FiOS vs Comcast HD

It appears by the furious action of Verizon trucks in the neighborhood, that
FiOS is close at hand.

What are the actual experiences of people who have moved from Comcast (HD
and internet) to FiOS?

On Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:42:13 -0400, "RSweeney"
wrote:

It appears by the furious action of Verizon trucks in the neighborhood, that
FiOS is close at hand.

What are the actual experiences of people who have moved from Comcast (HD
and internet) to FiOS?


I can only speak for the internet service, which has been outstanding.
Same price (actually a bit less as there are not as many fees for some
reason) and FAST. I average about 11mbs on the 15mbs plan. Outages
have been few and far between in the 6 months that I've had it.

"kjw" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:42:13 -0400, "RSweeney"
wrote:

It appears by the furious action of Verizon trucks in the neighborhood,
that
FiOS is close at hand.

What are the actual experiences of people who have moved from Comcast (HD
and internet) to FiOS?


I can only speak for the internet service, which has been outstanding.
Same price (actually a bit less as there are not as many fees for some
reason) and FAST. I average about 11mbs on the 15mbs plan. Outages
have been few and far between in the 6 months that I've had it.

Shouldn't you average 15 mbs on the 15 mbs plan?
I have a 3 mbs Comcast plan and often see 8 mbs.

"RSweeney" wrote in message
Shouldn't you average 15 mbs on the 15 mbs plan?
I have a 3 mbs Comcast plan and often see 8 mbs.

It is hard to find someone on the other end who can output 15 mbs.

RSweeney wrote:
It appears by the furious action of Verizon trucks in the neighborhood, that
FiOS is close at hand.

What are the actual experiences of people who have moved from Comcast (HD
and internet) to FiOS?

I used to have Comcast, then moved to a Adelphia franchise area that
was taken over by Comcast by the time I switched to Verizon Fios last
October.

I was happier with Fios before I got stuck with the new buggy
guide/DVR IMG (Interactive Media Guide) software they started to roll
out in August. The Motorola QIP 6416 DVR still works, but the new IMG is
buggy, prone to crashes, and lacks some recording options that were
there with the old software. Verizon has stopped the roll-out of the
IMG for PA, FL, TX, NJ, NY and are supposed to have a fixed release by
November before they resume the rollout. Verizon will fix the IMG, but
it is irritating to get very buggy software.

Verizon Fios runs a fiber cable to the a Optical Network Terminal
(ONT) box that is usually placed at the service area. The ONT converts
the optical signals to electrical. The ONT has phone jacks, a Cat 5
ethernet port, and a RF co-axial connector for TV. They use the co-axial
cables in the house for TV and can use them for internet. Verizon is
known to do serious re-wiring without additional charge if they have to
replace the existing co-axial cable. Typical install of the ONT and
internet can be 4+ hours. This is not a trivial upgrade. The Fios
wikipedia page is not a bad starting point for what is involved:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fios.

Anyway, pros and cons.

Pro:
Fios has better picture quality for the SD channels and passes the HD
channels through without additional compression. They have no more than
two HD sub-channels per QAM channel which means HDNet Movies, ESPN-HD,
etc get the full 19.2 MB/sec bandwidth treatment. All SD channels are
provided digitally if you have a STB or DVR. The picture quality of the
SD channels improved markedly when I switched from Adelphia.

Internet speed matches what you sign up for: 5/2 is really 5 down / 2
up and higher speeds are available. 5 MB/sec down is pretty damn fast, IMO.

Current HD channel line-up is 13 national HD channels, 5 premium HD
movie channels, and your HD local stations. The national channel line-up
is the same for everybody. CNN is at channel 80, ESPN-HD is at channel
826. The only differences are in the local station assignments in the 2
to 49 range, HD locals at 801 up to 817 (for the dual city markets),
regional sports nets, and the local SD sub-channels in the 860s. Check
the channel line-up for your area at
http://www22.verizon.com/content/fio...nel+lineup.htm.
There is no additional charge for the national HD channels. You do have
to ask to have them turned on.

Cost: I cut costs by ~ $40/month by combining internet, phone (which was
with Verizon anyway), and TV over what I was paying Adelphia + phone
before. The pricing is quite straightforward to some of the options I
used to get with Comcast.

Con:

VOD: Verizon Fios has a lot of catch up to get to what Comcast VOD
offers. Fios VOD is still SD only, no HD! Verizon has stated that they
will adding HD VOD by the end of 2007. People in the Richmond area have
been seeing HD VOD show up in their listings, so the upgrade is
apparently being tested there before wider release. VOD on Fios is
done via IPTV, not using QAM as Comcast & the cable companies do.

HD channels: Verizon is now behind what DirecTV has to offer for HD
channels. Verizon has not indicated when they will be adding the new HD
startups: TBS-HD, CNN-HD, Discovery HD, Science Channel HD, ... The
lists goes on. There are reports that Verizon will be adding a few more
HD channels this fall, but has to add more capacity in the distribution
chain from their Super Head End to the Video Head Ends to the local
Central Offices (CO). They have gobs of bandwidth from the CO to the
house, but they have reportedly been caught off guard by the rapid HD
channel growth in their distribution system. But there was also a report
posted recently from someone who claimed they were told by those above
the CSR level that Fios will add up to 30 more HD channels by the end of
the year. However, it appears that Verizon will not be adding TBS-HD in
time for the baseball playoffs.

