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| Thursday, September 11, 2008 03:21 PM |
| FiOS Means Freedom |
 by Fëanor |
So, as I mentioned already, we got FiOS installed on Monday. Dude showed up inside the window of time I was given, explained it would be an all day thing, took a look around and got an idea how he was going to do things, and then got right to work running wires outside. Once he got the phone service up and running, he took a break for lunch, then came back and set up the internet and TV. I was actually without TV and internet for only a very short time, but as promised, the procedure as a whole took quite a long time - I'd say something like 6 hours. But he was a thorough worker, and went to the trouble of explaining to me in detail how everything worked, which was nice. I was surprised when he unhooked my Linksys Cable Gateway and replaced it with a similar, Verizon-branded device, which he said came free with the service. I'm a little sad I won't be using my Linksys anymore, but the Verizon device seems good enough - plus it looks snazzy, and has a rather small footprint. The internet is fast and the wireless network is reasonably strong (although it does crap out occasionally, like they all do). So far we've had only one distressing incident - last night the internet and/or network kept dropping out and coming back up over and over in quick succession. After we'd gone out for dinner and come back, that wasn't happening anymore, so hopefully it was just a fluke.
The TV is just awesome. There's a kick-ass guide where you can set your own set of favorite channels (instead of scrolling through every single channel all the time), a clever set of widgets so you can get local weather and traffic news at the push of a button, and a fantastic set of channels that come standard - way better than the set of channels you get standard with Comcast. We've got all the cable channels we're used to already, plus the NFL Network, a Big Ten station, the Boomerang classic cartoon network, the Travel Channel, the National Geographic Channel, and all kinds of other crazy stuff. As for the phone service... well, even though we were sure we had a phone lying around some place, we haven't been able to find it, so I can't comment on that yet.
A day or so after our FiOS was all set up, I called up Comcast to cancel my service. When they asked me why, I told them I'd switched to FiOS, and also that they had the worst customer service of any company I'd ever dealt with. Last night I dropped off my cable box and remote at my local Comcast center, and now we're free! Free finally of the dreaded clutches of the Cocmast. Here's hoping Verizon FiOS is more reliable, and the customer service is better... |
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