To give you a quick and obvious answer, in order to get gigabit speeds everything between you and what you are connecting to needs to be gigabit. That means, the network card (nic), the wire being used (will get to wireless in a moment), the device(s) in your house that are connected to your computer. ALL of them must be able to handle gigabit.

So a good quick test would be to take your laptop and WIRE directly to the Verizon FIOS gigabit router/box the tech installed and run a speed test, what does it say? If it is close to what they say they are providing you are good and it is a wireless issue or something you are using between you and the router/box is not gigabit rated.

Assuming the wired test is good, wireless gets a little more complicated. 802.11AC has varying speeds depending on number of channels between the router/box and your wireless NIC and is it over 2.4GHz or 5GHz. You need 5GHz and several channels to get gigabit speeds. Again, if your wireless card only supports two channels then you will be limited. 802.11AC goes from 433Mbps (approximately half of your download speed) to theoretically all the way up to 7Gbps.

Lastly, the way IT communications works is even if all the above is perfect, routers, nics, etc. hold a little bit of bandwidth back to ensure if another application, device, etc. wants to talk there is something there to listen. If you take up all the bandwidth nothing is left for everyone else in your house.

One other thing, the only real use for gigabit to your house (don't get me wrong keep it if you like it). Is if you have multiple people streaming netflix, video gaming, or other bandwidth intensive applications. If all you are doing is browsing the internet and email you may want to look for cheaper alternatives if there is a significant price reduction.

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