Verizon Has Been Quietly Increasing FiOS Fees

can you maximize potential very much if you start chasing customers away? (I'm gone.)

Also, Verizon's refusal to sufficiently support their interconnects (more ports, please) for video traffic from Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, Crunchyroll, and others certainly doesn't help make FiOS more attractive to customers.

Glad I left these fucks too. They won't get me back as a customer unless they make some big changes. I paid more than I do now with OOL and got less than half the speed. What's the point of FTTH if you're not gonna utilise its potential? Exactly NONE (for the consumer).

Good riddance VZ.

FiOS has been available in my neighborhood since around 2009. I have had zero interest in it. I stick with Cablevision for Internet only and gave up the video service. I plan to ditch my landline too. Frankly it is kind of disheartening to see this duopoly settling in and basically ratcheting up prices without any market pressure. WE DO NOT NEED NEW REGULATION! We need a vibrant market place for service.

How does one accomplish one without the other? If, as you say, a duopoly exists and that is not stopping Verizon....?

Less regulation. Every time a cable company wires a town, they have to cut deals with the town before they can go live. Eliminate that corruption and make it easier to deploy.

A lot of these newer franchise agreements (especially with TelcoTV) are written by and large by the carriers. Deregulation has largely been a constant drumbeat.

Then explain the lack of build-out in states where they got rid of local franchising.

If they don't think they'll make money, they won't do it. I'm just saying that we should make it easier for them to build out rather than trying to milk them (which winds up being us).

Before they entered the TV market, Verizon and AT&T went state to state in many places gutting traditional franchise obligations entirely. In some states (like Wisconsin), the bills gave them everything they wanted and more, including the ability to ignore eminent domain laws and totally strip consumer protections, while asking virtually nothing of them.

Were your theory right, Wisconsin should be a wonderland of connectivity at this exact moment.

There probably isn't a large enough population in those areas to make the tremendous cost of creating new infrastructure worth it.

In part. But some of those old franchise agreements we discarded are the only reason many people currently have cable TV. The inverse of what you're suggesting can actually be true, in that by requiring less of them, they do the bare minimum. Great for them and investors, not so great for users.

That's true. I'm thinking of the corruption type regulation - like we need a new fire engine, or we want a new TV studio so that we can do the local broadcasts. Or the property tax on utility poles which was never supposed to happen. I agree that if they are going to wire a town, they should wire (mostly) everywhere so that as many residents as possible have access. I don't think that they should be forced to start laying fiber down a mile long driveway so that one person can have access though.

Some of them were awful over the years, definitely. All kinds of obnoxious jumping through hoops. Seems like we could reform them so they make everybody happy. Problem is, from what I've seen, a lot of states just basically pass telco "wish list" legislation and hope for the best.

So how come the power company can wire all those homes and businesses, but the internet companies can't? Hmm?

Source?

I signed up for FIOS only 1 month ago and already regret it. It makes me sick giving money to a company like Verizon. However, I'm glad my "deal" is locked in for 2 years and all the nickel-and-diming won't affect me. Cablevision, I'll see you when my contract is up!

Time for a rent to own law for boxes that are needed yes both TV and HSI / Phone. (Yes for some stuff you can buy your own but some how end missing out of stuff that you can only get with an rented box)

And for TV you still have to rent the cable card.

Again, laws are not needed. People have been renting stuff like this for years. DirecTV and Dish were some of the first to require STBs on TVs and still do. Regulation is NOT always the answer.

.... Promo time is over, time to harvest from those without a copper choice left.

Shame on you for throwing logic on a discussion! Stop that right now.

Sorry!
It's fiber it's better than anything and (coming soon) twice the price

What is really happening is they are trying to drive away customers so they can claim it was a failure and sell it off ! The future is wireless to these people.

I don't get how they can be so short sighted. To basically say that the union is the reason behind the cost. And that is the reason that they are killing this.

...after the death of the Actiontec router they supplied me. They claimed it was "out of warranty".

I pointed out that their router was required for me to use my FIOS TV subscription (Program Guide, VoD, PPV, etc.), and that if I had to buy another router, I was going to buy a less expensive and more reliable router for just the 'Net, and drop my FIOS TV subscription.

The customer service rep quickly authorized a new router to be sent to me, free of charge.

That is a nice story unless you have a MoCA WAN (coax) out of your ONT then you are forced to use an Actiontec.

My ONT WAN is ethernet however Verizon was clear that the AT was still needed for support, so I use it for wifi coverage in the basement ONLY. It is not in my core network chain.

