Verizon Fios Modems, Routers, Set-top Box (STB) & DVR BYOP

One of my readers asked about buying, renting, and BYOP equipment with Verizon FiOS on my recent video about signing up for Verizon Fios, see Verizon Fios Home Internet $40 per Month for 200Mbps Deal!

Fios does not require a modem like cable TV internet does.

I am a current and previous customer of Fios so I’ll explain what I know and I think you need to know.

I am currently a Fios Internet only customer. I was able to sign up and use my own router for internet service. I did not need to buy, rent, or lease any equipment from Verizon. Fios service comes from the pole to the side of my home over a fiber optic cable. That cable is plugged into Verizon supplied equipment on the outside of my house. This is called the “Optical Network Terminal” or ONT. Fios supplies this, the customer does not pay for it. There is an ethernet cable run into my home, that is terminated with a RJ 45 connector that is plugged into the WAN port on my router. That’s it.

However, depending on the whether or not you have TV and phone service, or the age of the ONT on your home it may be a little different.

Back when I had Fios TV service, I had a Verizon supplied router (it was free back in the day). I needed to plug the both an Ethernet can Coaxial cable into the router. The coaxial cable connection provided Internet service to the set top boxes, for things like the interactive guide, video on demand, and other services. This interface is known as MoCA. If you want TV service you may need to rent or buy a router from Fios with a MoCA interface. It’s possible to buy your own MoCA interface too.

I canceled TV service more than two years ago and the Motorola set top boxes required this MoCA feature to operated even though there was a ethernet connection on the back of the boxes. I had those boxes for close to ten years. As far as I know, Fios still requires a MoCA interface for their boxes.

Also if you have TV service, you’ll need to rent a set top boxes for each TV. Don’t count on getting too many channels if any by simply plugging the Fios coax cable into the back of your TV. At the time I had TV service, the box rental was like $13 per month. This was one of the reasons I cancelled TV service. I think boxes with DVRs were even more per month.

On a side note, back when I still had TV service and that free Fios router, I was able to use my own router. Do do this I had to set up the old Verizon router to act as “MoCA bridge” and I turned off all the other features of the router and used my own router for Wi-Fi and all other features. I found a good guide online. It was a pain in the butt even following the guide.

My current router is a Netgear Night Hawk R7000 from back in 2015. Still works well.

I hope this helps.

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