I have been drooling over FIOS for years now and it has finally come to my neighborhood. How did I know? The workers digging up sidewalks and lawns a few months ago, as well as the gigantic spools of orange fiber optic cable. Here's how it worked.
Came home from work one day and a notice from Verizon hung on the front door. FIOS is coming! There was a telephone number to call with any questions or concerns. A few weeks later, utility locate had been in the neighborhood. Spray painted lines of various colors appeared on the sidewalks and in the yards. Small flags poked up in certain locations. Then trucks with workers, many from out of state, were in the neighborhood. My wife was home when they arrived to our cul-de-sac and she warned the workers about a french drain that ended at the sidewalk in our yard. They said they would warn the others about it.
They dug right through the french drain anyway, placing one of the big boxes in the ground.
The crews that install the underground optic fiber happen to work for a different contractor than the contractor that does the repair work. I phoned and emailed the contact on the flyer to ensure that they were going to repair the french drain, giving very specific directions. The Verizon project manager responded very quickly to our concerns, forwarding the email onto the onsite project manager. There was some back and forth over clarifying request. Their first attempt failed miserably as they just placed sod in there. Finally, on their third visit, my wife was home and explained specifically how to replace the french drain to its previous condition and they finally got the repair right.
I was told by the Verizon project manager that the FIOS would be available in about two months. Over those two months, I had been logging into the Verizon website off and on to verify service but nothing. Finally a postcard arrived in the mail saying that FIOS was available. I went to the Verizon website, entered phone number and address, and it said it wasn't available. Then I logged into MyVerizon (already have Verizon land line and VWireless). From there, I checked for service and it said it was available. I did all of my ordering online. The Triple Play includes FIOS TV, internet, and telephone (voice over IP). I chose the Extreme HD package, HD DVR, and added the movie package (Encore, Starz, Showtime, TMC). I also chose the 20/5 internet. It added up to $140/month before taxes and fees. The DVR ($15.99) will be free for six months. With Comcast I was only getting internet and TV for the same cost. Our Verizon land line is about $55-$60 in addition. So FIOS This should save me about $30-$40/month plus we get extra movie channels, which is what we mostly watch. I chose an installation date and time. The online ordering all worked very smoothly.
Verizon sent me multiple email reminders and left a few telephone messages on our home phone about the installation date and time. They had utility locate done and buried a wire from the green box by the sidewalk up to the outside of my garage, where after work one day I noticed a loop of black cable.
I scheduled to work at home that day. I had heard nightmares about people waiting for Verizon to show and finding out it wasn't ready. I was going to be one of the first ones in my neighborhood, so I thought that could happen. I was scheduled for between 8 and 10, and told to allow 4 to 6 hours at least for the install. The tech called at 8:30 and arrived about 8:45. He was from Florida originally, working in the Redmond area now for the last 18 months. The installation included a battery backup unit for the phone, optical network terminal (ONT), a wired/wireless router/modem, and a Motorola HD DVR.
The battery backup unit
was installed in the garage next to an outlet. The tech needs to have an outlet free to keep this plugged into. Verizon will maintain the battery for the first year, then it becomes the homeowners responsibility. He said you can buy these batteries easily at Home Depot or similar store. This will provide up to 8 hours of phone service if power goes out. (warning - this does not power the phone if you're using cordless!). If you can power up your other devices with a generator, you can also watch TV and have internet for 8 hours. This took the tech about 10 minutes to mount and install.
The ONT
was mounted on the outside wall of the garage next to the electric meter. The tech noticed that all the utilities came into the house on the garage side EXCEPT Comcast, who had run their cable on the opposite side of the house! Anyway, this probably took an hour or so to install. He also had to string a cable through the garage to the main connect for the coax for the house.
The tech then set up the router/modem
, which is a single box. Comcast provided me with a modem and I had a Linksys router connected to a wired network. The Verizon box combines these into a single gadget. Their box connects both ethernet and wireless, which is sweet for us because our work laptops connect to the wireless and our home computers over ethernet. This means no new hardware for me and I can retire my old Linksys router.
