If you’ve got Verizon FiOS and you’re paying fees each month for multiple cable boxes, you may be wasting a lot of money. The pay-TV provider has an app that will give you live access to FiOS on your TV through a number of devices that are less expensive than a leased set-top box. Is it deceptive for Verizon to let its customers continue paying for leased boxes without advising them of cheaper options? [More]
FIOS
Verizon FiOS Customers Say They Were Tricked Into Paying For Unnecessary Set-Top Boxes
By 4.12.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
That FiOS Expansion In Boston May Be Wireless, Not Fiber
By 10.6.16
Hey, remember earlier this year when Verizon said that it was thinking about expanding FiOS into Boston, a city that longs for fiber internet access? The problem with that plan is that it won’t necessarily mean fiber lines leading to every home. Instead, Verizon’s high-speed deployment in Boston is mostly going to be wireless, probably 5G under the FiOS brand. [More]
Verizon Thinking About Maybe Expanding FiOS Again After All, Sort Of
By 7.27.16
Verizon has been very clear, repeatedly, that they are over this whole FiOS thing. They are happy with the service they provide and the footprint in which they provide it, and do not have expansion plans for the future. Oh, wait, though — except for that thing where now they actually totally do. [More]
Pay-TV Subscriptions Continue To Drop As Cord-Cutters Do Their Thing
By 7.26.16
It’s been clear for a few years now that our model of what “TV” actually means is changing. The rise of Netflix, joined later by Hulu and Amazon, made on-demand internet-based viewing a household standard. Then PlayStation Vue, Dish Sling, and other internet-based services and networks started coming online through 2015 and 2016, while cable bills kept climbing. And all that adds up to cord-cutting speeding up and running away with the industry. [More]
Philadelphia Investigating Verizon’s Completion Of FiOS Buildout
By 5.12.16
The city of Philadelphia gave Verizon until Feb. 25 to complete a seven-year agreement to bring FiOS service to all residents. While the company says it completed the job, the city is double checking the status by enlisting the help of those living within its borders. [More]
New Frontier Customers Get Bad First Impression After Verizon Sale And Switchover
By 4.5.16
Back in February, Frontier Communications and Verizon announced a massive deal where Verizon sold broadband, cable TV, and voice markets in California, Texas, and Florida to Frontier. Millions of customers came along with the sale, and they were supposed to be switched from Verizon to Frontier on April 1. Considering how well the switch went, that wasn’t a good date to choose. [More]
The Consumerist Guide To Understanding Your Verizon FiOS Bill
By 3.22.16
When you sign up for telecom services — some combination of TV, broadband, and/or phone — from your cable company, you’re told you’ll pay something like $49 or $99 a month… and yet the price you actually pay can be as much as 40% or more on top of that, thanks to a heap of sometimes confusing charges and fees. Which ones should you blame the government for, and which are made up by your cable company? One cable company at a time, we’ve been using real customers’ bills to break it down. In previous installations we’ve gone through Comcast, DirecTV, Charter, and TWC; now, it’s Verizon’s turn. [More]
State Attorney General Wants To Know If New Yorkers Are Actually Getting The Broadband They Pay For
By 10.26.15
It’s a pretty basic tenet of American commerce: if someone advertises something to you at a certain price, they actually have to provide you that thing at that price. Like, for example, a broadband internet connection: if a company like Verizon, Cablevision, or Time Warner Cable says it will give you a connection of a certain speed, it’s supposed to make good. But in one sate, the top legal office thinks the ISPs may not be making good on their claims, and wants to know what’s up. [More]
NYC Officials Grill Verizon About Incomplete FiOS Rollout
By 10.14.15
A few months back, the city of New York released a damning audit of Verizon’s FiOS rollout in the Big Apple. According to Verizon, they have met their obligation to bring service to New York as laid out in the franchise agreement. But according to New Yorkers, the telecom giant has a long, long way yet to go. [More]
Comcast Hopes To Deploy Multi-Gigabit Broadband By 2018
