The phone on my FIOS has no effect on my FIOS internet or vise versa. They all play nice together.

I did the $79 for unlimited calling to US and Canada + I got the 15/2 package. I went Direct TV since Comcast is encrypting all their digital content, making it incompatible with Media Center 2005, and I can't have that. So I went with Direct TV. I got an unlisted package for $19 a month, and I get 300 or so channels (100 of them are XM Sat radio only though) which includes Encore Stars and Showtime. I think the Showtime is a trial however and expires in a few months.

Anyway, I worked it for less than $100 a month for all 3 services.

-S

PS. Direct TV will work fine for all media recorders in the future by the way. Microsoft is making sure of that - http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060105-5913.html - I wouldn't use any other service now because of that. Any Media Center or Media recording device, such as a Tivo, works fine with DTV.

PPS. It has an effect on ping times for sure.

I see no effect. My wife is on the friggin phone all the time...hence the unlimited calling deal;). I notice no effect when she is gabbing away.

There is no way for it not to effect time sensitive packets - mainly online game play. You probably get double the ping times when she is on the phone, espcially since phone packets are also time sensitive and probably have priority since you probably have a QoS router to deal with it.

-S

Thanks fellas. I may have to make the switch to fiber.

You must. That is if you can get it yet. It is starting to appear in most of the US though, but it is defintely not everywhere yet.

-S

Daaaamn. Comcast is charging me $40+/month for 1.5 MB/S. Add that to the fact that I generally despise them, I see a switch in my future.

PD

Sounds like you are getting gouged! I was only spending $29 a month on 3.0D/1.5U for DSL. Beat up the sales guy till he spills his guts on special deals.

For example - I beat up my Comcast rep to the point where I was paying $9.99 a month for basic cable. They upped it to $13 recently before I just made the switch to Direct TV, but still, thats a palatable price for something that should be free. If I'm paying for TV service, I'd at least expect no commercials. If I were paying $50 a month for TV like some crazy people do, then I'd demand not to have to watch commercials! :x

Oh - I forgot - My MCE 2005 system makes it so I don't have ot watch commercials! :D

-S

No kiddin'! My girlfriend's been bugging me for a few weeks now to talk to Comcast and see if I can get our bills lowered. I guess this weekend OPERATION COMCAST FALL commences.

And how do you like Direct TV? I've been wanting to get it as soon as I move out of this damn apartment complex.

PD

I'm not sure Subman. You have more technical know-how then I do for sure. All I know is, if I pay on time they leave it running. ;)

Verizon has committed billions in getting FIOS just about everywhere in the US. They are banking on FIOS to be the future in transporting data and I think they are right about that. Anyway, I'm happy with it. They came in and did all the wires, set up the boxes for the TV and programmed all the remotes to run the TV, FIOS box, DVD and VCR. One remote for all! I came home and was ready to enjoy. No fuss and no muss. I was quite pleased really.

Kind of tricky when they already have you as a customer and you are already paying for a much more expensive package. Good luck on getting it lowered though.

DTV - works. I have strong sat signals though. I get about 95% sig strength, and 85% is supposed to be great. Too many channels to bother with too. I don't watch enough TV to justify what I've got. All I really care about though is PBS / Sci-Fi/ and History Channel. Wife likes other stuff, but as long as I have those 3, I'm good to go. What to do with the other 100 chan? Dunno. My TV watching time in a given week is maybe only a few hours. Rather be taking over the world in Rome Total War or something.

-S