Verizon Fios Install (Deterred)  

I recently noticed a major slowdown in our internet service with Comcast Cable. Comcast is known for throttling connections, (that is, slowing them down at their discretion), and capping their service, (that is, shutting your service down after reaching an internet usage limit they determine is too much). The problem of our internet slowing down is beginning to occur more frequently in our service and not just during peak times as it used to. It may be that Comcast intends to force us to another tier level of speed hoping we will bite the bit to purchase more. More likely, Comcast may be falling on hard times and, like everyone else, unable or unwilling to spend money to increase it's capabilities, and thus driving people away from it's service by using these techniques. Verizon is what they are driving people to and in fact, if this is their policy, it will be the primary reason for any future demise of it's company. It is one thing to irritate your customers by poor service and high demands, but when you have such a vehement and strong opposition as Verizon who has no bandwidth restrictions or capping of their service along with a few higher megabytes per second more speed at an apparent lower cost, then how can a customer resist the switch? Well, I recently did resist that switch even after them coming out twice to paint lines in my yard and driveway to prepare for it.

This week I got fed up with Comcast's games and set the ball rolling to switch to Verizon. Over the next few days I canceled the request and stayed with my current phone plan only, which Verizon quite reasonably and in a very friendly manor agreed to. They of course don't really need my meager business and probably know eventually they will have me anyway since Comcast's service, at least for me, is getting so bad. For now, however, I am sticking with Comcast and gritting my teeth to bare it. Here are my reasons why,

You must use their equipment- You must agree to use their crappy modem/router combination. I had talked to a few people who have already had Verizon's service installed and their response was “ho-hum.” Yes, they did get improvements in speed, but compared to Comcast, overall it wasn't that much better. Yes, they could go with Verizon's $200.00 plan and get the bombastic speed, but they couldn't afford it just like I can't, so low cost bit for bit compared to what they previously had, it wasn't that great. The downer is, Verizon's router is weak and barely reached a coverage area they wanted, and they couldn't “legally” make the switch to one of their own because of Verizon's contract.

This was the major sticking point for me and put the final nail in the coffin to decide not to use Verizon's service. I wanted my own router. I liked my router with it's high power antenna that could reach the farthest room in our house and pass through walls with a “single heroic bound.” Besides this, I was planning on updating it and current routers have hard drive attachments and bluetooth capabilities the Verizon router would not have or allow me to implement. Besides this, their router has software that allows them to keep track of what passes through it. They say they will only use this information to aid them in diagnosing a problem with your services when they are down. Who knows whether they will cross that line whenever they want. Granted, any internet service can do this, but it somehow bothered me that they not only admitted to it but demanded they have the right to do it by waiving my rights.

Yes, there are ways that violate your contract with them to circumvent these things; ways I did not feel comfortable with. Maybe you do, but until they force me to accept these services by default or change their policy in this regard and allow me to privately use my own router by contract, I will not be switching.

It required an extra battery backup be installed in our house- When you update to “fios” they must install a battery backup for it. Unlike regular hard-wire phone service which is powered by the phone company, fios is not, and needs a battery backup to prevent the telephone part of the service from failing due to a power outage. Guess who pays for the extra electricity to power that thing? You do.

The phone service with fios is voip (voice over internet)- That is, it is an internet phone service like skype. I already use voip with skype at only $36.00 a year for our long distance service. Why should I pay verizon a premium per month for that same type of service? If the power goes out, estimates of backup time with the fios phone is 4-8 hours. What if you need the phone for emergencies during a natural disaster like a hurricane which could last a couple of days or more? With a hard line the phone stays on as long as the lines aren't down even if the power goes out, (like with our last hurricane, Irene).

If you have fios installed they will want to take away your old lines and you won't be able to convert back- Yes, you can currently request that they don't do this, and Verizon has complied, but if you are not there when the work is done, then they will do it anyway. This also removes the ability to switch to another phone company because Verizon has exclusive rights to it's fiber optic network and doesn't have to allow another service provider to use it, (such as sprint or some of the others). You will not be able to compete dollar for dollar with Verizon's rates of service. This may not mean much to most people, but I somehow don't like the disadvantage of Verizon owning the market.

If the power goes out, you lose your internet- Yes, that's right. All data systems shut down except for your phone so as to conserve power. With standard cable, unless their lines are also affected, you will still have service. In all the instances where we lost power in our house we still had cable internet service working. Even if the phone was out because of a storm we still had voip phone with skype so we could call out.

Yes, overall Verizon has great services and are basically putting everyone else out of business, but for me, the loss didn't outweigh the gain.

Taxes and fees for fios service is high- Last of all, the promotion package, which runs out in a year, is highly taxed. One person stated they purchased the $99.00 bundle but were paying $150.00 with taxes, fees, etc. I do not know if this is true, but Comcast cable is not taxed, (at least not on their bill in our area), and the $59.00 I pay is a straight 59.00 fee with not other costs. If I wanted, I could stick with using skype for call anywhere in America which only cost me $36.00 a year and get rid of Verizon phone all together.

Is Verizon service worth it? For me it wasn't, and maybe your experience is different. I understand Verizon Television is better than the promoted Comcast "Xfinity" service, but we don't have television with our cable and that was our choice. Yours may be different.