FiOS Fantasy

I caved.

I called Verizon a few weeks ago to cancel our second line, originally installed when we moved in for Internet access and my fax machine. We've had cable Internet access for over three years now, and the one or two faxes I send and receive a year don't justify the second line, even at a cool six bucks a month.

So while I was on the phone, they very cheerily said, "we're now offering fiber optic Internet in your area!" I gave my usual response, "We're using cable," which never failed to shut them up because cable is faster than the DSL they used to try to get us to buy into.

"Oh, fiber optic is much faster!"

Hmmm. Turned out to be the same price as the cable, too, except we're also paying for basic cable we don't need (we've got DirecTV for the NFL Sunday Ticket), so it would be slightly cheaper. I told him I'd think about it.

They sent us a UPS priority mail envelope with the offer.

They sent direct mail postcards, and inserts in the phone bill.

THEN they got serious. Last week a sales rep came door to door, offering a $5 discount and 5/2 service that's $10 cheaper than our cable (plus the $9 extra for the cable we're not using). That's when I caved.

They're connecting the outside line now. Next Monday they'll come to hook up the house, replacing our copper wire and installing the box for the fiber optic telephone service and Internet.

Jim's nervous that it won't actually be faster than the cable. It's comparable, and Verizon says it will be faster because of cable's shared technology (i.e. the more people using it, the slower the speed). It's a simple upgrade to 15/2 if we don't like the 5/2, and the price will still be less.

What excites me most is that AOL is now offering free XDrive (5GB of storage)with automatic backup. It's now taking me several hours to back up 652MB of files. Since the REAL difference in speed between FiOS and cable is in the upload speed (2Mbps instead of about 724Kbps), I can't wait to see how fast it goes then.

So, any of you out there already have FiOS? Any advice, comments on the speed difference, thoughts on computer configuration? I'm having them configure Jim's computer, but I'm going to have to do mine on my own. Any tidbits are much appreciated.