| [northeast] Verizon FIOS status in Philadelphia (19118) Hi everyone...
I'm a little confused and maybe someone has some input on the status of FIOS in Philadelphia (Chestnut Hill area). We should have been one of the first to get FIOS in Philadelphia and verizon is still dragging their feet! I've called, signed up online but never get information when we will finally get hooked up. I know some people have gotten it (east of germantown ave.) but around wissahickon valley (fairmount park), we are not that lucky!
Does anyone know the status around here or is there anything that we can do for a faster hookup? My picture in the forest is more or less non existent over antenna since the switch to digital and I would like faster internet 
So any information / help would be greatly appreciated,
philly |
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| I am in East Mt. Airy (19119) and have the same issues/questions. There seemed to be some FIOS build-out activity earlier this year and I know of a few people in the area who have it, but it's limited and not on my block. It seems to be rolling out at a snail's pace -- or maybe not at all at this point. |
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| It's bizarre... I'm worried that they will connect germantown ave and anything close to that a then let the rest fizzle. I'm pretty sure their agreement with the city is clear that everyone in a neighborhood has to be connected. As I live towards the end of a block...
My TV reception went to almost zero when we switched to digital broadcast and I would like to give Verizon more money for the whole package ! (don't have cable)
So at least I'm not alone. Best thing we can do is call Verizon and request FIOS (they should put in a ticket) and sign up for their email list when it's available in our area. What bothers me is that there is no fixed timeline (at least for the customer).
I'll wait a little longer and then see if my council woman can get more information on a timeline. Is that the person/agency to call or would you (all) recommend a different strategy?
Thanks |
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| I think they will get everything connected sooner or later, but right now it looks more like later. I've been nagging Verizon about FIOS ever since they started talking about it, but serious information about their plans is hard to come by.
Hadn't thought about going the council rep route. Might be worth a try, at least to get some info. |
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| I don't trust either Verizon or Comcast but have to admit I don't know enough to be able to judge how large of an undertaking it really is. My issue is that they publish ads and have stands where they say we have covered your area..
I'll look into the councilwoman option and see what they are willing to do... All I would like to hear is yes, your street is slated to done in suchandsuch quarter and go from there.
Cheers |
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| reply to philly
You can also keep an eye on this page.
»www22.verizon.com/about/communit···dex.html
Scroll down to the bottom and find the FTTP construction locations PDF file. It's updated semi-monthly. |
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| Hey nowayout, PERFECT! Thanks this is what I was looking for... I can keep track of what is going on.... I can tell that they are creeping closer to my street I wonder why Verizon doesn't refer customers to this list!
Now if only my street was on it.
Thanks,
Philly |
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| reply to nowayout
Thanks for posting that link. I had it some time ago but lost it. I see my street is on the list now -- along with about a zillion others in Philly. But at least it's on the list, so that's some progress. |
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| reply to philly
Hi,
Verizon have been putting up optical cables along Brown Street and surrounding streets in the Fairmount area (19130) the past couple of weeks. I spoke to a lineman today (9/3/10) who estimated FIOS will be available in 1 to 1.5 months.
I afraid that does not help "philly" in Chestnut Hill, but maybe they will get up there next. |
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| Ouch! ;( At least people are seeing the linesmen putting something in. I hadn't seen them along my route to work and got worried that Verizon had scaled back their efforts.
At this point all I/we can do is wait BUT now I have some indication on where they are working...
Thanks everyone,
Philly
PS: @Phillysim thanks for asking how long it takes once they put in the cable... |
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 ARKx
join:2005-02-13
Philadelphia, PA | reply to philly
Hi Everyone,
I'll take it a few steps further; here are ZIP packages of all the month's posts as far back as January 2009. FYI, there are 2 months so far in 2010 that are missing. I know, Verizon never posted them, March and July.
-Alan. |
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ARKx
join:2005-02-13
Philadelphia, PA | reply to philly
FiOS ConduitCrewG&A |
If any of you are interested I'm off PHLAPARE CO, aka Regent, 19134. 11/17/09 I saw a Danella crew with spool of orange conduit, NO fiber-optic cable. I asked one of them about and he said it was for FiOS to be available this year 2010. It was at the intersection near our house, here's the photo. On 8/25/10 we upgraded to the 4 to 7Mbps DSL tier and were bumped up to ADSL2+, and I know our CO is FiOS active just not our side of Lehigh Ave/old railroad structure.
-Alan. |
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| reply to ARKx
Thanks for all of that. I see my street has been on the list since at least April of this year. (Can't tell about March; it wasn't on in Feb.)
