Holy megabits, Batman!! FiOS install

[Curt Harms]

We've been getting besieged by FiOS marketing literature and have been happy with what we had--DirecTV, Verizon high speed internet (DSL) and local calling. We used a VoIP provider for long distance. Vz FiOS finally came up with an offer that was too good to pass up. I also think they might be getting ready to unload the copper infrastructure like they've done in New England. Some people have had less than perfect experience with Frontier, who bought some of the New England plant and has started sending us marketing stuff.

I don't see any way anybody is going to improve on DirecTV's HD picture, it's outstanding. FiOS is equal to or nearly so. It seems the colors are a bit more flat than DirecTV on a good Sony 46" LCD TV. I am now getting PBS create which is not available on DirecTV AFAIK but for the most part the TV service is a wash.

The internet service on the other hand--
DSL (exellent reliability. We live less than a mile from the CO which helps)
163811

FiOS
163812

This is the middle package, 25Mb up and down. The lower package would have worked for me internet-wise but there were TV channels we wanted that were only offered in the middle package, the "extreme" package. Next one up was the "Ultimate" package. Who comes up with these names?:rolleyes: DSL took about 40-45 minutes to download 687 MB. FiOS took 7. Ping speeds seem to run in the mid 20s.

I'm still holding my breath that the bills match what we were promised. The installers were excellent. We'll see how service is after the sale.

[Bruce Page]

Those are impressive numbers. I just ran the test: 4.92 Mb/s down, 4.31 Mb/s up, and 59 ms Ping with Comcast. Of course FiOS probably won’t make it to New Mexico anytime this decade.

[Dan Hintz]

I'm still holding my breath that the bills match what we were promised.
<chuckle> It took me over a year (no kidding) to finally get them to charge us correctly... I finally sent all of my paperwork to the state attorney general office and CC'd Verizon and the BBB on it all. Things got straightened out pretty fast after that. When it came time for the 2-yr contract to be up, they jumped the rates significantly, so that's when the negotiation started. I pointed to their extremely poor charge record over the previous year and a half, told them no way I was going to see a rate increase after that, and ended up convincing them to charge me less. That lasted a year, then they slowly started creeping the charges up again... I still think we're paying less than usual, though...

[Jim Becker]

Curt, I had my FiOS install on the 27th--after waiting four years for it, largely due to the township screwing around initially with unreasonable demands for the video franchise. The HD PQ is noticeably better than the DTV it replaced and DTV was darn good. (When it wasn't storming...) I'm also extremely satisfied with the 25/25 Internet that I chose and am getting between 29 and 34 down and 24 up. (VZ is adding "fluff" to speeds these days, so the download speed is better than what is being paid for.

Bruce, unless things change, you'll never see VZ FiOS in your geography because they are not the local wireline carrier. With some minor exceptions of overlay with ATT in the Dallas area and in CA, there are not and will not be any build-outs in areas that VZ doesn't currently service. And other providers seem to be staying away from bringing fiber directly to the premise like VZ has done. Of course, VZ has also stopped building out "new" areas until they get larger up-take in those they have already built out and have TV franchise agreements in place.

[Matt Meiser]

And Verizon's footprint is much smaller now that they've dumped a lot of us off on Frontier. Interestingly, Frontier got some Fios areas and plan to expand Fios. All according to some folks I've talked to at Frontier after a summer of letter writing to try to get something done for wired broadband in my area. But from the sound of it we'll be getting cable in 12-18 months and Frontier won't have gotten DSL to us by then so they'll lose me as a customer forever unless they do Fios. The cable company does a 30 meg package as well and at their current rates would cut my bills DirecTV, 2 phone lines, commercial 3G internet) by around $250/mo (yes, really!)

Verizon is also talking big on LTE and it really sounds like they fully intend to blanket the country in LTE over the next 2 years, using partnerships with local providers to get into areas they don't currently server with 3G. And they are talking a lot about LTE as THE solution for rural broadband. Unfortunately the LTE launch for Detroit is delayed due to the fact that the signals won't obey international boundries and are interfering with something in Canada. There are some allegedly leaked speed test results for LTE that show numbers like you are getting on Fios. If they can pull that off, that could change everything.

I'm not sure what AT&T is up to but my township supervisor told me AT&T talked to him about 2 years ago about filing as a CLEC for our exchange, and bringing their fiber-to-the-neighborhood solution to our township so it sounds like they do or at least did have their eyes on some expansion. And of course they intend to launch LTE next year.

[Curt Harms]

Curt, I had my FiOS install on the 27th--after waiting four years for it, largely due to the township screwing around initially with unreasonable demands for the video franchise. The HD PQ is noticeably better than the DTV it replaced and DTV was darn good. (When it wasn't storming...) I'm also extremely satisfied with the 25/25 Internet that I chose and am getting between 29 and 34 down and 24 up. (VZ is adding "fluff" to speeds these days, so the download speed is better than what is being paid for.
...........

