1) FTTH - best (fiber to the home) (some FIOS areas but not all)
2) HFC (hybrid / fiber Coax - Xfinity - 2nd best)  can get slow during busy hours as the Bandwidth is shared.  However this has become less of an issue since upgrades to back bone.  (lots of 10 G and 100 G Ethernet now)
3) FTTC - fiber to the cabinet - Most FIOS areas -  third best - last mile is the same copper pair your phone works on (using VDSL)  If uyou are really close the cabinet you will get good results.  Farther away not so good.  But very easily degraded by RFI, grounding etc.
 
So ask FIOS what the last mile is.  If copper go with Xfinity, if fiber, go with FIOS.
 
I have Xfinity and have had not issues at all for 10 years.
 

4) Dish

sharke
Going without mod cons for a while is an enlightening experience. I went a step further than no internet and had no power for a week after Hurricane Sandy. At first it was very traumatic, then as the week progressed I became more and more comfortable with the simplistic lifestyle I'd been thrown into - long walks outside, guitar and books indoors (by candlelight and torches).

On the last day, as I sat by the window reading a book, I thought to myself that this was the beginning of a new era of life. I was going to drastically reduce my dependence on digital and lead a more organic, analog life. It was then that I heard my fridge go on and mass cheering outside. The power was back. Within half an hour I was sat at my computer with every light in the apartment blazing and about 50 tabs open in Chrome. What am I, a caveman?

Good post I like it …I'm from NYC originally and I remember once going w out electricity for a couple of weeks …
Wound up taking long candlelit bubble baths and blasting away using a  Pignose I had at the time ….fun times ….
 
I have to admit , Dave has me wondering about his once a year beard trim … it may be I need to try it 
trimming mine every couple of months means I keep effing it up and then I have to start from scratch …
 
Kenny 

I'm off to the Starbucks this morning...

Thanks for the info, auto. I assumed that FiOs was optical right up to my house. Guess I'd better ask.

FiOs is FTTH, so you should be okay.
 
Jeff

Got my FiOS cable run yesterday. Real plastic all the way up to the house.
 
But I won't get the actual service until October 8th.
 
The old DSL line is still non-functional. A tech was supposed to come out last week, but another tech closed the ticket so I had to open another one. They're supposed to be out today. So far, I've not been impressed by Frontier's technical chops. But everyone I've spoken to has been very nice - after a few hours on the phone, you naturally form a rapport.
 
So for now I'm tethered to my cell phone for internet access. In one week I used up all my data allocation and had to buy more, just checking email and reading forums. It'll be a big phone bill this month.
 
On a positive note, lack of internet access means there have been no software purchases this month. Closely monitoring G.A.S. levels, which hopefully will not reach critical levels before October 8th.