Verizon FiOS → [Northeast] as-is fios services

Has anyone else heard about the new Verizon program to "upgrade" all those people with chronic speed issues to a new speed package for increased reliability.
So it appears after they've sold the hell out of their "quantum" speed upgrades the old BPON equipment isn't working as expected. So, to combat this we can "upgrade" you all again, for an added cost of course, to the GPON platform.
Now for the best part, lets say you tell them you're ok with your current speeds you just want them to work. If you say no to the value added "upgrade" your account is then deemed "as-is" and a note is placed on your account that says, "Customer has accepted FiOS data service at best-effort performance, causing limited speed capability. Supervisor approval is required for and data service issues other than oos condition."
Has anyone else encountered this?

I experienced something similar some months ago. I'm in an apartment complex and Verizon's BPON was failing everyday. A tech would be there almost every other day to reset the box. It would fail again within hours. Essentially we had 5 weeks of no internet and VOD. They finally installed a new GPON. All the FIOS customers were moved to the new box but we had to get new accounts. I continually asked if I would have to pay more each month. Was always told no rate increase whatsoever. Well shock and surprise on the first bill. Not only was I charged substantially more we were also hit with with installation, activation fees and new contracts. I had to fight with billing to get the costs back to what I was paying before. Thankfully I kept every email from the supervisors.

Wow that's a crappy new policy, but it sure fits for Verizon.

When you get these slow speeds what is the response or packet loss to your gateway IP when you try to ping it?

We all predicted on here BPON would go to hell soon as we saw that they were provisioning 75/35 on BPON. Most people on here were expecting them to put that on GPON because it would saturate BPON pretty quickly. I cut it in the nip, upgraded to 150/35 right before Quantum for a month or two mainly just to get GPON, then downgraded back to the Quantum 75/35 speed so I have it on GPON. I was actually planning on keeping the 150/35 or 150/65 speed but they priced it above what I was expecting them to, so I downgraded back to 75/35.

It sucks but that's the only way I see around it if tech support won't install a new PON switch in your area to relieve the load.

You're alternative is to keep whining and complaining to tech support. Waste as much of their time and money as you can so they see just upgrading you is more cost effective than wasting tech support hours. Who knows they may actually fix the issue by installing a new BPON splitter for your area to ease congestion.

If your gateway is fine and your speeds still suck that indicates your backbone is hosed in your area. Quantum isn't only saturating the PON switches, it's saturating Verizon's backbone as a whole. That's why you see all these slow and crappy Netflix/Youtube threads on here recently.

The Netflix/Youtube problems are peering related, not backbone. Verizon has plenty of long-haul capacity but that isn't worth a whole lot when your peering links are running too hot.

Yeah, and upgrading everyone on your network to 2x the speed they had a few years before is the reason for the peering problems.

Saturated backbone = saturated peering ports

We'll agree to disagree. Verizon's backbone is NOT saturated. (Don't confuse backbone, with peering or metro last-mile.) They have huge long-haul capacity with plenty of overhead, but SOME of their peering desperately needs upgraded.

Further, they also have a simple drop-in solution (swap just the endpoint optics) to raise their remaining 40G long-haul to 100G as those links warrant.

Some of their peering links are absolutely congested, and that's mainly a result of rapid streaming growth. You would most likely see this even without the Quantum tiers, since streaming doesn't require anywhere near Quantum speeds. But when you have a million subscribers drawing 3+ Mbps streams, it adds up fast. They're trying to monetize it by forcing certain peers into paid-peering arrangements, and as a result their customers are suffering while they rattle sabres and posture themselves. SHAME on Verizon for that, ESPECIALLY when they continue raising prices.

But congestion isn't universal. I almost always get HD streams from Netflix any time of day or night, with fast buffering. Traceroute shows this region peers with Cogent in Miami. Apparently the Miami exchange doesn't (yet?) have a capacity problem. Other regions aren't so lucky.

Anology: You buy a Corvette that can do 180Mph. The speeds in your local neighbornood are 180Mph. You're happy. But, eventually you have to leave your neighborhood to go shopping, go to the doctor etc etc... The 5 roads that lead in/out of your neighborhood all have 45Mph speed limits. Your 180Mph Corvette won't do you any good when you have to slow down to 45Mph to get out of the neighborhood.

What batsona said!

I think in Verizon's case it would be more like 15mph instead of 45mph, with a serious speed bump--those 3-in-row thingies--every 100 feet.