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Review by Rook008 See Profile

  • Location: Far Rockaway, Queens, NY, USA
  • Cost: $169 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 12 days
High speeds, Solid equipment, Good prices (bundled services)
Disconnect between Verizon's phone reps and their website.
New customer deals are great with Fios.
Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

Ordered Verizon Fios Triple Play, which includes:

"Quantum Internet" 75/35 speeds (Actiontec MI424WR Rev. I)

"Digital Voice" Phone service

"Ultimate HD" TV package (Three Motorola HD QIP 7100 1 Set-Top Boxes)

Went online and ordered Fios on October 10, set up an install date of Oct. 22, from 1 to 5 PM.

Verizon sent me some mail confirming my appointment, and followed up with an e-mail as well. So far, so good.

The Install:

About 90 minutes before the beginning of the install window, a tech calls to see if it was ok for him to start the install early. He arrives at around noon and we walk around the house pointing out where everything is located, including the original phone line, the TV's, the PC and the previous providers' (TWC) cable wiring. He gives me some options and we decide on a plan for the installation. He gets to work.

He runs some fiber to the side of the house and installs the ONT there, drills a hole in the side of the house and installs the backup battery stuff inside the house near a power outlet. He connects the ONT to the old phone box outside to feed the existing phone wiring inside.

He connects the old coax to the ONT (outside) and puts a 4-way splitter on the other end (inside) for the 2 TV's and the router (coax connection). There's a small TV near the splitter that just gets OTA signals right now, but the installer said I could just get a box from Verizon to hook it up with the extra port on the splitter. That was a pretty good idea on his part, as I ordered a third box from Verizon a while later.

He hooks up the set-top boxes to the TV's and sets up the Verizon remotes to turn them on. He sets up the router and runs some software from a USB stick. He says he wants to install some software (including Verizon In-Home Assistant) that I could look through and delete if I didn't want it. So far everything checks out and is working.

He answers a bunch of questions I had and explains a bunch of stuff about the set-top boxes, the remotes, and the router. He says he'd be sitting in his truck for a little while doing paperwork if I had any more questions.

The whole process from beginning to end took about 2.5 to 3 hours.

The Service and Equipment:

The internet speeds are great. I'm getting slightly more than the promised download and the connection is stable. Downloading a 1GB file in 2 minutes instead of 15 saves a bit of time. The Actiontec router has a couple of complicated configuration pages, but a little time taken to understand them gives good results. There's also a lot of information in there about the STB's. Wi-Fi range is adequate. User-name and a few passwords (router config, WPA2, WPS Pin) are listed on a sticker on the bottom of the router. "admin" and "password" are no longer the defaults to get into the router's config pages.

What can I say about the TV and Phone portions of the triple-play except that they work as intended. HD Video on the TV looks just as good as it did with TWC cable. The guide works well and is relatively quick. There are a lot of On-Demand options available as well.

The Motorola STB is huge (17" wide) which I wasn't expecting. It barely fit in my TV stand. It has a good compliment of connections in the back (HDMI, Component, Composite, Coax, Digital Audio out, Optical Audio out) which is a plus. Logitech has the STB in it's database so configuring my Harmony remote was pretty simple.

The Digital Voice phone service sounds as good as my old Verizon land-line did. Unlimited calls to anywhere in the US or Canada (and Puerto Rico, I think) is a plus.

Cons:

Losing NY1 (a cable news channel in NYC) was a bit of a tough pill to swallow.

The information that I got from the Verizon website is not the same information that I was given over the phone. The site doesn't work for a lot of stuff and tells you to call Verizon, where the reps have different information and pricing schemes. It's probably a good idea to check both before ordering if you're considering Fios.

The MY Verizon website is great when it works, but errors out often.

While the price I'll be paying is cheaper than standard TWC pricing (not introductory or "deal" pricing), it's still pretty high.

Other thoughts:

The installer was knowledgeable about the TV and Phone aspects of the triple play, was very professional, and was very patient about answering questions. I think he did an excellent job.

He re-used the existing coax to the TV's and the PC, which he said was in very good shape. I had run new RG-6 to one TV and the PC a week before because the old RG-59 wasn't looking too good. If he had to run new coax, I think Verizon would have charged me for the install and it would have taken longer.

I will update this review with the final price per month (after taxes and fees) as soon as I get my first bill and if anything about the service changes.

Any questions, just ask.

Update, July 2013: Went from "Extreme HD" to "Ultimate HD" and added a third STB. The total monthly cost listed above is accurate and includes all taxes and fees.

NFL Redzone is included in "Ultimate HD" as well as a bunch of movie channels.

All three aspects of the triple play are still going strong, no problems to report other than Hurricane Sandy causing me to lose power for about 20 days. Even though it wasn't Verizon's fault, I was issued a credit for that time period. That was pretty cool.

member for 22.1 years, 9633 visits, last login: 4 days ago
updated 10.1 years ago


Rook008
Miles To Go
Premium Member
join:2002-02-05
Far Rockaway, NY

Rook008

Premium Member

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