Posted on 09/03/2011 11:49:45 PM PDT by 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!
FIOS absolutely rocks. We don’t do their tv but if it works for you, it’s a great deal for a year. They don’t have all the sports channels my guys need. But the speedy internet cannot be beat. We do have their phone service too, which we barely use, but feel we still need for emergencies or little kids who don’t have cell phones.
Box is required for each tv. Honestly, the worst my Mother had to deal with for FIOS was a really bad installation. Cables literally stapled to the wall from the FIOS box to her computer and TVs.
Service was fine, her connection was slower than my cablemodem but it didn’t make much difference to her.
Myself, I use a magicjack with wireless handset (20 a year), Earthlink cablemodem served by Time Warner and I’ve got a dual tuner HD Homerun that decodes the QAM (unencoded digital tv) from the same cable line.. Total cost $45 a month.
My SIL in FL has fios and has nothing but good things to say about it.
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.
So it wont work like Comcast where you get basic feed throughout the house but need a box for all the channels?
I have an alarm system but it is no longer connected to the phone system.
I live in a pretty secluded environment with great neighbors and if the alarm goes off .. Everyone for a half mile will hear it. 8)
Comcast in my area has gone digital...all TV’s must have an “digital adapter” or cable box now...no more “basic” (ch. 1-99) on just the coax anymore (in Comcast/Infinity “upgraded” areas). AT&T U-Verse (& Fios?) can use existing coax (your leftover cable TV coax) as an Ethernet network to distribute IP TV signals to each TV and box. Or they can use Cat 5/6 cable (best). Each install will vary in quality due to the installer...I told mine to “go away” after he tried an “all coax” install (poor “home run” signal quality) and ran my own (neat) Cat 5e cable “home run” to the “NID” (phone box on the side of the house).
We have Fios for phone, TV and Internet. The internet isnt lightening fast but it works. As new hd channels are added we seem to lose them to new addon packages for more money but they have quite a few in the basic package. My review is mixed but so far Fios does work.
Customer service has been fine and it isn’t worth changing right now to save the few dollars we would save. If we continue to lose channels we will change service providers.
Yeah .. I have that ‘adapter’ device on my upstairs tv.
It connects to the cable out coming from the wall and ‘de-scrambles’ the signal but there is still the basic feed that I had before it went digital.
Will it be similar with fios?
I am no Verizon Fios expert (I live in an AT&T U-Verse area), but I think they need an “IP TV adapter” (”cable box”) at each TV, and my current AT&T U-Verse ones are about twice as big as my old Comcast/Xfinity “Digital TV Adapters”(DTA’s).
Both FIOS(fiber to home) and AT&T U-Verse are quite different animals from traditional cable TV...U-Verse (”Fiber-to-Node” version, not sure on the FIOS “Fiber-to-Home” version) is basically “Super-Duper DSL” (50 meg bandwidth or so) that delivers TV AND Internet on twisted pair copper for the last 3500 feet or less (fiber-to-node/VRAD) or in brand-new subdivisions it is “Fiber-to-Home” for AT&T also.
bump
Thanks!
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 need to ask Verizon regarding some of your questions, such as downstairs and upstairs boxes, etc. They should be able to run the cables the same place where you have your Comcast cable run. I recommend you call up not just their sales department, but also their tech support, hopefully they’ll talk to you.
For FIOS you have to use two boxes. One is your main with Digital Video Recorder, etc. The second box feeds the other tv. If the house isn’t pre-wired with cable in the walls they’ll have to wire it.
Sounds like you’re getting a good deal. In FL the same package runs 100 per month.
A good friend of mine dropped that same type of service for FiOS and when I told him I wanted to do the same he said to not do it. He liked the DirectTV service, packages, and other amenities better and was disappointed in the FiOS TV.
I got that same package (Phone, TV, and Internet)when FIOS first landed two or three years ago. Installation was no problem with only one cable needing to be run. As someone else said, it rocks on the Internet side, TV is weak to ok depending on your choice of channels, and the phone is good with no long distance in the lower 48. One STB(Set Top Box) per tv, but you have several flavors to choose from. Way better then Comcast, and cheaper too. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
FIOS generally runs fiber to the box at your house. From there they can use Cat 5 or COAX. The usually use COAX for their modem. This allows you to split into the existing COAX in your house. You can get basic channels without a box provided you have a HD TV but there is no analog signal on the FIOS COAX unlike the cable company.
Yes, all the channels (even the “basic service” channels) are encrypted. Therefore, you need some variety of cable box per TV. You can get boxes pretty cheap...and they do support cablecards if you have a TV so equipped, but they will try to talk you into getting the HD boxes and DVR boxes, and those come with a fairly hefty monthly pricetag.
The ONE BAD THING about FIOS is that you need to have electrical service up and running for it to work. They provide a battery backup, but it only lasts for 6-8 hours. If you have a hurricane, tornado, ice storm, etc., that causes an extended power outage, you will be without home telephone once that battery backup dies (unless, of course, you have a generator and power that battery backup from it). (Of course, that includes loss of cable TV and Internet access, as well...but we’re all used to having phones even if the power dies)
That is not a reason to do without FIOS, but if you need a phone for some mission-critical reason (medical, security, or whatever) and are in an area subject to losing power, you need to plan ahead for what to do if and when you lose electricity for a long period of time.
The others are absolutely right, though, as far as the quality of service. Blazing fast Internet, high quality TV pictures, noise-free phones (with, by the way, nationwide no long distance charges), and so on. I consider it to be well worth it. But don’t forget the downside above.
I have FIOS, we were one of the first neighborhoods to get it in my area. I’ve had relatively few problems and connection speeds walk all over DSL.
I would not ever consider Comcast...their CEO is an 0bama bedfellow, hosted a 10-35k plate dinner for him here in Philly a couple of months ago. I vote with my wallet every chance I get. Goes for GE, GM, Comcast, Hollywood...even Google (use BING)
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