US Telco Support > Verizon > Verizon Fiber Optics > FiOS internet with POTS on copper?

FiOS internet with POTS on copper?

You can do this, but you will not get any bundle discounts. All bundle discounts apply when POTS and FiOS data/video are on a single account. And most stand-alone FiOS data accounts need to be paid for by a credit card.

Why copper if you can get fiber it is much better then copper. the copper that you have up on the poll is at least 25 years old and the fiber is at most three years old. Hince is something were to happen your going to have a better chance of calling 911 on fiber then copper. By the way the ONT has an 8 hour battery back up if you need more then that you can run it on a back up generator. the fiber is fully passive from the ont to the olt (your house to the central office). You will be fine when you call 911.

reply to koytoka
I can definitely understand and see why you want to keep your phone on copper.

However, in the event of a severe natural disaster chances are your copper phone line (and fiber too if it isn't underground) may even go out if a telephone pole is downed. If you simply lose power due to a thunderstorm outage chances are your copper line will still be functional.

Having it over fiber isn't all that bad though incase of an emergency or blackout. The BBU Verizon supplied will last for 8 hrs after outage plus an emergency reserve if after those 8 hrs an emergency call is needed. Not to mention you can also attach your own secondary battery backup and keep replacing them until power is restored.

Just putting that out there if you hadn't considered it. That's why I went with fiber for POTS because if I really need to I can just keep swapping out battery backups until power was restored. Of course there's always cell phones...

reply to koytoka
And then there are generators as well. If anything, I'm sure a neighbor wouldn't mind you piggybacking off of their generator to run the ONT and charge the battery for a while during an extended power outage, but if you must be on copper, I'm sure Verizon will understand just as long as you mention your reason of having it, your condition.

reply to nycdave
What bundle pricing would there be if OP only got FiOS internet in the first place? If he chose one-year plan for 20/20, wouldn't it still cost $64.99 a month even with POTS on copper?

reply to koytoka
A little off topic, but I read that faxes and answering machines might not work properly with POTS going through fiber. Can anyone confirm if there are any big issues? I also have an anti-telemarketing device that allows me to play a pre-recorded message without having to pick up the call. Once I confirm it's a telemarketer on my caller ID, I just hit the button. Does anyone know if these type of devices have problems operating on fiber POTS?

reply to koytoka
I know I will only do FIOS if I can keep POTS on copper for at least a couple of years.

reply to michaelduhan
I have no issues with my answering machine or fax machine on fiber POTS, it's as if it were connected to copper POTS.

I believe the only devices or systems that are really affected by being on fiber rather than copper are those that use the copper as their power source. An example might be some home alarm systems that are powered only by the copper.

reply to sholling

reply to VZ FiOS
Ah, I guess my anti-telemarketing device won't work, since it's powered off the regular phone line (copper). Drats

reply to VZ FiOS

reply to nycdave

reply to koytoka
I don't know about residential FiOS, but if you get a business account, you can retain copper POTS for your residential line. I actually had DSL and FiOS at the same time, waiting to see how stable FiOS was. I disconnected my DSL, but still have my residential POTS on copper.

reply to VZ FiOS
So Caller ID, call-waiting and all other features I had on my POTS copper will carry out to POTS fiber? Pretty much the switch over should be transparent in terms of usage (no difference between before and after change)? I share the same sentiment as the OP in that I don't really wanna let go of copper, but 20Mbps/20Mbps sounds mighty tasty!

I believe my copper is buried underground, since I don't have visible poles anywhere in my neighborhood. When they do the switch over, will they leave my copper alone, just in case if for whatever reason in the future I wish to switch back to copper POTS?

Yes, the switch over is supposed to be transparent and with Verizon POTS over fiber you still get caller ID, call waiting, etc.

As for your old copper once Verizon switches it to fiber, their standard procedure is to leave the NID and old copper lines in place. That way you can go back to copper if you find that you need it more than fiber.

reply to xargs
How much do you pay for data only FiOS? I see the residential pricing with phone service is $64.99 in my area, will this be what I pay if I tell them to keep Verizon POTS on copper? Or would it count as FiOS without Verizon phone service, forcing me to pay the $69.99 FiOS data only plan?

Business pricing is here:

»www22.verizon.com/content/busine···ices.htm

reply to koytoka
All our telco-sourced services (like call waiting, iobi, etc.) on POTS as well as faxing indeed transferred intact to Fios. However, our residential burglar alarm monitoring system did not: their office would sent a pulse every 6-10 seconds at a high frequency (above human hearing) to their unit within the house which then signalled back. In the event the phone line were to be cut, then the alarm would signal the police (which it did on three occasions..two for phone company workers working on the pole who pulled our line, and one for actual burglars). When we were moved over to Fios, the alarm company lost the signal. In a conference all with Fios techs and the alarm company, Fios techs stated that only certainly frequences are carried on their fiber phone services whereas a greater range of frequences are carried on the copper. Both ranges include of course those used by the human voice, but Fios is narrower at the high end, omitting a chunk. So in the end Fios said no way was it going to work as when the alarm company signal hit the CO where our fiber phone service was sourced the higher frequencies were simply dropped.

The alarm company was sure that their system wouldn't be able to dial up and single an alarm using the fiber but that was no problem when we tested it..they were using plain old DMTF dialling and regular frequencies similar to faxing for their data transmission.

So the Fios is working fine, but we had to make other arrangements for that one part of the alarm system.