Verizon has been rolling out its FiOS fiber optics service and has touted its benefits in advertising. Like other providers, the company has been offering a “triple play” — telephone, TV, and Internet services in one package for only $99.99 a month.
Last year’s ads typically looked like this:
While in the big print it claimed “fastest Internet, period”, the package they were advertising actually  provided the slowest speed FiOS offered:
*MOUSE PRINT: “blazing-fast 5/2 Mbps.”
A download speed of 5 Mbps is nothing special (except compared to dial-up and slow DSL speeds). In fact, Comcast’s standard download speed is 6 Mbps. So, some people not knowledgeable about comparative speeds could have been misled.
Fast forward to 2008. Sharp-eyed consumers may have been dismayed to see Verizon’s current advertising for the triple play because the price was no longer $99.99 but rather $109.99.
This time, the company made no superiority claims about the “fastest Internet”, but buried the most important fact in the fine print:
*MOUSE PRINT: “20/5 Mbps blazing-fast Internet”
Verizon actually quadrupled the download speed and more than doubled the upload speed for only $10 more a month (plus a “free” HDTV), when you sign a two-year contract.
For once, the mouse print had good news for customers.
Disclosure: Consumer World, the publisher of Mouse Print*, is a member of Verizon’s Consumer Advisory Board, and receives a small contribution from Verizon to carry out its consumer education mission.
So whats’s the REAL price after 2 years?
Yea, except most customers would’ve been happier with the slower speed and
saving $10 a month
Those numbers mean nothing to me.
My cable speed claims to be that fast, but on average it’s about 1/10th of that. ONE TENTH. Not even close. But I guess they can claim it because there are a couple places you can connect to and get the full speed. The upstreams are relatively even worse. My upstream on this cable connection is the same speed my 56k modem was. I upgraded my DSL to cable with speed promises across the board, it turned out to be a downgrade.
Most of the speed claims are the max you could get if no one else was using it. The problem with getting lower speeds than advertised is that when everyone is using the same server then it will slow down. At least that is how Cable and DSL have worked in the past. When everyone is all using the same line you will get a slower connection. Even on the big T1 lines this happens. My work is very slow during the midday times but very fast in the early morning or late evening as not many people are using it.
I agree with Martin. The new optical fiber cables may be able to transmit the
signal faster but the servers will be a bottle-neck that slows everything
down. In essence Verizon is advertising a race car that doesn’t have a high
performance engine.
Actually, the big shocker to me is, that people are not staggered about the cost of their communication these days. $100 is an enormous monthly bill. And add to that your cell phone bill, which is probably just a bit less. That’s $200 per month, just for phone, tv and internet.
People sometimes wonder how it is they feel thye have less money than 20 years ago. Well, it’s because you pay your tellco a substantial chunk of your acquired wealth!
Oh and for the ‘free marketeers’: Where’s the competition that drives down cost?
Edgar replies: I am told by Verizon that FiOS acts like DSL. So unlike cable which is a shared line (and the more people that use it in your cluster, the slower your speed), FiOS should not degrade speed-wise.
What I don’t like about all these offers are the one or two year contracts for that price. As a consumer, I want to be able to go month to month, so that I have the option of changing if service is poor.
re: Jim
Most cable services do not have commitments. Other than giving you a modem with the self-install kit, there is no apparent additional work, other than entering MAC addresses, etc to adding you to a cable system. DSL requires a modem at the phone company end, therefore there is labor involved, etc.
AT&T wants at least a year with a $200-250 early termination fee, not prorated. DSLExtreme wants about the same.
My Time-Warner high speed internet(So. Cal area) is month-to-month, just like the cable service.
Satellite has the same type of commitments.
I have had Verizon FIOS for almost two years now and am very satisfied. Both upload and download speeds are very fast and I have found the service to be very reliable (NO outages!). Unlike the cable techs that I used to deal with (Cox), the folks who come to your home to install and the tech reps on the phone (support) have been top-notch. My only complaint is that the installation of the fiber in the neighborhood messed up my yard which STILL has not recovered!
“For once, the mouse print had good news for customers.
Disclosure: [this blatant advertisement brought to you by Verison]”
This doesn’t meet the tag-line of “exposing the strings and catches buried in the fine print” of this website. Vendors are allowed to raise their prices when they are clearly stated.
