THE FASTEST INTERNET...PERIOD !?!
Written: Feb 10 '08 (Updated Jul 23 '09)
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WHAT IS FIOS
I would have never imaged that Verizon would be a major player in Television markets, but, now that television has made a switch from analog to digital and the looming 2009 deadline when terrestrial broadcasts will begin ceasing, it seems that everyone will end up locked into some type of payment to some provider for their television and Verizon might as well be in it to win it.
Here in Queens, NY, Verizon has been sending representatives to pitch homeowners in my area on "FIOS", its premiere “Fiber Optic to premises” telecommunications service. Verizon is the first American carrier to offer this service and they are rapidly expanding its coverage as time goes by.
Verizon's main competition here is Time Warner Cable, who's $90/month "Triple Play" package allows them to provide television, internet and phone service through digital signaling over copper lines. Verizon has stepped up their efforts to get Fios into as many homes as possible but, they have been hindered thus far by higher taxes and government fees and the need to overlay fiber cables over the existing telephone and coax lines. Voice over IP services such as Skype and Vonage will ultimately be hurt by Verizon and various Cable TV company's networks simply because they are larger corporations and can afford to do things at a temporary loss (even if the loss is millions of dollars). Therefore, if you mention on the phone to Verizon that Cable television offers "this"... they in many cases will try and beat Cable's offer so they can get you locked into their consumer agreement. This may include knocking down the price by $10 or more or just offering you more channels. I would personally be happy just being able to pick my own channels to decrease the cost but due to network auctions and packaging at the corporate level, I'd end up getting channels I don't want, like: Lifetime, CCTV and CBS just because I had to get them with the package.
Right now Verizon is offering a free digital camera and in some places, DVR's to go along with its TV package to sweeten the deal. By comparison, back in the days of the newly available DSL, I got a free logitech Webcamera.
As many of you may already know, Verizon’s Fiber Optics is a low cost, low maintenance, high efficiency solution to networking, using glass fiber cables in a passive optical network. The system is point to multipoint which means a single line leads to each home and at its other end is a splitter on a tree branch possibly, which leads back to the rest of Verizon’s network.
Fiber Optics will undoubtedly be our future.
Thousands of coaxial lines would be needed to replace a single high bandwidth fiber and that fiber would cost far less than 1/9th of those coax lines. Transmissions are near the speed of light (this is a class 1 laser product) and fiber cable has considerably less loss and static than copper wire. Advantages also include the fact that fiber optics do not cause electronic interference or static over phone lines they run near. My DSL went out whenever we had a thunderstorm -making gameplay impossible.
The lowest bandwidth tier being offered is considerably faster than Verizon’s long standing DSL service at 5Mbps download/ 2 Mbps Upload.
If you live in an area currently equipped with it, you may opt to pay $10 more for an even faster 15Mbps/ 2Mbps service for around $10 more. In some areas Verizon offers unheard of, commercial-like speeds of 30/ 15 or 50/20 to home users ! and all for affordable prices if you happen to be a small business.
INSTALLATION
Unlike the easy installation of DSL which only required a modem and some micro filters, FIOS’ install is harrowing and can take upwards of 4 hours depending on the size of the home, the equipment placement and the environment. Installation requires 3 main units: the external Fiber Terminal, the internal battery backup and the internal wireless router [Actiontec MI424WR] .
Installation absolutely must be done by a professional Verizon technician. The fiber optic cable itself is much thinner than coaxial cable but it is very delicate. If bent 90 degrees, the fiber will snap and become unusable.
The Technician will first survey the area to see how much cable is needed and where to do all the drilling. Then, he will physically attach a fiber optic cable to one of the neighborhood's splitters and run it to your house. Once he has the fiber line in place, he must drill into the side of the house to place a shoebox sized terminal box there. Inside this box is the single needle-thin fiber optic cable attached to the decoder. He must hook one end of the cable to this point and store the loops of excess cable as it cannot be cut.
The next step is to determine where the battery backup and router will go inside the house. He must pass two larger, Coax sized cables, through the wall from inside to the outside. The terminal gets its power from one of these cables (cream colored) that comes from the battery backup.
The terminal then sends the internet signal back inside the house via Coaxial cable (white colored). Once he has the wires inside, he will drill into the wall and set up the Battery Backup. The battery backup contains a battery that will power the landline telephones in case of a power blackout in your area.
Because your internet comes to the house through fiber and fiber carries no electric current, it will not interfere with your landline phone and give you the *hissing* static DSL is known for. It is also more reliable in extreme thunderstorms.
Once the battery backup is online, he can then set up the Actiontec MI424WR wireless router. The router is a Gateway router which can be plugged up with a WAN Ethernet or a WAN Coax cable. It then splits the internet into Wireless and 4 port wired through its internal switch. This router looks very fancy in its black/grey case and has a 6 inch antennae. The only downside about it is the ugly Verizon logo with that stupid red check mark.
