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Moving-- internet options-- Fios vs Cable vs DSL vs whatever
DouglasDanger
PennsylvaniaRegistered User regular
PennsylvaniaRegistered User regular
My wife and I are moving into our first house in a few weeks. It is near Bloomsburg, PA. We are looking to change ISPs. We currently have Metrocast, which is cable TV + internet. We aren't really satisfied with the TV or the internet, so we are looking to change.
How do I find out what is good internet versus what is crap internet in the area? We sort of need to pick something shortly after move-in because we use the internet to pay all of our bills.
Is Verizon FiOS worth the $70/month? How does it compare to cable? How does DSL compare to cable?
How do I find out what is good internet versus what is crap internet in the area? We sort of need to pick something shortly after move-in because we use the internet to pay all of our bills.
Is Verizon FiOS worth the $70/month? How does it compare to cable? How does DSL compare to cable?
DouglasDanger on
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2 years of FiOS for me, no connectivity problems. Super fast up and down speeds, great picture quality.
Verizon's billing system is fucking abysmal.
Once you're all set up and getting billed properly, all their services are amazingly fast/smooth and there's little downtime. The problem is getting there, since nobody seems to know what they're doing when it comes to adding or removing services to your account. If you go that route (and from a technical standpoint I'd recommend it over any other service) make sure you're getting the package you want ahead of time, whether it's Internet+TV or Internet/TV/Phone -- you really don't want to add a service later because from my experience that's like a bat-signal for their billing department to start fucking with you. It took my about three months to get all the kinks worked out, but since then it's been about 4 years with absolutely no hassle.
I game and upload/download plenty but I still don't need more than the lowest tier Comcast cable internet service.
The service itself is really good though. FiOS wasn't available here back when I moved and decided to go with DSL, but I have a buddy who's pretty much sold me on upgrading to it.
ed: that being said I've been happy with DSL for gaming/downloading, and it's cheaper. Bandwidth and latency are generally somewhat lower quality than you would get with cable, but unless you're streaming HD video it'll probably work fine for you. It depends a lot on the local ISP, probably.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
I had one connectivity issue where I had no service for a weekend. It was a bad weekend to lose it, too (finals were due, all classes were online, oh noes!). However, it was a physical, hardware issue (one of their pieces of equipment broke at exactly the wrong time to be fixed for a day or two, and caused other problems).
Check out Verizon's page, they'll give you the details on comparisons for speed, etc. $70 sounds like a lot, but it depends on the speed you're getting. I'm getting 12Mbps down with 1.5Mbps up for $30. Standard cable internet is usually either 7 or 10 (RoadRunner is 10 currently). Generally FiOS starts around 12, and can go as high as 24 (Cable can currently go quite a bit higher, but it's a lot more expensive). FiOS can also go slower, basically DSL speeds, and may be more affordable.
Ultimately, I would recommend FiOS, but shop around, compare prices, and if you're really just unhappy with your cable provider, don't go back to them.
Oh, also, with FiOS, you get to plug your modem/box (mine's technically an internet gateway) into your phone line. So...well, I think that's awesome, in an old-school kind of way.
btw, I'm overpaying because I'm getting the top tier of cable and internet (something like 50/35 or whatever) and don't really need it but w/e. It's worth it.
Then do what you can afford. $75 for just internet is retarded. What's the advertised speed for that price? Are you sure there aren't any other packages available?
But I'm wondering about the hidden costs - the taxes, the $7 per month modem fee, installation, etc. Currently with Comcast you can set it up yourself if the place is wired for it and you can buy your own modem. Can you do that with Frontier/Verizon?
Hey guys, you know that place where you actually set up the service? THATS WHERE I WANT YOU TO SEND THE BILL. I was going to switch to online payments anyways once I got a couple of bills (to make sure everything was correct), but I was forced to switch to even get my bill.
With Comcast, they signed me up for $30 a month to start, and my upload and download are insanely fast here. I never feel "maxed out" so for me, a guy living by himself, cable was the way to go. I'd love to have FIOS instead but I'm not going to pay over twice as much for speed differences I don't actually notice.
I had 1 connectivity issue in the 2 years I had it. Speeds are great, its reliable. Billing is an issue sometimes (sometimes they never credited my account even though I paid it and had proof and that was a nightmare to deal with), but all around, much less of a headache than TWC. The price isn't even made up in the speed so much is made up in the fact that you don't get disconnected and slowed to a snails pace during peak hours when the node is getting binged.
