FiOS TV

Verizon has entered the cable TV market with FiOS TV, a video offering provided over their FiOS system. Their standard Optical Network Terminal (ONT) has a cable jack (F-connector) which can be provisioned for cable TV.

FiOS TV is currently NOT available to business customers. The TV system has some dependency on the DCHP provisioning in the residential installations. It won't work with the static IP business setups. In my case, Verizon provided a second ONT just to provision TV. It apparently requires an exception from the Engineering group, but it is possible.

Upgrade Problems

In Aug 2008, Verizon upgraded their channel line up and (apparently) made other infrastructure changes. Our set top box channel guides, on-demand, and other services stopped working.

The problem was lack of IP connectivity between the cable boxes and the router over the coax. (Specifically, the "Coax LAN" light on the Verizon router wasn't on).

I put in a service call, and the tech came and fixed the problem in 5 minutes by putting a filter on the coax feed coming out of the ONT. He said we have an "old ONT", and new ONTs don't have this problem. I don't know what's being filtered (ONT to router, or router to ONT), but it might be related to this article: [1]

Installation History

13-Nov-2006: I am a business FiOS customer and am trying to get TV. Verizon has offered to install a second ONT to provision TV, but they had to get approval from engineering. The installer showed up today, but the second fiber hadn't been dropped and the second ONT was not setup. Stay tuned.

10-Jan-2007: Install date is set for 29-January.

02-Feb-2007: Verizon called last week to cancel the 29-January install date, saying that it wasn't possible to get TV as a business customer. Then another part called later and apologized and said that the first call was a mistake and that that group didn't know what they were talking about. Net, net: they still canceled the install visit, as they said that engineering was still waiting for "some part".

26-Feb-2007 We're up with TV! The install took about 6 hours, mostly due to problem getting a lit fiber back to the CO. Verizon installed a 2nd ONT just for TV, and we got three set top boxes (one HD/DVR, 2 "regular").