Canceling Verizon Business internet feels like a phone call. It is not.
The call is the easy part. The money leaks in the week before you dial and the 60 days after. Service that keeps billing because you disconnected on day 3 of a cycle. Phone numbers that die with the circuit. A router that turns into a charge. An early termination fee you could have cut.
Do these seven things in this order. The final bill will be the number you expected.
1. Find out if you're in term first
Pull your bill. Page 1 has an "Agreement" line with your term end date. You can also check the My Business portal under Services, or dig out the order form you signed.
Fios Business and 5G Business Internet sell on 1, 2, or 3 year terms. Some lines are month to month. At term end you usually roll to month to month at then-current rates, and your promo pricing drops off. Some agreements auto-renew unless you give 30 or 60 days written notice.
Search the Verizon Business Internet Terms of Service for the clause named "Term and Termination." That is where the early termination language lives.
2. Price the early termination fee yourself
The ETF is per service and it prorates down each month. Fios Business has historically run up to $350 on a 2 year term. It drops a little every month you keep paying.
Do the math before you call. Say you have 8 months left on a 24 month term. The prorated ETF might land near $115. Now compare that to 8 more months of a $150 bill. That is $1,200. Paying the fee and walking is often the cheaper move.
Ask for a waiver if any of these apply:
- Your business closed (bring EIN or dissolution docs)
- You're moving to an address with no Fios
- You have documented repeat outages (keep the ticket numbers)
- Verizon raised your rate past the agreement
There's also a 30 day window to cancel without an ETF after a material term change.
3. Stand up the replacement, then port your numbers
Get the new ISP installed and tested with 1 to 2 weeks of overlap. Yes, you pay one extra month, maybe $100 to $200. A dead business number costs you a lot more.
If you have Verizon voice on the account (Fios Digital Voice, POTS, or One Talk), submit the port request with your new carrier first. Wait for the port to finish before you schedule the internet disconnect. A port keeps the lines alive. A cancellation kills them.
One more thing. Check your separate Verizon wireless bill. If there's a bundle discount tied to the wireline, it drops off the day the wireline does.
4. Pick the disconnect date against your bill cycle
Verizon bills a month in advance. On wireline Fios they stopped prorating the final month for residential back in 2018, so confirm the policy for your business account before you pick a date.
Your bill cycle close date is printed on the bill. Set the disconnect for the last day of the cycle. Schedule it in advance. Do not ask for same-day.
Disconnect on day 2 of a cycle and you can eat a near-full month for nothing.
5. The call: who to reach, what to say
Cancellation has to be done by phone with Verizon Business support. Chat and the online portal usually can't process a disconnect. Verify the current number before you dial.
Expect a transfer to retention. Here's your one sentence: "I'm scheduling a disconnect for [date], the order is already placed with another carrier, please proceed."
The retention offer can be worth taking if it beats your new plan plus the ETF. So have those numbers in hand.
Before you hang up, get all of this:
- Disconnect order number
- Confirmed disconnect date
- Stated ETF amount (or $0 with the waiver reason)
- Confirmation your voice lines already ported out
- An email confirmation
6. Return the equipment and keep the receipt
Return the Fios router (and any gear they ask for, though the ONT usually stays) or the 5G receiver. Use the label they send, or drop it at a Verizon store. You typically have 30 days from disconnect.
Unreturned equipment runs a fee per device, historically around $100 to $200 on residential Fios routers. Photograph each device and its serial number. Keep the tracking number. And don't let a departing employee walk off with the router.
7. Audit the final bill
The final bill lands roughly 30 to 45 days after disconnect. Read it like an auditor.
Check for a partial month charge past your disconnect date. Check the ETF against what you computed and what the rep said. Check for an unreturned equipment charge. And watch for any "disconnect" or "convenience" fee that isn't in your agreement.
Dispute by phone with your disconnect order number and the tracking number, inside the window printed on the bill. If you were on autopay, remove the payment method after the final bill clears. Any credit balance comes back as a check, not a reversal.
So stop treating this as a phone call. It's a four week project with a date math problem in the middle.