FiOS users who get annoyed over how long it takes to upload your stuff to YouTube, rejoice! Verizon announced today that they’re upping their upload speeds to match their download speeds. It’ll take a few months, but eventually subscribers will be able to put stuff on the internet at the same speed they pull stuff down from the internet. [More]
FIOS
Now That Netflix Is Paying Comcast, Users Finally Get Decent Speeds… But At What Cost?
By 4.14.14
The good news: Netflix’s deal to pay Comcast for better access to its network is working. The bad news: This will now set a precedent that Internet service providers can hold content companies hostage with complete disregard to net neutrality. [More]
Verizon Accused Of Deliberately Neglecting Landline Service To Push Customers To FiOS
By 3.24.14
It’s no secret that companies like AT&T and Verizon look at their aging copper landline networks as expensive dinosaurs of a pre-Internet age. But one advocacy group alleges that Verizon has allowed its copper lines to fall into disrepair in the hopes of pushing landline customers to Internet-based phone service. [More]
Here’s What the Lack of Broadband Competition Looks Like on a Map
By 3.7.14
When announcing Comcast’s intention to buy Time Warner Cable, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts called cable a “highly competitive and dynamic marketplace.” Dynamic it might be, but competitive it isn’t. Most of us live a local monopoly, cable-wise: it might be a Comcast city or a Time Warner town, but we don’t have that much choice with our providers. And those companies also, hugely, provide our broadband access. So what does 75% reach or a 15% market share really look like, to a city and the people in it? [More]
Netflix Streaming Speeds Getting Worse For Comcast and Verizon FiOS Customers
By 2.11.14
Do you have broadband internet? Do you like to watch streaming movies and TV on Netflix? If so, great news: your connection to Netflix is getting faster! Unless, of course, you happen to be one of the tens of millions of Americans who use Comcast or Verizon FiOS for internet access at home, in which case it’s completely the opposite. [More]
Verizon Offers 2-Year Price Guarantee To New FiOS Customers, Doesn’t Mention New Fee
By 2.7.14
UPDATE: A rep for Verizon has reached out to Consumerist to clarify that the $50 activation fee is only required for customers who order FiOS service offline and that this fee varies from market to market. Additionally, the $5/month router rental fee has not yet started. It will begin Feb. 16 in all markets except New York State. [More]
Verizon FiOS Breaks Closed Captioning, Blames Customer
By 7.25.13
The growth of streaming video isn’t a net positive for everyone: it can be a real problem for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing and depend on captions to understand television content. Rosalie thought that she could at least depend on the regular TV programming that comes into her house through a Verizon FiOS box to have legally mandated captions, but not so fast. [More]
How I Straightened Out A Verizon FiOS Mess With A Single E-Mail
By 3.6.13
Edwin wanted to stay with Verizon FiOS, but they didn’t want to stay with him as he moved to a new city. He tried, really, he did. Before packing it all in and giving up on Big Fiber, he tried what is a standard move to Consumerist users but a little more novel to most people. That is, of course, the executive e-mail carpet bomb. [More]
Verizon Has No Idea Whether I Get FiOS Or DSL, Keeps Billing Me After I Cancel
By 1.9.13 — Updated: 1.10.13
It’s bad enough to get the runaround for something as simple as transferring your Internet service from one address to another. But when you cancel that service because your provider is incompetent, you would at least hope to stop being billed for service you never received. [More]
Verizon Sends Me To Collections Over Fees It Shouldn’t Have Charged Me In The First Place
By 11.12.12
After several months of being lied to by Verizon customer service about his bill, it looks like a customer finally got the company to realize its error and zero out his account — except for the $17.50 in fees that shouldn’t have been assessed in the first place, and which has the customer fending off a collections agency. [More]
Verizon’s Deal To Buy Spectrum From Cable Companies Could Mean Fewer Cable Options For Consumers
By 8.2.12 — Updated: 2.15.13
It seems like it’s been oh, about eight months since Verizon Wireless announced its proposal to buy billions of dollars worth of wireless spectrum from cable companies who aren’t using it anyway. At first glance, it seems like a not-horrible idea, as Verizon Wireless doesn’t compete directly with the likes of Comcast and Time Warner Cable. But with regulators nearing a decision on the deal, several high-profile folks have come forward to voice their concerns about how Verizon might be sacrificing the growth of its FiOS business in favor of its wireless network. [More]
Verizon FiOS Retention Rep Called My Bluff. Now What?
By 6.12.12
It’s a common money-saving tip repeated just about anywhere you find money-saving tips. If you want to save money on something that you subscribe to (particularly cable TV), give them a call and threaten to cancel. They’ll slash your rate and maybe even shower you with freebies in order to keep you from walking away. Only a retention rep at Verizon called Dan’s bluff and wouldn’t lower his rate now that he’s out of his initial two-year contract. He’s prepared to leave, but really doesn’t want to. Have you managed to finagle a lower rate out of Verizon or another telecom? If so, how? [More]
Verizon: You Totally Need This Unnecessary FiOS Upgrade
By 3.21.12
Verizon really wants Sean to sign up for FiOS. Really, really wants him to sign up. He’s happy kicking it old-school with a regular old copper landline, and dumping the barrage of FiOS ads in the trash. So it was interesting when he got a letter apologizing for nonexistent “service issues” in his area and urging him to upgrade to the newer, shinier fiber optic network. The letter assures him that he can totally keep his current phone plan at its current price – even though the equivalent plan under FiOS is cheaper. [More]
Worst Company In America Round One: AT&T Vs. Verizon
By 3.19.12
Two telecom titans will step into the Worst Company gladiator pit this afternoon. One will walk out victorious while the other will end up stuck with a huge early termination fee. [More]
2 Years, 12 Calls, 3 Installation Appointments And I Still Don't Have FiOS
By 10.11.11
More than two years ago, Consumerist reader Stephen spotted a Verizon FiOS box tacked to the side of his neighbor’s house. The two properties share a driveway and a telephone pole, so it should be no problem to get his house hooked up for FiOS service, right? Of course not. [More]
Verizon FiOS Won't Stop Billing Me For Phantom Cable Boxes
By 8.23.11
Heath exchanged his two Verizon FiOS set-top boxes for two shiny new ones, but Verizon was unable to let go. They just couldn’t get the idea through their billing system that Heath has two boxes now, not four. So they kept billing Heath for all four, until he gave up and got rid of FiOS entirely. Now they’re trying to get him to pay $900 for the boxes that he already returned in January, even though he’s provided them with the equipment return paperwork. [More]
FCC Broadband Study Shows Which Companies Actually Come Close To Meeting Advertised Download Speeds
By 8.2.11
Today, at — of all places — a Best Buy in Washington, DC, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the results of the agency’s Measuring Broadband America study, which looked to put a more accurate number on what consumers should be expecting from their broadband providers. [More]
Cable Boxes Slurp More Electricity Than Refrigerators
By 6.27.11 — Updated: 12.6.12
The biggest energy hog in your house is probably sitting right under your TV. That little ol’ set-top box could be using up more electricity in your house than your refrigerator or central air conditioning, according to a new study by the Natural Resources Defense Council. [More]
