Today was my install date for Verizon’s FIOS – the new super high speed fiber optic broadband. Well, it was supposed to be 9/12/2006. Then it was supposed to be 9/14/2006. Then it was supposed to be today, then it was supposed to be 9/21/2006. Imagine my suprise when i got to work today and had voicemail from the verizon installer at my house…
Once i got home, a challenge in and of itself, the installer came and had everything set up in a few hours. According to speakeasy’s speed test, this is what i get:
YOWZA! For more details, follow the link!
Here is the content that i posted to BroadbandReports.com. A GREAT site for looking at your broadband choices in your area! I used it for dsl back when it was dslreports (that was like 5 years ago!) and it is still just as great. even better now that more people know about it.
My review at broadbandreports:
I originally ordered residential fios 15/2 as soon as it was available in my area. As soon as i saw people running cable and digging in my neighborhood i checked the verizon site. I was amazed that it said it was available, and that it could be installed in a week! The online tools let me pick a day (9/12) and everything was good to go. Since we knew that the installer might have to run cable, drill through wall/etc, we decided to repaint my home office. So we removed all of the furniture, moved all of the computers/etc to another room, and painted. There are now bookshelves, desks, furniture, stuff, monitors scattered throughout the house.
Interestingly, while prepping the room for paint, we find an RJ45 jack in the wall that we’ve never seen before. no idea where the other end goes, maybe the installer won’t have to wire anything at all!
I then realized a few days later that with the 2m up speed, i could move some of my web hosting to my home and get rid of a bunch of extra services if i signed up for a business+static ip package (99/mo instead of 44/mo for same speed). I already have development sites setup internally for testing, getting rid of external hosting would still save me money. so i called back, the woman at verizon knew exactly what i wanted, why, how, and adjusted my order, but my install date would have to be pushed back to 9/14. Fine, thursday instead of tuesday, no biggie.
Hours later she called back and said they had to move the install to 9/18 (monday) because of some problem with my order. she gave me new order #’s and times. Thursday to monday, no big deal. now we have a whole weekend before we can move stuff back in, maybe we’ll replace the carpet too!
On friday (9/15), i had a voicemail at my home that my install had been postponed to 9/21 (thursday) because i needed “further provisioning” on the account, whatever that means. Ok, now we can’t move stuff back in until after thursday, a hassle, but fine.
On Monday (9/18), after carpooling to work, i have voicemail at work: “hello, this is XXXXX, your verizon installer. I’m at your house to do your fios install. i’ll be back at 1pm. call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx”. what?! So i call the installer, get his voicemail, leave a message. So i call verizon. I get bounced from one person to another for 40 minutes. one person actually says “Are you aware that you are calling the business center?”, like i didn’t place a business order. She transfers me to someone else. Every rep i talk to says the same thing: “Hmm. i see 2 orders here. one for data, one for voice. data is scheduled for the 21st, voice for the 21st. no wait, data is the 18th, today….let me see if i can find someone to help you…”
Finally i get forwarded to the fiber solutions center, which ALMOST knows what is going on. They want to submit a ticket and call me back.
While waiting for them to call back, i try calling the installer again. He picks up and says he was just talking to his boss, and if I can get home by 2pm, his boss said to do it today. Fine, i can get a ride home at lunch and take a 1/2 day.
The fiber solutions center calls back and says “Do not do the install today. I see you are getting voice, data, and tv service…”
i say, “no, just data and voice.”
he says, “ohhhhhhhhhhh. no tv? that makes a lot more sense, go to your install today”
Apparently, somewhere along the line, someone also added “tv” to my order, which verizon is apparently NOT doing in our area yet….
so i get a co-worker to take me home at lunch. the installer shows up just after 2 and is awesome. I show him the garage, where everything is, and that there is a RJ45 jack already in the wall. When we go back to the old telephone box, he tells me that someone must have had ISDN previously, so he might not have to wire anything. he says it looks like cat3, but it is a short run, so maybe he won’t have to wire anything inside the house. i play xbox360 while he does his stuff with the ONT, running power, etc.
After everything is run, he brings in the huge actiontec router, plugs it into the existing jack, and… orange lights instead of green. his laptop won’t activate the box properly, so he calls verizon. and sits on hold. nice! they tell him that from their end it is active, and we do have a phone dial tone, so everything seems to be working. he suspects that its the cat3 wire, so he spends 10 minutes running cat5 instead. no new holes, no drilling, just running a new cable. still an orange light. he calls verizon again, on hold for 5 minutes. turns out that for static ip setups you have to do some additional stuff on the router, as by default its setup as dynamic. we step through the router config, and in 2 minutes we’re up and running. Speed test comes out at 15.8 down, 1.8 up. he says that he’s never seen it get all the way to 2 in al the installs he’s done, and he was hoping this one would. 1.8M up is way better than the 128k we had with dsl!
The next step of the setup really confused me. he had to turn off windows firewall and go through a verizon activation website which required some wierd activex controls, etc. that was odd, and i wasn’t a big fan of that. i might go hunt that stuff down and uninstall it later. even their website said “make sure you turn the firewall back on before leaving”
I’ve had some odd setup issues with the router, and the forums here seem to point to a new version of the firmware (still unofficial) which will fix that problem. The wireless all works, the network is all great, all of the websites inside the house are working great!
pre sales: good
install coordination: horrid
install itself: very good. no complaints.
tech support? haven’t needed any myself so far.
value: great so far. static+business a little more expensive, but consolidating stuff, getting rid of other services will offset that.
1405/1281 was the best i could do at work. dang. that’s fast.