Verizon FiOS Rising
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FiOS is slowly making it’s way to every corner of the Internet. Neighborhood by neighborhood it is taking a chunk out of Comcast’s (substitute your region’s Cable internet provider) monopoly wherever it goes.
Most cable internet is approximately 630KB/s down, and 40KB/s up in my area. If more than one or two devices are using the connection, the upload gets overloaded. If you’re torrenting, forget it. When overloaded, the connection behaves like a modem from the late ’80s. Not only is it limited, but it had a price tag of around $50 in my area.
Enter FiOS. With roughly the same speeds (though far higher upload) for less, or more than twice the power for the same price as Comcast, it is tearing a hole in the monopoly quickly. There are currently three plans available for FiOS:
- 5mb down, 2mb up - $42.99
- 15mb down, 2mb up - $52.99
- 15mb down, 15mb up - $64.99
- 30mb up, 5mb down - ~$179.95 (doesn’t appear on their site any longer)
I wanted more than 2mb upload when I got FiOS. The 15/15 plan was rumors when I purchased the service, and it wasn’t on the site. Recently, however, it seems that they upgraded me to it. When they came to set up FiOS phone and TV, I mentioned it and I had it the next day. I can’t say whether it was a nice technician, or if ordering the additional services unlocks more bandwidth (more likely), but it is available without paying the additional money, that’s for sure. Perhaps you can get speeds higher than 15mb up if you order phone/TV/15-15 internet, who knows?
More recently, cable companies have begun to upgrade their services to stay competitive with FiOS. Comcast in my area is now a 16mb down, 1mb up connection. This isn’t bad, and is actually at a livable speed now. However, it still pales in comparison to FiOS. I know firsthand that Comcast services are advertised 1-2mb higher than they are with download, so this is more likely a 14mb effective download plan. FiOS actually is slightly faster than it’s advertized speeds - I hit speeds of 1.92MB/s (over 15mb) on my 15mb connection frequently. It’s upload is now half of Verizon’s lowend FiOS, and if you have Verizon’s full TV/voice plans, it blows cable out of the water with it’s 15mb up.
If you’re happy with the old cable speeds, and FiOS is available, switch to their lowend plan to save some money. If your cable company hasn’t upgraded, and you want more download, go for the 15mb FiOS. If you want the fastest internet possible, go for the combinations for a 15/15 or 30/15 connection on FiOS. One thing’s for sure, and that’s that FiOS is certainly beginning to dominate the ISP arena where it crops up.
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