Fios Gigabit Plan - Verizon's announcement said gigabit service would be available immediately to more than 8 million homes and did not say the $70 price would only be available to certain customers. But it turns out the $70 price is only for customers who don't have Verizon FiOS service today. Existing customers who tried to upgrade yesterday were told the standard price would be $200 per month.
After exchanging numerous emails throughout the day yesterday with a Verizon spokesperson, we now have a better understanding of what went wrong and what needs to happen next. Verizon promises "revolutionary speeds and revolutionary prices." But there is more than one price.
Fios Gigabit Plan
The $70 price (including router charges and other fees) is available to new customers, who can order the plan online now. Existing customers should be able to upgrade starting April 30, but will have to pay more than $70. Instead of giving a standard price to all existing customers, Verizon said it will charge different prices depending on the service plan and price each customer has today. Existing customers who have been paying for 750Mbps, the previous top speed tier, should get a speed boost and a bill drop to $80.
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While Verizon is making the $70 gigabit plan available to new customers immediately, it said the online ordering system for existing customers does not support upgrading to the new plan "due to the updates required for us to find it in the IT system." Even the Verizon spokesperson we spoke to was unaware of this fact until late yesterday evening, after many customers had tried and failed to upgrade. Nothing in Verizon's announcement suggests that existing customers should wait before trying to upgrade.
Existing customers who spoke with a customer service representative yesterday should have been told about the delay until April 30 and advised to wait, Verizon told us.
But a customer who spoke with a Verizon representative online got an estimated bill that showed the standard price of $200 for gigabit service. The estimate says prices will be reduced to about $170 through "contract discounts" and "contract incentives" for the first 24 months. Confusingly, the 24 months seem to last only 13 months:
"It's 199.99/month for an existing customer and he said I can't sign up for new service for 90 days after canceling to get the new price...way to go Verizon," wrote this same customer in a comment on our previous story .
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This customer also told us that she called Verizon and spoke with a representative who "indicated that something might be happening with a new promotion at the end of the month and even offered to call me back initially to see if there were any improvements. She looked up the press release while on the phone but confirmed that the price [$70] was not available for him to select in his system."
Another customer told by a Verizon representative said, "Your location qualifies for our FiOS Gigabit Connection (Up to 940/880 Mbps). The monthly cost of this plan is $189.99/mo." A Verizon representative then investigated further and found that existing customers could no longer order speed upgrades and that customers should "come back online in [a few] days and we will be able to confirm the exact pricing."
"For existing customers, the specific price a customer pays to upgrade depends on their current price," a Verizon spokesperson told us. "A 150Mbps customer, for example, can upgrade to a gigabit connection for $20 more per month."
Standalone 150Mbps service normally costs $75 per month, so customers who upgrade to gigabit from this plan will pay $95 per month, Verizon said. But customers on other plans may see higher or lower prices if they try to upgrade to gigabit.
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There is also confusion about two other things. The new gigabit plan is an upgrade to the existing 750Mbps plan that starts at $150. Verizon's announcement yesterday said customers already paying for 750Mbps will get speed increases and automatic bill reductions. This seemed to indicate that this customer would get the $70 price, but at least one customer was later told that this would not be the case.
A customer who said he paid more than $200 for 750Mbps spoke with a Verizon customer support representative and was told he would get gigabit speeds but the $70 price was only for new customers, the customer told us.
Although the customer service rep didn't seem to know anything about the bill drop, Verizon finally told us yesterday that existing 750Mbps customers' bills will be dropped to $80 per month, instead of $70, and given to new customers. It took us several hours to get that information.
There is also confusion regarding the $70 offer for new customers. A Verizon spokesperson told us yesterday morning that there are "no plans" to raise the price above $70 and that it is not a promotional price that will automatically increase after a certain period of time. But Verizon's online ordering system contradicts this.
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We can get the $70 monthly price by entering the FiOS address into the online ordering system. But this price depends on the promotional discount: the system says that the standard price of "FiOS Gigabit Connection" is $195, and it is reduced to $70 by using the online order discount of $10 and the special bonus discount from $115."
The booking system shows a monthly price of $70 for the first 24 months and says that this is a "limited-time online offer for new residential Internet customers" and that the price will "increase after the promotional period." Normally, we would assume that this means the special bonus discount and online booking discount will expire after two years, resulting in a price of $195 per month. Or maybe after just 12 months, because another part of Verizon's website says the $70 price is good for the first year only.
But when asked about this, a Verizon spokesperson said the company's website was incorrect and reiterated that the company has no plans to raise the $70 price charged to new customers, even after the promotional period ends.
Either way, new customers will pay more than $70 per month. To sign up for a gigabit plan, you'll need to agree to pay $10 a month or $150 in a one-time fee for a Verizon FiOS router, or check the box that says you already have a Verizon router. There are also "taxes, fees and other Verizon charges" that appear to vary by location.
Month For Fios Gigabit Connection
We're only talking about stand-alone Internet plans in this article, but gigabit service is also available to new customers in packages with TV and phone service starting at $80 for the first year. The minimum price increases to $100 in the second year and $125 in the third year, with equipment costs included, according to bill estimates we obtained from Verizon's website. For a gigabit Internet and TV package without phone service, we got an estimated bill of $75 a month in the first year, rising to at least $90 in the second year. The estimate does not include equipment charges.
Verizon says it provides "gigabit network connectivity to your home" but "actual speeds vary due to device limitations, network and other factors." Average speeds quoted by Verizon are 750 to 940Mbps downstream and 750 to 880Mbps upstream.
Verizon's presentation of its gigabit pricing has been confusing, to say the least. The company could have avoided much of the confusion by making it clear at the outset that the $70 price was only available to new customers, promptly telling existing customers to wait until April 30 before attempting to upgrade and by making sure all customer service representatives were up to date. Instead, Verizon customers and reporters received conflicting information from Verizon announcements, the Verizon website, customer service representatives and media spokespeople.
Verizon could avoid confusion entirely by having a standard price for all customers — but then it wouldn't be able to extract more money from existing customers who have few choices of broadband providers and may have to pay early termination fees if they try to switch ISPs.
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Jon Brodkin Jon is Ars Technica's senior IT reporter, covering the FCC and broadband, telecommunications, technology policy and more. Verizon claimed today that it is "disrupting the cable industry" with new broadband and TV offerings that eliminate "traditional cable bundles" and hidden fees, and the move immediately received positive press from the likes of The Wall Street Journal and Consumer Reports.
Verizon claims the new offer is available immediately to new and existing customers. But actually getting one of these great deals has, until now, been difficult or impossible if you already have Verizon FiOS service.
I have FiOS broadband and a TV at my home in Massachusetts, so I was able to test whether Verizon would provide one of the new offerings without any problems. This probably won't surprise you, but I can't get one of the new deals at all, and the Verizon rep I spoke to didn't know when the system would be fixed.
The Verizon rep recommended trying again later, but I wasn't guaranteed it would be fixed. Meanwhile, the options available to me include several that will raise my prices while lowering my Internet speed and the number of TV channels available.
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