FIOS or Optimum?

[James Edward]

I find that it is time for my trusty DSL to go quietly into the night.
Any reason to choose one over the other, beside price? I will be going all in; I have separate cable, phone, and DSL, no bundle, no fibre optic.
I plan on getting the package deal from either Cablevision or Fios.
Thanks for any thoughts.

[sleepyguy24]

Hi

I've had both Optimum and FIOS. I had Optimum 1st and picture quality of their broadcasts are kind of ehhh. 1080I or 720P broadcasts had pixel issues and would make me question the quality of my TV. I would watch a Blu-Ray and feel better that it wasn't my TV. Sports broadcasts on both are about the same.

Internet speed wise my family and I are on the 15/5 program and it is really good. Everything is pretty fast. One thing that I would note as a difference is the FIOS modem is larger than the Optimum one. Also the FIOS boxes are a bit smaller than than the optimum ones I had. They also consume less electricity but the FIOS ones don't have a display like the Optimum ones from Motorola.

Both companies have their flaws but for me my recommendation is FIOS if you are in the LI area. FIOS is really bending over backwards to take market share from Optimum. Picture quality is very good to me as well as internet speeds. Also Optimum is doing everything they can do to retain or get customers back. When negotiating keep pushing to get the best deal you can. Don't stop with just their current offer but make sure you are getting an apples to apples comparison. Verizon can be shady with their set top boxes. I remember they kept touting something that would send signal from one box to another and when I stated what I really needed and set top boxes were needed in every room the price went up per month.

It is still cheaper for us to have Verizon FIOS so I've stuck with them. I'm tired of Optimum's BS. When negotiating to stay they said we can lower your monthly bill by giving you less channels. I told them no sh$t Sherlock but that isn't what I want.

Good luck.

[BobM]

We had FIOS since it first arrived on LI, in fact, we were the first town to get it. Then the bills started creeping up each year. And The Verizon billing department kept screwing with our bill. I felt like I was talking to them every other month about some other stupid charge that I didn't order. Their customer service SUCKS!

When Optimum finally woke up and offered a similar package at a deeply discounted rate about 2 years ago we switched back. Yeah, there was a period of adjustment, but we are mostly happy now.

The Optimum boxes and menu is a bit slower to respond. I see no difference in picture quality or internet speeds. Plus they have News 12, which my wife likes.

Now it is 2 years later and our promotional offer has run out. The cost for Optimum and FIOS is about the same for our service. Optimum will not discount our contract even after I threatened to go back to FIOS. Overall, I think FIOS is more convenient and may be slightly better, though I dread dealing with their customer service group ever again - WHICH BLOWS DONKEY DICK!

So we are trying to decide which way to go also at this point. No way to get the actual $'s down, just which service is better for us.

[richidoo]

We are stuck on DSL, at 3M/300k. I tried to upgrade to Extreme 6.0 (woohoo  ) but it is not available where I live (wha? it's still just DSL.)   It is so nice to have ATT back in my life after a fond absence of 22 years.

I could switch to TW, but that would be worse than ATT. And they would have to cut through all my irrigation and electrical wiring to install it.

I have been hearing radio ads about broadband wifi coming to town, but you gotta be within range of a tower, which is not very far at all. There was a contractor installing fiber on my main street last month. Hopefully that means it will come down our street soon. Don't know what company yet.

My kids could eat up all of 10M with my daughter watchig movies on Kindle, my son playing VR games on Roblox, and my other son driving iracing.com. If I pull up a youtube I get yelled at. Excuseme? Who is paying buddy? haha I love saying that....

[hometheaterdoc]

Rich:

not sure it will reach you way out in the boonies   but I saw a few articles about AT&T Gigapower yesterday and they made reference to agreements being worked out for Raleigh/Durham area being one of the ultra high speed sites in negotiation to come this summer....  I thought it would be AT&T, but I see this article mentioning google being the one:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/19/technology/google-fiber/

I don't care who it is, as long as it gets here asap...  my cable modem connection is ok until I try to do any streaming at the same time other stuff going on... so need to get out in front of it as far as speed is concerned

[Emil]

James

Your house is probably already wired for cable so go with Optimum. Plus, you get free WiFi access.

As BobM so eloquently stated that FIOS blow donkey dick. Im sure you will find Optimum blowing donkey dick at times also.