Like Jim above, I want a monthly commitment with a one-month buyout (and/or maybe a one-month buy-in/install). And there are other considerations. To get FIOS, at the moment I would have to move to downtown in the state Capitol: this will probably hold true for two or more years. Having done so, or should I already live there, circumstances might require me to move (apt going condo, whatever), which is OK if I move to another FIOS-available area – but if not, the penalty would be back-breaking.
RE up/down speeds, traffic load is not the only consideration. My cable connection is rated 5meg, and when I download software I usually see that speed on Taskmanager – but often the downloading software is doing more work (look up YENC) and a download may show at under 1meg while CPU performance goes from 4% to 85%.
BTW, I do not own a TV so I get only Internet from my cable provider (Cox, if anyone cares).
And a bit more on cost and monthly commitment: I almost never call out and this company gave me a free (if “obsolete”) cellphone for $10/month (well, $14 after Fed and State junk) –
http://www.consumercellular.com/
Should I need to call out, I can get a package of airtime at approx $0.02/minute but since I average two out-going calls per year I use the $0.25/minute fee.
What Dave said. I have Charter, and they keep jacking up the speeds…and the price. Now the _lowest_ speed you can get is 5 Mbps, and they want to charge you over $50/month for it. 1 Mbps or so would be plenty for me; I don’t mind waiting for a download to finish. But they’re trying to force people into ever-higher monthly fees to arbitrarily discontinuing lower speeds/rates.
The triple play may be a good value, but it’s hard to see what is being offered on the TV side versus satellite. I’ve sent three queries to Verizon, trying to get an accurate pricing on the type of service that I would actually use, and have been unable to get a response. I finally decided just to stay with satellite. At least DirecTV is responsive when a customer asks a question.
FWIW, I have Verizon FIOS for Internet access and, with the exception of the D-Link router which is really bottom of the line, the service has been good.
I’m currently paying $19.99/mo* for DSL from AT&T, $13/mo cable** Time Warner, and <$10/mo phone with long distance at $2/mo “minimum” (aka fee) and 10-cents per minute from AT&T.
* with a 1-year contract, but the speeds are decent so I’ve stuck with it since it was $39.99, then $29.99 now $19.99 with 1-year contracts; I could get $14.99/mo but then I’d have to pay for extra services I don’t use.
** basic-basic cable includes about 24 channels, including all local and a few others; upgrading to standard would cost about $30 extra per month for maybe 4 or 5 worthwhile channels.
So my monthly bill for what Verizon charges $109.99? $45. OK, I don’t get everything they offer, but those things are things I don’t need/want.
FYI
Since I don’t make many calls, I use TracFone and may $20 every 3 months for service and 60 minutes. Every 3 months I seem to net about an extra 40-50 minutes! I really should use it more but I’m just not one to waste my time on the phone when I could be productive on other things like catching up on my reading of consumer issues, politics, etc.
fios is not available in dc. tell them to stop advertising in dc!!!
I have the triple play.The speed is 5/2. The 20/5 speed is offered, but at a
higher price, not the 109.99 price.
This ad does not say you get 20/5 speed , it says you can get “UP TO” 20/5 speed. The price in the ad is for their minimum offering of 5/2. You’ll get the 20/5 speed when you pay extra for it.
Edgar replies: “Bubba”, “up to 20/5” is Verizon-speak for that level of speed/service. It does NOT refer to their lower level service. Since actual speeds that any one household receives can vary, they cover themselves by saying “up to”.
As verizon rep.. that promotion includes the 20/5 speed. What is different from oppose to other provieders ( i.e Time Warner) you share your connection with everyone on your block who has that provider. With verizon FiOS, its just for you!
i just read all of these posts. yes i am a tech for a cable company. verizon uses fiber to run to your house the big boxes they are putting in the air are splitters/combiners they take your whole neighborhood and combine it on one fiber. cable companies use a tdma time domain multiple access basically a timeshare asking every modem if they have info to send. yes your speeds are faster with fios its easy when you have 50 homes out of 1500 using it. not much of a channel line up and not much of an on demand selection. for the millions they are spending to have a basic dish channel line up what a joke. look at it this way your tv wont look better your old computer wont run any better faster its only as fast as the computer that is hooked up to it. if it saves you money switch your local cable company is always bending over backwards to help our customers.
