My Comcast/Verizon to Verizon FIOS Triple Play Flip Experience ...
Verizon's FIOS FTTH service is occasionally discussed here and several of our board participants now use the service. Others might benefit from my experience making the flip from Comcast cable service to Verizon FIOS.
I have been a 22 year very satisfied user of both Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic here) and Comcast at my current Delaware residence with attached office near the UD campus and I've been waiting for FIOS FTTH since Verizon announced their national rollout plans several years ago. Verizon did a FIOS truck roll in my neighborhood last September. They commenced FIOS phone and Internet service last November without TV although local approval for that service had been obtained. FIOS TV went live here in my hood about two weeks ago.
Prior to replacing Comcast for SDTV//HDTV and BB cable Internet service I was paying Comcast $142 per month and I was paying Verizon $44 per month for single line landline phone service with unlimited local/LD service (billed with my Verizon Wireless mobile service) — $186 before taxes and surcharges. I am now paying $146 for virtually identical services broken down as follows ...
$99.99¹ FIOS Triple Play: 5/2 kbps Internet, SDTV/HDTV, 1 Phone Line with unlimited local/LD)
$29.97 3 Set Top Boxes: 1 HDTV/DVR (multi-room) STB, 2 SDTV STBs
$15.99 Premium Movie/Sports Combo: 45 additional movie and 15 additional sports channels
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$145.95
¹ Includes wireless router for multiple wired or unwired PC connections.
In addition to saving $40 per month what I now get from Verizon that I didn't get from Comcast ...
• Multi-Room DVR: Very convenient and easy to use. Shows recorded on the Motorola 6416 HDTV//STB with DVR are available for playback at the Motorola 2500 STBs connected to SDTV TVs. The Home Media STB option with multi-room capability for the FIOS HDTV/TV DVR is $19.99, as compared to $12.99 for the stand-alone DVR STB.
• Actiontec MI-424-WR wireless router replacing my owned single output cable modem and my owned Asante 4 port wired router. It's a superb and versatile box designed specifically for Verizon. It saved me the cost of a new wireless router I was planning on purchasing. More on the router here ...
actiontec.com
• Upwards of 100 additional digital TV channels including multiple Starz, Showtime, The Movie Channels, (as well as Encore which were in my Comcast package). Also extra sports channels.
• Phone Service (now available from Comcast).
• One single bill replacing two and including my mobile wireless service.
What I gave up ...
• My former email addresses at comcast.net replaced by similar at verizon.net
• CN8 (Comcast Network Philadelphia) which hosted some of my wife's favorite culinary shows featuring local chefs. Fortunately I get Comcast Sportsnet -- both the Philadelphia and Middle Atlantic (Baltimore/DC) versions which are my most frequently watched channels.
From Contact to Install and Use...
A Verizon contract canvasser knocked on my door at 6 PM one week ago Monday evening to let me know that FIOS TV was now available in my neighborhood and to announce the $99.99 triple play introductory promotion. She put me down for a follow-up callback for Thursday. In the interim I reviewed the Verizon web site for detail on the FIOS offering to decide what options I would use. Thursday afternoon my canvasser called me back as scheduled. I had some questions she couldn't answer and she had her manager call me at 8PM that evening. We discussed some service and install details and after they were answered satisfactorily he conferenced in a Verizon representative who answered more questions and I contracted for service (2 year contract with price protection for that period). She scheduled my install for Monday morning.
On Sunday afternoon, 3 days later, a Verizon tech arrived (unexpectedly) and spent several hours installing fiber from the pole in my neighbors back yard to my house without disrupting the existing copper line and testing output, essentially readying the fiber input for the tech due Monday morning and eliminating the heavy lifting.
My FIOS installer arrived at 9:30 Monday morning, unaware but pleasantly surprised that there was already FIOS service to the back of the house that she expected she would have to install. She proceeded to methodically make the install starting with the installation and testing of the ONT (Optical Network Terminal), OPSU (ONT Power Supply), and Battery Backup Unit (BBU) on the interior basement wall beside my existing cable and copper wire entry and associated boxes and panels after drilling through the foundation to feed in the fiber the tech had made ready the prior day.
By 1:00 PM she had tested all Comcast installed digital coax connections between the ONT and my office located diagonally across the house from point of entry and installed the wireless router in place of my cable modem beside my primary PC. She then instructed me through initial connection to verizon.net where we initiated a software download to complete the installation. Before leaving for lunch she brought in the STBs and installed them. She then left for lunch while they were downloading.
