Internet Plans - The Good, Bad, Ugly !?!?

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I was reading through the recent cord cutter thread and thought I'd start a dedicated thread on Internet Service Plans just for curiosity sake.

I'll start it off.

I recently dropped my 15 MBPS Cable One Internet service. Their first three plan options looks like this:

Entry level option -> 15 MBPS with 50 GB Limit $40/mo


2nd Option -> 100 MBPS with 300 GB limit $55/mo


3rd option -> 150 MBPS with 500GB limit $80/mo

And on, and on, and on....

Currently I'm on a 12 month promotion with CenturyLink where I pay $34.50 per month for 40 MBPS and no limits on data used. I love this option as it stands. The only thing I need Internet for is to stream HD Netflix/Hulu/YouTube and general internet surfing. So it does everything I need at a price I think is fair. I mean, do I really need to pay $55 or $80 per month for higher speeds. Not thinking I do? Plus I really like not having to worry about a data cap that Cable One has.

So I'm not really sure what I will do once my 12 month promotion with CenturyLink is up in March? I really wish an Interent provider could provide a more balanced plan structure and offer a plan similar to what I have now. Guess I can keep on dreaming.

Seems to me I've heard the United States has among the slowest and most expensive Internet in the world.
 
Your current plan sounds pretty good to me.

I'm currently paying $50/month for 24 Mbps on ATT Uverse. No monthly data caps, but only because they are also milking me for their TV service.

If you stream a lot of HD video, you really don't want data caps.
 
The entry level plan is specifically intended to thwart your netflix use. You only "need" 800 kbps for netflix so you might want to get said plan out of spite then go into netflix's advanced settings and choose lower resolution/ bandwidth.

Time warner/ Spectrum has had unlimited bandwidth for 18 years but now are mentioning it in billing, as though they're trying to get us cattle used to the idea that it's negotiable.
 
We have Verizon Fios 50mbs up and down.

We pay $55 a month after taxes, fees, and modem rental.

We cut the cord about 6 months ago.

We watch more TV now than we did with an actual cable box!

If anyone is thinking about cutting cable; it is well worth doing so!
 
Originally Posted By: GemStater
So I'm not really sure what I will do once my 12 month promotion with CenturyLink is up in March?
What you do is learn to play the game and learn to play it well.

Call them up before it expires and negotiate for a better deal.

ATT has now enabled data caps even on my 6Mb/sec ADSL service. I'm not even close though. Further, for me, there's no reason everything has to be "HD". Sometimes it makes no difference in quality at a lower rate.

These 'plans' are all set up for the ignorant, lowest-common-denominator user, who won't question the bill, will just pay it, thinks everything needs to be HD-quality, truly needs faster speeds, and on and on.

That's how they rake in billions year-after-year.

I regularly negotiate, and get, 6Mb/sec for $19.95/mo. With taxes, fees, add ons, etc. it rises to $20.06/mo. I can stream HD content fine, wired or wireless.

Why feed The Beast anymore than necessary?
 
Americans love big numbers, enough said. To do what most of us do with broadband we don't even need double digit Mbps speed, but we're sold a bill of goods.
 
We've been fighting this issue where we live. We cut our Directv to the cheapest, most basic package they offer and got rid of all the sports packages with their assoiated fees. For internet we have Windstream with DSL as our feed. We originally had an 6Mbps internet and landline package. We bought that when we first moved to the mountains not knowing how good our cell service would be. Since cell service is no problem we dropped the phone and kept the internet. A $5/month charge for a landline actually saves us $15/month. There were $10 worth of fees and taxes just for the phone. In fairness, Windstream did increase our speed to 15 Mbps at no charge when they removed our phone. If it wasn't for my bride watching some of the programs she likes to view, I would cancel our cable in a heartbeat.
 
Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Call them up before it expires and negotiate for a better deal.

I intend to do just that. The rep that signed me up for my current promotional deal advised me to call a month before my promotion is up and ask to be put on the next available promotion. Incidentally, CenturyLink has a $45 per month Price For Life - No Contract promotion going on for 80 MBPS. I'd be pleased to get something like that once my current promo is up.

Originally Posted By: eljefino
The entry level plan is specifically intended to thwart your netflix use. You only "need" 800 kbps for netflix so you might want to get said plan out of spite then go into netflix's advanced settings and choose lower resolution/ bandwidth.

Time warner/ Spectrum has had unlimited bandwidth for 18 years but now are mentioning it in billing, as though they're trying to get us cattle used to the idea that it's negotiable.


Reference the Netflix recommendation for Internet speed:

0.5 Megabits per second - Required broadband connection speed
1.5 Megabits per second - Recommended broadband connection speed
3.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for SD quality
5.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for HD quality
25 Megabits per second - Recommended for Ultra HD quality

So yes, in many plans, it's not the speed that gets you, it's the attached data cap. When I was on the 15 Mbps plan capped at 50GB, I did throttle down my picture quality to SD and also put rations on the family for viewing. Actually not a bad thing for the kids to limit their media consumption, but still it was a pain to be constantly checking our month-to-date data consumption to see if we were about to go over. Now that we've gone to an unlimited data plan, it's hard to imagine going back to the days of a data cap. Now my setting is on HD picture quality and never have to throw caution to the wind as to were my data consumption is at any given point. It's really freeing.
 