I guess that's progress of a sort, just kinda slow. |
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| reply to philly
WOW, thanks for the picture and stats Alan. I guess it will take longer for me I can't get higher DSL than 3Mbps (how can I check if ADSL2+ ?). Guess that is the problem living near the wissahickon in the park. Not densely populated and so probably on the bottom of the list. Haven't seen a truck near me and my street hasn't been listed. The only reason that I had been hopeful is when they started it was in Chestnut Hill and they said it would be the first neighborhood connected. Ah well, at least I now KNOW they are working and can hope that I get lucky. But it certainly takes a long time once we see a truck.
Again thanks to all for helping me with info about the process and where to check the work areas |
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Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
| reply to philly
Hey shutupndig, what street are you on? I'm 19150 on Mt. pleasant and we are wired, but I have yet to bite for personal reasons, and I'm fairly confident that all of Mt. pleasant and the surrounding neiborhoods going all the way down to Lincoln Drive is wired so I am surprised to hear that you are in 19119 and not wired.
I wouldn't know what else to recommend other than maybe flat out asking any techs you might drive by while in the neighborhood. In fact, I saw some techs working again earlier in the day (9/10), so you've gotta be getting wired sooner rather than later I'd imagine.
Good luck! |
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ARKx
join:2005-02-13
Philadelphia, PA | reply to philly
Hi everyone, you're all welcome for the pic and uploads. I'm just glad I can help, that annoying DSL sync issue started again Sun. 9/12/10. On and off since 2:30PM and just came out of another loss of sync from 11:32-11:40.
Anyway, I found a lot of detail from Jim a tech that came to our house in June and arrived in one of those FiOS vans. He was doing FiOS installs and showed me all of the equipment options going into Philly installs; ONTs, Routers, etc. the really neat thing was the Alcatel-Lucent indoor ONT with a built-in UPS no need for the big external thing in suburbia.
Philly, with regards to your ADSL2+ question it's being rolled out on COs that are already FiOS active, especially where DSL customers don't yet have FiOS available, but their CO has FiOS available in parts, first. Then eventually all COs in VZ's footprint, especially FiOS areas will get converted. It along with the new 10-15Mbps downstream tier is VZ's way of keeping DSL customers who don't want or need to move over to FiOS when it is available to them. Or if FiOS is not available a way to keep them instead of migrating to Comcast and back to VZ for FiOS. I don't reccommond switching just stick with VZ as long as it takes, the migration should be better and you'll still have the same email addresses from DSL to FiOS. I have other reasons too, but I won't go into them unless someone is interested. A great way to speed the process is upgrade to the 4-7Mbps tier, especially if you're on a longer loop like we are, 11,000-12,400ft, that's how we got ours. If you can't get that tier, check out the list I've attached, and find your CO through BBRs tool, or call DSL tech support and pray you get someone knowledgable enough to know what you're talking about and give you the answer. Also, calling the FiOS sales line would help too, and ask them what your official Verizon CO name is. In the above PDF jump to pages 57, & 61 for a map and list of COs and where they fit into VZ's timeline. With all that and some research/interpretation you should be able to figure out roughly how much longer before you can expect to see FiOS or ADSL2+.
Hope all this helps,
Alan. |
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| What a wealth of information Alan (ARKx) is. I'll just start my post with a thank you for your time and effort in digging up this information and then actively posting this for Philadelphia area residents! Yes, we had the DSL sync issue as well ;(
My CO is PHLAPACH (probably not a big surprise! ) I couldn't find out the distance I checked it a looonnnnggggg time ago and only remember that it had five digits ! As DSLreports had to close down the calculator I don't have that information. According to the agreement you provided I'm in a phase 1 area (CH was the first neighborhood they started with).
The issue was less with a switch to Comcast and more to see how long it would be for FIOS because of TV and Verizon always wants to sell me directtv (not going to happen). I need to check on the 4-7 plan, for whatever reason I thought it wasn't offered for me but I'll check (and signup) .
The way I read page 61 I should be covered within four years as of 2009 so "only" a maximum of another three years!
The information you provided at least gives me a ballpark figure and with the link to the street work area I can keep track of what is going on. IF they offer 4/7 I'll upgrade to help jump start the FIOS process in my area.
As for your other reasons I'm always interested in learning from someone who clearly follows this much closer than I have.