After the router is set up, the Verizon tech goes back to his truck to call Verizon and activate everything. Then, he can use the internet to setup your new account: sign the agreement contracts digitally and prepare or retrieve your Verizon.net password/ Username.
THAT'S IT !!! Once the “Internet” LED lights up, you are ready to start surfing the web.
CONNECTION SPEED
The only reason you bother upgrading from CABLE or DSL to FIOS is because you demand the highest bandwidth connection speeds. This becomes extremely important for video game players and small businesses that require an “always on”, broadband connection.
Games such as Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 require moderate download speeds and high upload speeds in order to function properly. I was so disgusted with my 768K Verizon DSL because when I played a game such as Rainbow 6 Vegas on my Xbox 360, connection lag made me a laughing stock since I couldn’t hit anything accurately.
Well... what do you expect from a telephone cable?
My Aunt and both my Uncles living in NY opted for Time Warner Cable as their broadband solution because they already had cable TV and the new Time Warner triple play package seemed to make a lot of sense. TV, Telephone and Internet sandwiched together on one bill. Their bills now range between $120 and $140 a month and they seem happy with their internet connections.
I normally test any high speed internet connection on Speakeasy's www.dslreports.com NY server to get an idea of how quickly it processes. When I tested each of their connections, I was getting around 4000Kbps down and around 2000 ~ 4000Kbps up. These speeds are excellent for any broadband user and would allow you to play your games with little or no lag…or illegally download MP3’s and porn from Limewire within 2 minutes.
But, FIOS takes this further… While writing this review, I tested my connection using my Laptop wirelessly – the router is 1 floor up. I got a speed of 8434Kbps down and 3000Kbps up ! This is actually slower than it was when I tested it during off peak time this morning and got 16,000 Kbps down !
In short, the speed is FANTASTIC.
Downloading a 4MB song takes less than 10 seconds.
Downloading a 1.3GB game from Xbox Live took less than 20 minutes.
The only problem is that you must have a good computer to take advantage of all this power. A Hard Disk with high write speeds and a good complement of RAM is required to keep the computer itself from bottlenecking the benefits of Fiber Optic's speed.
PLANS
FIOS offers the “fastest home Internet PERIOD”…
Unlike most Cable companies who can now offer Triple Play, Verizon - already America's largest and most reliable cellular carrier - can offer Quadruple Play packaging to consolidate your cellular, home phone, television and internet. In many cases, Verizon will decrease prices (depending on your situation) from its plans in order to boost consumer interest.
It is somewhat frightening to see companies consolidating all of our services into a single bill...I'm, worried someday technology might allow these companies to consolidate even our gas, water and electric service into the same bill as our cellular, internet,phone and television.
(You miss a payment, EVERYTHING GOES OUT !)
My FIOS was installed yesterday, but if things hold true, it is supposed to actually be cheaper than the combined $78 I’ve been paying for my DSL internet+telephone.
As this all happens on a case to case basis, I will not bother talking about FIOS plans – you must call Verizon yourself to find out what’s available. In my area for example, Time Warner Cable offers a phone-internet-TV package but FIOS only offers phone- Fios internet and Direct TV package because Fios TV is unavailable till this summer. It is however available just 10 miles away in Long Island, NY.
As I’ve heard, Fios TV is actually a bit more expensive than the dominating Cable Television since Verizon charges you nearly $10 for each box (first box free) you rent from them which might bring your monthly package bill up to $150 if you have a family.
Fios TV uses the Fios Terminal on the side of the house by adding a Coaxial line which then leads to a set top box that will likely have HDMI for Plasma/LCD TV’s.
Verizon’s Freedom Essentials Plan offers unlimited local, regional and long distance calling across the U.S. and to Canada and Puerto Rico and features: Home Voice Mail, Caller ID and Call Waiting. I will comment on my bill next month.
https://www22.verizon.com/residential/vzpackages/nbundlesdetail/
CUSTOMER SERVICE
I actually had to call customer service because I made a mistake with my FIOS and needed help repairing it when it went down.
I unplugged the battery backup box and didn’t realize it until I tried to hop on the net later on. I called Verizon and their line tests told them I did this – so they informed me that the FIOS reported the battery backup was out. I plugged it back in and everything was fine.
The beauty of FIOS is, that even using that automated computer voice, “push 2 for…” thing is actually able to test your line and attempt to wake the connection up by itself without human assistance. Technical assistance is available 24/7 for Fios via computer or via human help. The woman I ended up getting help from was in Washington state on the other side of the country.
DISSAPOINTMENTS ???
My connection is BLAZING FAST.
