Switching to Verizon FIOS? Read this first.

I'm fully FIOS now. Out went Comcast, out went TiVo. In their place, a fully-wired Verizon FIOS TV household with 4 TV's hooked up. 3 of those TV's have Digital Video Recorders, replacing TiVos. A couple of months ago, we swapped out Comcast Broadband for Verizon FIOS broadband. So now, our phone, broadband and video are all served by Verizon FIOS.

Further, we switched to Verizon Wireless recently as well, as they built a new tower near Fire Station #3, and now they're the only wireless carrier that can hit our house. (We back up to Grapevine Lake, so there's no towers behind us. Plus, we're on a downward slope toward the lake, so even the Cingular tower that's about a mile away does us no good.)

If you're thinking about getting FIOS in Flower Mound, here's the good and the bad, and what you need to know.

• You're probably going to save money with FIOS. After making calls and doing as many apples-to-apples price checks as I could, I found FIOS was about $10/month cheaper than Comcast on internet broadband service, and for me, I'll save about $25/month on TV service, compared to Comcast. By the way, I called Comcast and asked if they would price-match, but they said "no". I didn't have any real problems with Comcast, but hey if I can save $35/month for basically the same service, why not switch? We were paying a little over $100 for Comcast TV, plus 2 TiVos. Now we'll be paying under $80 for TV.
  
  
• Either FIOS is very popular, or Verizon is understaffed. Or perhaps it's somewhere in the middle. The wait to get your FIOS TV install is about a month, so you'll have to be patient. Don't cancel Comcast yet!
  
  
• FIOS uses your internal phone and TV (coax) wiring, but they hook up all new equipment to your house. No big deal. There's a new FIOS box (which requires a power outlet) hanging on an inside wall of our garage. The set-top converters are the same as Comcast. The remotes are configured differently though. They're slightly better than Comcast's, but not as good as TiVo's, which were very simple to figure out.
  
  
• Channel changing. FIOS' channel lineup is broader and deeper than Comcast's. For instance, there are more MTV channels, and more Discovery channels, and the like. That's OK. We don't subscribe to movie channels, but FIOS has a wide array of those too. The Pay-Per-View options are equivalent, as well as On Demand. The only channels we miss are two big-little ones: 1) The Channel 8 radar channel with the National Weather Service sound-track. The NBC WeatherPlus is a decent substitute for a quick forecast, but is not nearly as useful when it comes to monitoring severe weather. 2) There's no Flower Mound Town government channel, so you can't watch Town Council meetings. FIOS tells me this is coming in the summer or fall, but why not make it available now?
  
  
• FIOS picture quality is very good. As good as or better than Comcast on standard-definition TVs. Equal to Comcast on HD.
  
  
• FIOS tech service is good, and not-so-good. The FIOS automated menu tree is labyrinthian, and it takes 2-3 minutes to get to a live representative, even if you know what to say or what to push. It is voice-activated, but don't try calling the voice-activated system on your cell phone -- it goes wacky. Service techs are friendly and seem to be knowledgeable.
  
  
• Unlike Comcast, Verizon does not have a storefront for service or equipment. If you want to upgrade or exchange equipment, you have to wait for them to come to your house. See below. Comcast had dropped the ball on this too. At one time, we could swap equipment at a Flower Mound location. Then we had to go to Old Town Lewisville. Lately, we've had to visit Grapevine or Carrollton. Seems like they're scaling back too.
  
  
• Expect a wait for FIOS repair service too. Not nearly as long as the month it takes for an initial install, but prepare to wait 3-5 days to get a tech out for a service call. This really sucks when all you need is a new box. One of our DVRs crapped out after 3 days, and it was a long wait (3-5 days) to get a first-available appointment for a service tech. And then we had to wait for a 4-hour window for them to show up. Why not allow me to swap out a bad box at a local storefront during business hours, rather than have to wait days for you to come to my house?
  
  

Bottom line: Am I glad I switched? Yes. Is FIOS perfect? No. Can what's broken be fixed? Easily. Will Verizon fix it? I hope so, but it's up to them.

Check back to this post. I may think of more to add here. Here's a link to bookmark.