If you like watching video get at least 200 GB/month. We cord cut but have a ski home/rental with extra xfinity cloud dvr we watch from home.

My wife watches a lot of cloud DVR thru iPad, daughter's like youtube and Netflix in 1080p, and myself chrome cast 45 mins/day in 1080p. We managed 361 GB this month since September 1st. I also work from home and use google hangouts video about 10 hrs/week.
 
Originally Posted By: Subdued
6 kids, we use 60GB a DAY.

Do you know what all that traffic is? Seems a little high for just regular streaming, unless they all have two devices going at once?
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Originally Posted By: Subdued
6 kids, we use 60GB a DAY.

Do you know what all that traffic is? Seems a little high for just regular streaming, unless they all have two devices going at once?


Just cutting the cord for 1 TV jumped us up 30gb/day so im sure it's nothing shady.

I do check the logs on the pi-hole from time to time and nothing looks weird, no massive inbound or outbound connection counts so no torrents. I'm not worried.
 
Originally Posted By: GemStater
I was reading through the recent cord cutter thread and thought I'd start a dedicated thread on Internet Service Plans just for curiosity sake.

I'll start it off.

I recently dropped my 15 MBPS Cable One Internet service. Their first three plan options looks like this:

Entry level option -> 15 MBPS with 50 GB Limit $40/mo


2nd Option -> 100 MBPS with 300 GB limit $55/mo


3rd option -> 150 MBPS with 500GB limit $80/mo

And on, and on, and on....

Currently I'm on a 12 month promotion with CenturyLink where I pay $34.50 per month for 40 MBPS and no limits on data used. I love this option as it stands. The only thing I need Internet for is to stream HD Netflix/Hulu/YouTube and general internet surfing. So it does everything I need at a price I think is fair. I mean, do I really need to pay $55 or $80 per month for higher speeds. Not thinking I do? Plus I really like not having to worry about a data cap that Cable One has.

So I'm not really sure what I will do once my 12 month promotion with CenturyLink is up in March? I really wish an Interent provider could provide a more balanced plan structure and offer a plan similar to what I have now. Guess I can keep on dreaming.

Seems to me I've heard the United States has among the slowest and most expensive Internet in the world.





Try to stay with your 40MB plan. Your in a sweet spot for today and the future, you do not need more and when you call your company to try to get them to extend the special pricing maybe they will offer a lower tier.
For what you say you are using the internet for you can get by on 25MBPS EASY.

For the last decade we have done fine on 5 to 10, lately got bumped up to 25 for free and now because my wifes company is paying for our internet we are bumped up to 100 MBPS, monthly cost is $55.00 a month.
I do buy own my equipment, I prefer to buy what I want which I feel is better then what companies give out and charge you for.

I always get the advertised speed and better for what I pay by having a properly set up system.
Internet providers have no interest is setting up your system for max speed if you are getting a lower tier service, I constantly work with customers routers being I am in the security business and the general population, routers are set up so bad, wrong placement, piles of wires, etc that they always think they need more speed but its the messy set up and placement of the router that is hindering the speed.
 
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Originally Posted By: Subdued
6 kids, we use 60GB a DAY.


WOW! I thought I used a lot of data.

Back then my last room mate lived with me, his gaming computer setup would run me right up to the 1Tb limit that Comcast has in my area. Occasionally just a tad more.

I just looked at my usage for the last several months, and I average just over 300 gigs a month, that's just me and the current room mate who doesn't use the internet much.

I have 150 Mbps service at my house, just for reference.
 
Yes but because of currency valuation, the Average Romania income is $500 us dollars a month.
In the USA the average income is ten times that amount at $5000. a month.
Generally speaking as stated in google.com
 
Originally Posted By: alarmguy
Yes but because of currency valuation, the Average Romania income is $500 us dollars a month.
In the USA the average income is ten times that amount at $5000. a month.
Generally speaking as stated in google.com

Alarmguy,
small correction: believe me, most of the average Romanians don't have $500, even before any taxes....

What it is is, even if they are 2-3 majors (who swallowed a lot of minors), they invested MASSIVELY in infrastructure in the last 10-20 years.
AKA, fiber to the regular building/block distributor
also fiber (lots of it) between the major centers/areas/towns

=(mind my memories, this is something from 12 years ago) old ladies could have voip tel for about $3/month, compared with at the time fixed phone monopoly of about $10-$25....

also the cellphones plans, including data are also cheaper there for the same reasons...also the 3 major cell companies are very aggressive...

P.S. also don't forget when comparing apples to apples, that the country is about the size of Michigan (state)....
 
Not understanding your response ... :eek:)
I was just pointing out that based on income, internet cost about the same between the two countries when taking into account annual personal income.
 
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