Is FiOS better than Comcast?

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I currently have Comcast at home, but lately I've been getting these letters from Verizon about switching to FiOS internet. I have Verizon for my home phone so they would give me a discount. (So they say...)

The connection I pay for currently has 6MB DL and 768KB UL. These are the speeds comcast states I get, although with Speedtest, I've been able to hit 20MB DL and 6MB UL.

Should I keep my Comcast connection or switch to FiOS? The FiOS connection would be an advertised 15/5 or a 25/25 connection.

Thanks!
 
go to broadbandreports.com and search for the provider to see what other customers say. see if there are any caps, any ping/latency complaints, contract periods, etfs or other surprises. Issue with DSL has been that the speeds are "up to". if FiOS uses the same type disclaimers then that is also something to consider. Comcast, although they are hated for various reasons (including a 250GB cap), I do pay for 8 Mbs and get 20-24Mbs burst so many people are happy with the speed.
 
Your speed test results don't take in to account Comcast's PowerBoost. This gives you extra bandwidth for burst transfers (first 30-60 seconds of a download/upload).
If you want to see what kind of sustained transfer rates your connection gives you, try downloading a torrent of a linux LiveDVD or something - your d/l rate will fall to 6MBit pretty quick.
FIOS doesn't have any equivalent to powerboost as far as I know, but their lowest tier connection will give you 15MBit down, and 5MBit up. More than 2x the sustained throughput your connection can currently give you, and a LOT more upload.
 
I think the general concencus is that fios owns comcast, but we don't get it in my area :-(
 
I highly doubt browsing the internet one would see a difference between Comcast or FiOS. Downloading large files your bandwidth may vary.

The sole reason for my switch to FiOS from Comcast was the bandwidth quota that Comcast has implemented. 250GB may seem like more than most people will use, and it is. But streaming movies and tv shows over netflix and hulu can add up those giggobytes fast.

Something odd, maybe this isnt normal, but the other day I was the only one home. I had just reset my router. Played Bad Company 2 online for about 2 and a half hours. Checked my bandwidth usage and it was over 200mb. That again can add up.

Other than the bandwidth cap I never had a complaint about Comcast.

*EDIT*

Also with Comcast I noticed I had the same WAN ip address for over 2 years when I had a typical residential DHCP account. With FiOS my wan IP changes all the time which has let me to need dyndns. I never bothered with dyndns before when I was with Comcast.
 
I'd prefer Fios from the *lack of bandwidth limits* so far.

I pretty much hate Comcast though so I'm biased (a current subscriber :( that constantly has signal issues )
 
Comcast is the worst company in America, so Verizon is probably going to be better.

On the other hand, to play devil's advocate, when it comes to internet connections, I hate to fix what ain't broke. If Comcast is fast enough for you, and connections are stable and not giving you any problems, why mess with a good thing?

Since you are having signal issues with Comcast, go ahead and try Verizon, I would say.
 
I wish there was something besides comcast where I live. There is dsl but it's twice as slow and twice as crappy. Comcast has it's ups and downs it goes great for about 11 months of the year for me then there is just one month that the connection is just crap.
 
Used to work for Comcast and while they're amazing in some areas, and completely horrific in others (like my neighborhood); Verizon is pretty much universally looked at around here as thieving bastards who would nickel & dime their own dying grandmother. Honestly, I had FIOS for a year, and when the service WORKED, it was amazing (more on the internet side than the TV). However, installations and the frequent service calls were nightmares, and their billing was horrendous. I was double and triple charged monthly, and had to spend an entire day each and every month fighting to pay them what I actually owed.
 
Had FiOS for over a year now. 0 downtime, 0 slowdowns.

Even in bad storms, power and Comcast get knocked out but FiOS manages to stay online. I assume this is because Verizon buries every important line around here. House distribution is done by poles in my area still, but the underground conduits come to the closest pole they can manage.
 
it's all about the last mile. this is why FiOS is a "better product" than the cable companies. 25/25 would be sweet man. I've heard that FiOS is cheaper than comcast and the like. Go for it. You will usually get a discount for the first year too.

