Submitted by saltthefries t3_xxj8it in LowellMA
Verizon recently did some work on Nesmith St and their FiOS service is now more available in Lowell. I just switched and improved my upload speed by 10x for less than I was paying Comcast.
If you haven't shopped around for internet service in a while, now's a good time to do so. I'm on the edge of Belvidere... I'm not sure where else they might have expanded service.
I am on Rogers. Do we know or where can I find their plan for FIOS for each street?
I’m on Rogers near Nesmith and got set up about a month ago.
If you go on their website and plug in your address, it should let you know if it’s available to you or not.
I just checked mine and it’s not available yet. Sadge. I guess I am gonna have to wait a bit longer.
Verizon FiOS is now available in the “Belvedere adjacent” Boylston St. area too.
Not in the Highlands yet but I bumped into one of their Engineers out here about 9 months ago or so. Can confirm it's finally coming.
This is very good to know…I live on Nesmith and Comcast just bumped my internet from $70 to $100 🙃 and then spontaneously discontinued support for the router they gave me so I had to get a new one.
I hate that company so much
Q for the OP: do you have an actual wire into your residence? Or did Verizon provide you with a wireless modem to connect to a central wireless access point?
I know this sounds like a random question, but if it's wireless, 5g has troubles in our brick and iron buildings, and for my own cranky tech reasons I would much prefer a wire.
This is real fiber / FiOS. A nice tech named Frank from Verizon drilled a hole in the wall, ran a small piece of fiber through the wall, set up a fiber optic jack, connected it to an optical network terminator in my office and I plugged my router into the ethernet jack. I'm getting IPv4 and IPv6 via DHCP (no need for PPPoE like some other fiber networks I've used).
If you get service, make sure you have a reliable power source for the optical network terminator... you don't want it on a light switch.
The optical network terminator (ONT) is pretty small- about the same size as a cable modem.
Awesome. Appreciate the detail, that's exactly what I was looking for.
been waiting for fiber for years. Live right next to schools and the T but dont have a fiber connection because comcast is a terrible company and fios: "Verizon Home Internet services are not currently available at your address, but you can be among the first to know if they become available." is the response now for over 4 years.
Anybody know if this fiber is actually going to be available downtown? I haven't heard anything but part of Verizon's reasoning for not wiring Lowell before was the expense of doing it in the historic district - I wouldn't be surprised if the less dense areas get fiber while downtown is stuck with comcast, at least for awhile.
So, there was a flurry of Verizon trucks along Nesmith a few weeks ago as they set up the main line, and everything is attached to the poles above ground. I think more of the wiring downtown is underground so it probably isn't economical to dig up streets just to run fiber unless it's to a large complex. Your best bet is probably nagging some combination of building management and city government to try and facilitate the build out.
I thought some of the buildings around downtown like Mill No 5 had FiOS for a while, but I'm not sure.
None of the Mills that I'm aware of do and with half the construction going on downtown it's so dumb they didn't lay fiber down at the same time. Literally the train station on Thorndike has fiber and I could spit from my condo onto the station but it's still not available. Guess I'm stuck with Cumcast "Gigabit" which over copper isn't really gigabit and I only get a consistent 500mbps 90% the time. Only during the most dead hours would I see 800-900+ mbps consistently.
My problem with Comcast isn't even the service, it's the price - 110/month for 600mbps, a tv plan I don't use, and hbo I barely do. If I go down to internet only, I save 5 bucks...at least so far as I can tell, you can't actually check the comcast website for any deals cheaper than your own, like, if you go to "channel maintenance" all it lets you do is add them.
...and then the fees bring it up to 140.
I use to do the trick where you can call in to downgrade your internet plan to the next lower tier, keep it for a month, and then call in to upgrade back to receive the promotional price again. Haven't tried that with Comcast yet though and in my case I only have internet.
This is awesome news!
keg0bass t1_ircdfmh wrote
I thought Comcast had a strangle hold on the city. Nice to see some competition. Thanks.