Anyone Have Verizon Fios, Internet, TV and Phone Service?

[freejohn]

Right now, I have Verizon's DSL and Landline phone service.

I have Comcast cable which alone is costing me over $90.00 a month!

Verizon has a special (no contracts) for Fios which will include .. internet, phone and Television for $79.00 a month for one year!

I have been without my cable for over a week now (comcast) due to Irene.

My neighbors, who have Fios never lost their TV or internet.

(I didn't lose my Verizon dsl or phone connection either.)

I'm thinking of going to fios but not sure of the complications .. Inside of the house?

Will they have to drill holes and run more cable within the house?

Can I still run my main TV downstairs and receive tv upstairs?

With the Comcast connection .. I have their box downstairs and upstairs I have basic cable coming from the wall connection.

If anyone has made this change-over .. was it hard and .. was it worth it?

Thanks!

[alloysteel]

By the time you get through, the combined service will be in the $140+ area. Separate set top boxes, difficulty in recording programs, and some goofy glitches with the on-screen programming guide combine to baffle all but the most dedicated technophiles.

Good Internet service, though.

[USS Alaska]

If you have an alarm system, Please, please, please have your alarm company check the landline phone connection to your alarm system anytime you change phone providers.

Here's my alarm system, whom should I call? And Why?

[PJ-Comix]

I have comcast and thinking about switching services. However I would like to continue using my comcast e-mail addy? Can I do this if I switch from comcast? I might go with the AT&T deal but I want to keep my comcast email addy.

[a02001]

The one thing that may or may not be important- Once you get FIOS, you will not be able to get a wired phone connection to your house. They refuse to let you have both a wire connection and a fiber-optic line. That may or may not be a problem. Since most have cell phones. Back about a decade ago, Verizon was told it had to share its wired infrastructure with its competitors. It does not have to share the fiber-optic network.
Also, a friend of mine has it and it is hooked up to a GFI outlet in the garage, every time it rains, she has to reset the outlet to get her internet/tv back as the fios box, trips the gfi.

[Vision]

I have fios tv, phone, internet. I really like them except for one issue, if not daily, then every other day the tv picture will occasionally freeze or pixelate. It happens on both tv's and both boxes. I tried to call verizon about it but this recent strike made it impossible to talk to anyone.

[cyclotic]

I had Verizon DSL for phone and Internet, no TV. THey kept buggin gme to change to FIOS. I finally did, just to get them off my back. The bills are rarely consistent, to the point where I called the other day and told them I wanted the DSL back. They’ve been billing me $5.00 a month for 3-way calling. Since I never use that, I wanted it removed. We’ll see if they do...this time.

I don’t notice any significant performance difference. Stick with the DSL.

[Vinnie]

then every other day the tv picture will occasionally freeze or pixelate.

We have u-Verse and get the same.
Remember 'snow'/interference in TVs past?
Freezing and pixelation are the digital equivalent.

[N. Theknow]

I’m still confused on whether I will HAVE to have two boxes or if I can just use an adapter on the upstairs tv like I do on Comcast?

You will need a box for each TV set no matter where it is in the house.

One DVR can interface with each set top box and give you whole house coverage of things you record. It will also allow you to pause/replay live TV on that DVR/TV set only. "On Demand" allows you to pause, replay and fast forward from any set top box in the house on any TV.

However, you have access to just about every show imaginable "On Demand" from any box in the house, so recording is not done as much, as it is redundant. Sports are the most recorded programs in our house.

5 years with FIOS for phone, internet and TV.

Not one single outage during that time for any of the services.

I am in a Central Florida location.

[Sparky1776]

I had the same set up - Verizon DSL & Comcast Cable (which was totally unreliable) and made the change about two years ago with a $99 / mo deal.

Haven’t regretted it one bit - FIOS is much faster than my DSL was - they brought fiber to the house and just reconnected the Cat 5E cables I had already installed.

Dropping Comcast saved us about $125.00 a month intially but the FIOS package has crept up to about $175 / mo total but we’re still saving money overall.

We did lose FIOS during Irene because the router requires 120 volts.

[kingu]

I have comcast and thinking about switching services. However I would like to continue using my comcast e-mail addy? Can I do this if I switch from comcast? I might go with the AT&T deal but I want to keep my comcast email addy.

Reps will tell you that your Comcast email will be active for 30 days after your service is terminated - in most regions, it actually terminates within minutes of the account closure.

[kingu]

Depending on how techie you are, or your friends are, you might try borrowing enough cat 5e networking cable to go from the FIOS box to the back of your tv box and see if this solves the problem. After the horrid install FIOS did for my mother, this was what we ended up running. It would take a while for a disused channel to show up before, after it was instant change to any channel, and the freezing went away once the coax was out of the way. I understand some Verizon boxes only have coax, but most have network adapters as well as coax.

[PJ-Comix]

That sucks. Years ago I canceled my comcast cable for just two weeks. Two weeks later I signed up again with a new customer package that gave me FREE cable for 3 months and really cheap cable for the rest of the year.

[thethirddegree]

I don’t have FIOS but I do have Verizon DSL—and our area just suffered a five day outage—no internet for five days.

[TaxPayer2000]

Here's my alarm system, whom should I call? And Why?

Those are fine weapons for your own protection while you are home. They will not help in case of fire when you are away.

Many homes have smoke detectors connected to their monitored alarm system. Many of them are dependent on the landline phone to send a signal to the alarm company.