Jim I knew you were getting there... we sat on 413 near your house waiting on a Verizon crew a month or two ago. Subsequent tests have come in lower but I seem to run around 17-20 down and usually a bit less- 14-18 up. It's hard to tell how much credence to place in those speed tests, they might have been designed by the same people that rate shop vac motors :p. I imagine the truest indicator of speed will be how long it takes to move large files which I don't do much of.

[Brian Cover]

Those are impressive numbers. I just ran the test: 4.92 Mb/s down, 4.31 Mb/s up, and 59 ms Ping with Comcast. Of course FiOS probably won’t make it to New Mexico anytime this century.

Fixed your typo for you
:p

[Bruce Page]

fixed your typo for you
:p

.......lol....!

[Dennis Peacock]

All this looks really good....but I'm still on 2 tin cans and some string. :p :D

[Curt Harms]

All this looks really good....but I'm still on 2 tin cans and some string. :p :D

:) Sorry to hear that, Dennis. Maybe if you upgraded the string..... :D :D.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I had FiOS for about a year and, although the price has not gone up (yet), I've noticed that they keep chopping channels off my package. Some of those channels I liked.

As far as internet speed, I think that service speed is no longer the limiting factor. Rather, I'm thinking the weak link is now the server at the pitching end. A good example is YouTube on a Saturday night.

-Jeff :)

[Jim Becker]

Jeff, you're absolutely correct that the far end (and other internetworks) have a more significant impact on performance once one is using access speeds at 25-35mbs as are available with FiOS. (And that's not shared, per se, in the neighborhood like cable modem service--you actually get what you are signed up for outside when there is a network fault)

YouTube has been somewhat less reliable these days and it's more noticeable on faster networks. There has been a bunch of discussion about that "out there".

[Phil Thien]

(And that's not shared, per se, in the neighborhood like cable modem service--you actually get what you are signed up for outside when there is a network fault)


Well yeah but, once they have approx. 1300 customers signed up they're capable of saturating an OC-768 (about 40Gbps).

[Brian Elfert]

Well yeah but, once they have approx. 1300 customers signed up they're capable of saturating an OC-768 (about 40Gbps).

You're assuming that all 1,300 customers would be using their full bandwidth at the same time. This is highly unlikely as most customers don't/can't use their full bandwidth. Also, a lot of customers have lives besides the Internet so they are likely to be away from their computers more often than not.

I use the Internet a lot and get by just fine with a 1.5 megabit connection. FIOS is not an option here, but Comcast has faster connections if I wished to switch.

[Phil Thien]

You're assuming that all 1,300 customers would be using their full bandwidth at the same time. This is highly unlikely as most customers don't/can't use their full bandwidth. Also, a lot of customers have lives besides the Internet so they are likely to be away from their computers more often than not.

I use the Internet a lot and get by just fine with a 1.5 megabit connection. FIOS is not an option here, but Comcast has faster connections if I wished to switch.

Well yeah but you're assuming they're only going to sign up 1300 customers.

Just saying those OC-768's don't go as far as they used to. :D

[Joe Mioux]

and i remember the "good ol' days" (back in the 1980's) when I was working with computers and making pc's (XT's and AT's and those suitcase Compaq's) talk to each at 300 baud.... 1200 baud was burnin' fast. :rolleyes:

[Jim Becker]

So I called VZ today to get a technical adjustment made...the message waiting indication wasn't working on voice mail since the switchover to FiOS and it was driving Professor Dr. SWMBO nuts. (Me, too) Dude gets that straightened out in a few minutes and asks if he can help me out with anything else. I said not really, although I was curious about why the RDF-TV was listed in the base level (Premier HD) and the highest level (Ultimate HD), but not available in the mid-tier plan (Extreme HD) that I had. He said, hang on, he'd check it out and see if there was a solution. RFD-TV happens to carry a bunch of equestrian programming I'd like to record and watch when time allows.

About a minute later, he came back on and said he had a fix. He offered to upgrade me to the Ultimate tier at no extra charge for a year. I asked what the financial implications would be at the end of the year and it was $15/mo. No biggie, so I said, great!

Now I figured he was just upgrading my TV plan. About a half-hour later, a confirmation email arrives. Dude upgraded the whole package...my 25/25 Internet also goes up to 35/35 along with the Ultimate HD on the TV side. LOL All this to just get me one little off-the-wall SD station. Gotta love bundles :) Thanks, Verizon!

[John Shuk]

35/35 kicks butt!

[Jim Becker]

35/35 kicks butt!

Yup...I got my upgrade from 25/25 to 35/35 yesterday, John...very pleased. Several years wait to get FiOS was painful, but I'm a happy camper now that it's here. Just put the iPhone STB remote app in service tonight, too...easier to use than the regular remote for many things! LOL

[John Shuk]

Glad you finally got the service. I wish I could but I don't see it happening anytime soon.