Verizon Fios triple play

thanks, @jgberkeley. That's good to know. This is the power supply box--I can't see any way to simply unplug it; it seems to be hard-wired. I guess this is just one more question for Verizon's helpful representatives.

sac said:

No FIOS in your neck of CT, @PeggyC??

Doesn't AT&T have something similar?

No and no, most unfortunately. AT&T has a deal with DirecTV, and that seems to be all they do up here. As far as I could find out, there is no real equivalent up here. The population is too thinly spread for it to be worth their time and money installing the cable for it.

Edited to add: Normal cable is available, but the local provider has such a bad reputation I thought AT&T would be better. Boy, was I wrong. The Internet service sucks so bad I can hardly believe it. I end up having to reboot about once a week, sometimes daily, to get any wireless connectivity at all.

ril said:

thanks, @jgberkeley. That's good to know. This is the power supply box--I can't see any way to simply unplug it; it seems to be hard-wired. I guess this is just one more question for Verizon's helpful representatives.

My experence was that the High Voltage was the AC power cord that you just un plug. All the rest of the wires are low voltage feeding out to your devices. Since you are not using them, just cut or remove the wires.

@jgberkeley-- there's no outlet in or even near the closet to unplug it from; when they did the install, they ran wires thru the walls (I think, it was a while ago, and I wasn't watching as they did it). I'm leery of playing with live wires. (this is an apartment, I don't even know how to shut off the electricity). I'll ask them when I call, and report back (next week, after the holidays)

AT&T has an offering called Uverse (I think) that I assumed was similar. But maybe not (or maybe it hasn't made it to the boonies, yet?)

Call Verizon then, gooder plan.

AT&T U-verse isn't available in this part of the country, for some reason. Friends in the Midwest have it and like it, but I don't think you can find it farther east than Detroit.

PeggyC said:

sac said:

No FIOS in your neck of CT, @PeggyC??

Doesn't AT&T have something similar?

No and no, most unfortunately. AT&T has a deal with DirecTV, and that seems to be all they do up here. As far as I could find out, there is no real equivalent up here. The population is too thinly spread for it to be worth their time and money installing the cable for it.

Edited to add: Normal cable is available, but the local provider has such a bad reputation I thought AT&T would be better. Boy, was I wrong. The Internet service sucks so bad I can hardly believe it. I end up having to reboot about once a week, sometimes daily, to get any wireless connectivity at all.

Do you have DSL? I think that's what DirecTV offers in its bundles. If so, it uses regular phone lines and is very slow compared to cable.

Yes, it's DSL. UGH, ugh, ugh. I think they do have U-Verse up here, though, since the Verizon Wireless store was promoting it in Dayville, which is right up the road. (That makes it Verizon, right, not AT&T?) I'm not familiar enough with it yet to feel confident getting it... plus, we had already signed up for AT&T's bundle. It's such a damn PITA choosing a provider and system, and I hate the idea of all the B.S. involved in switching.

Can someone explain U-Verse to me in small words and non-tech-speak? I didn't really grasp the content in the materials at the Verizon Wireless store on a quick read while standing at the counter getting our new iPhones.

U-Verse is really just AT&T's version of FiOS. Internet, phone, and TV delivered over fiber-optic connection. It is exclusively an AT&T product, though, so it must have been something else that Verizon was promoting. I'm pretty sure U-Verse isn't available in Connecticut, but you can find out by going to their locator.

H'mm. Wonder what I was looking at, then? This sounds so familiar. As I'm thinking about it, it seems to me that what I was reading about had something to do with Apple. I need to go back and look at those promotional materials more closely.

And I guess what isn't available yet in CT is the services that rely on fiber-optic cables that haven't been installed yet in this more rural area. That's a pretty big task for the providers, I know, and probably the business model doesn't support installing them in areas that don't have the potential customer density. *sigh*

Maybe look at HughesNet satellite Internet? My boss who lives in the boondocks of Virginia uses it.

