Hi all,
Pardon the long post, but this is kind of something I've been working on for MONTHS and it's probably one of the happiest nerd moments of my life, but also looking for some advice once we come full circle.
My wife and I live in an apartment complex, owned by my wifes mother. So this already gives us an edge up on things such as renovations, modifications, etc. She doesn't mind much, as long as we keep the place clean.
Basically from June until now, I've been trying every which way to get fios run to our apartment - traditionally only Spectrum was available (since 2015), but as the complex is in a very residential area, I started searching around as I had seen TONS of Frontier Fios trucks always on our street, in our neighborhood etc. Turns out, our complex is the ONLY address in the entire 3 mile radius of residential addresses that did NOT have fiber access. As someone who used to do quite a bit of live streaming, and does ALOT of uploading of content and media for work (tech company but work from home), I was craving the upload speed and peering/routing of a fiber network rather than my spectrum connection which was 400/20 speed, but all it showed up for in Frontiers system was 6mbps DSL, not even dual bonded (which I found out isn't offered because they are pushing everyone to FIBER)
I called almost religiously every week asking for them to submit sift tickets, I tweeted at them, emailed the presidents office, etc. The answer was always "The engineering team says that its not possible, we aren't expanding, etc etc" I called asking for months, and my wife even said I was becoming obsessive, but from my perspective, the fiber was already run throughout the entire neighborhood, the only needed to drop and terminate a line at our building (which I can get approval for via my Mother in Law who owns the complex).
So fast forward [This is early February] after months of calling every week to ask, I actually just bit the bullet, and ordered the 6mbps DSL connection and awaited my tech to come visit. When he came to do the DSL install, I specifically asked him if he was a contractor or from actual frontier, and he said he was from Frontier, at which point I basically explained my entire situation, told him how bad myself (and other tenants) wanted fiber, and I asked if he could put me in touch with a local engineer. I gave him promise that any paperwork would be approved by the landlord, and that we were all interested in it. Low and behold, this guy came through. 2 days later their field operations engineer came out and did a site visit of our complex and said the entire thing was possible, it wouldn't cost us a dime, just give them a few papers that say they can offer service at this address for 10 years without question (not exclusive, meaning spectrum can also be offered simultaneously). Without hesitation we got the papers signed, and he said within 2-3 weeks they would come and wire up the building.
Fast forward another 2-3 weeks, one morning I see 4 huge frontier trucks with spools of fiber, and I hear some people up on ladders. They came out, ran all the cabling, and installed a termination box, all in 2 days. It was arguably more work than I originally thought (they couldn't split off the main line, they had to run a new one about 2 blocks down the road to the main hub, but they owned the pole access already so it cost them nothing to run it), but they did it. 1 week after that, I get an email from that field tech that stated "You and the other tenants can now order service" and I went and checked, and just like that, instantly, after months and months and months, I see 50/50, 500/500, and gig service, all available!
So I've gone ahead and ordered the gig service, and have an installation scheduled for this upcoming Monday, and I couldn't be happier. I've heard and read the horror stories, and I've had fiber before (from ATT) and I know the pros and cons, and Im super stoked.
The only thing now that I'm wondering is about my ONT setup and what is possible. Right now the main termination box is outside the apartment on the side of the building, and they will run fiber all the way to the unit, but as the building is much older (renovated interior, but not up to date wiring etc inside the walls), I'm just wondering if they create "tabletop" ONT's or if they have to be mounted to the wall near a power source? Do the ONT's have standard plugs or the big brick plugs?
We have very electrical limited outlets around the apartment and have almost all of them with surge protectors attached for extra plugs - and I'd like to have everything setup in the living room as the central space for ONT/Modem, but given the situation, am I most likely looking at having the ONT setup in a closet with an extension cord putting power in there (no outlets in the closets where the coax currently runs, and I'm assuming they'll use the same raceway to run the fiber) or can I ask them to install the ont in the living room and use a different type of box?
If I ordered just internet, will it be fiber to ethernet after the ont or will they use pre-existing coax?
Just wanted to share my success story with anyone that would understand the feeling of finally getting such a big upgrade available. Also as a slap in the face to every sales person and engineer who said it wasn't possible - or that it would cost tens of thousands of dollars. I just had it done for FREE.
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