Verizon FiOS Plans and Rates Revealed

[Zarathustra[H]]

Texas would be a decent state to live.

A lot of you people aren't considering a number of reasons people move to areas they do...until you become a home owner..........

My choice of where to live has little to nothing to do with weather, or cost of living.

The number one issue of importance to me when choosing where to live is the culture and people who live there.

I want to live where:

• The overwhelming majority of people are well educated (at least bachelors degrees if not one or more masters)
• Most people don't give a rats ass about Football. (or Basketball for that matter. Baseball is OK, Hockey is tolerable.)
• People are mostly secular, and going to church is not considered an important part of social life, or a social necessity at all.
• A rational, empirical interpretation of data prevails over all else, including religious or political dogma.
• People are not just tolerant, but embracing of other races, religions, cultures, sexual orientations and other choices for partnering/living and parenting arrangements.
• I rarely have to see pickup trucks or SUV's,
• Guns are rare or never seen at all.

I know I can't have all of these, but when I choose where to live, I find the place that best matches the above regardless of cost or climate. I would rather live in a closet sized home where the above is true, than in a mansion where it is not.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Not if you are building your own house.

Compared to other states though?

Assuming building your own house is actually a cheap thing, unless you have a skill set to do it, or you have a lot of close friends/family who do as well. Paying someone to do it won't be cheap.

 

[sfsuphysics]

I want to live where:

• The overwhelming majority of people are well educated (at least bachelors degrees if not one or more masters)
• Most people don't give a rats ass about Football. (or Basketball for that matter. Baseball is OK, Hockey is tolerable.)
• People are mostly secular, and going to church is not considered an important part of social life, or a social necessity at all.
• A rational, empirical interpretation of data prevails over all else, including religious or political dogma.
• People are not just tolerant, but embracing of other races, religions, cultures, sexual orientations and other choices for partnering/living and parenting arrangements.
• I rarely have to see pickup trucks or SUV's,
• Guns are rare or never seen at all.

r live in a closet sized home where the above is true, than in a mansion where it is not.

So basically you don't want to live anywhere in the middle part of the country

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

So basically you don't want to live anywhere in the middle part of the country

Maybe not

I haven't been everywhere, and don't want to rely on geographical stereotypes, but rather on my own personal experience of the place to make up my mind.

I like where I live now (greater Boston area, inside 128 loop), but it is by no means perfect, and I'd be open to checking other places out.

In many cases you can find areas that I think I would appreciate in places I otherwise wouldn't consider.

For instance,
I would never consider living in Texas... ...except maybe Austin.
I would never consider living in Colorado... ...though I hear Boulder isn't bad
I would never consider living in North Carolina... ...but the Raleigh/Durham area didn't turn me off too much.

California weirds me out a bit. By my list above, it seems like it wouldn't be a bad choice overall, but I just get this strange vibe from people. WAAAAAY to laid back for my comfort level - especially in professional settings, and what's up with strangers I don't know trying to strike up conversations in public??? What do they want from me anyway?

Then again, I'd probably come across as weird to them too. After all, I'm in my 30's, and haven't owned a pair of jeans since I was 13 or 14...

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Then again, I'd probably come across as weird to them too. After all, I'm in my 30's, and haven't owned a pair of jeans since I was 13 or 14...

Oh, and if you ever take the subway in Boston, the rule is, never talk to or make eye contact with anyone unless you already know them, and don't sit too close to people. Unless there are three empty seats in a row, such that you can have an empty seat on either side of you when sitting, you don't sit, no matter how tired you are.

 

[roaf85]

My choice of where to live has little to nothing to do with weather, or cost of living.

The number one issue of importance to me when choosing where to live is the culture and people who live there.

