Finally FiOS

Back a fair while ago, I posted about why I wasn't going to get FiOS.  It was largely a price comparison where the end price would be similar to what I was paying Cox and the internet speeds not "crazy fast".  The FiOS speeds I was looking at were 25 Mbps down / 15 Mbps up.  Last week I signed up for FiOS.

A few things changed:

1. My interest in higher speeds has gone up.  We have two teenage boys that can be bandwidth hogs when playing games.  We have "high speed with Turbo Boost" which is "up to" 20 Mbps down, 2.5 Mbps up.  
2. Our internet service with Cox hasn't been awesome.  We have never achieved the maximum and only rarely are close (around 15).  Usually we are well under 10 Mbps with times where we are seeing 3 Mbps.  With four or five of us trying to doing things on our computers and watch a streaming Netflix movie, that is a problem.
3. Our TV service with Cox hasn't been awesome.  We still have shows that we've DVR not record properly because the digital signal has been insufficient.  We've called Cox (and they've come out to fix it) to no avail.  At some point you just stop trying. 
4. FiOS has made much faster internet available for only modestly more a month.  75 Mbps down / 35 Mbps up can be had for $15 over the basic 25/15.
5. I've decided that we don't really need TV service, except for our main TV and the TV in the master bedroom.  One of the chief downsides of FiOS is that you have to pay per month per box to decode.
6. FiOS is offering a multi-room HD DVR, Cox is not (at least not to me).
7. I've been notified several times that I've gone above my "acceptable" level of network traffic for a Cox user and that the next step would be for them to force me to buy a more expensive level of service.

Since my last post, our service with Cox has gone up to roughly $150/month (from roughly $137).  I spent an hour this past weekend figuring out if I could make it work.  My son (Andrew) was standing over my shoulder cheerleading for the 75 Mbps service, which explains why I went so big.  In the end, I don't think I'm going to save any money (assuming the taxes are in line), but I will get a broader TV lineup and much, much, much faster internet.  Let's hope my ping is as good as Cox's has been.  Otherwise, our gaming experience (no matter the speed) will not be very pleasant.

To point 7 above, I realize that I may have an issue with Verizon in the future.  They do have this gem in their FiOS terms of service:

The following are examples of conduct which may lead to termination of your Service. Without limiting the general policy in Section 1, it is a violation of the Agreement and this AUP to: (a) ... (i) generate excessive amounts of email or other Internet traffic;

Not ideal, but I think that is better than the already explicit "soft cap" that Cox has in place.

I will post about my installation experience, as well.  I'm a bit worried about how smoothly it will (i.e., whether they will do a reasonable install without doing stupid things in my garage or on the outside of my house).