Guide data: the guide info is too frequently wrong or incomplete. I
can add to this if you want to hear the details.

Pro or Con: depends on your point of view.

Analog: Fios only offers a limited number of analog channels for the
local broadcast stations and public access channels. To really use Fios,
you must get a STB or DVR OR a TV or DVR with a cable card. The analog
channels are going to be shut down entirely in the next year or so and
Fios will be a entirely digital system. So if you were planning to
connect the old SD TV to Fios using the cable ready input, that won't work.

The only real technical cons with Fios are VOD and when will they
add more HD channels. These will get fixed. Overall, I am pretty
satisfied with it, despite the set back of the buggy IMG software.

Whew, that was a long post! Hope this helps more than it confuses...

Alan F
Sterling, VA

"RSweeney" wrote in message
. ..

"kjw" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:42:13 -0400, "RSweeney"
wrote:

It appears by the furious action of Verizon trucks in the neighborhood,
that
FiOS is close at hand.

What are the actual experiences of people who have moved from Comcast (HD
and internet) to FiOS?


I can only speak for the internet service, which has been outstanding.
Same price (actually a bit less as there are not as many fees for some
reason) and FAST. I average about 11mbs on the 15mbs plan. Outages
have been few and far between in the 6 months that I've had it.

Shouldn't you average 15 mbs on the 15 mbs plan?
I have a 3 mbs Comcast plan and often see 8 mbs.

There aren't any 3mbps Comcast plans?
http://www.comcastinfo.com/high_speed_internet.html

Comcast currently has a speed boost scenario that will give you big bursts
of speed (you'll see them when you benchmark) but the speed is only there
for 10 or 12 megabytes of data and then it throttles back to an average
based on whatever you are paying for.

"Charles Tomaras" wrote in message
...

"RSweeney" wrote in message
. ..

"kjw" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:42:13 -0400, "RSweeney"
wrote:

It appears by the furious action of Verizon trucks in the neighborhood,
that
FiOS is close at hand.

What are the actual experiences of people who have moved from Comcast
(HD
and internet) to FiOS?


I can only speak for the internet service, which has been outstanding.
Same price (actually a bit less as there are not as many fees for some
reason) and FAST. I average about 11mbs on the 15mbs plan. Outages
have been few and far between in the 6 months that I've had it.

Shouldn't you average 15 mbs on the 15 mbs plan?
I have a 3 mbs Comcast plan and often see 8 mbs.

There aren't any 3mbps Comcast plans?
http://www.comcastinfo.com/high_speed_internet.html

Comcast currently has a speed boost scenario that will give you big bursts
of speed (you'll see them when you benchmark) but the speed is only there
for 10 or 12 megabytes of data and then it throttles back to an average
based on whatever you are paying for.

There once was a 3meg plan... it's gone up.

Downloaded the full Photoshop as I typed this... 453MB - started at 1400
KB/sec then dropped to 790KB/sec for the entire d/l.

Not bad.

"Alan F" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
RSweeney wrote:
It appears by the furious action of Verizon trucks in the neighborhood,
that FiOS is close at hand.

What are the actual experiences of people who have moved from Comcast (HD
and internet) to FiOS?

I used to have Comcast, then moved to a Adelphia franchise area that
was taken over by Comcast by the time I switched to Verizon Fios last
October.

I was happier with Fios before I got stuck with the new buggy
guide/DVR IMG (Interactive Media Guide) software they started to roll
out in August. The Motorola QIP 6416 DVR still works, but the new IMG is
buggy, prone to crashes, and lacks some recording options that were
there with the old software. Verizon has stopped the roll-out of the
IMG for PA, FL, TX, NJ, NY and are supposed to have a fixed release by
November before they resume the rollout. Verizon will fix the IMG, but
it is irritating to get very buggy software.

Verizon Fios runs a fiber cable to the a Optical Network Terminal
(ONT) box that is usually placed at the service area. The ONT converts
the optical signals to electrical. The ONT has phone jacks, a Cat 5
ethernet port, and a RF co-axial connector for TV. They use the co-axial
cables in the house for TV and can use them for internet. Verizon is
known to do serious re-wiring without additional charge if they have to
replace the existing co-axial cable. Typical install of the ONT and
internet can be 4+ hours. This is not a trivial upgrade. The Fios
wikipedia page is not a bad starting point for what is involved:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fios.

Anyway, pros and cons.

Pro:
Fios has better picture quality for the SD channels and passes the HD
channels through without additional compression. They have no more than
two HD sub-channels per QAM channel which means HDNet Movies, ESPN-HD,
etc get the full 19.2 MB/sec bandwidth treatment. All SD channels are
provided digitally if you have a STB or DVR. The picture quality of the
SD channels improved markedly when I switched from Adelphia.