Anyone with any real, and legitamate questions, regarding the FiOS itself, or pricing, please e-mail me at jdkelly28@verizon.net. with your question, and I will be glad to answer it. If you are looking to order verizons FiOS, or just want to check availability I can do that as well. I am a FiOS tech
We have been eagerly awaiting FiOS since Verizon announced it was rolling it out in the Gulf Coast – Sarasota area of Florida, with us to be wired in 2010. Well, the good news is that they are way ahead of schedule, at least in installation of the cables. The install in our neighborhood went well, fast, no disruption or accidental cut lines or pipes, no real damage to lawns or landscaping, etc. And the local FiOS tech put door hangers throughout the neighborhood and answered a lot of questions, mostly technical, when I go hold of him. We were eager to sign up. Then we found a real worrisome front page article in the local paper – The Sarasota Herald-Tribune – that’s caused us to put the order on hold for now. Here are links to that article and an earlier one outlining problems Verizon has been having. Apparently the speedup in burying the cable has gotten way ahead of other necessary preparatory steps, like training the staff to handle sales and problem resolution. Personally, I hung on the phone for over 50 minutes waiting to get through multiple phone trees and hold waits to speak to a FiOS-trained rep, who was very knowledgeable and helpful when I finally go through. Here’s the links:
Where high-tech meets low opinion [
Verizon working to stem flood of complaints
Here’s an earlier Sarasota Herald Tribune story in the same vein:
“Verizon working to stem flood of complaints” http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080327/NEWS/803270521&SearchID=73316824583838
How can you say &100.00 is an enormous fee for telecom. You spend most of your free born life on the internet , phone and watching tv. Not too mention playing video games online against anyone int he country. Don;t you remember the days of your parents yelling at you over the $200.00 phone bill? Some people just live to complain.
Jim, you may be correct about putting the neighborhood on 1 fiber but the capacity of that fiber is of no comparison to the cable infrastructure so it doesn’t matter. As for the channel line up I get 260 channels, over 100 in HD. The only thing that didn’t match up was the lineup offered to me by Comcast and my just dropped Dish account. On demand appears to have every bit of anything Comcast had to offer. As for the quality, there is a clear difference with FIOS. Our HD isnt compressed like Comcast’s or Dish’s. I won’t deny that techs like yourself bust your butt however that does not equate to the cable company doing anything for me as the consumer other than offer the same services for the last 20 years at an ever increasing cost. As for my old computer, it’s 4 years old with PIII processor, 1 GB of memory and 2 mirrored SATAs w/ 80GB each. Bottlenecks caused by pc limitations are almost a thing of the past. I havent always been a Verizon fan either but FIOS is the real deal.
Ok guys, heres the thing, I’m a FiOS sales agent (not promoting myself, i can’t even give you my extension, for I don`t have one), and about the unstated prices, the flyer clearly states ” for as low as”… that’s the starting price, you might also want to get an international calling plan, or maybe you want to get several set top boxes, and the value added services… did anyone know that FiOS offers insurance for your televisions, computers, consoles, peripherals, and stuff? Of course, it’s an extra fee, but it’s well worth it, covers $2500 on tv, $2500 on computers and $400 on telephones for just between $15 – $20 monthly fee. Verizon might just buy you a new television set if yours gets broken.
Besides that, about the speed degradation, copper wire degrades the signal much more than fiber optics, and the traffic right now on FiOS is not that much, and I can assure you, they are getting ready for EVERYONE. Im pretty sure FiOS can’t be the lowest budget choice, but it is deffinitely the fastest out there. (you can get up to 50 Mbts on special orders, just be sure to call your Local Business Office. happy surfing!
So can somebody answer the original reply? How much does FiOS cost after the original two year price guarantee elapses? Comcast’s getallthefacts.com web site alludes to the fact that the cost will rise quickly (up to $400, according to Comcast). Any basis in fact?
ok folks..as an ex cable company contractor and a current verizon fios tech. I can assure you cable companys should be scared….I’m so sick of Comcast and these false commercials . They state if you have 2 or more HD sets 1 of them will go fuzzy….hmmm well. My personal home has 4 and 2 of them are DVR’s I never had a problem.. in the cable world contractors are required to work 6 days work weeks.. averaging 25-30 work orders a day…giving their customers little or no quality service at all… In the verizon world.. I get to spend 4 to 6 hours on 1 fios install.. paying close attention to detail, quality work and teaching the customer anything and everything they need to know.. no charge of course…. what people need to know is when you come home from work and log on the your computer your speed that your paying for is always there…as for cable companys when your neighbors come home .., your sharing all of the bandwith…. aka speed boost for 9.95 a month…what a crock…Verizon is working on getting fios everywhere, it is just taking a very large budget to accomplish it…