The Boise Broadband/DSL/Cable/Dish/Qwest Thread (Emmett: 2009, apartment complex)

[Jarndyce]

This can be a thread which dumps/airs grievances regarding entertainment service providers AND it can be a useful thread to discuss service recommendations for the Boisean AND the potential Noob.

Is anyone contemplating a service provider switch for 2009? I would like to trim expenses in the area of $50-$80 month and am prepared to either "ragtag" my services or cut drastically.

[DESERTRYDER]

on that same line just what internet service providers are in Emmett?
What kind of money are we talking for dsl per month ?
Do we get the bundled phone/ tv / dsl or do we split it up.
Wheres the smart direction to go for another NOOB?

[Mtn. States Resident]

Originally Posted by Jarndyce

This can be a thread which dumps/airs grievances regarding entertainment service providers AND it can be a useful thread to discuss service recommendations for the Boisean AND the potential Noob.

Is anyone contemplating a service provider switch for 2009? I would like to trim expenses in the area of $50-$80 month and am prepared to either "ragtag" my services or cut drastically.

Jarndyce,

Any reason this can't be a state thread? I do realize you are asking about specific Boise service in a specific range. However, I think many throughout the state have the same questions for different areas as various threads have shown. Many don't know what company or type of service to use.

Maybe I'll have to start an "imitator thread," in the general ID forum. The information could be so useful to many who ask, as well as those considering changes. I do realize it may take a population of ~25K or so for certain services. However, it would still be useful to know what is available in different areas of the state.

I'll be watching this thread hoping to learn a lot from those who know.
Thanks in advance to those who share their knowledge here.

MSR

[Jarndyce]

I am only investigating Boise options specifically. I have no problem dealing with this issue in a State thread. I wasn't really thinking that broadly....

[Mtn. States Resident]

Originally Posted by Jarndyce

I am only investigating Boise options specifically. I have no problem dealing with this issue in a State thread. I wasn't really thinking that broadly....

Thanks, Jarndyce.

May I ask what provider/system you are using now? If you prefer, please send me a PM. Are you locked into any kind of a package deal or can you make changes independently? I have to admit, this is a confusing subject for many to feel they have a "good deal," let alone are pleased with the services they have.

Looking forward to your answers (answer from others are welcome, too).

MSR

[2much2soon]

Lets see, I had Cableone high speed for 4 years and currently Clearwire.
The cable setup was too expensive and Cableone seemed disorganized, customer-service wise, at times.
Clearwire is much cheaper and I don't (practically) notice the stated UL/DL speeds relative to cable.
Qwest dsl has been unavailable in my SE Boise neighborhood whenever I have checked.
This seems ridiculous since I live in Idaho's major metro area and I know people in very small, rural towns in E. Oregon where the local phone cos provide dsl to them. I wouldn't be surprised if dsl is available in my neighborhood and Qwest is just so poorly managed they haven't marketed me.
I dropped my landline service 5 years ago and never looked back. Qwest is the epitome of a big, stupid corporation.

[zedd]

I've had CableOne TV & broadband for about two years and have been very happy with it. I haven't had a single outage during that time and have not had to deal with their customer service. But from my limited experience they're much better than your stereotypical cable company (e.g. Time Warner).

I don't have any of the HD or satellite services, but a buddy of mine does and is very adamant that Dish is better than DirecTV. I think that is due to both quality of content and service.

My limited experience with Qwest suggests they are best avoided.

[Hesster]

I have had CableOne for about four months. I can't speak for the quality of their tech support, since I haven't needed to use it. I use my own equipment, since I bought a cable modem off of ebay a couple of years ago I don't have to pay extra per month to rent one. I have the 3MB plan, and it is adequate for my needs.

There is a cap on daily transfer, but I've never hit it. Once you hit 1GB they throttle your speed down to about 250Kbps. Not a problem for regular users, but if you're downloading a lot of large files it could be an issue.

I decided to go with cable because I already owned the cable modem, and I didn't have a land line so DSL was out of the question. I thought about ClearWire, but I read the data transfer speeds weren't as good as cable, and I would have had to either rent the modem or purchase more equipment.

[Jarndyce]

I have CableOne and have been happy with Internet and Cable TV. I've never had an outage and the Internet was down for maybe 1 3-hr time period once, last month.

It's just very expensive. I paid $106/month (promo pricing) for their 5mbps broadband service plus 100+ channels, plus HD channels (I don't own an HDTV), plus DVR. I have to admit that I like the DVR feature. I just set to record whatever I want to watch so that I never have to channel surf and I can skip through commercials.

I recently made a call to scale back my programming package and was given "the hard sell" and a rather harsh reality that even if you want to scale back your programming (go back to basic cable only) you don't save any money.

So, the drastic action is to leave the service provider and go someplace else. I am going to investigate only having broadband from cableone until I afford to buy a dish. My current apartment complex has many, many more dish users than I've ever seen before. Satellite TV seems very popular here. Is it a good value though?

[Wade Dorrell]

CableOne internet in Boise is fine, the stand-alone w/o contract 3mbps plan is the best speed for the $ in the area. I'm techincally savvy & have had internet service with them for about 7 years.

Historically, they've upgraded speeds without increasing prices, although in the last 3 years this halted, and the daily usage limits (described in previous comments, and accurately in detail at Cable ONE: Cable - Internet - Phone service provider) have been put in place, and the prices went up $3. This is likely due the pinch streaming video & decreased TV watching has put on cable companies, and the fact that CableOne is "good enough" and has few competitors in the area.

I've always had the 3mpbs plan, currently available for $43 a month w/o TV service. This plan is great for reasonable internet usage. It's not quite adequate to stream HD movies via services like Netflix, but you can watch movie after movie, or show after show, on Netflix at low quality no problem with a few "please wait" interuptions... no worse than Tivo commercial skip. No "3G" wireless internet provider I'm aware of can pull this off, and although Qwest is offering bargains right now, but historically they've been more expensive. Now, the CableOne 5mpbs and higher service is now bundled with ridculous $100+ internet + TV plans... seriously, $60+ a month to add TV?)