VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Mike Harrison

If anyone has dropped their cable TV/internet provider and switched to Verizon FiOS, can you please share any pros and cons about the service offerings alone, and/or horror stories on just dealing with Verizon?

I watch extremely little TV and until a la carté TV is available, I'm in limbo trying to decide whether to drop it altogether.

Any alternative suggestions are most welcome, of course.

Many thanks!
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Mike
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bobsouer · Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2015 7:27 pm Post subject:

Mike,

We didn't do exactly what you describe, but maybe our story will be helpful. First, when we moved from Charlotte to Pittsburgh we switched from cable (Time Warner) to FiOS. Our experience with Verizon has been wonderful.

However, about 18 months ago we decided to try to cut back on the amount we're paying every month to Verizon so we picked up a Silicon Dust HomeRun Pro cable card tuner and returned our DVR boxes to Verizon. We now pay about $40 per month. use one of the computers connected to our network (running Windows Media Center) as our DVR and since we all ready had 2 Xbox 360 units (one mine, one my son's) we use those to deliver live and recorded programming to our televisions upstairs and in the man cave in the basement.

It works great!
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Don G. · King's Row Joined: 11 Nov 2004 Posts: 1071 Location: MA

We went from Comcast to FiOS about a year and a half ago. To be truthful we never really had any complaints per se, with Comcast. But for once we had an option and we could save about $20/ mo. by switching, so we did. No regrets. Can't really say whether it's any better or worse, other than the $$ savings. Not sure what I'll do in a few months when our promotional rate jumps back up.

Frankly, if it were up to me I'd dump it all and put an antenna on the roof for the little TV I watch. But my wife and daughter would kill me. Besides it would probably cost as much just for high-speed internet as it would for a package, so I don't know.

georgethetech · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 2:45 pm Post subject:

FiOS is what runs my business, and EWABS. ROCK SOLID.
Fair pricing. Would pick it over cable anywhere possible.
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richvoice · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 6:59 pm Post subject:

We dropped satellite years ago in favor of nothing, and I'm still thrilled with the decision. We watch whatever Netflix has that we're interested in (they don't have half of what we look for, at least, but there's enough other stuff, and they have a lot of interesting documentaries), a couple of networks that we get over the air, and an occasional rental from iTunes.

If we had satellite or cable, I'd simply waste more of my time watching it.

The only drawback for a voice actor is not having many commercials to listen to!
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Lee Gordon · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 1:16 am Post subject:

If you get Fios, you have to watch AT&T like hawks to make sure they don't rip out your copper in the process of installing your fiber optics. If they do, your ISDN could disappear even quicker than it otherwise might.
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Mike Harrison · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 6:53 am Post subject:

Thank you all for your great feedback!

Bob: I have to wonder: if you're paying Verizon only $40 per month for FiOS, are you getting both TV and internet, and is that rate still a promo rate?

Don: What the promo rate will change to is also my concern, and I'd be happy if I could simply use a digital antenna, too.

George: Right to the point and exactly what I needed to hear from a tech perspective.

Rich: I've considered several times doing exactly what you did, but would have the same concern: the inability to see/hear commercials.

Lee: I can't believe I'm uttering these words, but thank goodness my FiOS provider would be Verizon, which currently provides my trusty copper landline phone and ISDN service. Even still, I rent this condo so, even if it was AT&T, I would hope that removing any kind of existing facilities would not be allowed. (But, then, since when do big corporations follow rules?)

Thanks again, guys. I think I'm about ready to give FiOS a try. At this point, I'm tired of dealing with Cablevision... and I think their use of the word "optimum" to describe their offerings and customer service is quite insulting.
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Lee Gordon · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 12:17 pm Post subject:

Mike Harrison · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 12:54 pm Post subject:

Hmmm... now I'm wondering. How extensive a job is it to install the fiber lines? If it involves cutting into walls, etc. village management may not allow it... or maybe, knowing the situation, Verizon may not even want to do it.