I'm not sure, but they may use the term U-verse for any of their services, whether over fiber or not. They do have fiber service in some places, and I believe they do have it in some pockets of CT. When their fiber service is available, it's the best you can get from anywhere in your area, but it's not as good as Verizon FIOS. FIOS is the best offering in the country, as far as I know.

Where I live now, the best we can get is Time Warner Cable, which is annoying. Downloads are about 15 Mb, which is certainly good enough, but it's not consistent, and the uploads are never more than 1 Mb. Not good! FIOS is coming eventually, but I can't get a rollout plan. I've looked. I stopped a technician in the street, and he said the plan isn't available, or at least he doesn't know where one can get it.

PeggyC, customer density is one parameter, and so is customer income. Verizon is stringing up the richer neighborhoods before the poorer neighborhoods. They've received some criticism for it, but I understand it makes good business sense.

Tom, I would guess they have more services in areas like Hartford or along the coast of Long Island Sound, where there are a lot more cosmopolitan towns and denser suburbs. And, as you say, more rich folk.

I miss FIOS.

I can't believe you aren't able to get it all over Manhattan!

They are planning on bringing it through all of Manhattan, but imagine what a big job it is to string up the entire island with cables. I'm surprised at their progress already, though I've read lots of criticism of it. I see that a couple of people within two blocks have it, but that doesn't necessarily translate that into bringing it here being easy. My building has only 12 apartments, so I don't expect to be a high priority for them. I wish I could just know what their plan is!

And I am very quick to criticize big companies, but in my experience, FIOS is a class act. Customer service is excellent as well as the connectivity itself. The only problem is billing.

meta, I'm impressed with your experience with Cablevision. Overall, I hear bad things about them, but they do some things well, obviously.

Sadly, FIOS has dropped any plans for further expansion, going by what I've read online today. That makes me gnash my teeth and rend my garments. Oh, well. Tom, if people within a couple of blocks have it already, you have a much better chance of getting that extended to your building. I think proximity is definitely in your favor.

This is what I get at work:

Agreed. Sorry for you, PeggyC. What about cable modem? In general, it doesn't suck that much, as meta points out.

We still have DSL at work. Soon we will upgrade to FIOS.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2945049031.png

fabulouswalls said:

We still have DSL at work. Soon we will upgrade to FIOS.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2945049031.png

Gosh I hope so

Here's what I got at work.

Yowsers!

I think that FIOS is part of their business plan for eventually getting rid of copper wire altogether, so I think it will get to everywhere Verizon serves with telephone service, at least eventually. But there are lots of areas of the country where other providers (AT&T in particular) are the traditional phone service, so not sure about those. And that might be why U-verse is stronger in some areas. I know it was available to my parents, for example, but AT&T was their (landline) phone service provider.

FabulousWalls, you know it's a tiny company when it can still manage with DSL.

Tom_Reingold said:

meta, I'm impressed with your experience with Cablevision. Overall, I hear bad things about them, but they do some things well, obviously.

Their repair service is good, too. After the Snow-pocalypse storm tore the wires off the house (and everyone else's on the street), I waited two days to call for repairs. I figured, what was the rush? When I did call, I figured there'd still be a long wait, but they were here within a few hours, ran a new line, and we wre up and running.

Aside from the insanely fast speed, getting free Wifi all over the place is terrific. It saves me from having to use the cellular data on my iPhone. I do have unlimited data at the moment, but that'll end soon when I upgrade to the 5S in a month, and Melech Ric gets my 4S. Besides, with up to 15 devices allowed, I can let a friend or two use it with their cell phones, too. (shhhhhh, don't tell anyone).


Whoops, the speed slipped a little. Peggy, it'd be best not to look. :p

SO not fair!!!!!!!!!! I only have two options up here, and neither is good!

PeggyC said:

SO not fair!!!!!!!!!! I only have two options up here, and neither is good!

Some friends of ours who moved to the boonies of Virginia have some kind of satellite internet. Is that an option? (I don't know how fast it is, though.)

Well, there's always