On another note, I got my 3rd FiOS bill – still running a credit. That’s $43 for 3.5 months of great service. Good luck competing with that, Optimum.

FiOS Ping Test for Nassau County, NY

Only (minor) problems with FiOS are:

• With FiOS Digital Voice there doesn’t seem to be a “distinctive ring” option, which I had found handy with Cablevision.

• The 10-digit dialing is annoying. It’s nice not to have to dial the “1″ before a long-distance number, but having to dial the 516 area code even for other 516 numbers is annoying. I know that’s how it is for everyone in NYC already though regardless of phone provider.

I’m waiting to see what my bill for month 2 will be. Lots of credits for month 1 so that will be extra low.

In a separate case, the owner of the Food Network and HGTV, Scripps Networks, removed its channels from Cablevision’s lineups on Friday, a consequence of a breakdown in talks between those two parties.

“Viewers love our talent and our shows, which is why Food Network and HGTV rank among the top networks in cable,” Kenneth W. Lowe, the chief executive of Scripps Networks Interactive, said in a statement Friday morning. “But our valuable networks simply are not being compensated like top 10 networks by Cablevision. The distribution rates Cablevision pays for Food and HGTV are among the lowest in the industry.”

The dispute may linger for some time; Cablevision said it had “no expectation of carrying their programming again, given the dramatic changes in their approach to working with distributors to reach television viewers.”

Source: NY Times and the HGTV website.

This is WAY more than it should be, even without the credits applied. There’s a $40/month credit missing, and they’re charging me for HBO & Cinemax, which I was told was a free trial for 3 months. On the plus side, the taxes are lower than I expected. Attaching scans of the bill. If this doesn’t get resolved when I call on Monday I’ll be heading back to Cablevision, I guess. The whole point of this exercise was to save money.

FiOS bill page 1

FiOS bill page 3

Update: New bill amount after talking to the sales rep is $42.17. That’s better. We’ll see what the 2nd and 3rd bills are.

Cablevision offered to woo me back again but since the service was already installed I said no thanks. They did say they’ll pay the termination fee for me to go back. Interesting… Anyway, Fios’s speeds are pretty good, I got as high as 26/20 on the 25/15 line. The Actiontec router is pretty nice too (model #MI424WR-GEN2).

FiOS speed test to Cablevision's server 2009-12-04

Ain’t competition great?

The price Cablevision offered today was better than the $123 or whatever they stated last time I spoke to them, but I brought up that Verizon is offering 25/15, and I was getting like 8/2 at home. To compensate they added in Boost, which they couldn’t give me for free, but they did lower the price to $9.95/month, and she was able to give me the DVR for free. I said forget about the 2nd cable box (since with CV I can just plug in to the existing coax for additional TVs if needed – with Verizon being all digital you need a STB for each TV) and the final price came to around $109.

FiOS would potentially have been cheaper after factoring all the credits and the gift cards, but with Cablevision I didn’t have to do anything – no “unknown.” I didn’t even have to do anything to get Boost – I thought I’d have to get a different cablemodem, but they just logged in remotely and flipped a switch and now I get 25+ mbps down.

Sure, I bet some things would be better with FiOS, but for the time being I’ll stick with Cablevision. I got a 12-month price lock, so I guess a year from now I’ll have to start shopping again. I was all set to switch too – I figured it would take a few months before Cablevision started trying to woo me back, but I’m glad they took the smarter approach and never let me leave. I got a nice savings and a great speed boost (no pun intended) out of the deal. I do kind of feel bad for the FiOS rep I’d been speaking with though, she was really nice and I had her on the phone for almost an hour when I signed up.

Optimum Boost speed test, 2009-12-02 from Long Island

Earlier this year I got a 1080p LCD tv and when I went to swap the SD cable box for a HD one I decided to get a DVR, which added $10/month to my bill, so for the past 9-10 months my Cable bill has been about $150/month (I lost the Triple Play promo pricing years ago). FiOS has been marketing hard around here and everyone who I’ve spoken to who has FiOS says it’s awesome. I checked the pricing online and Verizon is offering their own Triple Play for $99/month with 25mbps/15mbps Internet, FiOS digital voice (no POTS line), and HD tv. Since I still see ads on TV for Optimum for each service for $30/month ($90/month total) I figured I’d call Cablevision and see if I could get the promo pricing. Short answer: no. The rep said I could try the cancellation department.

At this point I was kind of pissed off. I’m paying $150/month when Cablevision is offering $90/month to new subscribers (plus $10/month for DVR, so $100/month). Then I spoke to a couple of guys at work who were going from FiOS TO Cablevision – they’re getting the $88/month pricing INCLUDING DVR. They got a 2-year price guarantee and NO CONTRACT! Wow, I thought, Cablevision is shafting me with this $150/month.

I decided to call FiOS and see what they’re offering pricewise. I figured it would be cheaper than Cablevision, and then I could call Cablevision and have them give me the Triple Play promo pricing. Well, I was on the phone with FiOS for about an hour and got 25/15 internet, 1 HD “family” DVR, 1 SD box and FiOS Digital Voice. I CAN port my number over from Cablevision (the webpage said I couldn’t, which was why I called them). Installation fee waived, base price is $99.99/month + $16/month for the DVR (free for the first 3 months), with an additional $10/month savings for 12 months applied upfront ($120 credit) and a credit for the set-top box applied upfront ($71). I opted for the $150 Visa gift card. The estimate for the taxes & fees is $11.68, so I’m guessing my monthly bill will be around $130 (not factoring in the 3-months of free DVR). So my guess for 12 months (factoring in the up-front credits and the gift card) is about $1,200. At my current rate with Cablevision that would be about $1,800. With Verizon I have a 24-month price lock and a 12-month contract.

I placed the order for FiOS and then called up Cablevision to tell them I was planning to cancel. Basically the best they would offer me was $124 a month, “$30 less than you’ll be paying after the price increase in December,” the rep said. What? They’re INCREASING rates? When I mentioned that the download speeds kind of suck, she offered to add Boost to my account for another $10/month, so it would be $133/month to be able to compete with FiOS speedwise. I said ok, thanks, but I didn’t cancel yet since my account needs to be active for Verizon to port over my number.

So as of now Verizon is supposed to come install FiOS on Friday. I’ll miss Cablevision and their lack of contracts and some of the other perks (Optimum WiFi was nice the few times I used it, and the free access to Newsday.com was cool), but in the end it seems like FiOS is a better service for less money. Maybe in 12 months when my contract runs out Cablevision will have changed their tune and I’ll go back. Oh well.