My Verizon FiOS experience is about to begin

On July 3 I had one of my last Comcast outages--I say that knowing I'll have another one soon. This Comcast outage had particularly bad timing since I've been evaluating Verizon FiOS.

Amazing how quick I called Verizon after this latest Comcast glitch--the knocked out the TV and Internet access for 4 hours.

Verizon FiOS has been available in my area for a few weeks. The fiber optic lines were put into the ground in January and February. These lines were recently lit up.

My only reservation for the switch was price. Due to my complaints earlier this year I was getting TV (with HBO) and Internet access for roughly $60 a month since Comcast put me on all these promotions to shut me up.

But even with the half-price tab the outages were a pain--especially when there's an alternative out there. I got a $99 deal that includes Internet access, TV and phone service, which will run on the FiOS network. That price comes with a two year contract, which I was ok with since I haven't found anyone local that is complaining about reliability. Toss in the dreaded taxes and assorted perks and the whole thing should run $130 a month or so.

I'll take that deal given the faster Internet speeds--15mbps compared to the 6mbps-ish I'm getting now.

My Verizon experience begins July 13 when the techies come out to wire the house. Here's what has happened so far:

• Made call, sales process easy;
• Three hours later, guy knocks on door with some literature about how some contractor will be spray painting the lawn and uprooting some grass to lay down the pipes;
• Path of fiber optic cable marked on lawn.

Here's what will happen from that point:

• Contractor will follow the path and install the fiber optic lines ahead of the June July 13 date (may be other utilities involved);
• Verizon wires the house and then I'll be theoretically in broadband heaven;
• Once Verizon FiOS is up and running I'll call Comcast to cancel.

The one thing I've noticed pretty quickly was that piping in fiber optics is no small matter. Conquering the last mile isn't easy by any means. Now I knew all of this--Wall Street analysts have been yapping about Verizon's FiOS installation costs for about 6 quarters now--but actually being told your turf will be dug up brings things to life.

As for the lawn it's no sweat. I've noticed at least three lawns on my block with spray paint markings. If Comcast isn't worried yet it soon will be.