us wonder - is this a part of Twitter's mysterious business model? It very well could be. Verizon's widgets, which could potentially reach several million customers here in the United States, will be monetized through on-screen advertisements like banner ads. These ads, similar in look and feel to those seen on the web, will launch a quick TV commercial when selected with the remote control.

The Widget Ecosystem



At present, Verizon has widgets for weather, traffic, headlines, horoscopes, and community information. There's also an ESPN Fantasy Football widget which provides stats on your players and scores. But when the widget platform goes live, the potential for an entire ecosystem of widgets will explode. However, the questions as to how this ecosystem will look and behave are things Verizon is still figuring out as, up until now, they've solely focused on the technical aspects of the solution.

What they can say now is that widgets will be programmed using LUA, a standard technology which many game developers will be familiar with already. The process for signing up to create a widget won't involve any laborious steps, either. Instead, there will be a quick web form to fill out and then developers can gain access to the company's SDK (software development kit). According to Verizon, they're not interested in tightly controlling which widgets become available to their FiOS customers - they just want to provide tools for widget creation and sharing. As Ambeault describes it, the ecosystem's level of openness will be "somewhere in between Apple and Google" - a reference to the variation between the App Store approval process for the locked-down iPhones versus the wide-open Google Android platform.



Also of note, Verizon seems less interested in competing with the other newly launched widget platforms, like the Yahoo/Intel TV widgets that are being integrated into new televisions themselves, and are more interested in working to port those widgets to their platform. But when asked if they were working with Yahoo, the only answer was yet another cryptic head roll.
Internet Video with No Extra Box (Just a Computer)

Another aspect to the upgraded Verizon Web + TV experience is the introduction of internet content, searchable through their "Interactive Media Guide." When the new software launches, Verizon FiOS DVRs will stream software from YouTube, DailyMotion, Break.com, Blip.tv, and Veoh. The format conversion that makes this possible actually takes place on a computer connected on the home network running Verizon Media Manager software, not on the DVR itself. Verizon says they configure this software for consumers at the time of installation.



This Media Manager software also allows customers to stream videos and photos from their PC to TV.

Beyond the Net

Multiple upgrades to the DVR software will take place over the course of the coming year. The first upgrade, due out this summer, will deliver new features like the updated program guide with its richer contextual menus. Here, for example, customers will find things like colorful thumbnails of movies when searching through on-demand titles - an experience somewhat reminiscent of Netflix. Also included will be the ability to preview programs from channels you don't currently subscribe to and the option to then order the channel using your remote. Most notably, though, the summer upgrade (from version 1.6 to 1.7 of Verizon's 2nd-generation software) will introduce the internet video content. Later this fall, the widget SDK will launch.

Given Verizon's position as a TV company, phone company, ISP, and wireless provider, they plan to maximize their new software across all various platforms. Already Verizon mobile phones can access TV through V-Cast, but in the future they may be able to use the widgets too. Mobile phone users can also program their DVRs remotely.
Of course, this news is only of interest to Verizon FiOS customers - still a relatively small market here in the U.S. when compared to cable but one that's growing in key markets. However, Verizon's move is raising the bar as to what consumers will come to expect from their web-connected TVs in the future, whether the web content comes from Verizon, is built into the TV itself, or arrives as part of whatever comes next.

[Alan T]

This is great and all, but I doubt I would use this... Now if they could actually make the remote DVR functionality actually work.. that would be great!

[Subby]

Having it move closer to internet seamlessness is pretty cool. Probably more possibilities than my little brain can handle.

We just upgraded to HD Extreme + 20/5 internet + phone and the price didn't change. Best entertainment deal going.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Subby

Having it move closer to internet seamlessness is pretty cool. Probably more possibilities than my little brain can handle.

We just upgraded to HD Extreme + 20/5 internet + phone and the price didn't change. Best entertainment deal going.

Yep, that is the same deal that I had. When I finally got it all put together, I basically was getting all three for the same price as just internet/tv before. So I consider it as getting my phone service for free.

More importantly though is I work from home, so the internet being up almost all of the time with rarely any problem is great and something most cable companies have issues doing.