Unfortunately, the problem I’ve had so
far is documented – the Actiontec MI424WR router given to you by Verizon does not function with the Xbox 360’s Wireless Adapter” This is distressing because I had no trouble before with my Westell gateway I was using with DSL and now, I’ve had to hardwire my 360 to the FIOS router with a 100 foot Ethernet cable.
The 360’s adapter cost me $80 and now its useless until the router gets a firmware update.
(I am not certain whether or not this is a problem with the Playstation 3's built in wifi but you can search online to find out).
If you have a Wireless Coaxial WAN gateway already, and you know it works with all your equiptment you might be able to configure your FIOS home network to use it since all these things basically do is connect via DHCP protocal.
As I mentioned, by simply unplugging the battery backup, I accidentally disabled my FIOS. It is annoying that I have to have these huge, ugly, white box terminals plugged in, but the benefit is worth it. Some users will have the backup and terminal installed in a garage or another place on their property and unless you hear the battery backup beeping, you won't know the power to it is off. Therefore, you must visually check it from time to time. As I understand it, customers are responsible for replacing backup batteries.
And why must the fiber optic line terminate outside the house? I expected the fiber to be run all the way into the house and attached to a modem which would either be wireless or plugged to the computer via Gigabit Ethernet cable. What we have here is Fiber running to copper Coaxial (exactly what I was trying to get away from ! )I can't imagine how much speed i'm losing due to the various connections. The wireless gateway should be an 802.11n router rather than a G'. G' has a maximum transmission of 54Mbps wherein n' is twice that with even longer coverage.
I mentioned to the Verizon guy that they could save money on the installtion by simply making the terminal a Wireless N router and broadcasting wirelessly to the computers inside the house. Or if neccessary, they could run ethernet cables from the terminal to the interior for each computer. Since the router is locked down with WEP or WPA, you don't need to worry about broadcasting a Wifi signal since noone will be able to use it (except "Big Brother" CIA agents and their "laundry vans").
Also, as I mentioned, the fiber optic cable is delicate. Bent too far it will become unusable and you’d need a technician to reinstall it all. In some places, trees fall and wires go down frequently. Fortunately, Verizon can be notified and send out repair crews immediately but when you consider that there is no path of retreat back to copper lines if things do go bad, it might inspire some worry if you live in a “dangerous state” with high winds, tornados or other phenomena that tend to snap trees.
My entire installation was done in 4 hours by one man. If Verizon sent out a two man team, they could knock the entire install out in half that time. The biggest problem here is that you need to set aside your entire day to wait for the guy to get to your house and then to let him do his job. In some situations, install may take two seperate days...one day the fios terminal is attached to the house and the next, the battery backup and router are set up inside.
The Verizon toolbar software installed in your computer is unnescesary but it does include 9 email accounts with your internet subscription. I've had a verizon.net email account for years and have never used it - I'm on Yahoo and MSN. Its dark Red color and uninspired lettering are dull in my taste so I'm currently deciding how to do away with it. While a novice internet user might need this to know where their email and search engines are, experienced users have full access to the router and its connections settings (basic and advanced) by simply going into the router at 192.168.1.1 and entering the password and username. You can then reset the SSID name and the password...set parental controls...decide if MAC addresses are required to connect and also make use of other tweaks and fixes.
With proper parental settings, your child will never see "Myspace" or "Pornotube" or, you can prevent them from using the internet at certain times of the week.
The router's firmware also gives visual representation of any and all devices that connect to it. You can perhaps label one computer: "Xbox 360" and label another "PSP"...or label any laptop or desktop using wifi or ethernet with a personal name. This way you can see who is connected and customize settings for individual machines - even remove their access altogether.
OVERALL - FIRST BILL (Update on March 3 2008)
I got my first bill and it looks reasonable.
Under Verizon DSL my monthly bill was coming up to $78.00.
This bill was $87.94
I was charged $64.99 for "FIOS DOUBLE FREEDOM" and a $30 activation fee (billed 1/3rd for 3 billing cycles = $9.99) The taxes came out to around $9 and there are some other fees which have been added and then deducted but the bottom line is still $87.94.
If anything changes I will update this review.
If I get FIOS TV I will update this review.
UPDATE - AUGUST 25, 2008
After all the installation fees and taxes have been paid, my FIOS bill is now a cool $78.56.
$64.99 + $13.97 tax = $78
FIOS has also begun televising its FIOS television services which, unlike Cable, offer multi-room DVR so you can watch a show in one room that was recorded in another. I don't see myself spending more than $100 per month for FIOS' triple package but, if Verizon calls me, I'm going to negotiate them down to $100 a month if possible.
I am very happy with the service. I haven't experienced any downtime at all, but, every now and then, the Actiontech router times out. It returns to normal if you reset it.
UPDATE June 29, 2009 ------FIOS TV !
http://www.epinions.com/review/Verizon_FiOS_TV_epi/content_478676225668
Recommended:
Yes
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