3 Things I Learned About Verizon FIOS vs Direct TV

• $300 or No Contract for $89 a month for FIOS only
• $500 or No Contract for the $189 Triple play
• $99 a month Triple play contract

The big picture is Verizon wants your business. I know that Direct TV on a basic level was about $75 a month. Verizon without anything special was in that ballpark. With the addition of cable special channels, the price reaches $89 a month. As a whole Direct TV is cheaper.

FIOS HD Has A Really Clear Picture

FIOS has a better image than Direct TV. That said, FIOS has an apparent advantage because they are using a hardwired underground fiber optic network. Mind you, I like Direct TV. I think it has a comfortable sensible process. FIOS offers $100 for those whom can do self installation. Self installation is complicated. Even though I am technically savvy and home improvement proficient, I was clueless on installing FIOS. The fact remains FIOS give more channels and a better picture for a similar price to Direct TV. But to Direct TV’s credit, they have great customer service and a simple installation process. They do not have a poor quality picture. Direct TV’s picture just pales in comparison to HD FIOS even on a standard TV.

Verizon Require an HD Box For Menu

This FIOS point is annoying. It bothers me that you must have an HD Digital box to get a menu. You can get a receiver for half the price of a digital box. But to get and see a menu, you must get a digital HD box. With Direct TV the standard boxes have menus. The FIOS process give menus only to the HD box. The point, when FIOS digital receiver is on a TV you must either know the channel you are searching for or scroll the channel manually. I’m not a big TV guy, so I don’t know many channels. If I’m adding a new box then it’s a challenge to guess / learn the channels, and set up a new digital receiver without a menu.

One more point in the 3 Things I learned about Verizon FIOS VS Direct TV: Speed of FIOS

But one key point of the internet is that FIOS internet is offered by Direct TV and Verizon through Verizon. There is not real comparison of the Verizon vs Verizon services. So the only point of reference is the quality of the digital TV vs satellite TV. The most relevant part to me is the speed of FIOS internet. I’m amazed how much faster the internet goes now than it did 6 years ago. 6 years ago I worked with an HP system that had less than 1 gig of RAM and roughly 166 mghz as a hard drive. Today, I’m operating on an HP with 6 gigs of RAM and a 1 terabyte hard drive. At this point its imperative to have the ability to operate quickly and efficiently online.

I hope this gives some details to the point of what I learned from FIOS switching from Direct TV.