ISP Services

[turkeyjerky]

I had USI wireless in the past and service was horrible--it was down more often than it was working. Service was also extremely slow.

Now I've had comcast for about a year. Service is really pretty good (i have the slowest available and have no problems w/ downloading or streaming). However, they have refused to honor the promotional agreement which I signed up under, and their customer service is atrocious. They've also signed me up for automatic billing w/o my consent, which I suspect is a scam they run in order to attempt to continue billing people after they discontinue their service.

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by Thegonagle

Actually, at this time, Verizon does not throttle their 4G network, nor 4G customers using the 3G network where 4G is not yet available.

Might want to recheck that. AT&T recently stated specifics about 4G throttling and Verizon would not release details on throttling policy but did acknowledge that they do have criteria. I was told in a recent conversation with Verizon, that if you end up in the to 10% of data users in your specific market, they can throttle you, but that is not a hard and fast policy.

The BS factor here is that both AT&T and Verizon are pumping up devices that do 1080P video and we all know the Internet is full of high res content. They imply you can do all the really cool stuff, but make no mention that you can and likely will get throttled if you do more than just a little bit of high def downloading. This will be getting more attention in the near future. In fact an AT&T customer has already won a court ruling on being throttled in California. AT&T has indicated they will appeal (shocking).

Fictitious dialog from future senate hearing:

Q: Is it true you are advertising how great 4GLTE is?
A: Yes. 4GLTE is amazing and we are not shy about saying that.

Q: How much data is in a 2 hour 1080P video clip?
A: Dribble dribble, it depends on your compression algorithm ....

Q: Is it possible that a consumer would use up an entire months data plan in 2 hours watching high definition video?
A: Yes it is possible, but we think it is unlikely that a normal person would watch more than 15 seconds of HD video ... bs bs bs

Q: Is it true that you no longer offer unlimited data plans?
A: yes

Q: Is it also true that you are throttling people with unlimited data plans?
A: Yes?

Q: Do you throttle people on limited data plans?
A: No

Q: And after that, you can charge data overage fees?
A: Yes, but we now send SMS messages to warn of excessive data use.

Q: Is this practice fair to people who thought unlimited implied unthrottled was implied?
A: Changing business climates are always a factor in what is "fair" Regardless of what customers were sold, we are obligated to protect the integrity of the entire network and throttling allows us to do that.

Q: Sounds like you are selling some real slick phones that do really cool stuff, but expect people to use those features in a very limited fashion or pay exorbitant data overage fees. Is that correct?
A: Yes

Thank you. You may go now. We need 3-5 years to ponder what if any corrective action is needed.

[ManBearPig1]

You might want to run a search. There are lots of threads on this.

For example, as I said the last time I saw one of these:

Your options:

Comcast: by far the most expensive, especially if you're not looking to bundle. And most people agree they're evil. Bad customer service and, I believe, they throttle heavy users.
Century Link(Qwest): just as reliable as Comcast, only a little less expensive, but much less evil, at least when I had them when it was Qwest. OK customer service and I don't think they throttle, but not sure.
USI Wireless: The cheapest option by far. You need to have a good connection to one of their nodes though. The least evil. Best customer service; no throttling.

If you have a line of sight to a USI node from a window somewhere in your house/apt, I recommend them as you save a lot of money if you prepay for a year. If you don't have a clear LoS then I wouldn't want to risk a flaky connection and would recommend Century Link (Qwest).

[Beenhere4ever]

Is there any point to go to a Centurylink data only service and make VOIP phone calls?

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by Beenhere4ever

Is there any point to go to a Centurylink data only service and make VOIP phone calls?

you can save long distance doing that, but realistically most people have free calls on cell service. Lot of people are going DSL only with no phone service. It saves about $15 a month. ALso note that VOIP in many cases could cost you extra for a service like vonage. You could use skype or similar, but that is now owned by Microsoft and I expect it will not stay free.

[xandrex]

Originally Posted by Clifford63

I have Internet Only with comcast using my own router my speed is somewhere around 7 Mbs on tests, but I believe it is advertised at 10 Mbs. $70.45 is my bill.

Sometimes pricing is available for new customers that is not available for existing customers and these introductory offers are really a huge incentive to keep switching around. Seems like we should all be offered a similar price for a basic type service like this. Comcast is not the only one doing this.

Presumably they would be a new customer and could get a deal like mine though, right? I actually saw a little while after I signed up that they were offering my service for $20. I would have called in to complain, but I had already done that to get my service price lower. You have to sign up online to get some of their best deals (which is...well...crap) and I had called instead. But after threatening to switch to a different carrier, they quickly switched me to a lower price. When I called back to confirm, they were more than gracious (though the lady I had to threaten with terminating my service gave me a lot of attitude...oh well).

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by xandrex

Presumably they would be a new customer and could get a deal like mine though, right? I actually saw a little while after I signed up that they were offering my service for $20. I would have called in to complain, but I had already done that to get my service price lower. You have to sign up online to get some of their best deals (which is...well...crap) and I had called instead. But after threatening to switch to a different carrier, they quickly switched me to a lower price. When I called back to confirm, they were more than gracious (though the lady I had to threaten with terminating my service gave me a lot of attitude...oh well).

yes, you get best deal if you are not an existing customer. I think that is backwards myself, but it is how ISP service industry and others tend to work.