A little background: My FiOS situation

For starters, I'll write a little bit about my experience with FiOS so far.

I live in a relatively new community in Loudoun County, Virginia (Brambleton). The community developer brought in Verizon to be their "technology partner" very early in the process. The upside of this is that we were one of the first communities nationwide to receive FiOS data and video services. The downside is that Verizon has the only data pipe into our neighborhood, so they face no competition from cable providers. The billing for the basic video and data services is tied into our HOA fees, so even if you decided to bring in satellite television, you would still be paying for FiOS.

So far, it's been a pretty good situation. We've had FiOS broadband for almost 2 years, and we were hooked up to the television service in July of '06. The internet service has been blazing fast, and we've experienced very little downtime. As for the television, the picture quality for both HD and SD has been phenomenal, and the HD-DVR has been a blessing to our home. The program guide is somewhat clunky, but Verizon should be rolling out their new software sometime later this spring or in the summer.

Probably the biggest area of disappointment has been with the customer service. I haven't had any issues personally, but many of my neighbors have been frustrated by what initially seemed to be a lack of training with the FiOS CSRs. However, the general consensus is that the service has improved in recent months. All of my interactions with the customer service staff have been painless.

So that's where I stand right now. Here's my wish-list for FiOS going forward:

1. The improved program guide software
2. A legal way to get recorded content off of my DVR, or at least some way to expand the storage
3. Expanded HD content
4. Expanded sports package offering (I really want the YES! network)

Any other current customers out there want to share their experiences? Have any questions? Leave a comment and let me know.

A blog about FiOS

There is no real "go to" place for information about Verizon's FiOS service on the web. While information is out there (Verizon's site has the basics, AVS Forums and Broadband Reports have a fair amount of discussion), it's all over the place.

At the FiOS Blog, I'm going to attempt to collect the most useful FiOS info from around the Web, and add to the knowledge base and discussion. The intent will be to provide tips and tricks, best practices, and some troubleshooting advice to current users, while giving prospective FiOS users an overview of what's going on.

For this to work, it's going to take community involvement. So please, comment away and drop me a line if you have anything you'd like to contribute.