Verizon FiOS Television Service

When FIOS TV service from Verizon became available in my Town, I was really excited because I didn't like dealing with our cable company and we had already gotten the telephone and Internet service through FIOS and we liked it.

FIOS TV is a television service that allows your home to be directly connected to Verizon's fiber-optic network to get your television programming. It's run just like your normal cable is in the house, except that your home is connected to the fiber-optic network, which allows for more programming, more high definition programming, a quicker on-demand service and more reliable service.

Our installation was simple since we had already established a FIOS connection with our Internet and telephone service. For the FIOS TV install, a Verizon tech took only about an hour running the new cable connections in the house, setting up the FIOS TV boxes and finally programming the remotes to work with the boxes and our televisions. You can get a basic box or get an HD box or a box that also includes a DVR so you can record programs and watch them later. We went with the basic box since we don't really watch that much TV, though we are contemplating upgrading to to an HD box. If you don't have any of the FIOS services, the install can take longer. When we originally has the Internet and telephone installed, the install took about five hours since the tech had to string a new line from the telephone pole to the house, install the converter and battery backup for the fiber-optic connection and then wire the phone and the Internet connections in the house.

Since our install we have had all three of the FIOS services, including the television service. In the subsequent years we've found it to be very reliable. In the couple of years that we've had the service, not once has it gone out, which is a lot more than I can say about the Comcast service I used to have before that. We have several hundred channels to choose from that include music channels and a host of On-Demand services. I think the On-Demand services are significantly quicker than Comcast ever was and I think the overall variety of services available on the On-Demand channel is much better too.

The very first thing I noticed when we turned our our TV's with FIOS is how much clearer the standard picture is versus standard cable services and now that we recently upgraded to HD service for one of our TV's, the picture is even clearer and better, plus now we have a ton of HD channels to choose from for not that much more money.

All that said, Verizon is still one of those huge companies with a typical customer service departments. I have found their customer service to be easier to deal with that Comcast, but it isn't perfect. I haven't had problems with my TV, but when I had issues with my Internet connection, there were a few times I had started to get a bit frustrated with the FIOS customer service.

Programming

If you've ever had cable TV, you know what to expect with FIOS TV programming. There are your local channels, public access channels, standard cable channels, premium cable channels and HD channels. FIOS TV also has Spanish language channels, music channels and sports channels. We have the standard HD package which gives us all the local channels and all the standard cable TV channels, includes the foreign language channels and the music channels on our non HD TVs and all of the HD channels on our HDTV (which is probably well over a 100). That's pretty much everything except for the premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime.

There are also widget services with FIOS TV. I don't use them very much, but you can quickly pull up things like the local weather and traffic reports with the click of a button on the remote. You can even be logged into Facebook or Twitter through the widgets.

Cost

I have the FIOS TV service as part of package deal with the other FIOS services. For the Internet service, phone service and cable TV, the package price is just about $120 a month.

In the end

While Verizon's customer service for their FIOS isn't perfect, just about everything else with this television service is. The FIOS TV service offers all the channels you'll find with a cable company and you'll get a really clear picture, quicker On-Demand services and more choices than you'll find on a cable company's plan.