Or if you keep comcast, you can always call comcast and have them lower your rate to compete with FiOS, that way you don't have to do anything.

food for thought.
 
I used to have Comcast and now I have FIOS. The cable box GUI is night and day better than the Comcast GUI in the same market. FIOS internet that I have 25/15 plan works great. I have hit like 3MB/s,approx 24 Mb/s when downloading stuff from MS, Symantec, etc. My torrent xfer speed also gets over 1MB/s and sometimes higher depending on seeds and what not.

Only trouble I had with FIOS was the initial setup appointment.. They thought i had equipment on location because o the previous tenant in my building never properly returned or cancel service. So they thought i was just getting service in my name and having the equipment transfered. A few phones, and and hour on the phone talking with various CSR agents, I was able to get the issued resolved and have a tech come out that same day with all the hardware. He verfied my cabling and signal strength was good. In the end they made right by a mistake that was on their end.

Only time my FIOS service went out was when my building lost power. My ONT is in the apartment basement and as such was on building power. No real good place to put an UPS down there.
 
At one of our office locations we decided to use FIOS instead of using DSL or T1 since it was being used for strictly data.... and I must say it is well worth the money, 0 downtime and fast as hell. and no crappy monthly gb usage like comcast.... If it was available where I live I would get FIOS in a heartbeat.....
 
Most likely I will be getting FiOS next month. I'm tired of the signal issues with comcast. I have this issue every 11 months or so and it's annoying.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys!
 
I've had FIOS for almost 4-5 years now. In that time not counting power outages, it has been out only 2-3 times and thats for several hours at a time.

Latency was better then Comcast for games. Speeds are faster/more reliable and best of all no caps. I have few hundred clients in my area, many have FIOS and love it.

Can't complain about 25mbit up!
 
I had both for years and have had FiOS for a while. Could things have changed and Comcast gotten better? Sure. I'll leave it to other posters to confirm or correct my impressions based on my personal experiences below:

For starters, FiOS is a closed network, so no shared bandwidth with neighbors. When I had an apartment there was huge slowdowns at peak hours on Comcast.

Uptime with FiOS has been phenomenally better. Same with consistency. Comcast had much higher burst rates, but in general FiOS is just superior.
 
I haven't used Comcast, but I replaced Time Warner with FIOS and could not be much happier :)

So far, I have seen consistently fast speeds (15/5) and 0 downtime.
 
I've had Verizon FIOS for over 2 years and usually go through a terabyte of data every 48-72 hours. Not a single complaint all this time :)
 
switched from comcast to fios, saving money and going faster. comcast wasnt great to begin with, they were hardly helpful when the modem they were leasing me was failing. fios FTW
 
I had comcast for probably 10 years or so (off the top of my head) and recently they started striking me for exceeding the 250gb bandwidth cap per month. I have the security camera system at my store uploading video feed 24/7 to my home and I guess the 35gb / day bandwidth was too much for comcast.

I switched to verizon fios and it's cheaper, faster, and no cap. I've had a few hiccups in service but I called in and they gave me extra benefits (Free Korean channel for 6 months, 12 months of -$20 bill) each time it hiccups. I think it's rare if they can offer me these things each time it happens

I don't call in and force them to give me them btw, I just ask if there's some kind of service going on around my area and why my service seems to be skipping.
 
Thanks for this post..

I have comcast, but I'm seriously thinking about switching to FiOS..

My contract expires next month.
 
You're in contract with Comcast? I didn't realize they did contracts, or are you on a business account?
 
Seemund said:
Thanks for this post..

I have comcast, but I'm seriously thinking about switching to FiOS..

My contract expires next month.
Click to expand...

No problem! I'm switching to FiOS TV as well. The two together are about $40 cheaper per month!
 
FIOS is better. You have to watch the billing closely though, because they screwed up my (and at least 3-4 friends of mine) bill for around 3 months straight after we first ordered.
 
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