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Should have done my homework

I had FiOS installed on Saturday after being a long-term Comcast customer. I have not cancelled my Comcast service yet and am seriously considering dropping FiOS and returning to Comcast.

Installation went well, a bit longer than expected but no major glitches. Less than 2 days later, I lot my Internet, but since this is a new service in a new neighborhood I was willing to give Verizon the benefit of the doubt. When the tech came by the next day to fix it (which he did, btw), I told him that I had since upgraded my service from the initial 15 Mbps service to the 50 Mbps service. He promptly told me that I would never get the 50 Mbps speed because the way FiOS is installed in my condo, the fiber does not go directly to my unit, in other words "the last mile" is twisted pair copper. The best I might get would be between 20-25 Mbps. When I last tested my Comcast speed on the day of the installation I was getting 25! So I'm paying for 50 Mbps and getting only half that speed.

This was obviously a major bummer and could be the dealbreaker. As for the TV, I don't see any discernable difference in quality between the picture I got with Comcast and the picture from FiOS. That's not a dealbreaker in itself but I was expecting better.

Lesson learned: Do your homework before installation! If I had known that I wasn't going to be able to get 50 Mpbs (what I am PAYING for!), I definitely would have reconsidered.

As it is now, I'm seriously questioning any long term commitment to this service. FiOS is not all it's cracked up to be. You really have to read the fine print and do your due diligence.

Comments

Gary201

Sorry to hear that it is not set up that way in your condo, but under normal conditions FIOS is what it is cracked up to be. speedtest.net will tell you that under the normal circumstances that FIOS will be faster than almost 90% in the U.S. I am hoping they can fix that line that runs to your condo.

I had Comcrap for years in my old house and was by far the worst service, internet always seemed to go out on my when I would be right in the middle of a Team Warfare League match for Call of Duty. Thus losing me and my team a lot of prize money. Since I have switched, I never once had a blackout, even in a second place since I have moved since then. Even my area got nailed by SS Sandy, I lost internet for about 45 minutes and even then did not experience any slow downs or lag.

You never should be paying for something that you are not getting and I would fight that all the the way, especially since it is a breach of contract on their end. I will never go back to Comcrap, even if they give me a job. Best of luck to you!

walt178

Paying for something you can't get is a bummer. But twisted pair cables do not necessarily limit the speed to 20-25Mbps. Twisted pair is still being installed for high speed communications usages. Cox has a 100Mbps plan and their entire line is coax. So if you have FIOS installed, see what you get before giving up on it.

As to TV quality, I'm not familiar with Comcast. But that is one of the reasons I left COX. It's not something you might notice in a few days. But over time I have learned what I had hoped for came true. FIOS TV is much superior.

PJL

"Coax" does makes sense, but "twisted pair" does not. The phone may be twisted pair, but the video would be coax, and the Internet could be either coax or Cat5 -- which is faster than coax.

walt178

@PJL wrote:
"Coax" does makes sense, but "twisted pair" does not. The phone may be twisted pair, but the video would be coax, and the Internet could be either coax or Cat5 -- which is faster than coax.

Twisted pair does not mean it isn't Cat5. There are Cat5 (and above) twisted pair cables that are rated at up to 1000Mbs. Coax has advantages. But inside a building coax and twisted pair should perform equally well. Twisted pair should not create the speed trap the technician claimed it would.

Twisted pair may not be ideal for video. But if the TV quality is comparable to Comcast, it would seem that in this instance it is adequate.

novatom

The TV is coming in through coax, broadband is coming through the phone line. The technician said that the fiber is going to the headend and the "last mile" (so to speak) is a traditional copper phone line, creating (what I believe is) the bottleneck. I used the term "twisted pair" although technically I may have not been correct.

Right now my desktop, which is hard wired cannot connect so I'm going to have to get that fixed by Verizon but the tech did a test on his laptop via the wire and was getting 45 Mbps, which really surprised him. So methinks that even the technician may not know everything he's talking about.

Either way, I'll never see speeds like that over wireless, even if the fiber came directly into the home, but I'm cool with that.

PJL

@novatom wrote:
The TV is coming in through coax, broadband is coming through the phone line. The technician said that the fiber is going to the headend and the "last mile" (so to speak) is a traditional copper phone line, creating (what I believe is) the bottleneck. I used the term "twisted pair" although technically I may have not been correct.
Right now my desktop, which is hard wired cannot connect so I'm going to have to get that fixed by Verizon but the tech did a test on his laptop via the wire and was getting 45 Mbps, which really surprised him. So methinks that even the technician may not know everything he's talking about.
Either way, I'll never see speeds like that over wireless, even if the fiber came directly into the home, but I'm cool with that.

It's interesting that they chose to run Internet over the existing phone wire (which is probably cat 5), but since the tehcnician got a 45 Mbps you don't have a bottleneck. In short, you don't seem to have an issue. When you get a good working wired Internet connection, try speedtest.org or DSL reports for a speed test. The maximum speed over wireless is dependent on which version of wireless you are using. What router do you have?

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