I want to live where:

• The overwhelming majority of people are well educated (at least bachelors degrees if not one or more masters)
• Most people don't give a rats ass about Football. (or Basketball for that matter. Baseball is OK, Hockey is tolerable.)
• People are mostly secular, and going to church is not considered an important part of social life, or a social necessity at all.
• A rational, empirical interpretation of data prevails over all else, including religious or political dogma.
• People are not just tolerant, but embracing of other races, religions, cultures, sexual orientations and other choices for partnering/living and parenting arrangements.
• I rarely have to see pickup trucks or SUV's,
• Guns are rare or never seen at all.

I know I can't have all of these, but when I choose where to live, I find the place that best matches the above regardless of cost or climate. I would rather live in a closet sized home where the above is true, than in a mansion where it is not.

A lot of where you live should have everything to do with cost of living.

States with lower costs of living usually have lower labor costs, which is pretty much the standard now since workers are willing to work for less than be unemployed so unemployment doesn't hit those states as much.

Hence why there was such a demand to live in these warmer states when the economy was good. Not so much now, which on the flip side for a person like me I would love to move out to one of those places.

Weather is a big reason why people move to those places.

I would also argue that people who are well educated isn't a direct influence on intelligence. Almost anyone goes to college now a days.

Some of the smartest people I know that run successful businesses never stepped foot in college.

 

[thedge]

Data limits at all? Here in Canada, we'd probably get ... 25GB?

Sad, but true.

Eh? No. Ive done hundreds of GBs in a month on Telus without a complaint. I dont have their fastest internet since im in an older area but still.

 

[Godmachine]

I moved up from Duluth , GA to NY and one of my motivations for doing so was knowing I would have FiOS internet. Now did I move JUST for that reason? Hell no.

If I had to I would deal with curbing my usage but honestly the biggest benefit outside of the uncapped service is the stability of it. FiOS seriously is always functional and my max bandwidth is always available. I've never experienced that with any other provider (except for U-Verse but as soon as someone started watching HD channels , bye bye bandwidth).

If you are on the fence about FiOS or think its overrated , trust me when I say its really not. Goto Dslreports.com and read the FiOS forums , compare them to Comcast's or At&t's U-Verse forum and you'll notice a big trend... much lower amount of complaints and issues. The only think Verizon sucks balls at is their Billing department is ran by fully retarded monkeys , but once you deal with them its smooth sailing.

 

[somms]

http://www.xmission.com/utopia#more

FWIW: Affordable FTTH internet is avail...I'm currently paying $45/month for 100Mbps/100Mbps thru my ISP XMission. I have the ability to switch ISP anytime as well since there is no contract and multiple providers provide service over Utopia installed fiber...

 

[rive22]

I find it really weird that there is a $10 difference between the 15/5 plan and the 50/25. I find myself no longer needing the extra bandwidth. For an extra $10 i could more than triple my speed. But this is a gimmick. 90% of their customers have no need for the 50/25 and will never use that bandwidth. But new customers will look at it and see the "value" for $10. VZ is making out because they're getting an extra $10/month out of people when they probably arent even using that extra bandwidth anyway.

It's marketing. The cheepo package is there to make the middle packages seem like a great deal.

 

[Stayfr0sty]

Interesting. I didn't realize Verizon had a presence in Europe.

Doh of course it wasnt verizon.....
Doesnt mean other companies dont have FiOS
My current ISP is cable but goes on a FiOS backbone

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Doh of course it wasnt verizon.....
Doesnt mean other companies dont have FiOS
My current ISP is cable but goes on a FiOS backbone

FiOS is Verizon's brand name for fiber to the home. No other fiber to the home is named "FiOS". When you say "FiOS" it means Verizon's service and only Verizon's service.

 

[Godmachine]

So Cnet dragged in some new contributor and here is what I read from her Bio :

When she's not enraging fanboys of all stripes, she can be found offering tech opinions on CBS and elsewhere, and offering opinions on everything else to anyone who will listen.

So in other words , its a fluff piece. And don't tell me violence doesn't sell because it does , violent games sell great. There are many non-violent games at E3 to see but if all you do is send in a Cnet editor who really doesn't give a shit about gaming to watch the conferences and decides "there is too much violence" than please .. don't send anyone next time. Stay out of the gaming world unless you have some kind of rational , logical opinion to add. Last thing we need is another mouth breathing Fox wanna be that complains about how schools are taking sugar products away from kids that are getting fatter each year.

