# Anyone switch from DSL to fiber?



## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

About two weeks ago, a Cincinnati Bell contractor was putzing around the phone pole at the end of my drive with his bucket truck and a 3M box (which turns out to be an aerial terminal closure). Unfortunately they are still saying it's not available in my area while I see this box, with cable going through it, taunting me.

So now, I'm practically giddy with the prospect of 30mpbs Internet speed, and if I drop the seldom used home phone, a lower bill. Has anyone switched from DSL to fiber (whether it's Verizon FIOS, Cincy Bell Fioptics etc)? Any pluses or negatives? I'm fairly close to the CO, so DSL distance is not a big factor. Right now I have 10mpbs DSL, but haven't checked the actual in a while.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

I switched from verizon DSL to verizon FiOS internet and could not be happier. Same price, 8x speed. 

In my case the installer was able to run cat5 right from the optical network terminal (ONT) to my router, so I didn't have to use their supplied one.


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## 4HiMarks (Jan 21, 2004)

I switched from Speakeasy DSL to FiOS some years ago. Speakeasy was great when I first had them, but their service and attitude kept going downhill. The connection would go out every time it rained, which to me clearly indicated a short underground somewhere, but htey kept insisting it was a problem with my internal wiring. They sent a guy out who did nothing but recommend a professional (re-)install and suggested I hire the company he was about to start. Then they tried to charge me $200 for the "service call". 

After that i switched to FiOS. The connection went a couple of time in the first month, but since then it has been rock solid. 

The only negative you might find is that if there is an extended power outage, the backup battery might run down and you could lose phone service. But if you're dropping the landline, that might not matter.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

At least with my FiOS there was an 8-hour UPS which actually lasted all 8 hours in a power failure.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

4HiMarks said:


> I switched from Speakeasy DSL to FiOS some years ago. Speakeasy was great when I first had them, but their service and attitude kept going downhill. The connection would go out every time it rained, which to me clearly indicated a short underground somewhere, but htey kept insisting it was a problem with my internal wiring. They sent a guy out who did nothing but recommend a professional (re-)install and suggested I hire the company he was about to start. Then they tried to charge me $200 for the "service call".
> 
> After that i switched to FiOS. The connection went a couple of time in the first month, but since then it has been rock solid.
> 
> The only negative you might find is that if there is an extended power outage, the backup battery might run down and you could lose phone service. But if you're dropping the landline, that might not matter.


I'm considering dropping it. We rarely use it. Now, if I could transfer the land line to one of our Google voice accounts, that would be nice. But paying less and doubling/tripling our Internet speed is very tempting to me.


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## Phil T (Mar 25, 2002)

dpeters11 said:


> I'm considering dropping it. We rarely use it. Now, if I could transfer the land line to one of our Google voice accounts, that would be nice. But paying less and doubling/tripling our Internet speed is very tempting to me.


I just recently dropped my Qwest home phone after 33 years. I ported the number over to my Iphone and bought a Magic Jack for home phone. So far I really like the Magic Jack. Voice mail is recorded as a wav file and e-mailed to you when you are not home. Works great on the Iphone.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I'm on U-Verse now for phone and internet... less than 2 months, but doing fine so far. It is fiber to the neighborhood, then copper for that last run to the house.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

The sales guy made the rounds on the street tonight. I think I creeped him out at first when I said I've been expecting him.

Likely the easiest sale he's had. He didn't expect someone to know what he was selling before he said anything.


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

I would totally switch. I live in a small town, our cable company just started offering 15M cable internet, and it is quite expensive.

Our phone infrastructure is so old in my part of town I bet we would be the first in line for replacement though when they finally decide to do it!


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

matt1124 said:


> I would totally switch. I live in a small town, our cable company just started offering 15M cable internet, and it is quite expensive.
> 
> Our phone infrastructure is so old in my part of town I bet we would be the first in line for replacement though when they finally decide to do it!


What's a bit pathetic is I'll be saving about $30 a month than I pay now simply by dropping local phone service and paying $10 for Broadvoice.


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## Drucifer (Feb 12, 2009)

I would, but it been almost three years now since I was told by a sales rep in my local mall that it was coming to my village.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

I switched from DSL to Verizon Fios in September 2006. I can't tell you how happy I've been with the service. Unfortunately, Verizon sold their ME/NH/VT landline assets to FairPoint. While the service is still stellar, we're not getting the advances that other Fios territories are getting. No TV, nothing above 15Mbps. FairPoint's billing systems have been notorious for losing everything under the sun. In addition FairPoint filed for bankruptcy making their customer service even worse.

Mercifully, their hardware quality has FAR outstripped their management quality. I basically run ethernet from the ONT right to my router. Very happy with what I have but would still like to speed things up a bit.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Install was yesterday, an impressive amount of equipment in the basement. We didn't order phone or TV, yet they still installed the hardware and battery backup and took out the copper.

I definitely get the impression that the phone company wants to get rid of as much copper as they can.

I was right to doubt the sales guy telling me it was synchronous. But good decision overall.


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## RasputinAXP (Jan 23, 2008)

dpeters11 said:


> I was right to doubt the sales guy telling me it was synchronous. But good decision overall.


You mean synchronous download and upload speeds? Yeah, definitely not. But still faster than anybody else's. Wish I had it here.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

RasputinAXP said:


> You mean synchronous download and upload speeds? Yeah, definitely not. But still faster than anybody else's. Wish I had it here.


Apparently when they first started it was. So you could get 30/30. But now it's 10/2, 20/5 and 30/10.


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