[Putz]

I also dumped Fios about 4 years ago cause they kept overcharging me each month during the discount period and the customer service was an hour on hold and then someone promising to fix the problem which never happened. I gave them a good 6 months of trying to fix my bill and nada. The monthly bill was also impossible to make sense of. The Verizon wireless bill was easier to read.

Fios service was great. Modem never crashed and cable never went down. With Optimum, I'm always rebooting the modem.

Tempted to try Fios again since latest triple play promo is $60@ month plus premium channels and fees but looks like billing and customer service still blows. Optimum running $200@ month with HBO Showtime Encore Starz.

[richidoo]

Thanks for the info. Yeah, it was a radio news story about the ATT announcement. They said it would be coming to Cary, Apex, etc.

That could well be who is installing fiber on the street then. It's on the street at the top of my street, so it's here to serve my neighborhood not just passing by. Whether it comes down my street is another matter, we are the slum section of my 600 house development.

I have recently also heard radio ads about a local company to offer wifi to Raleigh. I think they are already in some other NC cities. But you gotta be within 2 miles of an access point. They said I could not reach it. Here is the link
http://rstfiber.com/

[goldlizsts]

We had FIOS since it first arrived on LI, in fact, we were the first town to get it. Then the bills started creeping up each year. And The Verizon billing department kept screwing with our bill. I felt like I was talking to them every other month about some other stupid charge that I didn't order. Their customer service SUCKS!

When Optimum finally woke up and offered a similar package at a deeply discounted rate about 2 years ago we switched back. Yeah, there was a period of adjustment, but we are mostly happy now.

The Optimum boxes and menu is a bit slower to respond. I see no difference in picture quality or internet speeds. Plus they have News 12, which my wife likes.

Now it is 2 years later and our promotional offer has run out. The cost for Optimum and FIOS is about the same for our service. Optimum will not discount our contract even after I threatened to go back to FIOS. Overall, I think FIOS is more convenient and may be slightly better, though I dread dealing with their customer service group ever again - WHICH BLOWS DONKEY DICK!

So we are trying to decide which way to go also at this point. No way to get the actual $'s down, just which service is better for us.

Once they get the dick of the customer..... you know you're stuck.  We had DSL before Sandy struck.  It was to be $14.99 FOR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!  Sandy killed 2 of the Verizon stations south of here (Manhattan tip), and they used it as excuse not to revive DSL (understandable, 'cos that's older technology?, and FiOS is supposed to be far more superior).  Well.... they sweet-talked - "You're a special customer....", so $19.99.  A year later, we suddenly now see $59.99, BUT... aren't they nice, a special $20 discount.......  Supposedly, $39.99 is still a good deal, the going rate, sort of?

[BobM]

I also dumped Fios about 4 years ago cause they kept overcharging me each month during the discount period and the customer service was an hour on hold and then someone promising to fix the problem which never happened. I gave them a good 6 months of trying to fix my bill and nada. The monthly bill was also impossible to make sense of. The Verizon wireless bill was easier to read.

Fios service was great. Modem never crashed and cable never went down. With Optimum, I'm always rebooting the modem.

Tempted to try Fios again since latest triple play promo is $60@ month plus premium channels and fees but looks like billing and customer service still blows. Optimum running $200@ month with HBO Showtime Encore Starz.

Sorry Putz. I can't get through your post ... I keep getting distracted by your Avatar.
 

[Putz]

[/quote]

Sorry Putz. I can't get through your post ... I keep getting distracted by your Avatar.
 
[/quote]

Try this link. It's an Upton GIF goldmine.

http://www.refinedguy.com/2013/01/24/kate-upton-gifs/

[richidoo]

I was able to try a Verizon Jetpack 4G cellular/wifi access point. Ooolala! It is really fast, I'm used to only 3M down and .3M up

Speedtest.net says 50+Mbps down and 10Mbps up. It supports 10 wifi clients. Price ranges from $30/mo for 4GB, up to $80/mo for 14GB.  The jetpack box is $200 with no contract, or $50 +2 years. It is the size of a credit card, about 1/2" thick. Pretty cool.

I need to find out how much data I am using through my ATT DSL and compare the price to 4G.  They also have a 4G home router, and a USB modem if you only run one client.

[melgross]

We just got FIOS in my neighborhood. We're been waiting a long time.

We signed up for 150/65. So far it's been great. My tests show between 154-161 down, and 67-71 up speeds.

What I like about them is that they allow every station that has an app to work. I've got a number on my iPad, and most aren't authorized from Time Warner, which was frustrating. Verizon's own apps work pretty well on my iPad too.

So far, no complaints.