 

[Godmachine]

Woops wrong topic , that post was about the E3 topic of "too much violence at E3".

Please remove mods , my apologies.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I would also argue that people who are well educated isn't a direct influence on intelligence. Almost anyone goes to college now a days.

And you would be right, and this is the difference between intelligence and knowledge.

Both don't necessarily go hand in hand, but while you do need at least a little intelligence to obtain certain levels of knowledge, you need no knowledge to be intelligent.

Unhoned - however - intelligence may be wasted, and that's why training on some level is important.

Some people are able to self train themselves, and while this can be effective for narrow subsets of knowledge, it doesn't provide the breadth of knowledge that a proper education does.

When you teach yourself by reading and studying on your own, you are never forced to learn the things that don't interest you, so you likely just focus on the things that do. This is the aspect of formal education that is so important. Being forced to broaden your horizons.

When you are forced to step out of your comfort and interest zone and learn other things, it makes you realize how little it is you actually know, and it is a greatly humbling experience, and - well - humble people are a lot nicer to be around than people who aren't.

The literature is full of famous examples of people who shun traditional education and go on to build empires, and make themselves lots of money, but the truth is that:

a) Most people who try this crash and burn hard. There is a huge amount of luck involve. You are more likely to become a rock star or a professional athlete.

b) Most of these people are terribly arrogant, hard headed and in general unpleasant people to be around, let alone work with.

I don't want to live around people like this. I want to live and be around people who have learned a lot, have a broad base of knowledge and realize how little they really know and are incredibly humbled by it. Not so humbled - mind you - that they don't go out and try to discover or invent new things, but humble enough that they realize that no matter who you are, you are going to be wrong a lot, if not most of the time, and that any belief or understanding you have, no matter how deeply rooted, may turn out to be false. Only when you are open to anything you think you know being wrong, do you have the flexibility to discover truly new and fantastic things.

These may not be the kind of people who create the Apple's or Microsofts of the world, and they may not become billionaires, but who cares? It's just money anyway. These are the people who wind up changing the world one discovery at a time. Curing cancer in a lab somewhere, developing a new cardiology treatment that saves millions of lives, traveling to Africa to donate their time to work in a free clinic.

They'll probably do OK for themselves, but they won't make billions, and that's fine. They will be better, nicer and more interesting people to be around for it.

These are the people I want to live around.

 

[DogChainX]

http://www.xmission.com/utopia#more

FWIW: Affordable FTTH internet is avail...I'm currently paying $45/month for 100Mbps/100Mbps thru my ISP XMission. I have the ability to switch ISP anytime as well since there is no contract and multiple providers provide service over Utopia installed fiber...

Tremonton. Utopia have connections in Tremonton before Logan...I know geographically it makes sense, but farmer John doesn't need 100Mbps to check his AOL email....

 

[Low Roller]

http://www.xmission.com/utopia#more

FWIW: Affordable FTTH internet is avail...I'm currently paying $45/month for 100Mbps/100Mbps thru my ISP XMission. I have the ability to switch ISP anytime as well since there is no contract and multiple providers provide service over Utopia installed fiber...

That is very nice, I'm jealous.

Looking at Xmission's web page it looks like there is a monthly cap of 1TB. While that is a lot in comparison with many other ISP's nationwide that put caps on their data services, why in the heck would a FTTH-based ISP need to put a cap in place at all???

 

[sfsuphysics]

FiOS is Verizon's brand name for fiber to the home. No other fiber to the home is named "FiOS". When you say "FiOS" it means Verizon's service and only Verizon's service.

This is a Kleenex argument though, while legally speaking exactly one company sells Kleenex, when you blow your nose with anything else ... people still say they're using Kleenex

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

This is a Kleenex argument though, while legally speaking exactly one company sells Kleenex, when you blow your nose with anything else ... people still say they're using Kleenex

True, but while Kleenex has become a colloquialism referring to all kinds of tissue paper (or at least had become, I haven't heard anyone using it that way in decades) has FiOS really become the same?

