High Speed Internet Verizon or Time Warner Cable?

yes if you can get FIOS but it's not universally available so that's the catch.

I know at least one person who was wildly dissatisfied with FiOS, and her internet speed tested out much worse than her TWC results.

But the correct answer is "get both", so in case one's down you're sitting pretty.

Verizon is supposed to be better.
My internet didn't go down until Tues. afternoon, the day after the hurricane.

However, my t.v. cable service is Time Warner and I had cable service throughout the hurricane and it never went off.

"Bundling" t.v./cable may sound like a good deal but having Time Warner t.v. has proven to be better(during hurricane outages) if you like watching t.v. (and I usually don't like Time Warner.)

Time Warner is good. Verizon is better.

But if you are not happy with Time Warner, then why stay?

I didn't like Time Warner before but now I like them better.

Verizon is the worst

Well, there you have it batwoman.
Call Alfred, he's got the cool tech gear.

i like fios

>I currently have TWC, and I'm no happy with it.

What makes you dissatisfied?

I had Verizon but internet dropped constantly, it was frustrating to have to reset the DSL box or having to call them so often! Since we switched to Time warner, i only had to reset my box a handfull of time withing the last 5years!

I've had Verizon for over a year, and with the exception of some problems the first week, the service has been flawless.

We have TWC and the speed is terrible. I've been waiting for Fios for a long time, but doesn't seem like that train is ever going to pull in.

Time Warner likes to gyp people by giving them those crappy Samsung cable t.v. boxes.
They need to be rebooted very often.
I called recently and requested a new cable box and they sent a tech out to install it. Much better now.

Verizon is good for telephones. Not teleVISION.

Stick with Time Warner.

i have TWC for cable TV and Verizon DSL for net/phone service.
The triple play TWC is cheaper but then you have a single point of failure and you get the crappy voip phone service thats all integrated to the cable.

Verizon internet DSL is tricky to get just right..Its very finicky about the line quality and any potential interference. Once you have it working tho thats great.

I lost power but my landline phone worked for about an additional day. (Power on landline phones is supplied by the phone company)

TWC seems to constantly try to raise your rates every 3 months or so. You can call and complain supposedly and they will keep giving you back some discounts but thats a pain.

What's a pain about Time Warner cable is if you move, they want the cable box returned to them at the time of your move even if you are moving to another location and will keep TWC.

On the phone call to them re: the move, they tell you that the tech will take the box with him after he finishes disconnecting it. But the tech never wants to take the box with him when he goes.
Then TWC doesn't want to send a tech to pick it up, they just mail a bill and include a $250 fee for keeping the box.

I called them in between moving out and waiting for a tech to come to the new apt. and connect cable service
and they said that I would have to bring the box back to their location in Downtown Brooklyn.
I insisted that the tech who was going to be connecting my service in a week from then could take the old box with him.

The customer service rep said that I would be charged for the box until I returned it to their location.

I did not return the box and the tech took it back with him after installing the crappy new Samsung box.

I had TWC in three different apartments in NYC, and have Verizon in my current building. my bldg offers both, actually.

Verizon is 10X better. The cable never, ever goes out, and the Internet goes out 75% less often than TWC. There is no question TWC is worse than Verizon in my mind.

Also - Verizon offers tiers of internet, and their fastest high speed is much faster, on average, than TWC.

"What's a pain about Time Warner cable is if you move, they want the cable box returned to them at the time of your move even if you are moving to another location and will keep TWC."

That's because boxes are optimized for whatever part of the city they are installed in.

So why don't the techs just take it with them when they leave?
How hard is it to carry the box out to their TWC truck?
Like I'm going to schlepp it downtown to return it to them?!
That's the pain of it, Matt.
I think they just try to get people to pay for the box because it's to much trouble to argue
with them about it.

I didn't pay for the box and the tech didn't leave my new apt. without it
because I said : "HOLD ON A MINUTE -- YOU NEED TO TAKE THE CABLE BOX!"

"I think they just try to get people to pay for the box because it's to much trouble to argue
with them about it."

You're only partly right.

They try to get people to pay for the box because it's a great way to get $250 for an obsolete box they would otherwise toss into the trash when they get back to home base.

