Verizon Is Cancelling Home Internet Installations During the Pandemic

According to The Verge, Verizon is canceling scheduled appointments for internet installation and repairs, "[leaving] Fios subscribers without wired internet at a time when they're likely relying on it for work and to see friends and family during the COVID-19 pandemic." From the report: "We are minimizing our in-home installation work to critical needs to keep our employees and customers safe and to reduce the spread of COVID-19," Verizon says in a support document. "To reduce the spread of COVID-19 and keep our employees and customers safe, we are making every attempt to perform work without going into homes or small businesses and are limiting in-home installs to medical emergencies and critical installations," Verizon tells The Verge in a statement. Self-install options are also available for "qualified service orders," the company added.

However, Verizon actually changed the language in the support document sometime on Tuesday morning, according to Business Insider. Previously, the site said that "our technicians will not be able to enter your home or business to install new services or to do repair work." Here is the previous language, from a version of the page archived on Monday: "As a result of COVID-19, we are taking precautions to keep our employees and customers safe. At this time, our technicians will not be able to enter your home or business to install new services or to do repair work. Qualified orders will be provided self-install options, or you may proceed with placing an order for a technician-required installation and it will be held for future appointment priority. You will receive notification to select an installation date when we resume operations."

I guess its back to AOL for me

[jfdavis668]

I'll have to dig out my modem and get Internet the old fashioned way.

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[The New Guy 2.0]

No you can't if you don't have POTS line already installed.

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[jfdavis668]

I need to figure out a way to hook the modem to my smart phone... hmmmmm.

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[Rockoon]

Not a problem if you still have a 300 baud acoustic coupler, such as the old Apple CAT [wikipedia.org]

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[AHuxley]

Acoustic coupler app that lets the internet connected smartphone be a modem...

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[Rick Schumann]

Get your internet the new old-fashioned way: high-gain directional Wifi antenna, and neighbors' unsecured Wifi AP. (j/k) xD

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[TXJD]

This actually used to work quite well, in the earlier days of WIFI. I recall traveling and finding unsecured WIFI APs accessible from my hotel room!

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[Randj Herdle]

There is ZERO unsecured Wifi at the Condo I'm in. Are Canadians smarter than Americans? No, we're just more under the thumbs of big companies. Chances are we get Wifi from our cable or phone provider. So they'll make sure household-sufficient security is in place. Of course, they have no control over our account password choices, but they have no liability around that.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[Jeremy Erwin]

You might presume that it's cellular, but I'm going to presume that it's fibre-optic.

will they repair to the nid box?

[Joe_Dragon]

will they repair to the nid box?

Going Through This Right Now

[mssymrvn]

I have an 'installation' scheduled for Wednesday, the 8th. However.... the caveat was made that no tech would go inside. The previous tenant had FIOS so the hardware is already installed. I'm getting business class with a static IP and told them to merely provision the ONT, giving me a signal and the correct IP address info and I'll handle the rest. With that, the sales tech said he could do it. But otherwise, no entry would be made into the premises at this time. In other words, if my stuff doesn't work on my end, I'll have to wait. I can live with that so long as my connection actually works so I can set up my servers. Otherwise I'll have to figure out an alternate plan.

Moving sucks right now, by the way.

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[TXJD]

That would be super. I assume there's an outdoor ONT that can be reused, as opposed to having to install/update an indoor ONT.

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[mssymrvn]

In my case it's an *indoor* ONT and I'm hoping that isn't going to impede the provisioning. Why they would need to roll a truck just to provision a box that was just working a week ago is something I can't grasp. I mean, I have ideas as to why, but none of them are justifiable in this day and age.

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[Solandri]

This is why the hotspot capability should be enabled on all cellular phones. Unless you have an unlimited data plan, there is NO justification for charging extra for hotspot capability. You're paying the carrier for x GB of data per month. It's none of the carrier's business whether you choose to use that data on the phone, or with your other devices via the phone's hotspot. Charging extra for the hotspot is like a supermarket charging extra for milk if you opt to use it for cereal, instead of drinking

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[Hodr]

Yes and no. If you are paying per GB then absolutely, it shouldbe unlocked and not cost extra. If you have an unlimited plan, then this isn't really fair to the operator and your fellow subscribers trying to use the same towers/circuits that expect you to be using a single device that can only play one video at a time, one game, etc. and shouldn't have to contend with 3 devices playing youtube videos, an alexa playing music, and a game console or computer trying to download 50GB game updates.

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[bobs666]

Take your stuff out side. Make it work there. When you take it back in if there is a problem have the installer push a new line in. still broken start over, Take your stuff out side.

What installation?

[Baby Yoda's Daddy]

When I got my DSL line installed, it was just simply turning on the line out at the street. I just had to plug the router into the phone line and go through the web-based setup. I also made sure that I wasn't charged an installation fee for turning on the line.

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[TXJD]

They are likely talking about FiOS which almost always requires indoor work, specially now with the indoor-rated ONTs.

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[PPH]

Actually, in our area, Verizon (and then Frontier) switched from indoor to outdoor ONTs. When I had mine put in, I just pointed to a suitable place on the side of the garage for the tech to mount it. I had run my own Cat5 cable to that location inside the garage (broadband-only install). So when he asked where the router was going to go and which way he should run the cable, I just handed him the Ethernet cable and told him "Plug this in and you are done." He left, grinning from ear to ear, not having to sp

Not quite true

[battingly]

A better way to say it is: Verizon, and pretty much all ISPs right now, are only offering self-install kits. They'll send you the gear and you set it up yourself. I wonder if the vast majority of installations these days are self-installs anyway.

Re:Not quite true

[TheReaperD]

Though I don't dispute them limiting contact with customers right now for their employees' safety, how much you want to bet that the service technician's get laid off permanently and this service is never offered again, especially at Verizon?

Go to work (some of you)

[cygnusvis]

*twirls mustache* YEEES ISP techs must get back to work while we all toil around all day...mmmm....yeeees.... Seriously though, This article criticizes people for not going to work and enabling people to not go to work. Whomever wrote this in incapable of thinking critically.

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[Jeremy Erwin]

FIOS lets people work from home.

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[cygnusvis]

Right, but people are mad at the technicians because they (the techs) are not going to work to do installations and repairs so that they (the people receiving maintenance) can not go to work (and work from home). If Verizon is canceling installation and maintenance jobs, it can only be because they are short people (I'm assuming Verizon WANTS paying customers). We will see this same problem when UBI is a thing (it will be eventually, because votes are for sale). It irritates me when I have to go to the o

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[leonbev]

It also allows for remote learning. Without Internet access, my whole family would have to go somewhere else to work or learn. How is that "better" for preventing spread of the virus?

How is this new?

[ccham]

Verizon hasn't been installing FiOS most places they claim they do for over a decade now. Frontier is now getting out of FiOS obligations too and shoving them on to yet another over leveraged government welfare corp.