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

Joined
Oct 27, 2014
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375
Location
Pacific NW USA
This is an update from the thread I started nearly a year ago: Internet Plans - The Good, Bad, Ugly !?!?

Background:

- Prior to 4/19/17, I was using Cable One Internet. It cost $40 per month for 15Mbps and had a 50GB per month data cap.

- On 4/19/17, I switched to CentryLink DSL Internet. I got on a promotion. It cost $33.98 per month including internet recovery cost for 40Mbps and NO data caps. I purchased my own modem so no monthly modem lease.

- Today, 3/21/18, I called at month 11 of my promotional contract and did a bill review. I was able to keep my existing speed, again, with no data caps and got on CenturyLink's Price-for-Life plan for $40 per month including internet recovery cost. I couldn't be happier with this; a good speed at a good price.

My experience with CenturyLink:

With the start of my promotion. I had to watch my billing like a hawk. They had charged me shipping cost to ship the modem they require new subscribers to get with the set up of new service. My promotion included free shipping on the modem. This took a few calls to get cleared up. Next, I returned the CenturyLink provided modem with their provided UPS return label. After confirming they did receive the modem, it took many call backs to get the $9.99 modem lease fee removed from my bill and charges credited back to my account. Their customer care representatives are courteous and good to deal with for the most part but some of them as it would seem don't know what they are doing. I have a list of call dates with confirmation numbers I kept as I dealt with billing discrepancies.

So aside from the initial promotional and billing hiccups with CenturyLink, the actual internet service has been great. 40Mbps allows us to stream all the HD Netflix we want, again, with NO data caps. That was the biggest problem I had with Cable One. Oh sure! Cable One offers'Blazing Fast" internet speed, but with cumbersome data caps. In my opinion, fast internet is all but useless if one has to constantly concern themselves with whether or not they are reaching they're data cap for that month.

We did have a day outage of service due to infrastructure upgrades/maintenance. It is a new fiber-optic service being offered so I believe they are upgrading and expanding the new service which again has only been one day for the whole year I've been with CenturyLink.

All-in-all I'm happy with Centurylink internet, both the speed and what I pay.
 
I will never do business with centurylink again because of such billing and return modem shipping shenanigans and poor poor customer service. You get much lower pricing in your area to.
 
Originally Posted By: SOHCman
I will never do business with centurylink again because of such billing and return modem shipping shenanigans and poor poor customer service. You get much lower pricing in your area to.


I agree with you on the billing. It was very frustrating to work though. CenturyLink seems very disorganized when it comes to their promotions. But I withered the storm and things are good for us now.

Then only other option in my area for internet is CableOne, but as noted, their plan structure and data caps make it a very ugly option for us. Also, I had a bad experience once where Cable One customer service was very condescending and rude to me on the phone for a very valid complaint I had about my service. That makes it easy to stay away from Cable One. With our CenturyLink Price-for-Life guarantee, I don't think I'll be worrying about it for a long time.
 
What is this data cap you keep mentioning?
grin.gif


I get 1 Gb for $12...after tax that is...beat that :p
 
Originally Posted By: Andy636
What is this data cap you keep mentioning?
grin.gif


I get 1 Gb for $12...after tax that is...beat that :p


1 Gb? My phone is faster than that. LOL

At home I have 500 Gb, no cap, $40/month.
 
I realize these things can be regional-but Century Link here is not the greatest. They have to dig up your lawn-to get you twin copper wires that MAY deliver up to 40mbps. In the "just built" section of town they do have fiber-but not in any neighborhoods just seven years old.

While Xfinity/Comcast already has boxes and their minimum speed is 50mbps. You can get up to 400mbps. They just need to go to the side of your hose and hook up the wire. They do have a 1TB CAP before you pay additional charges.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
Originally Posted By: Andy636
What is this data cap you keep mentioning?
grin.gif


I get 1 Gb for $12...after tax that is...beat that :p

1 Gb? My phone is faster than that. LOL

At home I have 500 Gb, no cap, $40/month.

I don't understand what you both are saying. "1Gb" is not a speed it is an allowance of data (a cap). Speeds are in units per second. And Andy636 says he doesn't understand a cap but then mentions one.

No phone is "faster" than "1 Gb".
 
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
Originally Posted By: Andy636
What is this data cap you keep mentioning?
grin.gif


I get 1 Gb for $12...after tax that is...beat that :p


1 Gb? My phone is faster than that. LOL

At home I have 500 Gb, no cap, $40/month.

Where in Ontario and which service provider, I'd like to get in on that.
 