When you have a problem with Time Warner cable, you have a problem. Either someone in your household has to wait often the full 4 hours for them to show up, plus after they show up which could be at the end of the window, then it could be another hour. Weekend appointments seem to be two weeks out, or you have to continue to deal with the problem or cancel the service. We had so many box problems and after they missed two appointment windows, we cancelled the service (though we had to sign up as a new customer after the summer was over, can’t be with out TV for long). They are very hostile when you cancel if you truly want to cancel, they try to save you by offering more flexibility than before you cancelled, but if you say no, they become nasty and aggressive and tell you it is your responsibility to return the box, that leaving it with a doorman could mean it gets lost and you have to pay the fee on it, and tell you it is difficult to get an appointment for the technician to show up to pick it up from your doorman and you are going to continue to be billed for service until they are able to show up.

Recently, our whole house DVR gets programming from other people in our building and it is clear we didn’t make a mistake because it records shows on Showtime and HBO that we don’t even pay for and some of our programs seem to be deleted before we have a chance to review them. After first agreeing to shut the DVR service, another person called and played dumb and then all of a sudden got very smart and technical a if intending to confuse me and put blame on us and then Time Warner said they would have to make an appointment to fix … no thanks. Unfortunately this building doesn’t have Fios. But we use Verizon for phone and DSL.

Hoodia makes a good point.

I've never been a fan of "bundling" all my communications services with one provider. All it takes is one single billing issue -- and one hostile customer "service" representative -- for them to cut you off completely. Then you're without television AND internet AND telephone.

We have had TWC bc Fios is not available. We have had to exchange our cable box nearly a dozen times. We have to reboot it about once a week and it often freezes or takes minutes to respond to the remote. I would dump TWC if I had any other choice.

Matt, hoodia and REMom:

That's right.

switched from TWC to FiOs @ 4 months ago and, except for missing Pat Kiernan and NY1 in general, I have no issues or complaints. Like someone said above, the 1st week left a little to be desired as I hooked it up and tried to get around using it as a router (as my Airport is more secure) but once that was dealt with, it's been smooth sailing. Also the tiered internet is great! The speeds are MUCH better then TWC and it's very noticable from the get go. I don't use their boxes as I have TiVo but my brother does and he loves the widgets and whole house DVR.

Oh yeah!!! Verizon MAILS boxes to you and let's you mail them back!! A BILLION times easier than TWC and their mandatory in person pick up/ drop off options!!!

jason: After much phone call time TW did give me the option of mailing the box back to them.
They said I could go to the post office and get a box for the box and mail it back and they would cover up to $25 for postage.

So I would need to schlepp the cable box to the P.O. to get a box (TW claimed that the P.O. has special Time Warner boxes in stock for this purpose) then pack the box into the box (at the P.O.? They get angry if you don't have your registered mail receipts already filled out before you get to the window!)

That was not happening either.

"We have had TWC bc Fios is not available. We have had to exchange our cable box nearly a dozen times. We have to reboot it about once a week and it often freezes or takes minutes to respond to the remote. I would dump TWC if I had any other choice."

Glad -- sort of -- to see I'm not the only one with these issues (but sadly, this means it's not a problem with MY box, but rather a systemic problem you just have to learn to live with!).

TWC was much better before they started fucking around with the boxes, trying to give us extra "features". It only bogs things down.

Yes, ReMom: I needed to reboot that box very often.
I'm out of town for weeks and months at a time but if I was home watching t.v. on a daily basis I'm sure it would be a weekly thing.

Agree, Matt.

No TWC. NO no no no.

Verizon by far is the superior choice, i actualy liked RCN better than Time Warner, but Verizon supreme

I'd like to change my answer slightly.

verizon for internet, tv & phone
time warner for pay-per-view

now time warner's cheapest plan is 1M for $20/month, 3M for $30/month
if use their modem there's another $4/month

if you go for rcn, they have $34/month for 50M for the first yr, modem included

but the down site is $50 installation fee, or more

someone mentioned slow remote response problems in time warner.
took me awhile to figure it out but if you go into the Video settings and only select 1 setting like 1080p and deselect all the others like 480, 640 etc, your remote response gets alot better...still not super fast but not the super long response time

Thx, Snuffles!

