Forum Discussion

azdrugdoc's avatar
azdrugdoc
New Contributor
3 years ago

How to (absolutely) confirm fiber availability to the home? (Scottsdale, AZ)

UPDATE: to my pleasant surprise, someone escalated it to the local field team, and we got a visit last night from a fiber tech lead, walked the property, and checked the pedestals. Long story short, we're good for them to pull to the house, and they gave me a length of OM5 wire for me to run ahead of the appointment and they'll install an ONT in the media closet.

ORIGINAL POST:Located in Scottsdale, AZ - currently a 300/30 legacy customer. Service is pretty good as-is.

Looking for some guidance from the community as to proceed with Cox on their Gigablast service - we get a number of solicitations to upgrade.  Neighbor across the street (serviced by a different pedestal) has fiber service.

On Monday, I made the call (chat) to upgrade to the Gigablast service, the sales CSR initially affirmed 1G down/up for the area. Booked an install appointment for later this week.

Towards the end of the conversation, CSR retracted, saying fiber wasn't available in our area, and we would be capped at 35 Mbps upload, which makes the service far less attractive. Asked to cancel the now-scheduled appointment, CSR said he couldn't do that, and I would need to manage the appointment in the client portal (?!).

So I canceled the appointment, but this afternoon a third-party contractor knocked on the door to advise there would be a minor service interruption as they update the service pedestal (across the street) for fiber. So it sounds like we could be capable of FTTC (fiber to the curb), but they couldn't speak as to whether fiber would be pulled through the conduit into an ONT on our house - they referred me back to Cox.

Through multiple chats and transfers to/from sales and tech support, no one can answer that question. I've asked to pay for a service appointment and have a fiber tech visit with us and evaluate the residential infrastructure, but tech support won't send anyone out without active service, and sales will only say (quoted from chat): "if the service is provided in your area it should work and if you have any issue you are more than welcome to have a tech come out to resolve it."

Easy enough to say 'just commit to the process', but if it's underwhelming, there's no going back to the 300/30 plan.

Anyways, if the community has any ideas for how to engage Cox and get someone to put eyes on the setup, I'd welcome any direction. Thank you.

  • Bruce's avatar
    Bruce
    Honored Contributor III

    What do you want...gigabit service or fiber?  One billion bits per second is a LOT of data.  Would you ever need 1 billion bits per second?

    How do you know your neighbor has FTTH...did you see their ONT?

    The Client Portal is your Cox account.  Your Cox account will show you all your scheduled appointment with an option to cancel.

    • azdrugdoc's avatar
      azdrugdoc
      New Contributor

      Yes - saw their ONT. I'm aware of the portal functionality, that's how I canceled the appointment (that the CSR couldn't do despite being the same phone call).

      I need all the bits, Bruce. All of them.

      • Bruce's avatar
        Bruce
        Honored Contributor III

        All the upload bits you can get?  One billions bits per second is 40 simultaneously streams of UHD.

  • Hi Azdrugdoc,

    I apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced. That is not the customer experience we want for you.

    Please feel free to email us at cox.help@cox.com and include a link to this message. We can review your area and determine if fiber is available to your home. Please include your complete home address and a good contact number.

    Thank you for reaching out to the Forums community,

    Mike J.
    Cox Support Forums Moderator
    • azdrugdoc's avatar
      azdrugdoc
      New Contributor

      Thanks Mike - posted an edit/update to the original post.