Again thanks, |
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ARKx
join:2005-02-13
Philadelphia, PA | reply to philly
Oh, I forgot. I saw a VZ issue cable crew at Large and Bleigh in the NE late last year/early this year and picked their brains a little about FiOS. I found out that there are about 4 different crews involved with deploying FiOS before you can expect the fiber to be lit up. 1) 3rd party contractor to run conduit, i.e. Danella, Carr & Duff, etc. 2) VZ issue cable guys actually pulling the fiber-optic cable down into manholes and through the conduit to its resting place on the pole. 3) Splicing crews, actually fusing the fiber/splicing it into FDHs(Fiber Distribution Hubs), OLTs(Optical Line Terminals), etc. 4) The diagnostic and testing crew. They light up fiber runs from the CO to a pole and run a battery of tests on it to ensure it's performing properly and there are no defect at all in the chain. The timeframe I was given by the guys at Bleigh and Large was about 1-4 months from the time the VZ cable crews finish up. At least here in Philly that's the case.
Philly, sounds good, all any of us here in the forums can give each other is a ballpark figure; unless we find a member working in our own CO knowledgable of pertinent info. I hope you will qualify for the 4-7Mbps tier, not sure of distance requirements though, I'm assuming anyone less than 15,000 or 18,000 feet. You never know call the 800-567-6789 number check with billing, they handle provisioning.
Interested in other details uh. Ok, switching to multiple providers instead of sticking with one after every contract expires or you find a better deal is never a good idea. This opens the door for problems like; extended outages between services, new service screwups creating more unnecessary headaches. Additional monitoring, capping, pesky emails saying your service will get disconnected if don't cut your usage, etc. Then inevitably when FiOS is available to you you'll switch back to Verizon only to deal with their red tape all over again, but possibly worse as a new customer. Besides there's a lot more said about being a long-time reliable customer than a short-term one who can't commit. In other words, realizing that Verizon has provided us with the quality of service I want and like, I will reward them by not giving up on them for not moving at my pace regarding new product roll-outs, i.e. FiOS. In time they will NOT dissapoint me it just takes a lot of patience. Those who can't commit to one provider will always enocunter problems, this is the Internet, TV, phone, choice they've made deserve all headaches they will encounter. My life is messy enough why make it worse switching back and forth between a new Internet, TV, & phone provider every damn year or 2. When you inevitably do encounter problems stick with them, escalate to tier 3 tech support and you'll come of the situation with at least a 2-3 month credit in service. Verizon is best for POTS, and internet, why do you think those stupid taxes are so high? To keep the government happy and keep our phones working 24x7x365, w./ 99.99% up time. That's a lot of politicians to keep happy at the FCC and congress. If our line quality wasn't as bad as it is I'm 99% sure that we would not have had any service interuption at all these past 6 months. I think that's enough for public reading, forever.
In case you were wondering I majored in Information Technology in college, and I've been researching FiOS since the first initial suburban community in Keller, TX back in 2004. I plan on posting a thread with a PDF report complete w./ pictures of my install when we finally do order it at 25/25 or better depending on what that $65 a month tier offer at the time of ordering. I think I covered everything.
Glad you enjoy my ramblings and info,
Alan. |
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| reply to Time Fire
I'm on Gorgas between Chew and Boyer. I see what I think is FIOS cable coming down both Chew and Boyer and stopping in the middle of the block between Gorgas and Sedgwick. The Chew line has been hanging there for some time. The line on Boyer appeared more recently. So it seems to be coming, just very slowly.
Meanwhile, my DSL service has become very spotty over the past two months, being nearly unusable most weekday evenings, and the constant barrage of offers from Comcast (er.. I mean xfinity) look increasingly enticing. I'd really like to stick with Verizon DSL until FIOS is here, but they don't seem able to resolve this DSL issue.
All in all, it's frustrating. |
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| reply to philly
@ARKx thanks for taking the time. Yes, I agree in general with your statements regarding Verizon and being a loyal customer. The one frustrating aspect is sales. I understand they need to market FIOS but getting FIOS flyers and seeing stands at fairs is a little presumptuous if then cannot deliver the service to a large slice of that area. Also they should do a better job of giving people a timetable. I understand that cuts into their flexibility but they could give us a "quarter" estimate. I've always been with Verizon and other than their DSL disconnects I've been pretty happy. I just switched to their unlimited international calling plan and have pleasantly surprised. I had an AT&T plan and thought my verizon line was bad. The techs tested and retested the line and found only minor issues. Once I switched from AT&T to Verizon (to have all on one bill AND cheaper) the quality improved dramatically.
I'll give Verizon a call and see what they can do for DSL plus I believe that they probably do keep track of FIOS requests and might adjust their plans marginally if they know that on a specific block they will have some users.
@shutupndig... It sounds like they are creeping up on you.. GL Also it's interesting to get the background information on how long it takes once they start until you get hooked up.
I have two schools close by and hoped that they would push for a faster hookup but sadly haven't seen any effort from them. Ah well, it at least seems like the DSL is working today... I'll take that |
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