I just wish FIOS tv had their act together. Too many bugs and issues that drive me up the wall. Supposedly the new firmware that is rolling out the next 2 months across the country should fix most of those.. but I am not holding my breath.

[DanGarion]

Time Warner Cable is working on something similar with their new OEDN developer community, they recently got 4 additional cable companies to just on board with them to get things going (basically everyone by Comcast and Cox).

To add onto this, it really looks like they know what they are doing. I wish our box/guide team at TWC would get their act together on our new ODN/MDN software, because as it stands right now I'm not a big fan of it.

[wade moore]

Man I wish FiOS would get down here.

[Pyser]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

To add onto this, it really looks like they know what they are doing. I wish our box/guide team at TWC would get their act together on our new ODN/MDN software, because as it stands right now I'm not a big fan of it.

tw is the suckiest bunch of sucks who ever sucked, and i cant wait until i can drop them

but i do love calling to complain about not getting a channel, them not fixing it, and then them ending the call by saying when i get a survey, be sure to give them a 10/10, even though they did nothing.

hey tw, when i give you my cable box back after i piss on it, i hope you rate my urine a 10.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Pyser

tw is the suckiest bunch of sucks who ever sucked, and i cant wait until i can drop them

but i do love calling to complain about not getting a channel, them not fixing it, and then them ending the call by saying when i get a survey, be sure to give them a 10/10, even though they did nothing.

hey tw, when i give you my cable box back after i piss on it, i hope you rate my urine a 10.

Wouldn't advise you to piss on the box since you will have to pay for it...

I see you are in the LA area if you want to PM me maybe we can work on getting whatever issue you have resolved...?

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Wouldn't advise you to piss on the box since you will have to pay for it...

I see you are in the LA area if you want to PM me maybe we can work on getting whatever issue you have resolved...?

If you fix his channel issue, does that really fix the core of his problem with TW?

[ShaneTheMaster]

FIOS is cool.. Great speeds.. and great picture. But the customer service is HORRIBLE.

[Pyser]

Originally Posted by wade moore

If you fix his channel issue, does that really fix the core of his problem with TW?

oh, goodness no. there are other fun times when they turn off my center ice package for no reason whatsoever. or the fact that their internet has been hacked recently making the web unsurfable some nights. or the overall general issue of them not carrying the nfl network. or the fact that the guide they use doesnt know the difference between a new episode or a repeat. or the fact that the cable box they hand out has the fun quirk of ignoring your remote for 2 minutes, and then performing every single action you tried before you realized the box was frozen. the list is endless.

but danG, i may take you up on the PM if my call tonight about nhl hd is fruitless again. thank you.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by wade moore

If you fix his channel issue, does that really fix the core of his problem with TW?

I don't know. But there are people here that want to help. I've reached out to a number of customers that I have found were local and having issues and expressed those issues online.

Of course we aren't TW anymore anyway... we are TWC...

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Pyser

oh, goodness no. there are other fun times when they turn off my center ice package for no reason whatsoever. or the fact that their internet has been hacked recently making the web unsurfable some nights. or the overall general issue of them not carrying the nfl network. or the fact that the guide they use doesnt know the difference between a new episode or a repeat. or the fact that the cable box they hand out has the fun quirk of ignoring your remote for 2 minutes, and then performing every single action you tried before you realized the box was frozen. the list is endless.

but danG, i may take you up on the PM if my call tonight about nhl hd is fruitless again. thank you.

Just going to go through my stream of thought while reading about your problems.

Not sure why your center ice package would be turned off unless someone removed the code from your billing account. Yes the DNS servers were being DDOS, which was something beyond the companies control, so far it's been good for about 10 days, I personally didn't experience it because I don't use Road Runner DNS servers, I use OpenDNS. Not going to beat the dead horse of the NFL Network since that is a two sided pissing match between us and the NFL. The guide does know the difference, but the guide data doesn't usually call episodes show in the first week repeats (trust me that's annoying to me too, but we don't create the guide data). It sounds like you must have a Motorola box, I experienced that same problem with the box randomly freezing and then it would do every action you gave it, I hated that one to. Honest answer most of those things aren't things that are going to be "fixed" by a phone call all you will get is an apology. The one I'm most concerned with is the NHL Package dropping off...

