I called Verizon to see if I could switch my phone service from Fios back to copper wire so I'd still have a phone even if I lost my Internet - I can't. - and during the course of the conversation, the lady to whom I was speaking looked at my account and told me that she could upgrade me, and as a result, my Internet went from 100/100 to 300/300 while my monthly payment went DOWN thirty dollars.

She also told me that my new deal was available the previous time I had called Verizon (a year and a half earlier), but neither the person to whom I had spoken nor Verizon themselves had advised me of its availability.

Getting to the point, then, if you're dealing with Verizon, it's worth your while to investigate their current deals periodically and call to see if you're maybe entitled to a break, because they ain't calling you.

Artie, from previous posts, I am aware of your penchant for 19th century telephone technology, but you should thank Verizon for not switching you back to copper. I was a ground communications and electronics officer in the Air Force and can assure you that FIOS is more resilient than copper. Regarding your power loss scenario, Verizon has multiple sources of backup power for their central office and relay points and is at the very top of the power company's restoration list. That leaves only your house as a weak point in case of power outage. One that can easily be solved by an Uninterruptible Power Supply for the modem at the FIOS entry point. I had Verizon FIOS at my previous house and cable here. Attaching the incoming modem to a UPS has enabled me to remain in communications on both networks through several power interruptions. (A UPS is no help at all when the cable gets damaged or cut, but it takes a lot less time to repair a coaxial cable than it does to splice 1,000 pairs of wire in a typical copper telephone cable (but that is another war story).

Something to watch with reduced price contracts is the contract is for a limited time and the price can go up sharply, and without warning, at the end of the "deal."

Lack of information/best deals is not limited to Verizon. I think all telecommunication giants engage in lack of communication. Sometimes it is a lack of awareness on the part of the person to whom you are speaking, sometimes it is because the company is pushing certain packages, or the representative is trying to make a quota in a certain area of sales (which may not be to your benefit).

Whatever the reason, it pays to be proactive and to question. Sometimes merely threatening to look elsewhere for the service will produce a better deal for you (ask if there is a retention department). And like joemikeb said, pay attention to changes at the end of your "deal".

A UPS is pointless here in Brooklyn, where power outages are, very happily, very few and extremely far between.

Verizon's backup battery solution costs $40 for the unit and burns 12 D cells (~ $15) every 24 hours, which, considering that I'm most unlikely to make even a single phone call during those 24 hours, is disproportionately costly.

I'd like something that's always there at no extra cost, which copper wire service would be.

And finally, my "deal" is not a special deal as the word suggests, rather it's the current plan Verizon is offering, and the best info I can find is "2 year price guarantee," which, considering the $720 I'll save during those 2 years, is something I'll risk - not that I've got a choice - particularly considering that my previous "deal" remained unchanged for 5-6 years.

I tend to think of Verizon's reps as being honest, because I constantly see offering circulars that my neighbors leave near their mailboxes, and the plans they're being offered are similarly priced to what I was and am now paying. On the other hand, though, I AM the world's most naive shopper!

As for my current plan having been available but not offered the last time I called in, I've presented that as correct, but I'm not 100% certain.

(The latest Optimum offers I've seen are just a tick better than what I'm paying Verizon...nowhere near enough to induce me to switch, and it's not unlikely that Verizon's reps are aware of it.)

When I got Verizon FIOS, I turned down a similar backup device offer and substituted my own solution. Admittedly, my solution cost ~$85, but it has two rechargeable gel-cell batteries that should carry a FIOS modem a few days without being recharged (my longest outage was following a tornado and lasted two days). That was twenty years and a move to a new home where FIOS is not available and my UPS still in service powering a cable telephone modem, but I did replace the batteries a few years back.

Verizon's battery powers phone only. Did your UPS power Internet too?

It powered the FIOS modem that was the entry point into the house and handled both phone and internet. From there the internet traveled on 10 base T ethernet.

Thanks. I guess it's a matter of available power, then.

I wonder how many D cells it would take to provide Internet as well as phone?

That is why I like my solution with rechargeable gel cells.

In a situation such as yours in which power outages are expected - All hail ERCOT! - I'd go the same route.

Actually most of our power outages are local and caused by overloaded transformers exploding, lightning strikes, hurricanes, tornadoes, or drunk drivers knocking down power lines, and are the responsibility of the local power distribution company, not ERCOT or the power generating company's. But, when the problem is in ERCOT's ballpark a LOT more people are effected and excepting outages due to hurricanes and major tornadoes take a lot longer to recover from. I am not defending ERCOT, the entire concept behind it was short-sighted and bad from the get go. But ERCOT has enough grief on their plate without piling on someone else's problems.