ISDN wasn't a problem because it simply uses the second (normally unused) pair of the copper bundle.
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
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richvoice · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:56 pm Post subject:

If they haven't installed the fiber optic cable already, are you sure it's an option?

And I think Lee's point is that once you tell your phone company that you're interested in fiber optic, when they go to hook you up they'll cut your copper connection, and not tell you. There are two reasons for this: 1) it's expensive for them to maintain the copper, and 2) once it's cut, they can only offer you (and whoever lives at that residence in the future) the alternative, which is (or likely will be in the future) more expensive.

Since you have ISDN lines, I would be VERY careful about not letting them cut/remove ANYthing if you switch to something else. To the point of insisting that you are onsite and physically watching everything they do when they do it. If they have orders to "cut the copper," I don't think it's all that likely that they would do it judiciously, they would probably just cut everything.

Leo Laporte has discussed this several times.
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Mike Harrison · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 5:17 pm Post subject:

Good points, Rich.

I am saying Verizon is offering FiOS in my area only because entering my zip code into their website returns a (naturally) enthusiastic "YES!" I live in an over-55 community but I don't know if anyone else on the property has switched to FiOS.

Especially good point about the ISDN. When I had it moved here from my previous residence five years ago, I discovered that fewer and fewer Verizon people even know what ISDN is; they asked if I was referring to DSL. So that – coupled with what you pointed out – raises the very good possibility that this could easily result in disaster.

Carl Sagan was right: we now live in a world extremely reliant on science and technology, but there are dwindling numbers of those who understand it well enough to keep it all from caving in on us. A low-scale example being the "time-saving and convenient" supermarket self-checkout terminals that are usually anything but time-saving and convenient.

And "cell phone quality" is an oxymoron. Dammit

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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

Lee Gordon · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:51 pm Post subject:

richvoice · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:44 pm Post subject:

Getting back to the OP, this just popped up on CNET: http://www.cnet.com/how-to/what-to-consider-before-canceling-cable-cutting-cord/?tag=nl.e497&s_cid=e497&ttag=e497&ftag=CAD5920658.

I have to say that in my case, all of the arguments against cutting the cord are non-starters:

1. There may not be one perfect alternative, but Netflix provides me with plenty of reasonable content for the one or two hours of TV I watch a day.
2. Since I don't feel compelled to get more than one alternative, one Netflix subscription is definitely cheaper than cable/satellite.
3. I couldn't care less about any professional sporting events (cycling was my only professional sports interest, and when Lance Armstrong finally came clean and I found I'd been duped, I threw that in the bin with all other professional sports), so live events don't matter.
4. No interest in saving stuff to watch later.
5. With only two of us in the house, the broadband speed we currently have (which isn't all that great at 6M or 7M) is plenty.
6. See #5.
7. If background TV is so important that you have a cable/satellite subscription for that reason alone... may I suggest taking a course in mindfulness meditation? It's appalling that we need to be bombarded with "content" 24/7.

Of course, YMMV. Different things are important to different people. (The one thing that might trump all of the topics in the article for most people here is the commercials!) But seriously, I don't regret losing the 400 channels of crap that are out there and getting my butt away from the TV one bit.
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Rich
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bobsouer · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:56 pm Post subject:

melissa eX · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 9:15 pm Post subject:

My fios was installed about 5 years ago in NJ - AFTER I had installed ISDN. I didn't take chances. I insisted on speaking to the tech before he came out. I told them not to do anything until I spoke to them and I watched like a hawk for the truck - I was going to plant myself right by the pole to make sure they didn't touch the copper. I still had/have a copper line in the house so maybe that helped. In any case they didn't touch the copper.

I just had ISDN installed in Manhattan. It was a breeze. While I was talking to the tech - who actually had never installed ISDN before but had instructions from his office on how to do so - he told me that as long as one person in a building has a copper line they're using, Verizon will not pull the copper. I'm not sure how true that is but I know Verizon had a PR problem a while back for not fixing copper that was damaged in Hurricane Sandy and instead putting people on alternate services over which Medical Alert services for the elderly and disabled can't function.