Outside of the one poster in this thread, I've never heard anyone use the term to refer to anything but Verizon's service before.

 

[Godmachine]

I wish I didn't run out of Kleenex Damn cold.

 

[sfsuphysics]

True, but while Kleenex has become a colloquialism referring to all kinds of tissue paper (or at least had become, I haven't heard anyone using it that way in decades) has FiOS really become the same?

Outside of the one poster in this thread, I've never heard anyone use the term to refer to anything but Verizon's service before.

Wekk FiOS stands for... FIber Optic Service if memory serves, so in that sense any sort of fiber would be FiOS plus it's snazzer than FTTH, although FiOS I'm sure is trademarked by Verizon, which is why the comment about Kleenex reference.

But I'm not sure if the technology they use is a patented thing... fiber to a box then copper to the home? Or is that Uverse only and FiOS brings fiber into your house? Either way I like to stick with "Fiber" easy, no confusion, and often is faster than FiOS anyways

 

[Low Roller]

But I'm not sure if the technology they use is a patented thing... fiber to a box then copper to the home? Or is that Uverse only and FiOS brings fiber into your house? Either way I like to stick with "Fiber" easy, no confusion, and often is faster than FiOS anyways

FiOS is fiber all the way to your home.

Uverse is only fiber to your neighborhood node, copper the rest of the way to your home after that. Needless to say, FiOS kicks the shit out of Uverse

 

[MavericK]

True, but while Kleenex has become a colloquialism referring to all kinds of tissue paper (or at least had become, I haven't heard anyone using it that way in decades) has FiOS really become the same?

IMO yes, it is getting there. Mostly because Verizon is one of the few big-name companies that provide it so far.

Also, Frontier (who is owned by Verizon I guess? I'm not quite sure the relationship) also has a service called FiOS.

 

[beowulf7]

FiOS is fiber all the way to your home.

Uverse is only fiber to your neighborhood node, copper the rest of the way to your home after that. Needless to say, FiOS kicks the shit out of Uverse

Now how can I kick AT&T out of my 'hood and bring in VZ and FiOS? AT&T won't even feed me U-Verse, so I'm stuck w/ DSL.

 

[Crosshairs]

Also, Frontier (who is owned by Verizon I guess? I'm not quite sure the relationship) also has a service called FiOS.

Frontier bought up some of Verizon's lines a few years back and offers their own version of FIOS

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/...d=news_view&newsId=20090513005561&newsLang=en

 

[Godmachine]

FiOS is fiber all the way to your home.

Uverse is only fiber to your neighborhood node, copper the rest of the way to your home after that. Needless to say, FiOS kicks the shit out of Uverse

U-Verse is fiber right up to the last mile (roughly) then at 3,200 feet its transferred into Copper (this keeps it very cheap compared to fiber directly to the residence) and extra benefit of that is that copper infrastructure is already in place so they don't have to rebury new lines , they can piggy back it onto older lines already at the residence. This was the entire reason At&t choose this setup over fiber directly to the residence , to save a buck. Unfortunately there are some big downsides to doing this other than relying on copper , with U-Verse you can only have one DVR which is shared. You can watch a total per house of 4 HD streams and 8 non-HD streams so for family's this can be highly restrictive.

Now however this money saving tactic is fucking them entirely. 32/5 is the top tier profile U-Verse can offer and it can't get any better , they tried doing pair bonding or "twisted pair" and its not worked out at all and introduced errors to the line that are often beyond tolerance levels considered acceptable. So while Cable and Fiber continues to grow in speed , U-Verse will be stuck with the same profile for a long time to come.