By 8.24.15
Earlier this summer, Comcast revealed that it will soon be testing an upgrade to its cable broadband network that should allow it to deliver download speeds of up to 10Gbps, ten times the current top speed of Google Fiber. Now the company is giving some idea of how long it thinks it will need to make this super-fast Internet access available on a wider basis. [More]
Judge Says Cablevision Must Stop Running Ads Calling Verizon A “Liar”
By 8.12.15
It’s not uncommon to see a cable provider commercial that pokes fun at or attempt to disprove a competitor for their claims of being the faster, less expensive, or just plain better option. But there’s one less lineup of such ads you’ll be seeing on your TV, as a judge ruled this week that Cablevision must stop running its ads that essentially call Verizon a “liar” regarding claims that it had the fastest wireless network. [More]
Verizon: “People Are Going To Look Back And Laugh” At NJ Customers Worried About Their Copper Landlines
By 8.11.15
Copper wire might seem old-fashioned now, but after a hundred-year run of it being the way to get telephone service, you can imagine why consumers are attached to it. But still, there are indeed many good reasons for upgrades to be taking place. There are good arguments to be made for explaining to anxious consumers how change can benefit them — but mocking them simply for wanting their needs met is not one of those. [More]
Verizon’s Refusal To Repair Landline Service Leaves Elderly Man Without Phone For Months
By 7.30.15
While plenty of Americans rush to acquire the latest and greatest in new telecom technology, there are some that only need the basic phone service they’ve had for decades. But as we’ve seen on multiple occasions recently, a number of traditional landline users are being left out in the cold as Verizon tries to transition customers away from copper line service and to fiberoptic phone lines. And for one elderly New Yorker, Verizon’s apparent inflexibility resulted in months of having absolutely no service at all. [More]
New York City Audit Calls Out Verizon For Failure To Build Out FiOS Network As Promised
By 6.19.15
Verizon is pretty much over this whole “FiOS” thing. They still support their existing networks, of course, but they’re pretty much done building out new ones. That, however, does not sit well with the city of New York, which is still waiting for Verizon to finish the city-wide build they promised to have done by last year. [More]
Contract Dispute Blacks Out The Weather Channel Again, This Time On FiOS
By 3.10.15
Bad storms are once again brewing for The Weather Channel. The latest in a maelstrom of recent carriage contract disputes has seen the cable standby booted off of Verizon FiOS systems… and there doesn’t appear to be a quick resolution out on the horizon. [More]
Cablevision Sues Verizon, Claims “Fastest WiFi” Ads Are Misleading
By 1.29.15
Competing companies often call each other out for exaggerations in ads and other marketing sleight of hand, but Cablevision has decided to let the legal system settle its dispute with Verizon over claims of who has the “fastest WiFi available.” Meanwhile, Verizon says the lawsuit is a marketing ploy to sell Cablevision’s WiFi phone service. [More]
Netflix-Verizon Connection Agreement Finally Pays Off: FiOS Users Seeing Fastest Streaming Speeds
By 10.14.14
Netflix and Verizon have done a lot of very public verbal poo-flinging at each other this year over the abysmal connection speeds FiOS customers have had when trying to stream video from Netflix. Last mongh, FiOS customers finally started to see some relief (and some smoothly playing TV). It looks like the paid interconnection agreement between the two, though, has finally led to some cooperation and is bearing fruit, as Verizon FiOS customers are now seeing faster average Netflix streaming speeds than from any other large ISP in the country. [More]
Why Is Verizon Misleading Consumers With The Charts In These FiOS Ads?
By 8.1.14
If you live near one of the few areas in the country in which Verizon actually operates its FiOS network, you might have seen one of the ads where a Verizon FiOS shill asks “America” to look at a charts claiming to show customer satisfaction results for the nation’s largest Internet and pay-TV providers. Looking at those chart, it appears that Verizon is blowing the competition smithereens. The reality is not as dramatic, graphically speaking. [More]