Originally Posted By: Danno
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
Originally Posted By: Andy636
What is this data cap you keep mentioning?
grin.gif


I get 1 Gb for $12...after tax that is...beat that :p


1 Gb? My phone is faster than that. LOL

At home I have 500 Gb, no cap, $40/month.

Where in Ontario and which service provider, I'd like to get in on that.


Getting it from Rogers of all people. Took a bit of work to get it. I am in Ottawa.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: CKN
I realize these things can be regional-but Century Link here is not the greatest. They have to dig up your lawn-to get you twin copper wires that MAY deliver up to 40mbps. In the "just built" section of town they do have fiber-but not in any neighborhoods just seven years old.

While Xfinity/Comcast already has boxes and their minimum speed is 50mbps. You can get up to 400mbps. They just need to go to the side of your hose and hook up the wire. They do have a 1TB CAP before you pay additional charges.


Here, CenturyLink offers different speed options in different areas of town. Some areas aren't very good, others much better. From what I read, CenturyLink is wholesaling internet from a newly installed fiber-optic hub in my area and this isn't widely available yet. My parents that live across town can't get it. The CenturyLink rep today offered me up to 80Mbps and their website shows 100 and 1000Mbps options are available as well.

1,000 Mbps = 1 Gig

I don't really see the point in paying for faster speed when 40Mbps works great for all our needs.

To the folks not living in the United States, I understand the U.S. has among the slowest and most costly consumer internet in the world. Although as someone pointed out, you probably have to compare amount paid for internet service to annual take-home pay as a proportional comparison.
 
400Mbs, dual WiFi, and STD Def TV is over $140/mo here with Comcast ...
frown.gif


There is no phone based service that could come close to keeping up. Satellite is a joke for I'Net. If they own the wire, they got you. Speed is not an issue, competition is ...
frown.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Andy636
What is this data cap you keep mentioning?
grin.gif


I get 1 Gb for $12...after tax that is...beat that :p


I think our friend from Romania is saying he gets 1 Gbit/s internet with no caps for $12

I'm just happy I'm not stuck back at 384kbit/3mbit (up/down) that we had here for 10 years or so.

just last year we finally joined the 100mbit crowd with 10/100 speed. for 64.99 no cap.
 
I've got the Docsis 3 setup and get 71 Down and 10 Up for 50.00 They call and try to up sell me but each time they call I just tell them she wears the pants and if I want to live its not a decision left to me.
 
Current,
$54.95 =Actual payment, 100/12 MBPS with Spectrum, no caps, no taxes, and actual speeds are closer to 115/14 depending time of day. Awesome performance, lighting quick.

Very near future,
Our Electric company is laying fiber-optic, lines are now hung all areas outside of our communities, linemen say within 6 weeks or so they will be in the actual communities hooking up homes, so safe to say a couple months.
Cost is $49.95 actual payment 100/100 MBPS ... and I am really excited about that!

They also offer incredible price on 1/1 GIG but absolutely no need for us at $89.95 a month.
Oops and just added another tier at $69.95 for 500/500

Best part is, since its part of our electric co-op, you can actually go to the site and pick out the price plan that you want, unlike any pay tv or public internet company which offer smoke and mirror 'special offers" ya da ya da....
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
Originally Posted By: Andy636
What is this data cap you keep mentioning?
grin.gif


I get 1 Gb for $12...after tax that is...beat that :p


1 Gb? My phone is faster than that. LOL

At home I have 500 Gb, no cap, $40/month.


You clearly dont know what a GB and MB is
 
Originally Posted By: alarmguy
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
Originally Posted By: Andy636
What is this data cap you keep mentioning?
grin.gif


I get 1 Gb for $12...after tax that is...beat that :p


1 Gb? My phone is faster than that. LOL

At home I have 500 Gb, no cap, $40/month.


You clearly dont know what a GB and MB is


Oops, saw the 1 Gb and had a brain [censored]. Although, it is Gb, not GB.
 
Last edited:
I have AT&T DSL, $65 for 5Mbps and we go over the data cap regularly so it costs an extra $10. We are far enough out of town that nothing else is available unless we go satellite or wifi, both of which are over $100 / mo for the amount of data we use.

At work we had 2 T1 connections until a couple of years ago when we switched to wifi.
 
I can't wait for MetroNet to come to my neighborhood.

The phone company has too many ugly tricks up their sleeve.

The cable company was good until a year ago when the new owner let it go down the toilet.

- Insight Broadband (good for years)
- Time Warner Cable (still good, upgraded my connection speed for same price)
- Charter Spectrum (last May, barely a year after they bought it from TWC the service in my neightbood went bad and has never been fixed)
 
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