The tech then connected the DVR
, which is all HDMI to my receiver and then passes through to my TV. He went to test signal strength but for some reason, he wasn't getting a signal. He wasn't even sure he was hooked up correctly into Comcast's convuluted installation. His troubleshooting revealed a bad splitter, which he replaced and then the signal came through bright and clear. He fed a CD to the one main computer, set up the router (you can name your wireless network anything you like, which he called "My wicked fios wireless network" - I since renamed). The admin screens are all pretty straightforward for the router. I was able to hook up immediately with my work laptop over the wireless and my desktop through ethernet. Speedtest.com confirmed speeds up to 20 mb download and 5 mb upload.
He got the TV up and running and the telephone. He showed me the various menus on the TV, HD channels, etc. The remote is a big honker
, but we just use a Harmony all in one, which works just as well and keeps my wife happy about having too many remotes. I didn't have to reprogram the remote because the Motorola box is the same one as Comcast's.
Total TIME! 2:15 was all! He was out of here by 11 a.m.
How is it all working?
I don't notice much difference with the internet (except when I uploaded these photos for my blog - yikes that was fast!). Gamers and others might. On occassion when I have a large file download, it's lightning fast. Otherwise, I don't see any difference there. I love the wired/wirelss router though, because now I can have my laptop anywhere in the house. Not any difference with the phone. At first, there was some noise on the phone (maybe interference from the wireless router?) but that seems to have abated.
The TV on the other hand is gorgeous. Especially the HD, both picture and sound. The standard definition channels seem a little bit better than Comcast, but with our 60 inch projection HD, not much in SD looks all that great. John Stewart is just as fuzzy as ever. The menus are very user friendly, clean, and sortable. You can easily use "modes" to look at only HD channels, only channels with movies or sports. There is a ton of HD selections on Video on Demand (as does Comcast), but it's not the herky jerky and shrill noisemaker of Comcast's On Demand. The fast forwarding, rewinding is crisp, unlike Comcast's, which you weren't often sure what would happen if you hit the jump forward or back. Here's some menu shots:
We like to watch a lot of films and the selection of HD movies on Encore, Starz, Showtime, and TMC is huge. For $15/month, this is a great deal. A lot of recent releases like 21, Dan in Real Life, The Other Bolelyn Girl, etc. And the SOUND! Did I mention the sound? Verizon's HD signal is uncompressed unlike Comcast's. The difference to me is most noticeable in the sound. You get FULL 5.1 and it shows when goosebumps hit the arms on There Will Be Blood.
By the way, when I called Comcast to cancel, they fed me the line about the fiber optic that is already in your neighbood. Which is both true and untrue, since they have to connect through coax, it is a chokepoint for their signal, which then they need to compress. They also offered me a discount, to add Starz, etc. This is great because it means that finally some competition means lower prices. I also noticed that in the last few months they have added a lot of HD channels.
It is a bummer to give up my comcast email address. Verizon has a service (True Switch) to make that switch easy, automatically forwarding email from your old address for 30 days. You can also use the same service to move over your contacts from your old email to new email. I had some issues with getting the other two computers to hook up at first to the new router, but a couple of reboots at both ends corrected that. I also manually set up my wife's Outlook to add her Verizon account, which had a couple of hiccups but now seems to be running smoothly.
Overalll this has been a great experience. The online ordering was easy, Verizon showed as promised, the few hiccups have been easily resolved without calls to tech support, the TV picture and sound is excellent, and I'm saving money in the process. This is pretty good considering that the tech told me that I was the first one in our neighborhood to get this installed.
I've heard others had issues with the billing, so I will see how that goes.
Important to note that Verizon requires a one year agreement and early termination fee is $180. You have 15 days to change your mind without paying a fee. So if you try it and don't like it, well, you can get it disconnected. There was no installation fee, so it would have been a no risk/no cost decision if we'd decided to stay with Comcast. I also asked what would the costs would go up to at the end of one year, and was told that they're likely to remain the same to remain competitive with Comcast. We'll see next year.
