It has always bugged me that Verizon was a company split in two. Verizon for landline telephone and Verizon Wireless for cell phone service. I even thought "If they're buying Alltel call it Alltel because people may think Verizon Wireless may have some connection with Verizon." I'm happy Verizon is bringing its parts under a unified tent with a nice package rate to tie it all up. My comment, :-)

To the folks complaining about timetables for getting FiOS, it can easily take up to a week to run fiber for a whole block. That includes getting the lazy-arsed utilities out there to mark their lines, getting the cable competition to mark their lines (and believe me, they aren't in a hurry...), and then you can trench and lay the cable.

For newer communities, this process is easier as a lot of it has just been laid, is still marked, or any mapping done is relatively new and reliable. Fortunately, our community was less than a year old when Verizon laid their glorious fiber out.

As for Verizon's FiOS service, it's heads and shoulders above the competition. For $109/mo, I'm getting a land-line w/unlimited LD (necessary evil), 20/5 internet (throughput is stellar--trying to find a better DNS server, though), and a veritable plethora of HD and SD television channels. Compare this to the $89/mo. I was spending with DirecTV for their service (no special channels, extra for HD) and the $100/mo. I dropped on cable (again, extra for HD and poor-quality SD channels--compression artifacts all over...)

Also, Verizon keeps adding HD channels, even sometimes w/o telling us! This isn't a bad thing, per se, as they're not charging more--they're just adding them to the lineup. For example, they just added MTV HD, VH1 HD, CMT HD, Spike HD, and Comedy Central HD out of the blue a couple of weeks ago. Add that to the movies package (Showtime, Starz, and Movie Channel bundle, including all HD channels), and I'm easily going over 100 HD channels alone. :)

Yeah, Verizon's service is lackluster...but then again, the competition isn't better by any stretch of the imagination. And Verizon is the only company that is running FttP--something that is necessary for an internet society in the 21st century (and something, sadly, that Obama has yet to force the issue on with the LECs).

Also, the only other nag is the HD DVR--only 80 GB currently, and while there was talk of a larger device (or going to Moxi boxes), nothing has come of it currently. With a lot of HD programming available, you run out of your 80GB (approx. 18 hours of HD) in a hurry.

All in all, we're supremely pleased with our FiOS service. If I could improve two things, it would be customer service (duh) and the HD DVRs...but otherwise, I can heartily recommend it.

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Brad--just a thought, they may not have FiOS available for your condo as Verizon (until recently) was avoiding apartments/condos/multi-family dwellings.

And yes, I would love to have cell phone service bundled with my FiOS, but the prices on the Verizon data plans are craptacular at best IMO. When they start coming out with all-inclusive plans (like Sprint), then I'll be interested in their wireless.

Had to do a double-take, thought I was on the EngadgetMobile or MobileCrunch blog.

It's taken them a long time because they're worried about their services cannabalizing each other. Many of us have ditched our landlines for cell-only service, and a few (so far) are ditching their cable/fios tv for broadband-only (tv on the web). So, it's prolly too little too late to attempt this type of offering.

Don't know much about "fios" we don't have that fancy stuff out here in the styx. But, I can say I won't be connecting with verizon ANYTHING I don't have to in the future.
Have no trust whatsoever in verizon.

I just had a Verizon guy here to look at my landline wiring. I asked him how come we didn't have Fios availability and he said it was due to underground utilities. It will take about a year to do all the digging, installing, etc. If it was aerial we would have had it already. Maybe the same goes for the two posts before me?

I'll add on to your rant. I live right outside of Washington DC and we do not have FiOS. Why? It's not like this is new technology.

Wow, it is about this they package all of services together. Funny, I recently switch from Verizon cell service to AT&T. My FiOS connection has been great for surfing and TV. I guess in two years I'll look at switching back to Verizon for cell service.