Verizon at Home

[#1]

For the 5^th year in a row, Verizon’s FiOS Internet service has won the coveted Reader’s Choice Award from PCMag.com, beating out all cable competitors again this year.

FiOS Internet’s speed and reliability once again earned the highest marks from PCMag.com readers, with Verizon earning higher ratings than cable modem competitors with a 9.0 out of a possible high score of 10 points for speed and a nearly identical ranking of 8.9 for reliability.  The speed rating from PCMag.com readers reinforces the magazine’s report in June that bestowed the title of Fastest ISP in the Nation on Verizon FiOS.

In the category of customers needing repairs, FiOS was in a class of its own with a rate of nine percent, the only ISP in single digits in this category.  By comparison, the rates of needed repairs of its cable competitors ran as high as 38 percent.

However, one category tells the whole story: “Likelihood of Recommending” the ISP to others.  And, again this year, Verizon received the highest grade in this category with a rating of 8.7 out of a possible 10 points.

FiOS Internet service wasn’t the only bright spot for Verizon in this year’s survey, as our High Speed Internet, or digital subscriber line-based broadband service, finished with a 7.2 overall rating, beating out the likes of several cable giants including Comcast and Charter. Verizon’s DSL-based Internet service also finished with the second lowest rate of customers in need of repairs at 10 percent, second only to FiOS Internet.

Also, in the ranking of providers of VoIP or Voice over IP, Verizon’s FiOS Digital Voice earned an Honorable Mention from the magazine based on its readers’ ratings, including high scores in the categories of ease of setup and connection reliability.

The 2010 results were based on responses from PCMag.com readers who were emailed survey invitations.  The portion of the survey related to ISPs was conducted from June 8 to July 8, 2010.  The survey was hosted by Equation Research, which also collected the data on behalf of PCMag.com.  The magazine’s readers were asked to rate only their service providers and products they owned.