While they caved for now, be aware that game will be limited and the "I beat the system" stories will disappear....They are probably testing consumer reaction to such events and putting them in their little BA database to draw up their 2.0 scripts where the hammer will come down.

And if you think you are hurting them by dropping TV you are dead wrong. The margin on just HSI is crazy high, and TV customers while raising the ARPU drag margins like no tomorrow. So expect STB fees to keep going up just like your taxes. Your only reprieve is CableCard....for now.

I would pick up a cheap AT on ebay NOW before they introduce the fee across the board, otherwise it will be like when TWC jacked their fees a Moto 6141 went to $150 and now you can get it for $70.

I keep one in my basement in case Verizon sasses me, and they are out the door.

The only issue I can think of is that Verizon mandates certain rev (say I or newer) to keep them in "warranty" or whatever scheme they can come up to make profit on a new "warrantied" router purchase or hit you with the $5 (going up no doubt) initial modem fee. That game is played pretty regularly on my parents up in Canada for TPIA.

As a worst case you can always use it as a MoCA endpoint....

You can always ask them to switch the ONT provisioning from COAX to Ethernet and skip their router altogether, if you have only FIOS internet. I've been using my own router since 2007, the AT acts only as a wireless AP.

Executives are breaking out the Bagels

Comcast recently announced doubling their HSI tier speeds when bundled in a double or triple play. Performance 28/5 is becoming 50/10.
Meanwhile VZs FIOS base tier is 15/5 if I recall, and just as expensive as Comcasts standalone Performance internet. Actually, a freind got a good deal with CC ($35 a month for Performance + Arris Gateway rental for 1 year, goes up to $65 after that).

What does VZ want to do, price FIOS into oblivion? They are 8 years behind on their FIOS deployment where I live (only covering 1 high end small subdivision, when they need to cover the entire town per County agreement), and due to catch up by Summer 2014 with a construction blitz, but by then how will they win customers over with higher priced, slower tiers on the low end? In this specific town, Comcast has taken good care of its plant.

When you look at triple plays though, VZs offerings look better. Their "Option 2" compares pretty well with my current Starter XF triple play, the TV from FIOS is probably better. And if the fees are not too high for equipment, it would turn out a bit cheaper than the deal I have with Comcast now...plus the much better latency and upload on the fiber.

Both the CableCo and the TelCo are ducks - they both quack the same now...fees left and right.

$5 Router Rental fee...do you all get charged an ONT rental fee too or no? I am curious about this. CC is moving its EMTA rental up to $8 which is thievery on a 2 year old Arris TM722G.

SHHHH. Don't say that around here. It's Fiber and by VZ so it's gotta be better regardless if cable is picking up speed over them.

Here in cablevision territory their middle packages are the same speeds 50/25

Verizon has been raising my rates each month for the same service for the last several months. When I removed some movie channels ( Starz/Encore), my bill went up even higher! Last month, I moved and used their automove feature. Now I have a phantom 2nd DVR fee for a DVR I have never owned and when I looked at the bill, it looks like they removed all my services last month and readded them at a higher rate! So my bill went from $150 in June to $180 ( and I have less services).

The credit they gave me for calling in last month has not been applied to this month bill either. Whenever I call and complain, the next month it's even worse!

Time to be on the phone for another hour again.

If I could charge them for my time, I would. I really like the service, but I hate the billing.

get in touch with your state's public utilities - they will often clean up billing disputes quickly.

Verizon and Google are the only major Companies that offer FTTH, so if you need a Big Pipe for your HD Streaming and uploads and downloads don't start crying when you can't get it! This is exactly why Verizon stopped deployment of their FiOS.

Just to let you guys know they are still advertising free router. That's now considered false advertising.

Perhaps they are still providing it with some promotions?

Only reason I switched from OOL to FIOS was latency I get 20 ms To European countries and 7 ms or less within US, whereas I used to average 40ms within US on OOL

FIOS has fierce competition everywhere it is deployed from cable companies, including Comcast, Cox, TWC, and Cablevision. So "no competition" in this case is BS. For the cable companies though, most of their territory is still a monopoly or darn close to one (sorry guys, 3mbps DSL doesn't count).

What's also weird is that with all this additional revenue coming in, you'd think they would want to start building again, as they are making money like crazy off of it. But they still succumb to short-sighted investors.

From purely and economics standpoint....

Verizion seems to be spending their energy adding new fees and not improving their product. Usually that is a sign of a business without fierce competition.

