Per bob haller:
FIOS depends on backup batteries and lots of high tech
technology thats not as reliable as copper.
when my contract was over, i cancelled.

oh and the problem?

a bad router card in my local central office....

Maybe I have been skating.... We have had FIOS for dunno-how-many years
and the only outage came when I forgot to pay a phone bill - and, to my
embarrassment, customer service zeroed right in on it.

But I would not discount *any* report of bad customer service from *any*
provider.... they all seem to be the same to me: low-paid people working
from scripts.... Been there. Worked as "User Support" in a large
utility when the support people were also experienced developers.... and
then we got bought out by a bigger fish and they re-vamped the support
infrastructure to the "Modern" paradigm.... Net result: Elevated
efficiency/Greatly reduced effectiveness.

The battery thing is definitely a consideration if one does not have
generator backup. We have a couple of little 2K gennies and they do
the job for us during outages.

The neighbors across the street find a hotel and take mini vacations
during outages.... And I have to suspect that their total hotel bill
over, say, 10 years is less than what I have in the gennies/transfer
switch - but I like to fool around with stuff and I don't much like
sleeping in strange beds.... "Horses for courses" and all that.
--
Pete Cresswell