I have TWC bundle and hate it! All three services have gone out a few times, internet speed is slow and the price keeps going up. Only have Verizon in my building for phone and internet, so can't get a package deal. If I just get the two services from them, Time Warner charges an arm and a leg for just TV. I would think there would be some regulations to prevent Time Warner from being a monopoly!

"time warner for pay-per-view"

Every major cable system gets the same exact pay per view movies at the exact same time. The studios have a single window. Why I wonder do you think TW is superior in this regard?

2005 called. They want their DSL back. Seriously, why does anyoe still have DSL???

Maybe because they can't get FIOS and TWC has a very bad reputation (see above).

As has been noted, do not mistake Verizon with FIOS. FIOS is great...consistent, fast, and reasonably priced. I imagine it varies building by building, though, so I'm sure you'll find people that have had issues with. In 4 years of having FIOS, I've only had to reset my router a couple times...Time Warner was probably at least once a month...

What NYC10007 said. I had TWC many buildings, always many more outages per year (like 15X more) than Verizon. And in my current bldg, they offer both, and 100% of people with cable have Verizon. No one who initially chose TWC kept it.

...and its not DSL, btw.

Jason you got all sorts of problem. Remember the time your welcome mat with the poison symbol was stolen in your doorman rental building?

The one that was from Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

They're both bad. Most areas, you can only get one or the other, so Time Warner don't have to compete head to head.

This is what large companies like -- an unregulated environment in which there is no direct competition. That's what they pay the politicians for.

Actually, Manhattan is a rare city where lots of people can get one of three cable companies and also the two satellite ones. There are lots of buildings that offer both RCN and TWC or both Verizon and TWC, and most places you can get a dish.

You can't install your own dish in a high rise.

You can if you have a terrace or a balcony - we've done it

"You can if you have a terrace or a balcony - we've done it"

Right, I have only ever lived in bldgs with lots of terraces and balconies. It might be different for others. In my current place people have four choices, really.

in a high rise, if your neighbors can see your dish, if it is visible to the street, it's ghetto.

hfscomm1

@streeteasy
Please note the phone/internet/cable providers on apartment listings. It took TWC almost two weeks to solve a problem with my connection that was on their end. Of course, they kept saying the fault was with my equipment. I never want to deal with them again.

Why don't cut the cable, and save $100+ month. That's what we did couple years ago, and never looked back. Here are two things you can do to replace your expensive cable.

1- Buy a digital HD antenna. it gets around 50 broadcasting stations over the air without a dime. This setup gives you all the public broadcast stations (abc, nbc, cbc etc) and more. Actually HD quality with these antenna is way better than FIOS or TWC. I don't want to get in to whys in this discussion. You will see it yourself when you do it. One time cost of an antenna is in between $50-$150.
2- Buy a IPTV digital HD boxes like ROKU or APPLE TV to get Netflix streaming, Hulu, and other digital apps. These boxes will compliment your antenna with amazing amount of content that you don't get from cable providers. The one time cost of Roku is around $60-70, and Apple TV is $100. Netflix is around $8/month and I believe Hulu is the same price. These boxes also gives many more content options like NHL, NBA, YouTube etc. And many of these options are free so you don't even have to subcribe to netflix or hulu to get great TV content freely with these devices.

Do the math...You won't regret it.

You don't have to be tech guru to do what I just described above. Setting up will take anyone 20 minutes, and will save you a lot of money while giving you access to the same amount content that the cable companies provide.

Twins - Right on! I was going to say pretty much the same but too lazy. Netflix is next HBO and you don't need cable and the stock price almost doubled over last week after earnings report and release of House of Games.

Compared to having to reset the POC TW box it's a piece of cake and with apple TV you can set up a completely wireless audio/video network. Very cool and is the future.

A related issue: why is there such poor penetration of FIOS in some nabes? e.g. I can barely find any buildings in Morningside Heights who offer FIOS Internet. I work from home and need the reliability and speed of FIOS, so literally cannot buy in a non-FIOS building. Does it have to do with long-term contracts buildings have with TWC?

The Verizon fiber optic cables are mostly laid under the main avenues now but to get to most side streets they have to cut into the street. It's not a big deal but you have to really want it and convince your building to contact Verizon and make the arrangements.