Verizon FIOS Gets a Speed Boost
As if 30 Mbps down/5 Mbps up wasn’t enough, GigaOm reports that Verizon’s new home fiber optic broadband service, Verizon FIOS, is getting a top speed boost to 50 Mbps down/5 Mbps up in some areas. All that speed can be yours provided you live in the right neighborhood and you have $179/month to spend. At the low end, Verizon FIOS is still an acceptable 5 Mpbs down/2 Mbps up at pricing that is very competitive with cable. Cable companies typically offer a higher theoretical download speed, but considerably slower upload speed.
Is FIOS available in your area yet? Have you switched? Is it worth it?
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Very timely post for me. Just last night I had the 20 down/5 up FiOS installed for the same price I was paying for cable. The installation was a little wonky but now that it’s up it’s really killer. Worth it? For me, no doubt.
What do you mean by “wonky,” Dale? I’d love to know more.
The technicians were slated to arrive between 8am and noon Tuesday. They didn’t arrive until after 1pm because there were problems with the installation they did before mine. They didn’t leave until 6pm and the install wasn’t complete because they claimed that at “the other end” there was one provision for phone and another for Internet. Those had to be combined before the techs could do any more. They called around 4:30pm Wednesday to say they’d be “right over.” They arrived after 6pm and stayed until 6:45pm, when the fix “at the other end” was complete. Getting computers onto the wireless network was effortless once the connection was live. All I needed was the supplied WEP key. The fact is that this is still all so new that many techs just don’t have much experience yet with the installation process.
I did a speed test at Speakeasy.net with my old cable modem and 802.11G Linksys router vs. the FiOS. With cable I had speeds around 1,500. With FiOS I had speeds around 17,000.
More than 10 times the speed for the same price? Done deal!
It was worth it just to call the cable company and tell them “you’re fired!”
FIOS is nice and fast.
actually posted when this ran on gigaom – it’s in my town (outside of boston) and they are pricing 20down/5up at 49.99 versus 72 dollars for 20down/2up from rcn, so a no-brainer there…plus they put the dedicated optical hub in your own digs, not shared like a cable cluster…as for tv, they are also offering this ridiculous package of channels that, including hbo, comes out to circa 20 per month less than rcn…also, they have no modem rental fees, and they are launching with a multiroom dvr for 20 bucks (instead of 13 for a standard) – it holds 80 hours and broadcasts to any other box in the house (those are only 4bucks per month, but you get one free for a year)…overall the package i pu together from them was better than rcn, plus it added hbo and another settop box for dvr/cable and still came out to 70 per month less! …good luck rcn…when i called them, they said they’d give me “20 dollars off per month for 6 months” to stay…let’s see: i can save circa 840 dollars in the next year and get more and better service, or i can stay and save 120 dollars after overpaying by 840…hmmm….
These guys are laying fiber in our neighborhood for the past two months. I’m chomping at the bit for this. Verizon tech support tells me it’ll be soon if they are working here, so….I’m ready to tell Roadrunner “See ya!”.
All that speed can be yours provided you live in the right neighborhood and you have $179/month to spend
Sigh. This price thing gets them in trouble. Verizon publishes $179/month as their “default” top tier price nationwide. However, in every market I’m familiar with, the top tier actually cost $59/month ($55 with one-year commitment). For example, in northern VA it’s 20/5 for $59/month– I should know, I have it. In the areas that just got the speed boost, the 50/5 tier is also $59/month.
That’s interesting, John. I just went with what’s on their website since my address doesn’t pull it up as actually being available yet. I’m paying $44.95/month right now for cable, and on a good day I get 3 Mbps/360 kbps. Would I pay $15 per month more for 50/5 or even 20/5? Let me think about that…um, yup!
I was just wondering if all the extra speed is worth the trouble of switching? I have a pretty fast cable connection and can do most of the things I need to…sometimes streaming video is a bit slow. Are there new things you can do with 10x more speed? Although I guess if it’s the same price, more speed is always good.
I use airport express to be wireless, will upgrading to something faster make much of a difference? I am not really sure how it all works but I thought that once you’re wireless, the speed is based on how your computer and airport communicate. Is this at all true?
Well I live in Woodbridge, VA and Verizon doesn’t even have a DSL connection available at my house yet. If you’re wondering where Woodbridge is, it’s about 20 miles away from Washington, D.C. and 20 miles from Reston, VA, where Verizon started FiOS here in Virginia. In my home country in Guatemala there is DSL service available to virtually anyone who can afford it, even in rural areas. This is extremely disappointing. How can I live in a suburban area in the USA and not be able to get high speed internet, yet people living in a third world country and in rural areas be able to get high speed internet, it’s ridiculous.
Comcast is lackluster at best…. I also live in Woodbridge, and cannot say that I’m lucky enough to have FIOS available to me yet (only some area apartment buildings have it). However, I have been lucky enough to get high speeds consistently. However, their customer service is TERRIBLE.
I’m willing to give Verizon a shot when FIOS shows up, but remember that the grass isn’t always necessarily greener on the other side.. most people I know love FIOS, but I’ve heard of more than a few service issues with them as well (TV being out 5 days, much slower internet speeds than advertised because of Verizon…)
All that said, let me know when it’s more mature, and I’ll be there to take a shot on it.