Submitted by CaptMans1 t3_xzcema in arlingtonva
Trying to avoid Xfinity if possible but I don't see any fiber options, Cox (yeesh), "home" plans from cellular providers, and various small broadband options with like 22MB speeds. What's the consensus on the best performance and reliability since they're all gonna try and screw me after 6mo-1yr anyway?
It's actually usable? Fios was available where we've been living but it was an utter joke. Like, DSL slow, $100+/mo for basic service, and a ton of their crappy specialty equipment.
Probably depends on where you live. I had Gigabit Fios at an apartment in Ballston and it was fantastic. Stupidly fast. No problems while I had them, so I can't speak to their customer support.
Xfinity has been a nightmare -- partly because their upload speeds are garbage, partly because they use some godawful broken throttling algorithm, and partly because their customer service strategy boils down to "beat up the customer with bots and phone trees until they go away".
If you have the option, go with Fios. If you get stuck with Xfinity, start at the gigabit plan. Anything less is unusable because of how bad their upload speeds and network mismanagement are.
I had the opposite experience. FIOS was maybe double the speed of Comcast. Pricing was near identical.
I recently upgraded my Verizon Fios equipment and plan. The new stuff covers the entire house very well including the doorbell. We pay about $70 a month for 500 Mb. I'm very happy. Their customer service was good too.
Does Fios strictly require you to use their equipment or can you at least use your own router/access points? If they require their own equipment, do they charge any type of rental fees?
My fiancé refuses to live anywhere without FiOS. It's been great anywhere we've been in the DMV. We use our own equipment. I think they've sent us equipment but he calls and says we're using our own - sometimes they send out a tech to fiddle with the ports of something so we can use our own and just return theirs. Someone will probably correct me on the specifics about the ports. This is not remotely in my home responsibilities. Lol
AFAIK, Verizon leases the equipment or you can purchase it outright from them. They will spread the purchase price over three months. I don't know if you can use other routers. They supplied one box that connects to the fiber and another, WiFi access point that conne to that.
I have only internet and use my own equipment plugged into FiOS Optical Network Terminal. In the past I’ve used my own cable tuner (TiVo) by renting a cablecard from them. FiOS has been pretty solid for working from home throughout the past couple years.
Had great service with comcast/xfinity for over 15 years before I moved away from arlington.
I've heard good things about Starry if it's available to you.
I have DSL through Comcast, but not really by much choice. It's honestly fine for everything being a single dude in an apartment. I get like 300 mbs down.
Got Starry today, but I'm a bit skeptical of how well it will hold up in heavy rain or snow. The tech who installed it didn't know where the closest transmitter was and didn't really seem to understand the concept at all (he thought it was satellite internet).
I bundled my phone and internet with Verizon so fios was $25 a month guaranteed for ten years. Phone was 90 a month total including a new iphone 13 pro max.
HealthLawyer123 t1_irlmyq3 wrote
I have Verizon Fios.