Verizon 5G Home Internet Service

[mbroberg]

The ISP that I have had for years, and was always happy with, sold out to a company that has so far been horrible to deal with. So, I'm looking for a new ISP. All I need is Internet, I don't need phone or cable. Verizon has some good deals right now on their 5G Internet service but it is fairly new and I can't find anyone in my area that has tried it out. Have any of you tried it? If so, what do you think? Thanks!

(Edit in: Do you have an ISP that you are happy with? If so, who?)

 

[Edgar]

I use AT&T — fiber to my home. I'm very happy with it and there is hardly ever any down time.

 

[monophoto]

I suspect that our situation is similar to a lot of other folks - choice is basically limited to what is available. We don't have area-wide 5G service yet (and probably won't for many years). So its either Time-Warner which has since been bought out by Charter operating as Spectrum (that deal also wasn't ideal for their customers, at least in my experience), or Verizon. As far as I know, no one in our area uses Verizon - the infrastructure exists because they were the default land-line telephone service provided when the neighborhood was built, but I think most people have either switch over to the Spectrum 'three-in-one' package, or have abandoned landlines altogether in favor of wireless telephone service.

 

[mbroberg]

I suspect that our situation is similar to a lot of other folks - choice is basically limited to what is available. We don't have area-wide 5G service yet (and probably won't for many years). So its either Time-Warner which has since been bought out by Charter operating as Spectrum (that deal also wasn't ideal for their customers, at least in my experience), or Verizon. As far as I know, no one in our area uses Verizon - the infrastructure exists because they were the default land-line telephone service provided when the neighborhood was built, but I think most people have either switch over to the Spectrum 'three-in-one' package, or have abandoned landlines altogether in favor of wireless telephone service.

I wonder why people don't use Verizon if the infrastructure exists. The reviews on their FIOS service are pretty good. Verizon FIOS is not available to me, just 5G.

 

[monophoto]

I wonder why people don't use Verizon if the infrastructure exists. The reviews on their FIOS service are pretty good. Verizon FIOS is not available to me, just 5G.

I suspect in our case the infrastructure is for hard-wired service - not FIOS. Verizon does offer FIOS in town, but we are in new suburban area surrounded by horse farms, so we only get the basics.

 

[coulcd]

Are you sure that home 5G is available at your address? I live outside Chicago and have a 5G phone smartphone, but 5G home internet is not available in my area yet. Looking very forward to the day I can finally cut ties with Comcast!

 

[SabertoothBunny]

If you have fiber as an option, go with that over anything else. Fiber is the best transmission medium ever created to date and if you can get it at your house do so. Night and day difference between traditional copper lines we have always known.

5G is just a wireless signal used to transmit data, it really isn't special honestly. I didn't know they were trying to push it to households for use, thought it was just for cell phones.

 

[mbroberg]

Are you sure that home 5G is available at your address? I live outside Chicago and have a 5G phone smartphone, but 5G home internet is not available in my area yet. Looking very forward to the day I can finally cut ties with Comcast!

Yes. It is available to me.

 

[mbroberg]

If you have fiber as an option, go with that over anything else. Fiber is the best transmission medium ever created to date and if you can get it at your house do so. Night and day difference between traditional copper lines we have always known.

5G is just a wireless signal used to transmit data, it really isn't special honestly. I didn't know they were trying to push it to households for use, thought it was just for cell phones.

T-Mobile, Verizon and Starry Internet are the only three carriers that offer it right now. Of those, Verizon is the fastest. Reviews are pretty good, $25 per month since I have a qualifying cell phone plan, and 30 day satisfaction guarantee. The only other choices in my area are Spectrum cable (lots of unhappy customers), At&T (DSL only in my area), and several lesser known companies. A couple of companies offer fiber but they are expensive!

 

[Mortalis]

My daughter and son in law live in Columbus and they use
WOW and they say it is acceptable. WOW's internet is being taken over by another company and they dont know anything about it yet. they also mention a new option in the Columbus area called Starry and it apparently gets good reviews.

 

[Mortalis]

T-Mobile, Verizon and Starry Internet are the only three carriers that offer it right now. Of those, Verizon is the fastest. Reviews are pretty good, $25 per month since I have a qualifying cell phone plan, and 30 day satisfaction guarantee. The only other choices in my area are Spectrum cable (lots of unhappy customers), At&T (DSL only in my area), and several lesser known companies. A couple of companies offer fiber but they are expensive!

I was one of the very earliest Verizon FiOS adopters in my area when it became available and have been every since for over 10 years now. I dont know how Im going to adapt once I move out to the country once I retire.