Or they believe that they have the differentiation between their product and the competitors' that they don't have to compete on price. It does put the cable companies in a weird position to be getting competition from below in some state from U-Verse, and competition from above in others from FIOS.

While I sit here and continue waiting for something Fiber related to show up at my door, I just cannot fathom how far the FiOS product has fallen in appeal to me. Tons still appreciate it and love it. This is more of a case of how FiOS used to be Verizon's Baby, and how it is now sort-of that and a moneybag for them. The closer they position themselves to what cable companies do, or worse, the less appealing the product is.

Anyways, here's a money saving thought. Why not fix the firmware on the ActionTec routers to the point where the company isn't having to pay UPS/FedEx/DHL and ActionTec (for manufacturing) for sending out a new router? Also, why not spend the extra dollar it takes to make a router last for an extra year or two in a lifetime (I'm talking about putting in a better wireless setup)?

I agree with you 100%. Also, some routers do not just have buggy firmware - I have a box called the "Verizon Graveyard" with 3 dead routers in it. The first one I never sent an RMA for since I stopped using it, the second one literally died, and the third one as well.

I'm on business fios and it's sad that I was paying $120/month a few years ago for 35/35 with a static IP and it increased to $145. Now I'm on business dynamic, but they did away with the 35/35 and only offer 75/35... same price as I was paying before.

If I didn't have FiOS for business reasons, I'd honestly consider dropping them for optimum online. But I need the high quality connection and reliability where most others do not.

Add in the fact that FiOS at least in the northeast sucks with youtube and other google services (I don't care who's fault it is) and has issues with netflix, whatever the speed, the product is not as attractive as it once was.

This sucks but it's no different than cable companies charging modem rental. Didn't help that former customers always kept the router upon disconnection which raised costs for verizon. Comcast , verizon, all these guys charge sports or broadcast surcharge and now more rental fees.

Last month: $5.99
This Month: $7.99

They really want me to put an HD STB on there lol

Sad but I got FIOS to come to my hood back in 2008 and was one of the first ones in the city to get the service. Over time I kept cutting back on the service. First TV. Then landline. Now down to naked internet. Speed is 50/25. Bill still to high. Paid 10.00 to jack speed up from 15/5. That was a waste of 10.00. So now Im looking at lumping all my internet with T mob, net zero or somebody thats cheaper. Unlimited LTE my be the future. FIOS is gold plated internet. As is TWC. People think this is a deal as its just "monthly" fee. Just look at total communication costs you pay per year. All of it. Bundling is also a scam. Sure you save but only if you jack the total bill up. My bill just went up 10.00 mo for no reason. No changes. No equip charges. Some one at the top needs more money. So I have to vote with my wallet. Ill tell that to vz. If they want to listen fine. If not Im looking elsewhere if I can.

Oh yeah and I cant wait for FIOS to be the test market for the "new" "non neutral" restricted internet. Oh thats coming. Sooner than you think. And dont forget it was verizon that sued the FCC and took it all way up the courts until they got what they wanted. Then lied to everyone and said nothing will change. hahahahah

Posted here in the direct form that I was having trouble with the existing actiontec I've been using since I had FiOS installed. Got a replacement two days later in the mail and it was one of the newest ones.

Cablevision really needs to bump up their marketing. This would make fios a lot more expensive then optimum .Cablevision doesn't charge you a cablemodem rental fee or a router rental fee.

I posted on the Fios forum earlier this month about this increase.

:as of Jan 2014, my rate for just Fios Internet increase from $44.99 to $52.99 for the same speed, no other features or additional bonus:

That is $96 MORE a year.

Verizon also "quietly" removed their "$10/month" more for Quantum upgrade.

I had to call and get someone to explain this increase, and then mull going with "Quantum for $12/month more". (Actually +$4 ontop of the $8 increase).

I am now paying $144/yr more. But I am getting 50/25 speeds (more actually but we know that overhead is for phone/TV if used).

I went from $540/yr to $684/yr. People fail to see the "annual" costs... rather than the smaller number $56.99/month...

(If I raised my hourly rate to clients from $75/hr to $90/hr...they would find someone else)

Yep same here, only I was paying $79.99 per month for just 35/15 internet, and all of a sudden the bill jumped to $87.99. Apparently Verizon admitted it was an across the board $8 increase for all internet only customers not in contract. I went ahead and did the $10 more for quantum also, just to feel like I was getting something. And decided to purchase their newest modem so now I won't have to send anything back if I cut off service.