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Never been happy with CL in any city. They seem more geared towards business than residential. Although there isn't much separation between them and CableOne so we might be considering them for a new account.
Competition would be welcomed. CableOne may be the best option in town but they frequently rate towards the bottom in reliability and customer satisfaction among all major ISP's. The Northwest region of the US in general mostly lags behind. Sadly, CenturyLink is hardly a competitor. They don't really value the residential customer and it's not unique to Boise. They want you to believe DSL is still a smart choice. Although mustangjoey seems satisfied enough with his CL service and he requires it for work. New fiber networks are probably gonna be the only option to compete with CableOne.
To the OP, are you reloacating to the area? I always find it curious when posters spend time asking a question and then do not return to respond to requests. Your other posts have not been in the Boise forum??
In the past (once 2 years ago and once about 6 years ago), I have had really bad experiences with CenturyLink (bad bad customer support, saying it is available when it's not, saying they will send someone out and they don't, etc. Never managed to get service set up both those times). But CenturyLink now offers gigabit fiber to my house in Boise, and as soon as I learned that was available, I wanted to jump on it. I have had great experiences all around with it.
I signed up online on Tuesday evening, and was able to set up an installation appointment for the following Monday between 9 AM and 1 PM. On Friday afternoon, they called me to confirm the appointment. On Monday at 8:40 AM, the tech called me and let me know I was his first stop and to expect him in about 20 minutes. He showed up about 9:10. He was friendly and got the line and the box installed (he had to put a ladder up the phone pole in my backyard, and run a line down to the house), and got everything set up. Everything was done by 11 AM, and my speed tests are about 930 Mbps download and 780 Mbps upload. No data caps, and it's only $75 a month (not sure if there are extra taxes, haven't got my bill yet; but for the service I'm getting I won't complain if it's a few dollars more). Blows CableOne out of the water in terms of price. CableOne's Gigabit is $100 more, has only 50 Mbps upload, and has a 1.5 TB cap.
I was always quick to crap on CenturyLink before, because in the past they could not have been more incompetent. Maybe they improved, or maybe I got lucky, but either way I am very happy with mine so far, and I see no reason why I would switch in the future, unless the ISP landscape drastically changes (especially since my $75 is supposedly a "price for life").
That said, if you're not in a CenturyLink fiber area, CableOne is almost certainly going to be faster. If you're in this situation and need unlimited, try to get a business plan. I had a 50 Mbps DL and 5 Mbps UL business plan for $64 a month and it was rock steady and always met advertised speeds. Though I would think twice before committing to a contract (or at least ask for a shorter one, like 1 year), I had to jump through some shady hoops to get out of my 3 year contract (only 6 months in) so I could switch to CL haha.
One thing to remember also is that there is going to be a drop off when checking the bandwidth using WiFi. If I check mine wireless, I get less than when I'm directly connected using an ethernet cable while my laptop is in the docking station. That's an effect of WiFi, and has to be taken into account.
I'm a career IT guy, and always hate it when there's a technical issue. Having worked in IT for 20+ years, I troubleshoot everything and take all the steps:
- Yes, I rebooted the modem
- Check multiple cables if directly connected
- Update firmware
- Check for antivirus definitions on my computer
- Check from multiple computers
- Blah, blah, blad
After we moved in, I went through all of that with CenturyLink, and was getting really pissed. They escalated me a few times, pulled the same crap, and amazingly enough, eventually my speed got to where it was supposed to be. Obviously they did something on their side to remove some bandwidth throttling, but I have no idea what.
This is not isolated to CenturyLink, I've had similar experiences using different ISPs in other areas as well. I guess it's part of the game, but very frustrating.
CableOne is rebranding itself to Sparklight this year so expect to see some restructuring in respect to pricing and speed packages, i.e. expect to pay more.
They get a ton of negative press for their practice of unnecessarily imposing data caps while operating in markets with little to no competition. They have the highest margins in the industry (47% Q4 2017) yet have nearly non existent growth.
We'll find out if this new rebranding will bring with it a competitively priced, uncapped bandwidth. Seems like a pretty opportunistic time if you ask me.
CableOne is rebranding itself to Sparklight this year so expect to see some restructuring in respect to pricing and speed packages, i.e. expect to pay more.
They get a ton of negative press for their practice of unnecessarily imposing data caps while operating in markets with little to no competition. They have the highest margins in the industry (47% Q4 2017) yet have nearly non existent growth.
We'll find out if this new rebranding will bring with it a competitively priced, uncapped bandwidth. Seems like a pretty opportunistic time if you ask me.
Their Gigabit plan already dropped ~ 28%. And, they're following the same rebranding path as Comcast and Charter. It's not a ploy to raise rates; and, I highly doubt they'll remove the caps.
Well, I didn't imply it was a "ploy" to raise rates. Rather it could simply be an opportunity to restructure. As long as Boise customers keep marching along with their (relatively low) capped bandwidth then they'll never see a reason to change. But they'll happily let you pay $40 extra per month for uncapped data. $95+/mo... what a deal!
Jumping in here instead of starting a new thread. Hubby and I just purchased a home out in the farmland area of Caldwell near Purple Sage Golf Course (off I84/Old Hwy 30). Does anyone know which ISP services that area? Are both CableOne and Century Link out there?
We stream our entertainment and I will be working from home, so will need something reliable.
Jumping in here instead of starting a new thread. Hubby and I just purchased a home out in the farmland area of Caldwell near Purple Sage Golf Course (off I84/Old Hwy 30). Does anyone know which ISP services that area? Are both CableOne and Century Link out there?
We stream our entertainment and I will be working from home, so will need something reliable.
Thanks in advance!
i AM HOPING TO MOVE TO AREA IN NEXT 6 MONTHS,same question.
anything change in internet companies?
I'm in nor-cal with only DSL from ATT,
unlimited
I work from home, so I need net for website, FB emails etc
I stream TV
netflix fast
amazon prime fast
youtube fast
other sources can lag
video games run good but I am lots slower in games, IE: I get killed in COD cause slower connection
my speeds are only
PING 23
DOWNLOAD 2.34
upload .41
so looks like anything you have should be BIG IMPROVEMENT!
thx for any answers
Centurylink has actually been working out fine for us. After about a year we experienced maybe 1 or 2 drops and it was very brief. They would never be my first choice but I won't do Sparklight (CableOne) because of their data caps. Are they still doing that? They typically only do it that in lower income, under served markets (they're basically just in Idaho, Oklahoma and Alabama). Totally unacceptable in the streaming world we live in today.
As far as I know there are no major changes in service offerings but I haven't checked since we signed up last February.
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Rural Caldwell
