[TXSTYLE]

Okay guys... So this is specifically to those of you who have had or currently have DirecTV and or Verizon:

I am a looooongtime (over 13yrs) DirecTV customer and am generally very satisfied with the: Picture Quality, reception, ease of use (probably the best remote and channel lineup of any provider) and definitely customer service! I am paying @ $120 for 2 DVR's and one HD receiver. I have all the channels they offer including all HD+ but no Premium/Movie channels. So those fees are for the Total Choice Plus pkg and Whole-Home DVR and fees per unit per room.
I also pay: @ $115 a month for internet (Turbo) and land line telephone with Time Warner. So that's $235 for Cable/TV, Phone and Internet (not including cellular).

So enter VERIZON... They always email me offers but this one finally raised my eyebrow: Verizon FiOS

Verizon FIOS TV, Internet & Phone + LG Tablet + $300 VISA GC for $80/month for 2yrs!

That is a damn tempting offer!!! BUT... What about the "actual cable service? internet speeds? customer service? remotes and channel lineup? and actual programming pkg and DVR?"

Please chime in and give me your guys experiences...?

I plan to actually call or attempt to build a similar scenario that I currently have with regard to programming and equipment to truly compare.

[turo]

I had FiOS for a little over 2 years. Internet speeds were exactly as advertised: I paid for 25 mbps and speedtest.net constantly told me I was downloading/uploading at 24-26mbps. Very few outages during the time I had it, although the router I was renting from them did have to be restarted quite often (once every 2 months or so). TV quality was great, but for some reason, the tv box also had to be restarted about once every two months. Easy fix, just a little annoying when you're watching something then suddenly the service goes out and you need to spend ~5 mins rebooting the box.

I've since moved and FiOS isn't available where I live now, so I switched to Cox cable. I can definitely say that Cox has better internet speed (paying for 25mbps, but download speeds are around 33-35), but the image quality of the TV was a little better with FiOS. The channel guide was light years better with FiOS as well, everything was color coded depending on the type of programming (I really miss that!).

Honestly, if TV was my main concern, I'd do FiOS again. I think my restarting problems were just due to a faulty router, since none of my neighbors had the same problem. Image quality was top-notch and service was great. Customer service sucked though, so if you have trouble it's easier to "google" the solution than call them for help.

[John 070]

FiOS is awesome. Unfortunately, even with a $20/mo. discount from work, and $10/mo. from Verizon, our bill is $150 incl. tax and we have no premium channels, just expanded HD and 2 HD boxes. 35/35 speed, phone unlimited to Canada and Mexico. We'll have to switch over to cable again.

But technology wise there is no comparison between satellite and fiber.

If I were you, I'd go for that deal....

[John 070]

Originally Posted by turo

I had FiOS for a little over 2 years. Internet speeds were exactly as advertised: I paid for 25 mbps and speedtest.net constantly told me I was downloading/uploading at 24-26mbps. Very few outages during the time I had it, although the router I was renting from them did have to be restarted quite often (once every 2 months or so). TV quality was great, but for some reason, the tv box also had to be restarted about once every two months. Easy fix, just a little annoying when you're watching something then suddenly the service goes out and you need to spend ~5 mins rebooting the box.

I've since moved and FiOS isn't available where I live now, so I switched to Cox cable. I can definitely say that Cox has better internet speed (paying for 25mbps, but download speeds are around 33-35), but the image quality of the TV was a little better with FiOS. The channel guide was light years better with FiOS as well, everything was color coded depending on the type of programming (I really miss that!).

Honestly, if TV was my main concern, I'd do FiOS again. I think my restarting problems were just due to a faulty router, since none of my neighbors had the same problem. Image quality was top-notch and service was great. Customer service sucked though, so if you have trouble it's easier to "google" the solution than call them for help.

For whatever reason, one of my two HD boxes NEVER have the correct time when DST begins or ends. NEVER.

Requires a reset from Verizon, and you know 800-VERIZON is just an impossible 800# to deal with. I finally found the menu to perform the reset from their IVR, only to find the boxes are mislabeled. So I did the reset 4X to no avail. Then I decided to try the other one and it rebooted with the correct time.

Also impossible to deal with them if something is wrong with the wireless router, although now they have a store. My router could not do WPA2 for whatever reason, and I was sick of people cruising by and using an app to break the WEP, so I had to do an online chat with someone from another country for 80 min. before they would ship a new one.

When you have chat text that says, "Please, kind sir, I will now reach my superior to see if we can ship you a new router," you know this ain't the USA.

[justinnum1]

if you can go fiber, why wouldn't you?

[Mr Tonka]

verizon is notorious for having a good 2 year introduction and jacking the prices up quite a bit. that's been my experience with them. But at $80 / month for 2 years, they could jack it up quite a bit for a few years and you'll still be ahead. But then you'll have Verizon TV, which i have no experience with.

Sorry i'm no help.

[TXSTYLE]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

[upstatedoc]

Hey y'all,

I've got time warner triple play which includes all channels but hbo, etc, turbo internet and cable phone for $170/month. Yeah, I called and threatened them last year to lower the price or I was switching. Time to call and threaten again! This is fun!