We were thinking about getting Netflix, but I don't even understand what is going on with that anymore.
comcast has been going downhill here recently, plus I am paying something like $120/mo for tv/internet
The cable in this area-- Metrocast-- is not very reliable or very affordable. And fiber isn't available from anyone.
Comcast always hikes your rates up to an insanely stupid rate after they give you the 6 or 12 months they promised you. Call up their customer service, and after waiting on hold for 15 minutes, when the first person picks up, say, "I want to cancel." You'll go on hold for another 10 minutes while they transfer you to the customer retention department. Customer retention are the only people you EVER want to talk to with comcast, because they're the only people authorized to give all the good deals. Tell the customer retention person that you're cancelling because it's too expensive, then make up a number for what their competitor is offering. They'll say, "Oh, I can't meet that price, but I can knock $40 off your bill and also give you something else you've complained about (newest version of their modem is a good one.)" You'll have to do this about once a year.
If you have an apartment complex try to ask someone else if the technician had a hard time finding a clear signal and how their internet service is.
Customer service can be as absolutely terrible as people say. I had to speak with 5 different people to just get the service.
1. First order
2. Credit department (which someone later told me was only to check my credit worthiness if I were to want a bundle - which I told them I didn't)
3. Resume order - oops they incorrectly signed me up for DSL
4. Change order to fiber internet
5. Heard they would charge me an install fee. Learn that some guys often intentionally don't tell you about the install and activation fees. They put a note on my order to credit me back on the install fee if I called in after the first bill, since they can't remove the charge once it was put in. Schedule install date.
Spend 4 hours missing work as technician comes in at 9:30 (promised time 8-10, why did they schedule a meeting for him in the morning if my install time is from 8-10). He has a very hard time finding a clear signal since techs have incorrectly labeled things here at the apartment complex. Internet works sometimes, constantly drops other times (interference?)
Too much hassle already since about step 3, time to cancel service.
1. 1 hour on the phone to cancel service (spoke to 3 different people).
2. Must call back to cancel because I haven't received the first bill yet. They might not charge me for the install. I'm fine with paying the $40 activation fee. They offer to credit $10 back from the activation fee and first month usage on the first bill ($75 - $10 = $65 paid to Frontier for this outstanding service).
3. Will I actually pay the bill or not? I will refuse and complain to the BBB.
Ordered a self-install kit from Comcast (current special $30 for 6 months, currently $7 modem loan, will buy my own modem soon, $45 per month from the 6th-12th month). Took 5 days to arrive from date of order. Internet is 15/3ish, lower latency than I was getting with fiber 15/5.
I only listed that all out to ensure people know how bad Frontier customer service can be. There are major employee training issues and billing and order processing inefficiencies.
Sad, that.
My buddy had to fight AT&T for a couple weeks over a cancellation fee, because he signed up for U-Verse... and then they told him that they don't have U-Verse service to his house. I had them doing door to door sales in my neighborhood a few months back...for U-verse(which they didn't actually offer in my area).
AT&T should be your absolute last choice. They are just a terrible company.
god I hate being Australian.
I pay $90 a month for ADSL2 and have a download cap at that (A generous one at 400gb, but still a cap)
30/8 = 3.75
So if your getting 4 up and 5 down they are actually giving you more than their advertised rate, pretty neat.
A lot of people get the bandwidth numbers confused because ISP companies advertise in bits not bytes. So when they say 30/30 they mean 30 megabits up and 30 megabits down, thats 3.75 megabytes up and 3.75 megabytes down. Its been like this from the old baud days.
Customer service can be a minefield sometimes.
Ive never had a problem with comcasts technical side of their customer service, sure sometimes it can take a bit of time to get them to diagnose a weak and spotty signal, but thats understandibly difficult to diagnose if its intermittent. On the billing side ive had a few nightmare stories. One i had to take care of for my parents (because as the nerd everything IT related fell to me) comcast had come out and unplugged our cable because we had combined our internet and TV accounts. They had assumed that our household had no other accounts and had disconnected the cable. This was understandable, but avoidable. Long story short, we used to have internet with @home and tv with comcast, comcast bought out @home so we had to different bills for a while. Eventually we combined the bills into one bill and that caused the issue. They got it reconnected in a day however.
AT&T is a service I will never sign up for because of how bad the customer service is. Even on the technical side. When i have to call them for customers or friends I'm almost always bounced around between 3-4 different departments to get my damn simple issue resolved. And often after its 'resolved' it really isnt resolved and I have to call the next day to get it really resolved.
When signing up for cable internet though make sure you know their regular rate, not just the promotional rate. Be aware of the bits/bytes difference so you know exactly what your getting.