[wade moore]

:shurg:

I just find the act that cable, and specifically TWC, is great and peachy to be very tiresome from you. He clearly (as his post that he posted the same time as you shows) has many, numerous issues as many of us have with our cable providers.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by wade moore

:shurg:

I just find the act that cable, and specifically TWC, is great and peachy to be very tiresome from you. He clearly (as his post that he posted the same time as you shows) has many, numerous issues as many of us have with our cable providers.

edit - I'm just going to shutup, it's not worth it to argue this again.

[Pyser]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Just going to go through my stream of thought while reading about your problems.

Not sure why your center ice package would be turned off unless someone removed the code from your billing account. Yes the DNS servers were being DDOS, which was something beyond the companies control, so far it's been good for about 10 days, I personally didn't experience it because I don't use Road Runner DNS servers, I use OpenDNS. Not going to beat the dead horse of the NFL Network since that is a two sided pissing match between us and the NFL. The guide does know the difference, but the guide data doesn't usually call episodes show in the first week repeats (trust me that's annoying to me too, but we don't create the guide data). It sounds like you must have a Motorola box, I experienced that same problem with the box randomly freezing and then it would do every action you gave it, I hated that one to. Honest answer most of those things aren't things that are going to be "fixed" by a phone call all you will get is an apology. The one I'm most concerned with is the NHL Package dropping off...

i dont expect twC to fix most of those with a phone call. thats why im looking to leave them when i can.

maybe im spoiled from having an ealrly tivo...but clearly, the technology was there 6 years ago to differentiate between a repeat and new episode. i dont care if its the guides fault. get a better guide service then. if you hire someone who does a bad job, fix it.

one small gripe in a larger complaint. if i felt twc was doing anything to fix stuff, itd be different. but they arent. all they do instead is raise rates. over and over again. and then when i ask, they tell me to add a phone line instead. awesome, guys. thanks a lot.

[Alan T]

Just a note, since this is a FIOS thread... I figured I would tie in your TWC complaints into FIOS somewhat...

On the subject regarding guides.. I haven't ever seen a worse guide service then the one that FIOS uses. It is hands down horrible. They often have the shows labeled as new when they are not. Or have the wrong show listed or have very incomplete descriptions.

Looking at the descriptions of some movies in the guide at times is just laughable. They also rarely have a very complete list of the major stars in shows/movies, and at times have it flat out incorrect.

So yeah.. FIOS knows bad guides as well

[Pyser]

well thats discouraging. hello, tivo

[stevew]

My friend is on his 4th twc box in a year. Quality equipment.

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by ShaneTheMaster

But the customer service is HORRIBLE.

Keep in mind, they are competing with cable and satellite cos, so the bar is pretty low.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by stevew

My friend is on his 4th twc box in a year. Quality equipment.

The same companies make the boxes for cable companies, FiOS, and Uverse and they are ALL crap. Scientific Atlanta and Motorola have no business making such crappy hardware devices, but I have heard of the same problems with all the services, especially pertaining to sound issues, and I've experienced it first hand on more then one occasion on multiple boxes. Even though I don't like them the best boxes quality wise appear to be Moxi boxes by Digeo, which to my understanding are also made by Motorola.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Pyser

well thats discouraging. hello, tivo

Just an FYI if you aren't aware you can use Tivo Series 3 boxes on both FiOS and Cable plants with the use of a leased cable card, with the newer multistream cards you only need one and it will enable both tuners on the Tivo, leasing the cable card is usually around 2-5 bucks a month depending on the company, and it will enable all the channels you are subscribed to. But I do know that with TWC you can't get any of the "Pay Per View" channels though cable cards, which means no sports packages (NHL, MLB, etc), no VOD, as for FiOS I'm not sure.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

But I do know that with TWC you can't get any of the "Pay Per View" channels though cable cards, which means no sports packages (NHL, MLB, etc), no VOD, as for FiOS I'm not sure.