While she was at lunch using ethernet I connected a 2nd PC in my office to the new router and set up new verizon.net e-mail addresses and ran some speed tests from multiple sources. All consistently came in very close to the expected 5,000 kbps downlink and 2,000 kbps uplink.
After lunch, after connecting the STBs to the TV's and/or receivers and checking them out she instructed me in the use of Verizon specific features on the remote controls. I pointed out that SDTV reception on our DLP powered Samsung HDTV was somewhat fuzzy compared to what I'd experienced on Comcast. We switched back and forth between composite cable and HDMI Input from the STB with no perceptible improvement. She called in another tech (formerly Comcast) that was in the neighborhood to deal with that and she moved on to cutting over phone service. Her partner made some quick adjustments using the setup menu on the STB controlling the HDTV and we immediately had exceptional SDTV and HDTV input.
She and he finished up at 5 PM on the nose with all services active. It was a relatively painless and easy install because both the interior BA/Verizon copper and Comcast digital coax were squeaky clean. Nothing needed to be added or replaced. During install I was without BB service for 5 minutes, and without phone service for perhaps 10. While I won't be doing so I could cut back to Comcast or another wireline provider tomorrow (during the 30 day trial period) or after my contract term since nothing was disrupted from a wiring perspective with the new install. An early termination of all services would result in a $398 termination fee ($149 for phone, $149 for Internet and TV). Seasonal residents can suspend and resume services for relatively modest fees.
Conclusion(s) ...
Thumbs up to Verizon. Comcast has been great: good techs; good service with few interruptions; fine ISP with a robust mail server. Over the years since I've used them here they've upgraded TV service from analog to digital, rewired our home without my asking (as a result of remote line testing) and added broadband internet service. They've upgraded downlink/upgrade speeds twice since initially installed. Verizon residential ADSL which arrived here at about the same time was not competitive with Comcast cable Internet service and FIOS is being installed in this state and neighboring states where DSL didn't go because of distance limitations from the central office.
Verizon should push them to be more competitive in the future which is a healthy state of affairs. I'm sure they are scrambling to match pricing already, but price aside, their offering is not as up to date as Verizon FIOS. Recently retired, the wife and I plan to downsize down state to an active adult community in a few years, and the availability of FIOS will likely be a decision factor in our new home purchase. On a related subject the following clip from the Baller Herbst List (5-10-07 NATIONAL BROADBAND) was just posted by Frank Coluccio on his SI Technology Forum ...
"Homes that have fiber to the home (FTTH) are already perceived to have a higher value... That value is rising. Add $5,000 to the price if it has FTTH. Add $7,000 in 2008. In a couple years, it will be: “You don't have FTTH? Here is an offer for $20,000 less.” Worse, it could be: “Sorry. We're just not interested at any price.”
Message 23533116
I had very good SDTV and HDTV reception with Comcast. I have perceptibly improved reception on both with FIOS. Very good becomes close to excellent. Probably excellent if I have the widescreen Samsung HDTV professionally calibrated which I'm tempted to do.
TV Channels are more logically grouped and more plentiful with FIOS TV as opposed to Comcast. The Multi-Room DVR with Media manager is worth every penny of the $7/mo adder. It's much more user friendly than my high end Toshiba DVD player and DVR recorder that I have never completely mastered and would never attempt to try to teach my wife to operate. With minimal instruction she's mastered the Verizon mult-room DVR. Unsubscribed, unused or infrequently channels can easily be removed from the TV guide listing or added back simplifying channel surfing. That may have been available on Comcast but I don't think it was. Favorites are easily set up and modified. The (included in base price) multi-technology Actiontec router is a real winner.
I don't experience any major perceptible difference between Verizon FIOS and Comcast broadband connectivity although I think FIOS connects more consistently through peak periods in this college town at its rated speeds than Comcast cable.
Phone service is as good as always. It may be better in summer humidity since we live in a squirrel infested wooded neighborhood where the squirrels fabric snack is the fabric cover on Verizon copper, and when it's humid the copper wires sing generating noise on internal phones.
Sorry to go on so long, but hopefully some will find some portions of this post helpful when considering telephony and multimedia entertainment services.
Best to all considering FIOS or its alternatives,
- Eric |
