Verizon FiOS

[blu at vl.com (Tom Metro)]

Back in August I wrote:
> Speaking of fiber, last week I received an advertisement from Verizon 
> for their FiOS service, which is a system where they run fiber to a 
> concentrator box in your neighborhood, and then run copper to your house.

Correction. According to:

http://www22.verizon.com/FiOSforhome/channels/FiOS/root/about_FiOS.asp

the fiber runs right to the customer premises.


> They're offering 5 Mbps down/2 Mbps up for $35/month, or 15 Mbps down/2 
> Mbps up for $45/month.
> 
> See:
> http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/channels/Fios/HighSpeedInternetForHome.asp 
> 
> 
> Now this would be really interesting if they offered a service like this 
> for business.
[...]
> I did find a link on the site for business service, 
> but it just leads to this sign up form...
> where they'll notify you when it becomes available.

They never notified me, but I recently plugged my business number into 
their residential availability form (see link above) and was told:

   We are now selling Verizon FiOS Internet Service for Business in
   your area. Although we are not taking online orders at this time,
   please call your local Verizon business office to verify eligibility
   and place your order today.

So I gave them a call and here's what they said:

The service has been available for business customers for about a month 
or two.

Pricing is:

15 Mbps/2 Mbps with dynamic IP costs $59.95/month.
15 Mbps/2 Mbps with 1 or 5 static IPs costs $99.95/month.

They had a 30 Mbps offering too, but in the hundreds of dollars.

(They knock off $10 or so if you also have their unlimited calling plan.)


It seems a bit odd that there is a $40 premium, or basically double the 
residential price, just to get a static IP. While it's not unusual for 
there to be a big price jump from residential to business, $40 - or 
almost $500 a year - seems excessive for going from business-dynamic to 
business-static. Most providers seem to charge $10 to $20 premium for 
static IPs. I guess a dynamic DNS service is the way to go here.


The rep had basically no technical details on the service, but did say 
you could get just the data service independent of voice. They couldn't 
provide a link to a web site with any information on the business 
offering, but did fax me a brochure, which had this:

up to 30 Mbps / 5 Mbps speed
1 year contract
10 verizon.net mailboxes
unlimited dial-up
20 MB personal web space
dynamic or static IP
30-day money-back guarantee
news access [I assume they mean Usenet]
Installation on one PC
Router
optional wireless router
24/7 business-grade technical support


Of course down in the fine print they say, "speed and uninterrupted use 
of the service are not guaranteed." It also mentioned that the actual 
speed you get is dependent on the "condition of the wiring at your 
location." Sounds almost DSL-like, but I guess that's to disclaim 
liability if the customer has flaky CAT5 wiring. The fine print also 
says the customer is responsible for replacing the backup battery (in 
the equipment they provide, presumably), and that some telephones are 
incompatible with the service.


I asked the resp whether there were any limitations on running servers, 
and they didn't know, but gave me a FiOS specific customer service 
number to try:  888-244-4440.

So has anyone given FiOS (residential or business) a try?


Of relevance to the thread on naked/dry pair/dedicated pair DSL:

While there I also asked about traditional DSL:
1500/768 (possibly the same for 3 Mbps) with 1 or 5 static IPs for $79.95.
Same thing on a dry pair for $89.95.

But the rep said that they were not doing new DSL installs in my CO. 
Instead they're pushing people to FiOS. I wonder if that would prevent 
Verizon DSL resellers from offering me service.

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/