That used to be the case with FIOS as well. I do not know if it still is, as I chose not to go with Tivo for this very reason. SirFozzie might know since I am pretty sure he has fios + tivo

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Just an FYI if you aren't aware you can use Tivo Series 3 boxes on both FiOS and Cable plants with the use of a leased cable card, with the newer multistream cards you only need one and it will enable both tuners on the Tivo, leasing the cable card is usually around 2-5 bucks a month depending on the company, and it will enable all the channels you are subscribed to. But I do know that with TWC you can't get any of the "Pay Per View" channels though cable cards, which means no sports packages (NHL, MLB, etc), no VOD, as for FiOS I'm not sure.

I LOVED my TiVO box. But when I moved to HD and needed to upgrade the price point for the TiVO is such a turn-off right now. I'm settling for my lesser cable DVR for that reason. The cable DVR is "good enough" to avoid paying $500 or whatever the price is these days.

It sucks. I think it's a stupid move by TiVO personally.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I LOVED my TiVO box. But when I moved to HD and needed to upgrade the price point for the TiVO is such a turn-off right now. I'm settling for my lesser cable DVR for that reason. The cable DVR is "good enough" to avoid paying $500 or whatever the price is these days.

It sucks. I think it's a stupid move by TiVO personally.

You can easily get a Tivo HD for under $200.

[Pyser]

ping: dangarion

is it true time warner is dropping hdnet and hdnet movies? i mean, they were the only thing keeping me paying for the extra hd tier anyway. the movie channel was amazing. any idea why its being dropped? is it a contract dispute or might it continue? just wondering, im gonna drop the hd tier if true.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Pyser

ping: dangarion

is it true time warner is dropping hdnet and hdnet movies? i mean, they were the only thing keeping me paying for the extra hd tier anyway. the movie channel was amazing. any idea why its being dropped? is it a contract dispute or might it continue? just wondering, im gonna drop the hd tier if true.

From my understanding it's a contract money thing, TWC just doesn't think it's worth it. TWC is going to replace them with MavHD and Smithsonian HD.

Here in SoCal we are also adding both of the Fox Sports Wests (FSW and Prime) to HD 24/7 to the free HD portion.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Pyser

ping: dangarion

is it true time warner is dropping hdnet and hdnet movies? i mean, they were the only thing keeping me paying for the extra hd tier anyway. the movie channel was amazing. any idea why its being dropped? is it a contract dispute or might it continue? just wondering, im gonna drop the hd tier if true.

Heh, it came up in the NFL Sunday Ticket thread. I'm very likely dropping the HD Plus package.

[fantom1979]

Sorry if this is a little off topic, but how does FIOS compare with U-Verse? U-Verse is currently offered in my area, but FIOS is not.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by ShaneTheMaster

FIOS is cool.. Great speeds.. and great picture. But the customer service is HORRIBLE.

I got to enjoy FIOS customer service for the last three days. Friday I found that I was having an odd issue with performance. I have 20/5 service, but for whatever reason my upload speed was registering roughly 4.6 Mbps which is about as good as I would expect to get. My download speed was showing up as 0.345 Mbps which indicated something was wrong.

Since I have a pretty elaborate home network (2 Gigabit access switches connecting to 1 Gigabit distribution switch that then connects to a core router, off of which I have a seperate lab network as well as my work VPN networks), I wanted to make sure that it was not any of my equipment that was faulty. I ended up connecting directly to my ONT from a laptop and saw the same behavior, so I swapped out two other ethernet cables to make sure that neither were the issue.. Still the same response in all cases.. Time to suck it up and deal with FIOS tech support.

I get them on the phone, their first question "Do you use the actiontech router?" So I had to explain for 5 minutes why connecting a laptop up directly to the ONT was a sufficient test to verify it was not any of my equipment. Finally they begrudingly got a second level tech on the case who verified that my equipment was provisioned correctly for 20/5 so I should be ok (which I wasn't). So finally they said they would send a tech out that afternoon, with the caveat if it was my equipment that had the problem I would get charged for the trip. I said send him on out!

