OT - Help Switching from Verizon FIOS to AT&T

[Nittany Ziggy]

in my home. I have DirecTV and I'm cutting down on my HD boxes to save money. The best deal that I can get is to bundle my internet and land line with the AT&T/DirecTV. I currently have FIOS for internet and land line. How much work is involved in making the hardware switch? I currently have a relatively new FIOS "box" (a small rectangular black box) in my garage where the phone line comes in. This connects to my router via a coax cable. My DirecTV boxes are connected to the router via Coax also.

I would appreciate any feedback/experiences/lessons learned from the board. I envision that the land line is a very basic change. I am hoping that the internet connection will be a simple case of swapping out Verizon's black box in the garage with AT&T's version and swapping Verizon's router in my office with the AT&T model. I this about right? Thanks in advance!

 

[GregInPitt]

About 2 years ago I switched from FIOS to Comcast when a Comcast salesman came door to door offering a very discounted 2 year contract, with a 30 day satisfaction guarantee.

The Comcast installer would not use the FIOS coax and re-ran coax throughout my entire home (really around it, mostly). FIOS brings their network into the house using fiber optic - the FO runs to an electronics "box" in my garage that includes battery backup and goes from there via coax to a router in my game room and we have great wireless signal throughout our house that has a good sized footprint. As I remember the Comcast system comes in via coax which runs to their router as well as their repeater (required in my home). And the TV box for cable.

Problems:
First the wi-fi signal was very weak. So Comcast came back and installed a repeater in our bedroom and that seemed to improve the signal.
Then there were the individual channel outages. I remember on night I wanted to watch a game, but the channel was "out".... I called Comcast and their explanation was that there was an "outage" for that channel in my area. But this is 2017 and dependable hardware is common, with network redundancy also common. When this happened a second time within the first 2.5 weeks of my Comcast service I fired Comcast and got FIOS back. I actually got a better deal than I had had before with FIOS as I was a new customer. I had had FIOS for about 10 years without one problem, and my Comcast experiment was a bust.

I won't leave FIOS again.....

 

[GTACSA]

in my home. I have DirecTV and I'm cutting down on my HD boxes to save money. The best deal that I can get is to bundle my internet and land line with the AT&T/DirecTV. I currently have FIOS for internet and land line. How much work is involved in making the hardware switch? I currently have a relatively new FIOS "box" (a small rectangular black box) in my garage where the phone line comes in. This connects to my router via a coax cable. My DirecTV boxes are connected to the router via Coax also.

I would appreciate any feedback/experiences/lessons learned from the board. I envision that the land line is a very basic change. I am hoping that the internet connection will be a simple case of swapping out Verizon's black box in the garage with AT&T's version and swapping Verizon's router in my office with the AT&T model. I this about right? Thanks in advance!

I just did the same thing in December. I have no tech savvy; all I can say is they put a new box in the garage for the internet hookup and replaced my old router. It's all wireless.

In the final analysis, it works.

 

[tboyer]

I'm the apparently rare happy Comcast customer. Our connection is fast, not overpriced and pretty reliable (2-3 outages a year, and not usually longer than a couple of hours). And it needs to be reliable because both of us work at home.

I think the thing about cable internet is that the cable and switching equipment varies greatly based on your neighborhood and the age of the equipment. If you're in ex-urban/small town/rural areas you will tend to have older cable and more ways to lose signal as that cable ages.

FIOS should be more reliable because their wire is more recent and it's fiber so theoretically there's lots more spare bandwidth. I just would personally avoid Verizon because my past dealings with them have been so unpleasant. Their system has a tendency to issue incorrect bills, and it's very time consuming to reach customer service, and when you get through, it's very hard to get them to correct a bad bill. Verizon is just a giant disorganized mess.

Comcast, maybe because they've had so much bad publicity, has really improved their customer service and tech support operations. They've brought call centers back to the US and they've hired a lot of competent people. When there is an issue I can usually get through to tech support and get answers/resolution inside of half an hour.

 

[ClarkstonMark]

Comcast is fantastic in Michigan.
Expensive though.

 

[TheGLOV]

I'm the apparently rare happy Comcast customer. Our connection is fast, not overpriced and pretty reliable (2-3 outages a year, and not usually longer than a couple of hours). And it needs to be reliable because both of us work at home.

I think the thing about cable internet is that the cable and switching equipment varies greatly based on your neighborhood and the age of the equipment. If you're in ex-urban/small town/rural areas you will tend to have older cable and more ways to lose signal as that cable ages.

FIOS should be more reliable because their wire is more recent and it's fiber so theoretically there's lots more spare bandwidth. I just would personally avoid Verizon because my past dealings with them have been so unpleasant. Their system has a tendency to issue incorrect bills, and it's very time consuming to reach customer service, and when you get through, it's very hard to get them to correct a bad bill. Verizon is just a giant disorganized mess.

Comcast, maybe because they've had so much bad publicity, has really improved their customer service and tech support operations. They've brought call centers back to the US and they've hired a lot of competent people. When there is an issue I can usually get through to tech support and get answers/resolution inside of half an hour.

Comcast is HORRIBLE where I live but, for now, they are the best game in town where I live.

You honestly don't have the time for you to read all the {crap} and tons of problems I've put up with since I signed on board with them.

Back where I used to live, AT&T was the very best. Cox Cable is a little better than Comcast.

 

[PSUinMICH]

Comcast is fantastic in Michigan.
Expensive though.

ATT and DirecTV is fantastic in Michigan.

 

[Obliviax]

I use AT&T cable and it is great. I switched from Wowway. For me, the boxes were part of the monthly fee. I just had to terminate Wowway service and drop the boxes off. AT&T came in with their own setup and did the whole switch themselves. The biggest problem was learning new channels. My guess is that AT&T will come in and set everything up. you'll stack all of the Verizon stuff up in a corner and drop them off at their closest drop off center. Easy peasy.

 

[vader_psu]

I just switched from Directv and FIOS internet to Comcast double play. They have some good deals going on and the X1 platform is way better than any other provider. I really like the voice remote.