Re: Give me a reason to switch to FIOS
spacedebris
Master - Level 2

@GaryDoug wrote:

I don't know why he could not keep his old POTS line. I did for a month before deciding to cancel the old line. They were perfectly happy to let me pay for both. (That decision was a bit of a mistake because the switchover went badly and took several days.) Two months later, I still have the copper line from the house to the pole and the TNI box on the side of the house. Someday they might come get it.

He could just sign up for Double Play (TV + Internet) instead of Triple Play couldn't he?


Verizon doesnt want you to keep your POTS line. Its too expensive to maintain, its antiquated, and its worth more as scrap. So when they install FIOS, officially POTS is no longer available and in some area's they actually remove the old copper lines. Now in a few area's they will let you have "mixed" service. Fios for Data and Video, and copper for phone. But this is exception rather than the rule however. Now if you have a documented medical condition. Something like a heart monitor or life alert system or something like that, they will give you an exception to keep the old copper line. But this must be well documented. Also in some cases, law enforcement will require copper lines, usually for home arrest ankle bracelet systems. So you could always get arrested to keep your copper line. LOL!  But in most cases, you will not be able to keep the copper lines. In fact most new construction area's within the Verizon Fios footprint will not even have copper installed to the neighborhood. Fiber is not even a choice in those cases, its a requirement.

Re: Give me a reason to switch to FIOS
alden
Contributor - Level 1

I have Verizon ladline Freedom Essentials, Verizon DSL and DirectTV. And I will gladly, without a second of doubt switch to FIOS when it will be available . ( actually Sept. 1 it will be avalable for me).

1.  DSL.

the worst service you can imagine. Very slow ( max. I can get is 700k because I am very far from station), very unreliable, just terrible. Plus I am loosing it from time to time because really old undergound wires and despite my many attempts to force verizon to fix the problem by replacing underground wires - nothing happens. So FIOS Internet 25/25 is like comparing brand new Mazeratti and beaten down, 30 year old, million miles on it, Oldsmobile.

2 Landline telephone. generally OK as phone is not as sensitive to old cooper wires as Internet.

3. DirectTV is good enough but rain/snow/high wind sensitive. Heavy rain or snow and signal lost. I would not tell it's happening often but still it's happenning. I watched FIOS HD at my friends house and I can tell you pic. quality is really

amazing, vizibly better then DirectTV piture.

Finally cost.

I compared all the prices I am paying now with what I will pay after switching to FIOS. Pretty much the same prices what I am paying now +/- $10 when I switch. But the difference with Internet spped, more channels with FIOS TV then with DirectTV, for me is no brainer. The only complaint is really outdated DVR with only 20 hours recording of HD, but considering that 1.9 soft will finally support external.ESATA HD and new 320MB DVR is  coming soon this is solvable problem.

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Re: Give me a reason to switch to FIOS
funhouse69
Newbie

I have been a FIOS Voice / Internet Subscriber for about 5 years now... When I first signed up they did not offer TV in my town due to an issue with the town asking for outrageous demands so I ended up going with Direct TV which at the time had the best HD Service and of course after signing up with the 2 year commitment Verizon offered TV within months. Since I went with Direct TV I wasn't in any hurry to switch since you have to invest a pretty good amount of money in the hardware.

Anyway after years and years of being with Direct TV and my DVRs starting to have issue and not wanting to invest anymore money on them I am looking to switch over but also had some questions.

I did see the Engadget article about the expected updtates / capabilities coming sometime in the 4th quarter. At this point there is no way I could live with the stoarge offered on the DVR since I have 3 Direct TV DVR's all of which have 750GB or larger external drives on them with none of them having more then 50% free space so I will have to wait until the upgrades become offical

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is wether or not the HD DVRs have DLB (Dual Live Buffers) or not. this was something standard on my old TiVO's (which I miss dearly) and Direct TV only added this functionality recently but their DVR's are so underpowered and sluggish as it is, this only makes it worse.

Just in case I am not describing this properly DLB means you can switch between the two tuners and each one keeps buffering in the background so you can rewind / pause each of them up to the limit of the buffer which for Direct TV is 1.5 hours.

Thanks in advance

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Re: Give me a reason to switch to FIOS
alden
Contributor - Level 1

For funhouse69

As fas as I know there is no DLB function on Verizon DVR, and I doubt this function will be in newer DVR which suppose to come end of this or early next year.  maybe new 1.9 software which is also coming soon may deal with this?

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Re: Give me a reason to switch to FIOS
barowolf
Newbie

 I would think twice about switching to FIOS.  I have DISH at my vacation home and it works fine with the exception of when a particularly nasty storm blow over, I can lose picture for a few minutes.  Worst case is, I go to the DVR then.

I have FIOS at my home and am going to switch to Comcast.   FIOS is good as long as you don't have a  problem.  But once you do,  its almost impossible to get a live person to address the issue.   To wit, the wind blew down the service loop to my house.   Service was still on but the wire was on the ground across my yard.   I went online to get a number to call, they route you through this whole testing routine, only to tell you what you already know.  That the service is working and they won't generate a repair ticket.   I saw a service tech on the street  and alerted him to my problem and he told me that he cannot fix anything without a ticket.   And, he couldn't generate a ticket  for me,  I would have to call it in.   He couldn't give me a number to call either.    I finally wrote to a Verizon office and ultimately got some one to call me and send some one out to fix it. 

Subsequently, I had an issue with the Control box in the basement.  It was making a beeping noise, again, I was put through this awful diagnostic routine online, only to be told that the control box has a battery for when the power goes out that will keep my phone working and that that battery was bad.   They wanted me to buy another one for $45 and these batteries only have a 90 day warranty.   the original was only about a year old when it expired.

Another time, the TV remote went bad,  I went on line again and just wasted a lot of time, only to be told that it would cost me an addition $15 dollars for a new one.   What the heck am I paying a monthly fee for?

Anyway, I would keep the land line and look for another cable provider.   I am.

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Re: Give me a reason to switch to FIOS
LawrenceC
Moderator Emeritus

As this thread is now over five years old, it will be locked in order to keep discussions current. If you have the same or a similar question/issue we invite you to start a new thread on the topic.

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