So the tech comes at 4pm on Friday in what he was told was supposed to be an in and out job, he was told that he just had to come out and prove on his laptop that everything was ok.. Woops.. 4 hours later, it was getting close to 9pm and he was completely frustrated. Support had him replace the ONT, try numerous tests including having me dig back out my actiontech router to connect it up (which obviously wasn't going to fix anything) and finally they gave up for the night.

Saturday I spent 3 hours on the phone listening to their tier 2 support play messenger between me and their CRT team since obviously their highly trained technicians can't talk directly to me on the issue I decided while bored to try a few other tests. Verizon FIOS on demand videos are carried over the internet and not over the normal TV connection. So I tried to get a movie and see what happened. Using my bandwidth utilization monitor, I noticed when I watched a SD movie, it appeared just fine. No blips or problems and I noticed that it increased my bandwidth utilization to 4Mbps download. When I tried an HD movie, it was fine as well and suddenly I was using 15Mbps. The problem was obvious to me not a hardware issue at my site and I explained it to them. Finally Saturday afternoon they told me they would that evening swap out some equipment at the CO and see if that fixed it. I could check this morning and see.

Well when I woke up, I checked and was back to my 20/5 as I should, so glad they fixed it. I wish I hadn't had to waste 10 hours over 2 days while they didn't have a clue what they were doing though

[Cap Ologist]

Didn't realize this was a bumped thread, carry on.

[lordscarlet]

Alan, that actually sounds like a stellar experience compared to what I hear from most cable customers.

[Chubby]

FIOS TV is finally coming to Syracuse so I'm bumping this for more feedback.

Having NFL Network is a big plus. No matter what I'm glad the TW monopoly is going to end.

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by Chubby

FIOS TV is finally coming to Syracuse so I'm bumping this for more feedback.

Having NFL Network is a big plus. No matter what I'm glad the TW monopoly is going to end.

Where do you live?

Have they started rolling this out yet?

And do you know if they'll have Time Warner Sports?

[claphamsa]

I have it, had it about a month. love it! took some time to put in. but its cheaper, and better than comcast! pisses me off, that I still get adds for it, offering me shit like a free netbook for signing up! shoulda waited a month

[SirFozzie]

I've had it for about a year. Other then their tech support, they have been awesome.

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by Samdari

Where do you live?

Have they started rolling this out yet?

And do you know if they'll have Time Warner Sports?

Syracuse, NY (more specifically DeWitt which just signed the deal with FIOS)

"Fall" is when TV goes live (internet/phone already here). They usually have a good sized tent at the NYS Fair so I'll check into deals there.

I'd assume they won't have TW Sports but they have been saying they'll have most of the SU bball and football games on so I'm not sure what they will be on (probably ESPNU which is usually blacked out when the games are on TWSports)

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

I've had it for about a year. Other then their tech support, they have been awesome.

Tech support is going to suck regardless of who I choose. I get a kick out of the people saying it will improve customer service like we are calling the office down the street and not a national call center

[OldGiants]

We've been on FIOS for two years, and HD for the past year after we bought the HDTV. Customer service has been very good--way better than Comcast.

We don't buy any premium channels and have everything including cell phones with Verizon. We just took a new cell phone plan that lowered our costs for that, too.

The HD picture is noticeably better than Comcast. Friends with that in none-FIOS areas drool over the difference.

One small thing that has been good for us is that FIOS has the same channel lineup everywhere (at least in Richmond and NJ) so I can call my mother and tell her, for example, "You need to watch Monk on channel 50 on Friday nights." No need for me to guess where her cable system puts USA or the other channels.

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by Chubby

Syracuse, NY (more specifically DeWitt which just signed the deal with FIOS)

"Fall" is when TV goes live (internet/phone already here). They usually have a good sized tent at the NYS Fair so I'll check into deals there.

I'd assume they won't have TW Sports but they have been saying they'll have most of the SU bball and football games on so I'm not sure what they will be on (probably ESPNU which is usually blacked out when the games are on TWSports)

I live in Cicero and they've signed an agreement too. No actual FIOS tv in sight though. Clay was the first to sign a franchise agreement and they don't have it yet either.

Where have they been saying they'd have most of the SU games? I cannot find where they have said anything. If they don't have TW sports, they won't have most of the SU games.