Internet outages wreaks havoc on VPN connections

No sense buying a modem if switching to FIOS.

Understood. The main difference between Cox fiber and FIOS fiber is FIOS doesn't have a bandwidth cap while Cox does. However, in most areas where Cox has to compete with FIOS, they don't enforce the cap. Some reps. even offer the unlimited data package for free. I would talk with retention and tell them you are thinking of switching and see what they can offer. Good luck.