As wonderful as it is to hear that you are happy with speeds and tech that have been around for 15 years. Some of us actually need more. A 4k HDR video averages around 25Mbps and spikes to nearly 150Mbps at times to ensure smooth playback on my network. It’s also not extremely uncommon for my 350Mbps connection to be fully utilized during large downloads.
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When I telecommuted and had to work via VPN. The extra network overhead made 3 mbps (from QWEST at the time) painfully slow compared to the 10+ from Comcast (and work paid for it). Now I get supposed 30 mbps but I need to update the home wifi to see it and honestly 20 mbps is pretty damn nice still.
Like, this is my point entirely. With a 1 Gbps connection, and using 20 Mbps streams, you could have a remote office of 50 people all telecommuting from your house? why tho?
Maybe the better question is: who might be the people wanting to buy a 1 Gbps connection and also giving even the littlest shit that TV is included.
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Where I am in Hawaii there is only one legit ISP, Spectrum (aka Comcast, Time Warner, Oceanic, Roadrunner, et. al.). I can subscribe to their lowest tier internet service for the same price as internet/basic cable, or internet/basic cable/telephone. I’m in the process of moving and the service rep tells me that it will ultimately be higher speed and come with a free wifi router if I sign up for the whole package. I haven’t had a landline for almost 10 years. 
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Well, now you did it… this can only mean you’re a shill for Comcast.
Luckily I was able to get AT&T Uverse 5 or 6 yrs ago when it was finally available out in the county. The company I had been using was sold 3 times in 2 yrs and service kept getting worse.
Tje fiber optic cable is down at the road but I have no clue as to how much it would cost to run it up to the house. I am thinking it is around 300 ft ad a guesstimate.
I am not sure what the speed is 8 miles from town but even with dsl working over copper at the house, we are able to stream 2 tv’s plus a laptop and occasionally my phone and my Kindle all at the same time.
None of the devices being used very seldom stop to buffer.
If we lived in town, we might have a couple of more options but one is a cable company. With how often the cable companies are sold in this area, I would still have AT&T.
For those who have no choice with Comcast, I would research further because there has to be another option. I live in a small town, pop. almost 6,000 and we have at least 3 options and that doesn’t include satellite.
I used to think that was it, too. I mean, with the lack of competition, nearly all US ISPs are horrible.
But, a while back I had a connection problem that Comcast’s techs just couldn’t seem to solve (They came out about 15 different times.) In the course of that, I spent days on the phone with their customer service. I eventually realized that they fake the mistakes and the incompetence, to make it easier to get away with lying to their customers. Those reps must be operating under some really messed up incentives, because the level of deceipt was remarkable.
Now, if I ever have to deal with Comcast, I record the calls and take copious notes. I recommend that everyone do the same, then report any potential fraud to your state AG. After what I went through, I’m not fucking around anymore!
The mention of 802.11g should clue you in as to whether his devices are current enough to support 4k.
It’s nice to be able to upload high bandwidth footage to youtube, though.
I have one option here in rural Washington. Centurylink. 15 up, 2 down is the fastest speed for almost $60 a month. And most of the time (60-70% of the time, no exaggeration) the speeds drop down to 5-8mbs down, .5-.75 up. I it back, earthlink dial up is also available but i won’t pay $40/mo. for 3mbs dial up plus the cost of a land line.
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Only 60Mbps is the “slow lane”? How many people could actually tell the difference between 60Mbps, 150Mbps, or 400Mbps without running a speed test? What are they doing that even needs those speeds?
It could be worse, CenturyLink in this market rate-shapes all video so heavily, that Youtube doesn’t even work unless you get 20Mbps from them. 5Mbps from a 3rd party ISP works better than getting 20Mbps from CenturyLink.
Comcast matters quite a bit which “franchise” you run through, and the quality of the network cell surrounding you. Thankfully at my location I can get more than what I pay for consistently.
I can’t believe how wrong everyone got this story. Comcast upped speeds for contracted bundle customers at no charge, just to do it. These increased speeds, including (in some service areas) 1Gb download speeds, are available to cord cutters WITHOUT any other services. They just didn’t up the speeds for existing internet only customers (though existing customers can always upgrade at any time). Did anyone even bother to look at a press release or puruse the website before writing this shit?
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Exactly. The article above is flatly wrong and misleading. They did effectively create hype and ill give them that. What happened to research? Did no one pay attention to how to find credible sources in school?
Comcast gives customers discounts for having multiple services. Every other provider in the world does that— which is why phone lines cost less when you have them on the same plan. Would you not like them to do that?
That is why people watch youtube with 5 millions channels of cats?
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Where I am in Hawaii I have DSL through the phone company. I used my landline to power an emergency light during Hurricane Iniki, but now have fiber which sadly means no free emergency power.
Given the amount of driving trollies in this thread alone I wouldn’t call Comcast “legit”.
What’s interesting is that all other things being equal it’s actually in Comcast’s interest to increase speeds. Because the cable lines are a shared medium, roughly, if you have 100 customers sharing a link then if you double their speeds and they don’t substantially increase their usage, you’ve just freed up the bandwidth on the line for another 100 customers.
So… I wonder if they’re restricting these increases to television service customers because they’re testing if those people are less likely to expand their usage (like netflix video streaming or over the top television like sling or directv now).
I’m a gamer, not hardcore in the sense that i stream every time and whatnot, and i do notice issues with slowdowns in my internet service with enough frequency that i’m always annoyed by it. Occasionally i’m hit with giant lag spikes, dropped packets, etc. infrequently but they do happen. I have the patience to wait through it as i don’t really want to pay for a more expensive tier, but if i could i’d definitely splurge on a higher tier plan.
Yes, in fact I would. I’d like my internet only service to cost 1/3 of the internet/TV/Phone bundle. I’d actually like it to cost less than 1/3 because the TV is likely the most expensive of these services and phone likely the second most expensive - internet only should be 15-25% the cost of the bundle.
But its not - in fact its often just as much or more.
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There are a lot of very obvious Crapcast plants in this thread. Nobody who pays Crapcast for their sub-par service ever has anything positive to say about the company, their pricing, or customer service interactions.
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