The only way At&t can remain in the game and not get smashed to bits over time by Cable (mainly) is by starting to upgrade the entire U-Verse network to fiber directly to the home. The re simply isn't a cheaper option and its the only one that can remain competitive with faster speeds and more channels. As it stands right now U-Verse squeezes HD streams into a 6mbps stream which is pathetic. HD quality on U-Verse is fucking awful and its actually worse looking than a HD Netflix stream , no joke on that.

The reality is that any ISP that hopes to be around in the next 5-10 years is going to have to have a network that can scale to fit demand. Cable providers are using DOCSIS 3.0 channel bonding to hit speeds beyond 1Gbps so they are covered for future upgrades. FiOS is so future proof that Verizon can just increase speeds without a giant upgrade to there network anytime they feel they want to stay competitive (like the bump from 150 to 300).

Honestly I wouldn't even bother with U-Verse if you have other choices , its a dead end network that has hit the wall. At&t has no intention on upgrading it anytime soon and they've actually stopped deployment across the country of it so my bet is that they will shop it around to other providers to sell it off. They won't take on the cost of a fiber upgrade , At&t is incredibly fickle when it comes to doing things like this. They will shit on there entire customer base as soon as someone gives them an offer.

 

[Low Roller]

U-Verse is fiber right up to the last mile (roughly) then at 3,200 feet its transferred into Copper (this keeps it very cheap compared to fiber directly to the residence) and extra benefit of that is that copper infrastructure is already in place so they don't have to rebury new lines , they can piggy back it onto older lines already at the residence. This was the entire reason At&t choose this setup over fiber directly to the residence , to save a buck. Unfortunately there are some big downsides to doing this other than relying on copper , with U-Verse you can only have one DVR which is shared. You can watch a total per house of 4 HD streams and 8 non-HD streams so for family's this can be highly restrictive.

Now however this money saving tactic is fucking them entirely. 32/5 is the top tier profile U-Verse can offer and it can't get any better , they tried doing pair bonding or "twisted pair" and its not worked out at all and introduced errors to the line that are often beyond tolerance levels considered acceptable. So while Cable and Fiber continues to grow in speed , U-Verse will be stuck with the same profile for a long time to come.

The only way At&t can remain in the game and not get smashed to bits over time by Cable (mainly) is by starting to upgrade the entire U-Verse network to fiber directly to the home. The re simply isn't a cheaper option and its the only one that can remain competitive with faster speeds and more channels. As it stands right now U-Verse squeezes HD streams into a 6mbps stream which is pathetic. HD quality on U-Verse is fucking awful and its actually worse looking than a HD Netflix stream , no joke on that.

The reality is that any ISP that hopes to be around in the next 5-10 years is going to have to have a network that can scale to fit demand. Cable providers are using DOCSIS 3.0 channel bonding to hit speeds beyond 1Gbps so they are covered for future upgrades. FiOS is so future proof that Verizon can just increase speeds without a giant upgrade to there network anytime they feel they want to stay competitive (like the bump from 150 to 300).

Honestly I wouldn't even bother with U-Verse if you have other choices , its a dead end network that has hit the wall. At&t has no intention on upgrading it anytime soon and they've actually stopped deployment across the country of it so my bet is that they will shop it around to other providers to sell it off. They won't take on the cost of a fiber upgrade , At&t is incredibly fickle when it comes to doing things like this. They will shit on there entire customer base as soon as someone gives them an offer.

Nice explanation of U-verse's limitations. I was way to lazy to go into that kind of detail

U-verse's top end speeds are meh even by today's standards. Not to mention their data cap. In a nutshell, AT&T blows.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Shit I'd pay the physical cost of fiber (what's it cost a couple hundred bucks for a 1000ft spool) rather than get copper to the home, sounds like that basically is DSL except they move the central office extremely close to you.

At&t is incredibly fickle when it comes to doing things like this. They will shit on there entire customer base as soon as someone gives them an offer.

How does the story go, the gov't wanted to get the internet broadband infrastructure in the US up and going they threw billions of dollars at AT&T and they gave us.... DSL.

