I have had Verizon services forever and when FiOS became available in my area I upgraded the land line and internet connection. Phone is MUCH clearer and internet faster. I was under contract with DirecTV at the time so I couldn't upgrade without paying a huge disconnect fee. My DirecTV HD DVR box had just been upgraded and with that, unbeknownst to me, began a whole new 2-yr contract. I was OK with that until my HD DVR started acting up--right outside the warranty period. I limped along for awhile resetting the box every time I wanted to watch TV and it got progressively worse until I called DTV for the gazillionth time and asked them to replace the box. They said it would cost me $85 for a service tech to come out. I told them I'd be happy to simply exchange the box and I'd take it wherever they wanted me to. They couldn't do that. So I said forget it, got FiOS TV installed and ditched DirecTV even though they charged me nearly $400 for canceling the contract. Steep price to pay, but with the savings on my FiOS package, I'm still paying less than if I had kept DirecTV even with the cancellation fee.
I'm thrilled with FiOS TV. It's much, much better than DirecTV, I don't have to keep resetting the box, it doesn't go out every time a cloud passes over, and the picture is magnificent!!! And do you know what the CS manager from DirecTV said to me? "We have over 50 million customers. We won't miss you." 'Nuff said!