John:
Sorry to sound so negative on this subject again, but the word needs to be spread. Anyone seeking additional information is welcome to contact me here via private messaging or right here in this thread for that matter.
Buy it and try it, but if you do so, by all means be there when their "installer" shows up. Make sure that you let them know that if they disable the existing copper facilities, then you will cancel the order before they get started. Watch them as they pull up and make sure that they come to your door FIRST. The minute that they clip that cable, you are no longer a Verizon customer, but now a FIOS customer. FIOS is great, but they can change the rates whenever they feel like it and you have no choice but to pay whatever they want. FIOS is not a regulated utility like Verizon, the dial tone provider.
Verizon and at&t are secretly building unregulated networks that can be bought and sold like buildings. They are carefully doing this by wooing existing customers into their spider web from which they cannot escape. Once a customer is roped in, they become a pawn in their game against the regulated utility requirements.
This is why property owners who go with FIOS and then rent out their property screw their tenant or future purchasers of the property if they sell. The tenant or future property owner can't just order a POTS line anymore since the address is no longer a Verizon service address. The renter or new property owner must purchase a FIOS package to get phone service.
Verizon and Verizon-FIOS are two different companies. Since Verizon still has full run of their service territories, they can sneak in and talk customers into letting them out of the state/county regulated utility business. Verizon is one confusing name to end-users. Big problems for Joe Average trusting anyone. Rest assured, a FIOS customer service rep won't be able to assist you with an issue on your cell phone account. Just like GM, your Chevy isn't a Cadillac, even though they technically come from the same company.
Also, just as an added note: Fax machines, credit card terminals, modems, fire or security alarm systems or any analog data transmission is hit-or-miss on FIOS, U-Verse or any other VOIP-based service.
I urge anyone who is considering any "new and improved" services from your local telephone company using product names such as FIOS or U-Verse, etc. to ensure that your property remains connected to the PSTN via copper. If you allow this to be disconnected, then regulated state and federal pricing structures go out the window and you are bound to pay anything that your new service provider charges. You also waive your option to select the service provider of your choice in the future. You are bound to FIOS or U-Verse forever and have no other choice in alternative service providers. Sorry for the "gloom and doom" here, but people need to wake up and pay attention. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Pay the realistic rate that you have been paying for your traditional phone service. Don't make an irreversible decision.
