USA here -- several years ago, I got a notice in the mail that my copper POTS line would be disconnected on [date], unless I allowed them to replace it with fiber. "OK," I thought, "this is my opportunity to get fiber installed for free." Told them to go ahead, and the fiber was duly installed and tested. I waited a month, then cancelled the phone service and replaced it with OOMA ($40/mo vs $5/mo) over my cable TV ISP (Comcast, if you must know).
At the time, Comcast and FIOS were neck and neck as far as speed and cost, so no reason to switch, and I was satisfied with Comcast. Fast forward to 2020. I noticed that FIOS had halved their price and doubled their speed compared to Comcast. "Right," I thought, "now's the time to switch." Called FIOS and initiated the process. Easy-peasy, I thought, since the fiber has already been checked out and was installed only a few years back.
Nope. Guy comes out to "install" my FIOS service. Looks at the ONT, shakes his head. "You have a problem," he says. "Hmm...worked when they installed it," I mutter. He points at the red "Fault" LED. No signal. So, this is 4 PM on a nasty, rainy night. I resign myself to waiting another week. Fortunately, Comcast is still connected.
The tech pulls out some equipment and attaches it to the end of the fiber. "No light," he says, "probably a broken fiber. I'll be back." He walks out into the rain and drives off. Comes back in 15 minutes. "You have two or three breaks in the run back to the box" I think of all the ice and snow storms in the past three years, and how many trees have come down. Not surprising at all. What was surprising, was his next statement: "I'll call construction and see if they can get someone out," he says. It's around 7 PM. He drives off. Comes back about an hour later. "Should be OK now," he says, and hooks the fiber back up. "Fault" light goes out. He calls his office and tells them to turn on the data. We have a nice chat about telephones, and I find out he's been with "The Phone Company" for 25 years. I fire up my laptop to test the connection. He gets the OK from the office and we hook up and do a speed test. He tells me, "You have 200/200 service, but you'll probably see 300/300 because the box is only half full". And that's what I see. I thank him profusely, and he heads out.
That was a year ago. FIOS internet has been flawless since then, all through WFH. I ran it for a week, with Comcast still hooked up, then dropped Comcast. I'm fully aware that my experience was unusual, to say the least. I probably met the last remaining telephone company employee who actually gave a damn about customer service. And, yes, when they sent me a "how did we do" form, I praised him to the heavens.
So, Dabbsy, there are still a few left. Hopefully one day you will get one of them.