# Portland, OR: Who's got the best triple-play, Comcast or Frontier?



## KillTheGrimace (Nov 17, 2003)

We have two Tivo Series 3 HD units on Comcast's "digital basic" plan, which has been just fine. We also have Frontier (formerly Verizon) FIOS for broadband, and Vonage for VOIP.

We're paying at least $180/month for the three services combined and I'm thinking about getting the Verizon or Comcast triple-play to consolidate billing- but I want to go with the service that's the most TiVo-friendly.

If you are currently doing a triple-play with either of these companies in Portland, how do you like it?

Also, does their VOIP service allow individual call blocking? Vonage has never allowed you to block specific numbers (only non-Caller-ID numbers), and I really need a VOIP service that will let us do that since so many phone spammers spoof Caller ID these days.

Oh- also, I'm on the 15Mbps plan with FIOS, but Comcast doesn't appear to advertise their available speeds on their website. What speeds are people getting out of their Comcast broadband?


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## jtrain (Jan 17, 2006)

To my knowledge, as far as service, not much has changed since Frontier took over FiOS from Verizon in the Portland market (don't quote me on that though ". I had Verizon FiOS triple play up until Nov. of '09...and absolutely loved it, the internet speed, the uncompressed video quality, etc. I was using an S3 as my primary DVR and a TiVo HD (each with cablecards) and it worked flawlessy.

In Nov. '09, we decided to drop cable...i built my own HD antenna and we went to Comcast for internet/phone. 

As of now, with the NBA season approaching as well as the NFL season, I am again thinking about adding cable. If i wanted to add just Frontier for TV, it would be $64.99 per month and that's for the '225 channels' with a few hd channels...I'm guessing that Comcast is going to be somewhere near that unless i jump into a triple play contract of some sort....right now i'm just month to month with phone/internet. 

My biggest hesitation is cablecards w/ comcast...seems troublesome, while it worked flawlessly with Verizon.

Anyway, all of that to say that i'm on the fence about adding cable back into the equation...i've more than gotten used to no cable bill, which has been really nice...and both the S3 and THD have worked great with just the OTA antenna on each.


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## thomb (Jan 22, 2008)

KillTheGrimace said:


> We have two Tivo Series 3 HD units on Comcast's "digital basic" plan, which has been just fine. We also have Frontier (formerly Verizon) FIOS for broadband, and Vonage for VOIP.
> 
> We're paying at least $180/month for the three services combined and I'm thinking about getting the Verizon or Comcast triple-play to consolidate billing- but I want to go with the service that's the most TiVo-friendly.
> .......


How important is Tivo's multi-room viewing feature to you? If it is important then Frontier Fios may not be optimal for you. A non-hacked Tivo HD box will not be able to MRV most non-OTA channels on Frontier. I don't know what Comcast in Portland does with regard to CCI, but I believe it still allows copying - thus MRV would be available.


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## KillTheGrimace (Nov 17, 2003)

jtrain said:


> My biggest hesitation is cablecards w/ comcast...seems troublesome, while it worked flawlessly with Verizon.


That's good to know. I was only able to get the cablecards working with Comcast because I cannibalized the "free" settop box they gave me to get the multi-stream card out of it. They screwed up my order on several levels and initially only gave me a single multi-stream card.



thomb said:


> How important is Tivo's multi-room viewing feature to you? If it is important then Frontier Fios may not be optimal for you. A non-hacked Tivo HD box will not be able to MRV most non-OTA channels on Frontier. I don't know what Comcast in Portland does with regard to CCI, but I believe it still allows copying - thus MRV would be available.


Yeah... I saw a thread about that and it is cause for concern. We don't transfer shows OFTEN but we do it sometimes (particularly if we want to save a show to DVD using the home networking option). If this will break our ability to record backups, that's kind of suck.


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## Phantom Gremlin (Jun 20, 2002)

With FiOS you can still MRV, but only the broadcast locals and a few interesting channels that have fallen thru the cracks (e.g. 583 Speed HD isn't protected).

