Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/09/party-like-its-1982.html
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We have Verizon FIOS. Generally it is good. The one complaint we have had is when trying to call customer service or use online chat to change our package. That always seems to be a nightmare. Thank fully we have only had to do it twice in the last 8 years.
I was with the local cable monopoly for exactly the length of their “minimum contract” and then dumped the lying fraudsters as fast as possible.
Switched over to a “large” mom-and-pop shop (covers most of Ontario, with an area slightly bigger than Texas), and when the Canadian FCC equivalent made a ruling against the big monopolies that forced them to charge less to re-sellers (ie: my ISP has to use their connection from my place to their network and had to pay more per connection than the monopoly charged end-users for full service), rather than just pocketing the extra money from their costs going down, they passed the entire price reduction on to their customers.
Unlike the cable company, my current ISP has never lied to me about billing and prices, and the internet speeds they provide are exactly the ones they advertised.
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The problem is that you need to renegotiate your contract with them every two years to get good rates, which means another phone call to whatever circle of hell their call center is located. It sucks, but I don’t want to pay more than $35/month for 50/50 service.
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I would love to have gigabit or fiber, but alas everywhere i’ve lived did not have those options. My current internet is from AT&T and it’s… serviceable, but i am waiting for the day i can ditch them.
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As with most ISPs, assuming there isn’t something wrong with your line and you get decent speeds, it will work “well”. Usually way below the advertised speed, but still well enough for netflix or what ever.
You will slowly get your bill increased, often unseen as you have your auto payment set up. And if you DO need something, customer service is a long wait and anything more complex than a very basic issue is going to be a PITA.
Overall I don’t know anyone happy with their ISP. It is like that one weird mole/age spot on your back. You hate it, but try to ignore it and hope it doesn’t negatively affect your life.
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I have google fiber (internet only) in Kansas City and indeed am very happy with them.
Pros:
- Support arrives at time indicated (they called me to see if they could come early last time i needed them)
- No teaser fees/intro plans for internet access there are 2 plans each with their set price
- No additional taxes/fees or other crap. There are taxes on the TV plan but internet has been a flat $70/month for gigabit since I got them as part of the initial roll-out.
- reliable - very few outages, automatically give you a pro-rated refund for time of the outage.
- Net neutrality rules written into the terms of service.
Cons:
- Hard to run your own router. I do but it requires the router be a managed switch that can support VLANs. I use a Ubiquity edge router and a custom config from a user on github. There is no savings to running your own as there is no rental fee for Google’s box.
- Super worried Google is going to forgo fiber and sell the whole thing to Time-Warner.
I understand people with TV side as well have more complaints, they have additional taxes, more outages and such but overall still happier than when they were time-warner customers.
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Google Fiber hasn’t changed the price of their gigabit internet since they announced it, and definitely no price changes since I got it in 2013. No taxes or other fees added to the bill. Flat $70/month for 5 years now.
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Of course it should be getting cheaper over the years as they pay down the infrastructure costs and the equipment becomes cheaper naturally. It’s a shame that Comcast and the like have set the bar at “only raises rates a few percent each year”.
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I’m in KC and would consider trying it, even if it is more expensive, but it isn’t available in my apt complex. It is right across the highway or will be soon, according to when I last looked it up.
Haven’t you figured it out yet?
The so-called free market is code for companies Republicans like.
Which are usually backward as fuck inefficient and support the dinosaur business model in whatever field it’s in.
The actual free market if it existed is consistently fucked over by ham-handed bad regulation intent on solidifying financial Monopoly in the United States among the shittiest of all businesses. And this is why Ajit Pai is utterly full of shit when it comes to net neutrality. And why Republicans are full of shit when they defend the mythical and unexisting Clean Coal industry. I blacksmith with coal. I even use straight Coke- and neither of them are clean.
Libertarians and Republicans alike keep using the term free market and they seem to want anything but unless it happens to align with their business model otherwise they could give a fuck less
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I have Wide Open West.
They are not small, and they are great. Great service, great customer service.
One more plug for Gig City out of Chattanooga. i wish we could have something like them here!
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I live in public housing in Austin and we got wired for free Internet a few years back through some odd company called Usfon (something like that; free local landline phone service too). It turns out that the actual ISP is the University of Texas. Needless to say, I’m thrilled with this 
Uh huh… i bet they do. There’s gold in them thar info hills and sweet, sweet cash from three letter spy agencies to install their beam splitters.
Just yesterday I was in a fight with my provider; they recently were bought by a mainland company, and attached to a letter where the new CEO introduced himself and said that nothing would change in the service was an increase in our bill by 50%.
Last summer we changed service for my in-laws from ATT to Comcast, everything was far smoother (and less expensive) than expected from all the stories. The only tricky part was getting the rotary dial phones to work on the system.
I refer to Spectrum as either Rectum or Speculum.
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