I was a Verizon voice customer over a year ago. When we got FiOS, I dropped the Verizon phone service and signed up for VoIP.

I kept getting offers to come back -- this one was the best, and I signed up. Normally around $40-45/month.

Verizon Freedom Value
$19.99/mo (plus tax) for 12 months.

Unlimited direct-dialed calls to anywhere in the US and to Canada (including Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and Guam), anytime, day or night

Call 1.866.838.5502 to order.

Use ID # from the bottom of the sheet when signing up.

ID# WBD018019A

Text from the back includes, "Limited-time offer available to residential customers who receive this solicitation and change their local service from another service provider to Verizon Freedom Value..."

Offer Expires 5/30/08.

YMMV - since Verizon frequently targets their offers to certain regions/markets, this may not be valid in all markets. It worked for me in Western New York.

Here's a scan of the front of the flyer:

Link
OR
Link

NOTE: I should point out that I'm keeping my FiOS separate from the Voice service, versus signing up for a double play (no FiOS TV yet here in WNY). I'm still on the original price for the 20/5 Mbps service at $44.99/mo. Since FiOS price has risen since then, it is cheaper to stay with the FiOS plan and voice plan separately. This way I pay $44.99+19.99 = $64.98/mo+tax. Double play costs either $74.99 or $79.99 (they keep changing the price), which is $10-$15 more, FWIW.

Hey Neighbor...I'm in WNY area, too!
I've had FIOS internet for about 9 months. Is it just me, or is the supposedly much
faster speed (that they tout)...not really THAT much faster?!? It just does not seem much quicker to me.
I know it should be a lot quicker...but, just doesn't seem to be...to me.
Now they've got me at $49.99/month for the 20/5 plan (and it's bundled with phone). I'm gonna have to give them a call.

VH2000 said:I've had FIOS internet for about 9 months. Is it just me, or is the supposedly much
faster speed (that they tout)...not really THAT much faster?!? It just does not seem much quicker to me.
I know it should be a lot quicker...but, just doesn't seem to be...to me.

It depends on the speed of the site you are hitting and the speed of every connection between you and that site. A business with a T1 line used to be considered to have a pretty fat pipe to the Internet, but it is only 1.5 Mbps. A T2 is just 6 Mbps while a T3 is 45 Mbps.

So to see a speed increase over a 6 Mbps cable modem you have to be connected to a site that has more than a T2 on their end, with all T2 or higher routes in between you and them, and the site has enough extra bandwidth to supply you all you can handle in addition to all the others users on the site (or there needs to be no other users when you hit it). The routes in between have to also have enough capacity to keep up as well. I have found as I moved from dial up to ISDN to various speed cable modems that there are a lot of slow sites - overloaded servers, overloaded data paths, etc and the faster things were at my end I could still spend some time waiting.

The biggest difference would be on uploads, were the T? pipes have symmetrical up and down speeds, the cable modem is usually quite slow uploading and the FiOS is much faster pretty much no matter where you are sending data.

If you are just surfing, then there is no reason I can see to pay extra for FiOS over a cable modem for most folks - it that is the only reason you are getting FiOS.

Dennis

Dwynne said:VH2000 said:I've had FIOS internet for about 9 months. Is it just me, or is the supposedly much
faster speed (that they tout)...not really THAT much faster?!? It just does not seem much quicker to me.
I know it should be a lot quicker...but, just doesn't seem to be...to me.


It depends on the speed of the site you are hitting and the speed of every connection between you and that site. A business with a T1 line used to be considered to have a pretty fat pipe to the Internet, but it is only 1.5 Mbps. A T2 is just 6 Mbps while a T3 is 45 Mbps.

So to see a speed increase over a 6 Mbps cable modem you have to be connected to a site that has more than a T2 on their end, with all T2 or higher routes in between you and them, and the site has enough extra bandwidth to supply you all you can handle in addition to all the others users on the site (or there needs to be no other users when you hit it). The routes in between have to also have enough capacity to keep up as well. I have found as I moved from dial up to ISDN to various speed cable modems that there are a lot of slow sites - overloaded servers, overloaded data paths, etc and the faster things were at my end I could still spend some time waiting.

The biggest difference would be on uploads, were the T? pipes have symmetrical up and down speeds, the cable modem is usually quite slow uploading and the FiOS is much faster pretty much no matter where you are sending data.

If you are just surfing, then there is no reason I can see to pay extra for FiOS over a cable modem for most folks - it that is the only reason you are getting FiOS.

Dennis

Yeah...without getting too technical...I've had cable service, with ~5 or 6 MBps rate down...then switched to this FIOS 20d/5u.
One would expect to see a significantly quicker snappiness (if you will) to page loads...no specific pages/sites in general.
I'm thinking that it seems even a little more sluggish, for some reason. Just my opinion. I'm not overly impressed with FIOS.

Thanks a ton OP! You saved me $240! I called the number and was told the promotion was only for new members- had them transfer me to the retention department who put the promotional price without any hassle.

I just called verizon.. they offered me 19.99 but it does not have any calling features such as callerid etc, if you want caller id and other features they charge you 29.99...still a better deal..add 4+ dollars for call forwarding...
He also told me about Verizon VOIP plan...i am not sure how good is that, when i told i tried Vonage and its good the guy assured me that Vonage uses verizon service...so you can expect onpar or better than Vonage service.
did any one has Verizon VOIP plan?
right now my phone bill is around 60 bucks per month and internet29.99(2yr plan), if i disconnect my phone line then my internet will jump to 41.99/month...
any one any suggestions for me?
i got Vonage 1month free, and free activation and free adapter but shipping 15$

Do you know how much is the total after taxes and fees $19.99 + ?tax/fees?

It seems that if you have fios internet there is 0 taxes so the bill is just the charge for the fios plan. So I was wondering what the fees are with just the phone service. Some say there may be line charge of up to ~$6? So I just wanted to confirm.

Thanks