Before the MRV fiasco I had to make a decision of what to switch to from DirecTV (I liked it but no HD TiVo). Off the top of my head, here are some reasons why I choose FiOS:


I think they're cheaper for TV, at least for all the channels you get; but bundling deals can distort that

TV quality is fantasic, don't hear about badly compressed channels like with Comcast (see avsforum for details)

I have a CAT-5e wire from the FiOS ONT to my own router, I see 25 mb/s up and down, no goofy cable modem slowing me down if the bozo next door runs bittorrent. But that's mostly a theoretical complaint, yes upload is slower on cable than FiOS but that's not important to most people. I think both services are "fast enough", I certainly wouldn't have paid extra for the 25/25 FiOS, but that was the bundle. The Comcast speed I had was 12/2 but they have a "burst" mode for downloads that speeds them up for the first few megabytes, so speeds are not too different unless you're pirating video or downloading linux distributions.

THIS IS THE BIG ONE: I CAN'T STAND BEING NICKEL AND DIMED TO DEATH!!!
I want to address the last one, since it really pushed me over the edge. I rented a Comcast cable modem for years, paid them $3/mo, they recovered their cost many times over. But that wasn't enough for them, earlier this year they decided to raise the cost to $5/mo, while at Best Buy I could buy a better modem for $80 (and for much less on FleaBay).

Similar story with "additional digital outlets". Comcast charges for those on top of everything else. Huh? No such games with FiOS, I just pay them $4/mo for each CableCARD.

When I brought the Comcast equipment back they asked about why I was leaving. So I said "you recently raised cable modem rates to $5/mo which I thought was excessive". Their response was "so why didn't you call us to ask about a cheaper rate?". Huh? You try to gouge me and then suggest you might be willing to cut the price if I complain enough? No thanks.

Believe it or not, Comcast's attitude is so bad that a traditional ILEC (i.e. Verizon) is better. Lily Tomlin's famous shtick of "we're the phone company, we don't care, we don't have to" has met its match, The Worst Company in America.

Anyway, those are really petty peeves. Comcast TV and Internet were very reliable when I had them, and FiOS is very reliable now. Not sure how Frontier will change the equation.

Long term, if you keep a landline, I suspect that the triple play type bundling deals will be the only way to have "reasonable" prices. Without those promo bundles the costs are outrageous.


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## MrMRT (Sep 15, 2010)

As a Verizon FIOS customer who had Internet and FIOS TV only, (no landline phone), trying to deal with anyone at FIOS without a landline phone is IMPOSSIBLE. In May 2010, I ordered an upgrade to a FIOS TV set top box via online access to my FIOS account. I was shipped the new set top box and it arrived with a container to return my existing set top box. It was sent back in that box, using their return label. It was signed for at their end 1 week later. Then, I received a 2nd set top box in the mail..unsolicited and unordered. I immediatly sent it back using the same box and a return label I found inside. The folllowing week it was signed for in their facility in PA. End of story?? Not by a longshot.. My August bill shows that I have 4 set top boxes and have payments owing on all 4. I only have 2 boxes on 2 televisions at my house. I call FIOS.....they want the phone number listed for my account... I explain I do not have a FIOS phone number, that I am calling on my un associated cell phone. I was on the phone for 1 hour, before someone, somewhere was able to pull up the info on my account. He tells me that it will take THREE MONTHS for Verizon to verify that the set top boxes I returned were actually returned and are back in their system. I felt this to be totally unsatisfacory and I immediatley CLOSED MY ACCCOUNT (my TV went blank 1 minute after hanging up from them!) and returned the remaining 2 set top boxes I had to a previously unknown local office that accepts/issues set top boxes. It gets better.....

After closing my account, I realize I really don't want to subscribe to Comcast, the only alternative with internet/tv. So, I drive back to the Local Frontier Office and open a totally new account, however this time I get the Triple Play (now including telephone service). THE SOLE REASON I GOT THE TELEPHONE SERVICE, IS SO, IF I NEED TO CALL IN FOR SERVICE ISSUES, THERE IS AN ASSOCIATED PHONE NUMBER SO THAT SOMEONE CAN FIND MY ACCOUNT. I do not have, nor do I plan to get an actual telephone attached to this new line of service. I am in essence paying something like $30 per month, extra, just so they can find my account when I call in. It is now mid September and I just got the phone call from Frontier today, asking about my final bill and where to send the refund....exactly 3 months and 25 days from the date I originally ordered the set top box upgrade; and 2 months to the day that I closed the original account. One more glitch from Verizon/Frontier and I swear, I will cancel my entire package of internet and tv and phone FOREVER! It just isnt worth the headache of having to deal with them.


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