Internet speed matches what you sign up for: 5/2 is really 5 down / 2
up and higher speeds are available. 5 MB/sec down is pretty damn fast,
IMO.

Current HD channel line-up is 13 national HD channels, 5 premium HD
movie channels, and your HD local stations. The national channel line-up
is the same for everybody. CNN is at channel 80, ESPN-HD is at channel
826. The only differences are in the local station assignments in the 2
to 49 range, HD locals at 801 up to 817 (for the dual city markets),
regional sports nets, and the local SD sub-channels in the 860s. Check
the channel line-up for your area at
http://www22.verizon.com/content/fio...nel+lineup.htm.
There is no additional charge for the national HD channels. You do have
to ask to have them turned on.

Cost: I cut costs by ~ $40/month by combining internet, phone (which was
with Verizon anyway), and TV over what I was paying Adelphia + phone
before. The pricing is quite straightforward to some of the options I
used to get with Comcast.

Con:

VOD: Verizon Fios has a lot of catch up to get to what Comcast VOD
offers. Fios VOD is still SD only, no HD! Verizon has stated that they
will adding HD VOD by the end of 2007. People in the Richmond area have
been seeing HD VOD show up in their listings, so the upgrade is
apparently being tested there before wider release. VOD on Fios is
done via IPTV, not using QAM as Comcast & the cable companies do.

HD channels: Verizon is now behind what DirecTV has to offer for HD
channels. Verizon has not indicated when they will be adding the new HD
startups: TBS-HD, CNN-HD, Discovery HD, Science Channel HD, ... The
lists goes on. There are reports that Verizon will be adding a few more
HD channels this fall, but has to add more capacity in the distribution
chain from their Super Head End to the Video Head Ends to the local
Central Offices (CO). They have gobs of bandwidth from the CO to the
house, but they have reportedly been caught off guard by the rapid HD
channel growth in their distribution system. But there was also a report
posted recently from someone who claimed they were told by those above
the CSR level that Fios will add up to 30 more HD channels by the end of
the year. However, it appears that Verizon will not be adding TBS-HD in
time for the baseball playoffs.

Guide data: the guide info is too frequently wrong or incomplete. I
can add to this if you want to hear the details.

Pro or Con: depends on your point of view.

Analog: Fios only offers a limited number of analog channels for the
local broadcast stations and public access channels. To really use Fios,
you must get a STB or DVR OR a TV or DVR with a cable card. The analog
channels are going to be shut down entirely in the next year or so and
Fios will be a entirely digital system. So if you were planning to
connect the old SD TV to Fios using the cable ready input, that won't
work.

The only real technical cons with Fios are VOD and when will they
add more HD channels. These will get fixed. Overall, I am pretty
satisfied with it, despite the set back of the buggy IMG software.

Whew, that was a long post! Hope this helps more than it confuses...

Alan F
Sterling, VA

Very helpful, thanks.

"RSweeney" wrote in message
. ..
http://www.comcastinfo.com/high_speed_internet.html

Comcast currently has a speed boost scenario that will give you big
bursts of speed (you'll see them when you benchmark) but the speed is
only there for 10 or 12 megabytes of data and then it throttles back to
an average based on whatever you are paying for.

There once was a 3meg plan... it's gone up.

Downloaded the full Photoshop as I typed this... 453MB - started at 1400
KB/sec then dropped to 790KB/sec for the entire d/l.

Not bad.

What I really wish Comcast and other provides who have huge pipes but don't
want to sell it to us would offer is something like video on demand. I'd be
happy to be content with my everyday 8 down 756 up plan but I'd like the
ability to make full use of maximum throughput at additional charge for the
times when I need it. I regularly have 1 - 2 GB uploads I need to make for
audio files I record professionally and I'd be happy to pay a reasonable fee
for 15 or 20 minutes of maximum throughput.

"Charles Tomaras" wrote in message
...

"RSweeney" wrote in message
. ..
http://www.comcastinfo.com/high_speed_internet.html

Comcast currently has a speed boost scenario that will give you big
bursts of speed (you'll see them when you benchmark) but the speed is
only there for 10 or 12 megabytes of data and then it throttles back to
an average based on whatever you are paying for.

There once was a 3meg plan... it's gone up.

Downloaded the full Photoshop as I typed this... 453MB - started at 1400
KB/sec then dropped to 790KB/sec for the entire d/l.

Not bad.

What I really wish Comcast and other provides who have huge pipes but
don't want to sell it to us would offer is something like video on demand.
I'd be happy to be content with my everyday 8 down 756 up plan but I'd
like the ability to make full use of maximum throughput at additional
charge for the times when I need it. I regularly have 1 - 2 GB uploads I
need to make for audio files I record professionally and I'd be happy to
pay a reasonable fee for 15 or 20 minutes of maximum throughput.

Comcast's big problem is that they have too many 6MHz analog channels
clogging up their 750 MHz HFC capacity.

They need to change from static to dynamic allocation and binding of 100%
256QAM channels to allow the efficient use of the bandwidth.