Drop Dish for FiOS

PopcornNMore

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Mar 20, 2005
3,635
128
Gibsonia, PA
I'm thinking about dropping Dish for FiOS in order to reduce costs by getting a triple play package with faster internet and more channels.

Will I be happy or disappointed?
 
Happy with Internet, phone, PQ, but probably disappointed with TV equipment compared to Dish.
 
I considered doing the same, but decided the savings weren't enough. I'd lose some channels of interest, and gain some of interest. Plus, I gather the FiOS hardware is less reliable than Dish's. Neither is perfect, mind you. I have FiOS for Internet and phone.
 
It's rarely if ever cheaper (after any incentives are over) to get Internet Phone, Internet, and TV from one company. I have posted before and have done research. The cost of VoicePulse or Vonage is a fraction of what they will charge you. It's a crap game for Internet and TV. For THEIR TV, yes, getting Internet with TV is less for each than if you had one. But Fios is expensive compared to Dish. So that discount may or may not really be saving you money. As in other posts here, I can vouch my in-laws bill over the last three years with Fios has gone up much more than Direct or Dish ever has.
Picture is very good, can't argue with that. I happen not to care for their DVR, but you may not care.

If you are getting a great deal, and are sure you are saving money, I can't say Fios is bad all around. Would be my third choice from Dish, Direct.
 
I considered doing the same, but decided the savings weren't enough. I'd lose some channels of interest, and gain some of interest. Plus, I gather the FiOS hardware is less reliable than Dish's. Neither is perfect, mind you. I have FiOS for Internet and phone.

I've been reading that the equipment isn't as reliable. With Dish I enjoy being able to change programming online when I want. The free preview channels are also nice.

I might end up going with FiOS for phone and internet and keeping Dish.
 
i am happy with the switch, and i started out with the 15/5, but as it turns out the 25/25 was the same price and the 35/35 was only $5 more. So last week I upgraded to that and even happier, it is noticeably faster unlike going from 15/5 to 25/25, and later this month most of the tiers will double their download speeds, the 25 will become 50/25, 35 will be 75/35, and the top tier will be 300/150. I would wait till after the middle of the month if you want to get the faster speeds to see what the prices will be and to make sure you don't have to pay an installation fee if you don't have the right equipment. Or if you want to lock in what might be lower prices, do it before the end of the month and get the current speeds. We did only double play and got magic jack for phone and no contract. To get the freebies you need to sign a contract and do triple play.
We will also be going to ultimate soon which is $10 more a month than extreme, and includes Showtime, Cinemax and Epix, (and possibly nfl redzone, have to check on that) which is a great deal. I want showtime to see weeds and my dad wants to get gol tv in hd, we only get it in sd now with the Spanish package. They also just added 10 hd Spanish channels to that la conexcion pack if you need that in your household.
As far as equipment, just make sure you get the new moto or cisco DVRs, they are black instead of the sliver old ones. The difference between the two is huge, if you get the old ones you will be disappointed, i had them when we first got fios 4 years ago, switched to dish because they had better dvrs, and switched back as dish was getting to be too much compared to a fios bundle with a lot more channels, and the new dvrs made it easier. Just like this dish, they wont guarantee which equipment you will get when you setup the order, but when the tech showed up I told him if any of the 3 dvrs were the old ones i was going to cancel the order. they usually only give you one and then put old ones on the other tvs if you have more than one dvr, but since I said that he gave me all 3 he had on his truck. and the home dvr is much improved, all the boxes and dvrs can see each other and watch recordings, plus each box has a tuner unlike the joeys. So yeah, if you are going to be saving money then you should switch, you will be happy.

Edit: Ultimate includes NFL Redzone HD.
 
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I've been reading that the equipment isn't as reliable. With Dish I enjoy being able to change programming online when I want. The free preview channels are also nice.

I might end up going with FiOS for phone and internet and keeping Dish.
you can change programming online as well, in fact you can add it right on the tv too.
 
I've had Fios for a couple of years at the FL house. The picture quality is outstanding and the internet performance is super duper. The only drawback is the DVR compared to Dish's. Mine is sluggish at times. I'm also using a cablecard with WMC7 and that works a lot better than the DVR and is cheaper.
 
I've heard some horror stories in the past about FIOS customer service and billing. They may be better now. I also encountered one of their sales reps who while going around my neighborhood just about forced his way into my house trying to get us to sign up. One advantage for FIOS or cable, if you live in Florida or somewhere subject to intense weather you will be less subject to outages. I live in the Tampa area and lost the DISH signal for nearly a half hour last night due to a thunderstorm.
 
We switched over a year and a half ago and don't regret it at all. The equipment is fine, we have all the new Moto boxes. The PQ is outstanding, the internet is quick, we are on the 35/35 but it tests to 43/38. The whole house DVR is great as well as the VOD. Even out of the promo pricing we are saving $50/mo. Every once in a while I reboot the boxes, which can be done by any box in the house, just because. After all Dish's reboots every single day in order seem as stable as can be.
 
Also, FiOS carries some channels only in SD where Dish carries them in HD.
 
I am debating this same issue. I already have two TiVo's, so I am in good shape for equipment. Just need the cable cards. This whole AMC thing may push me over the edge.
 
I've heard some horror stories in the past about FIOS customer service and billing. They may be better now. I also encountered one of their sales reps who while going around my neighborhood just about forced his way into my house trying to get us to sign up. One advantage for FIOS or cable, if you live in Florida or somewhere subject to intense weather you will be less subject to outages. I live in the Tampa area and lost the DISH signal for nearly a half hour last night due to a thunderstorm.
that's not fios, they outsource that to other companies, I interviewed for one for which the ad said it was a marketing job, and it was just door to door selling fios.
 
Also, FiOS carries some channels only in SD where Dish carries them in HD.
i have read they are moving to mpeg4 which will allow them to add more channels. Just last week they added 10 HD Spanish channels, so hopefully they will add the English hd channels they are missing soon. sd does not look bad like it does on dish, so its watchable.
 
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