As a general rule, you can't get a minimum rate guarantee on a residential line. That is one of the main perks of the more expensive business lines.
As for special equipment, it is terminated differently, but Verizon provides the fiber equivalent of a modem and from there it's all copper Ethernet, so your existing routers, etc will be fine. The availability concern is one that would be specific to Verizon, not to fiber. Fiber is widely used and is a reliable medium for data transmission.