In news that will not surprise Consumerist readers, a massive annual survey of American consumers shows that we are all generally dissatisfied with our cable and Internet service providers, and that we find Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Charter, and Cox just a little bit less satisfying than average. [More]
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Netflix Will Also Pay Verizon To End Streaming Bottleneck
By 4.29.14
The months-long game of chicken between Netflix and Verizon has come to an end, with the streaming video company agreeing to pay off the ISP for a more direct connection to its network. For Netflix users with FiOS accounts, it means you will finally be able to watch streamed reruns of Mad Men without having to guess which character you’re looking at, but it continues to demonstrate that ISPs can passive-aggressively compel data-heavy content companies to ante up in order to reach their users. [More]
New Jersey Thinks 4G And Wired Broadband Are The Same, Lets Verizon Off The Hook
By 4.24.14
Someone at Verizon is wearing a party hat and celebrating this week, as the telecom titan convinced the state of New Jersey to let it wriggle out of a decades-old obligation to provide broadband throughout the entire Garden State, because apparently 4G wireless broadband is the same as a to-the-home wired connection, and broadband competition is completely unnecessary. [More]
Verizon Brings Fake Grassroots Campaign To New Jersey To Claim Support For Not Bringing Real Broadband
By 4.17.14
New Jersey might not be that large a state, but its geography and its dense population make it easy to understand how running a broadband connection to 100% of residents could be a cumbersome and expensive project. So what’s a corporation stuck with a twenty-year-old public interest obligation to provide those broadband connections to do? Create a fake tidal wave of public support for their attempt to weasel out of it, of course! [More]
Will Netflix Speeds Improve For Verizon, AT&T Internet Customers Anytime Soon?
By 3.31.14
Starting in the second half of 2013, Netflix speeds on several major Internet service providers began to sink drastically as the ISPs allowed Netflix downstream traffic to bottleneck, resulting in slow, fitful delivery to consumers who had paid Netflix for the service and the ISPs for broadband access. Earlier this year, Comcast speeds turned up out of their nosedive when the company made a profitable deal with Netflix, but what about everyone else? [More]
Verizon: Everything Is Great, Let’s Not Mess It Up By Fixing Net Neutrality
By 3.27.14
Ah, Verizon, those well-known lovers of net neutrality. They love it so much that they sued the FCC to get net neutrality tossed out — a move that succeeded earlier this year. And now, Verizon’s showing their deep and abiding fondness for internet openness by telling the FCC just how much we don’t need to protect it at all. [More]
It’s Not Just You: Pretty Much Everyone Hates Their TV & Internet Providers, Survey Finds
By 3.25.14
If you’ve got problems with the company providing your TV and broadband service, you are most definitely not alone. Our siblings over at Consumer Reports ran a national survey to find out how satisfied with their cable and internet providers subscribers really are. And the findings won’t surprise most Consumerist readers: when it comes to their telecom providers, most consumers are a lot less than pleased. [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]
Don’t Count On Verizon FiOS Coming To Your Town Anytime Soon
By 3.12.14
While supporters of the Comcast and Time Warner Cable merger have pointed to the existence of competing Verizon FiOS service in certain markets as proof that there is indeed competition for broadband service (which there isn’t), the fact is that this fiber service isn’t going to be popping up in new markets in the foreseeable future. [More]
Comcast/TWC Netflix Speeds Improve After Payoff; Verizon Still Hasn’t Bottomed Out
By 3.10.14
After months of slowed-down data speeds for Netflix users on Comcast and Time Warner Cable’s network, speeds rebounded the very same month that Netflix agreed to pay Comcast money for more direct access to its network. [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]
New Nickelodeon Channel Will Let Parents Customize TV Programming
By 1.15.14
Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime owe a good deal of their success to parents of young children, who love that they can dial up one of their kids’ favorite shows or movies instantly and without commercials. The folks at Viacom and Verizon are hoping to replicate some of that experience with a new customizable cable TV channel aimed at youngsters. [More]
Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting For Verizon FiOS To Come To Your Town, Says CEO
By 12.11.13
Back in 2012, Verizon Wireless announced a marketing deal with several of the country’s largest cable operators that would let these companies sell cable/Internet/wireless bundles. We warned at the time that this would give Verizon even more reason to halt expansion of its costly FiOS network, as the company stood to make more money from the wireless business than it would from the TV/Internet service. Now Verizon’s CEO has confirmed that the company has no plans to expand FiOS beyond the existing markets. [More]
Hey, Who Cut My Comcast Line?
By 8.1.12
Jim can’t prove that a technician working for Verizon cut his cable line. He didn’t see it happen, and the vandal didn’t leave a signature or anything. All the perpetrator left behind was a dug up, severed Comcast cable, some fiber optic cable, and a conduit. Less than a week before, Jim had booked a tentative FiOS installation a month ahead of time, pending the approval of his housemate. Instead, this turned out to be one of those very rare Consumerist stories where the hero is… Comcast. [More]
Letter To Verizon CEO Solves Website Bug, Gets Customer Best FiOS Pricing
By 7.12.12
Dariush was pretty happy with his Verizon FiOS Internet service. He wanted to become even happier, and add voice phone service to his plan. But Verizon’s site and customer service reps weren’t about to let him talk on the phone at the advertised “new customer” price, which he should get, as a new voice customer. Did he whimper, walk away, and keep the subpar VoIP service that he had been using? No. He took his complaint to the very top, e-mailing the Verizon CEO. And he got results. [More]