 

[Godmachine]

Shit I'd pay the physical cost of fiber (what's it cost a couple hundred bucks for a 1000ft spool) rather than get copper to the home, sounds like that basically is DSL except they move the central office extremely close to you.


How does the story go, the gov't wanted to get the internet broadband infrastructure in the US up and going they threw billions of dollars at AT&T and they gave us.... DSL.

1000ft spool of the armored fiber cable is about something like $4000 once they factor in labor. Its crazy that so many neighborhoods have fiber access on one side of the street and nothing but DSL on the other , makes no sense.

At&t has a long history of taking billions from the Government and pushing out polished turds in return. Bastards.

 

[sfsuphysics]

1000ft spool of the armored fiber cable is about something like $4000 once they factor in labor. Its crazy that so many neighborhoods have fiber access on one side of the street and nothing but DSL on the other , makes no sense.

How armored does the cable need to be if you're running it along phone poles though?

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

1000ft spool of the armored fiber cable is about something like $4000 once they factor in labor. Its crazy that so many neighborhoods have fiber access on one side of the street and nothing but DSL on the other , makes no sense.

If I were in that situation, I'd pay my neighbor to get the service, and then run a Cat6 cable across the street

 

[Godmachine]

How armored does the cable need to be if you're running it along phone poles though?

It has to be able to withstand harsh weather all around , including strong winds , heavy rain , heavy snow (which can weight down on the cable and freeze all around it) and it needs to be able to withstand things like birds and other wild life using it to cross from poll to poll (fucking squirrels).

You can't just take any old fiber optical cable and toss it up there. If you do it'll get destroyed during the year.

So would I Zarathustra[H] lol.

 

[beowulf7]

... In a nutshell, AT&T blows.

LOL, I don't think you'll find many people that will disagree w/ that statement.

 

[tesfaye]

I just got off the phone with Verizon asking about the speed upgrades and was told that nothing will happen until the fall at the earliest. I currently have a triple play package with 50/20 internet which currently costs me $149 a month (before taxes) for all of the service and mind you the TV portion is the highest tier with everything (they threw in sports too).

So while going over the various new tiers and confirming that I would need a new router for anything over 50/20 and what I would have to pay, the woman on the phone interrupted me and asked how I felt about upgrading to 150/35 for an extra $20 since "it's a nice speed to play around with, I have it home and it's great! Also, I can have someone out there to swap your router free of charge on Saturday around 9am", and I said fuck yes ma'am!

So, it might be worth your while to have a little conversation with your nearest Verizon rep and see what they can do for you. I'm not sure what the f' is going on over at Verizon but I just got maxed out triple play for less than the cost of the 150/35 plan by itself! It really does pay to contact the providers regularly to try and get promotions and credits. Since I'm already a customer I can't get free DVR for life so I'll receive a $250 gift card in a couple of months instead.

This is really good because now my price is locked in for 2 years and I'll get that bump to 300Mb/s in the fall!

YEAHFIOSROCKSWOOOO!

 

[beowulf7]

Speaking of Verizon FiOS, this might be a bit of a long shot asking here, but I'll ask anyway. A friend told me that VZ FiOS customers can watch ESPN TV for free on their Android smartphone via an app they give to customers. Is that true? If so, what's the app? I did some Googling around and I came up with Watch ESPN, but just wanted to confirm who uses this service. TIA.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Speaking of Verizon FiOS, this might be a bit of a long shot asking here, but I'll ask anyway. A friend told me that VZ FiOS customers can watch ESPN TV for free on their Android smartphone via an app they give to customers. Is that true? If so, what's the app? I did some Googling around and I came up with Watch ESPN, but just wanted to confirm who uses this service. TIA.

No idea. If that service exists, I've never used it. But then again, I never watch ESPN

 

[beowulf7]

No idea. If that service exists, I've never used it. But then again, I never watch ESPN

LOL, no prob. I don't have ESPN (no cable), but a family member has FiOS, so if it's possible, I'd use his account info. if it indeed works and is worth that initial "hassle" of setting it up.