 

[mbroberg]

My daughter and son in law live in Columbus and they use
WOW and they say it is acceptable. WOW's internet is being taken over by another company and they dont know anything about it yet. they also mention a new option in the Columbus area called Starry and it apparently gets good reviews.

My daughter and son in law live in Columbus and they use
WOW and they say it is acceptable. WOW's internet is being taken over by another company and they dont know anything about it yet. they also mention a new option in the Columbus area called Starry and it apparently gets good reviews.

WOW is the company I had and I had no complaints about them. Customer service was very good. They were bought out by Breezeline. Customer service is a foriegn concept to them. I had an issue so I called their Customer Service. I never did get to them on the phone. After waits of 2 hours and 1 1/2 hours the call was dropped. Finally got through to someone on the Chat. They were of no help what so ever. Bye Bye Breezeline!

 

[monophoto]

Just out of curiosity, I took a deeper look into the various residential ISP options available in our area. Here's what I found:

Verizon seems to be a viable alternative to Spectrum until you read the fine print - it turns out that FIOS service is only available at selected addresses in the City of Saratoga Springs - which accounts for only about 40% of the potential customers in the area). In suburban areas like where I live, Verizon only offers DSL service which doesn't deliver anywhere near the performance of FIOS. It is possible that Verizon could build out their FIOS system, but that would be a major investment with a questionable return, so I don't see it happening any time soon.

There was an accompanying chart that compared the costs of these options. While the monthly charge is one measure, the creators of this chart suggest that a better metric is the value of the service measured as the ratio of the monthly cost divided by the download speed - and on that basis, Spectrum is the best option, and Verizon DSL is the least favorable (at 30 times as expensive as Spectrum).

In general, the service we get from Spectrum is satisfactory. My issue is that the price seems to go up every month. However, my plan is to eventually dump the TV and telephone service, and use them only as an ISP. If I could only get my family to agree with that plan - - -

 

[jeff]

@mbroberg Mike the Cleveland WOW territory was bought by Breezeline aka Atlantic Broadband as well. Just last night I spent almost 2 hours with the same frustrations trying to get my new account set up. It's them or Spectrum or some crappy slow DSL.

 

[jttheclockman]

I wonder why people don't use Verizon if the infrastructure exists. The reviews on their FIOS service are pretty good. Verizon FIOS is not available to me, just 5G.

I switched to Verizon Fios about 4 years or so ago and have not looked back. Never had a problem. We do not have 5G. But have my phone, computer and TV all on it and works fine.

 

[mbroberg]

Just out of curiosity, I took a deeper look into the various residential ISP options available in our area. Here's what I found:

View attachment 335228

Verizon seems to be a viable alternative to Spectrum until you read the fine print - it turns out that FIOS service is only available at selected addresses in the City of Saratoga Springs - which accounts for only about 40% of the potential customers in the area). In suburban areas like where I live, Verizon only offers DSL service which doesn't deliver anywhere near the performance of FIOS. It is possible that Verizon could build out their FIOS system, but that would be a major investment with a questionable return, so I don't see it happening any time soon.

There was an accompanying chart that compared the costs of these options. While the monthly charge is one measure, the creators of this chart suggest that a better metric is the value of the service measured as the ratio of the monthly cost divided by the download speed - and on that basis, Spectrum is the best option, and Verizon DSL is the least favorable (at 30 times as expensive as Spectrum).

In general, the service we get from Spectrum is satisfactory. My issue is that the price seems to go up every month. However, my plan is to eventually dump the TV and telephone service, and use them only as an ISP. If I could only get my family to agree with that plan - - -

Thanks for the information about the cost. And, I "cut the cord" several years ago. Absolutely no regrets. The initial cost was high ($1000+ for equipment) but I recouped that within 1 1/2 - 2 years.

 

[mbroberg]

@mbroberg Mike the Cleveland WOW territory was bought by Breezeline aka Atlantic Broadband as well. Just last night I spent almost 2 hours with the same frustrations trying to get my new account set up. It's them or Spectrum or some crappy slow DSL.

I don't think Breezeline was ready for the transition, at least not in the Columbus area. I tried calling there Customer Service. I tolerated the 2 hour estimated wait time only to have the call disconnected at about 90 minutes. Tried the next day. Disconnected at about 1 hour in to an estimated 90 minute wait time. Tried the chat feature. finally got an agent after about an hour. He was no help at all. I only needed a simple question answered but I could not log into my account to find the answer. I did eventually get logged in after hours of trial and error on my part.

This morning we woke up to no Internet. Luckily it was restored at about 9:00am. I'm not at all impressed by Breezeline.

I'm going to give Verizon a 30 day trial. Hopefully it will be as good as the reviewers say it is. My box comes on Thursday. I'll see you Saturday at Hartville Hardware.