Verizon FiOS is the largest provider of Fiber to the Home technology in the United States. Verizon FiOS offers a fiber connection directly to a consumer’s home. This fiber connection enables Verizon FiOS to provide digital TV, broadband internet, and home phone service.
As of mid 2009, FiOS was available to 11 million residences and businesses in parts of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Washington DC.
The technology behind FiOS is different from that of traditional cable providers. As mentioned before FiOS service is delivered over a fiber optic connection which is capable of carrying much more information than a coaxial cable or twisted pair cable. Consequently Verizon FiOS is able to offer much more bandwidth than most DSL or cable internet providers.
Use the form below to share your experience regarding Verizon FiOS. Your review will help others understand what to expect with Verizon FiOS service.
I’ve had Verizon FiOS for over 2 years, I can honestly say that it is the best internet and tv service that I have ever had. Granted I have had issues with customer service and billing, but the FiOS service itself is the best of the best IMO.
Verizon FiOS pros:
-super fast and reliable internet
-more HD channels
-NO HD COMPRESSION, awesome picture quality
-more Video on Demand
-well-designed interactive guide
-multi-room DVR capabilities
-skip ahead button
-huge bundle discounts
Verizon FiOS cons:
-poor billing and customer service (tech support is great)
-DVR capacity is too small
-some hardware/firmware/compatibility issues with equipment (likely w/ any provider)
-regular pricing more expensive than most other providers
Just had fios installed last week. Verizon was supposed to show up between 8-12 and did not show up until 12:40. Install took the rest of the day. After getting setup the internet works great, very fast. Fios TV picture looks great, way better than cable. Kinda sucks that you need a box for every tv, and the dvr box is 15.99/mo. So far the service has been no problems. I signed up for fios tv and internet. I have vonage phone service through the internet.
switched to fios from comcast. no problems with internet or tv. fios seems to be a little more expensive, but with the bundle discount it should come out about the same. we bundled fios with verizon wireless service instead of home phone service.
We signed up with FiOS here in New Jersey in early June. We love it at the time we decided to go with the FiOS Triple play due to great deal they were running at the time.
So far we feel that FiOS is much better than our prior service with Cablevision. While the internet connection is definitely faster than what we had before, we don’t use it enough to notice a difference.
The main area we notice a difference is with the FiOS tv service. With Cablevision we experienced quite a bit of lag and freezing. So far with FiOS we haven’t had any issues and it seems the picture quality is even sharper.
The installation was easy and painless.
I have had the worse customer service in history with Verizon FIOS. I have had them about two years now and wanted to change my package plan (Internet, TV, Phone). First person did the total opposite of what I wanted and I discovered the next morning that I had slower internet, all Hispanic channels which I don’t speak Spanish, had to reprogram my phone. I called back and guess what, got it all set up the way it is supposed to be and next morning nothing changes. Then I finally get the local franchise and they say that nothing can be done until order is completed and I tell them it is. Basically, they can do nothing until they say the order is complete. In the mean time, I cannot watch TV, slow internet that has already cost me a great amount of money, and ultimately, discovered the worse customer service in the world.
I love speed but you got to watch your bill regularly. Not honest with billing.
I’ve had Comcast for years – Beaverton OR. I’ve been happy with the service except for the increases in billing. We have Cable extended channels and internet. No phone or pay channels and are paying $104 + tax & it will be going up to $110 + tax.
I wanted to try Frontier Fios – they are cheaper for 15/5 Internet, Phone and Prime HD TV together @ $89.99 (2 years) but you have to pay for the boxes which is an additional 3.99 5.99 or 15.99 a box. For us we opted for 3 boxes $13.97 (exact as curr Comcast boxes) which brings to $103.95. This is not much cheaper but you have phone. They added pay channels for the first year, so it is now better. After install we noticed some things:
Cons –
The internet is not faster for us.
The tv guide channel and info for channels is missing unless you get the 5.99 box.
Free movies/programs are much less than Comcast.
HD doesnt happen w/o the $15.99 box, but this is the same with Comcast.
Channels seem slower to load & again you will not know what channel you are on.
BIGGEST ISSUE: They dig up the yard & drill a hole in your house to mount a box inside the garage to power the system. And put a large box on the outside of your house. BE AWARE of this & know where you want dig & box placement – if you want it professional looking & phished under the house or somewhere else – they consider this custom install; and, it will be powered by your electricity (although it is a small amount).
Pro:
FIOS seems cheaper overall (first 2yrs) if you have a printed list of channels with you and dont mind not knowing what’s on with a TV guide.
Free movie package was huge and always can find something to watch – we can cancel Netflix.
Phone is nice to have for emergency.
Both companies have nice ppl and seem to be quick about responding. I suggest however calling ahead before the install to ensure what you were told is what you are receiving. The guy that came to our house was not accurate on everything.
I would rather stick with my DISH Network. I’ve been a DISH subscriber for years now and recently became an employee with them as well, and while I realize I could be accused of being biased there’s some advantages to DISH that are pretty tough to argue with. One of those being price: if you compare similar programming packages with similar equipment DISH comes out less expensive and with offers like HD free for life DISH pulls even father ahead. Speaking of HD, DISH has a greater number of high definition channels.
Also DISH is way ahead of all the competition when it comes to taking you entertainment mobile. With TV everywhere you can watch all of your programming (both live and anything on your DVR) anywhere you go on a variety of mobile devices.
For the last couple years we have had Verizon Fios and the Internet and TV work great. However when there is a problem with it the customer service sucks. For the last four days our internet and Tv has been down starting on Sunday morning. We scheduled an appointment for Monday, they canceled on us. A service guy finally came on Wednesday morning and changed the entire service box in our house. He checked and saw that the television was working but there is still no internet connection. So after calling again and being put on hold for a while they’re scheduled to come in the morning tomorrow to hopefully actually fix the internet.
Verizon is HORRIBLE!!!! Poor with billing, stupid with customer service. you request one thing and they do another. management has hands off attitude. C&P telephone is no longer around, but they were one of the best.
I hate FIOS. The only reason we get the package is so we can get the fast internet speed. You should be able to buy the fastest internet speed w/o having to get their stupid TV package that we don’t even use that often.
And their On Demand sucks. It freezes, sometimes the shows aren’t up after they have played on TV, and even a whole channel was taken off demand then put back on. Missed a favorite show’s season b/c of it.
On top of that, it is way too complicated to find the shows you want to watch on demand.
My experience with FIOS, (I wish I could think of a better word), but, it sucks! I had a COX bundle before changing over to FIOS. We purchased an HD digital television. Cox was very accommodating in changing our service to digital. I had an issue with the internet, once, the tech was immediately available, very nice, walked me through the steps and explained what I was doing, and was NEVER condescending.
Since I have had FIOS my internet speed is sluggish. I called the tech about my issue; he was very stern and would not allow me talk after explaining to him that I received a message, “my internet speed was very slow”! I have never received a message like that before, and no, it was not a gimmick to get me to purchase software. Before I received the message, I noticed, again, a slower response time while on the internet. Also, I was told that there could be many reasons for an interruption in my wireless connection! WRONG! I never had a problem when I had COX. I was also gullible enough to trust their many fliers advertising $79.99/month for buying into one of their bundles. I understand paying more for upgrades, but, when I completed my bundle I was told I would be paying $116/month. I just received my second bill, $153!!!!! Now that I think about it, the word “sucks” is a perfect word to describe my experience with FIOS.