Internet Service Providers in Alpharetta, GA (Atlanta, Roswell: home, transfer, purchasing)

[WinterMadness]

Hi, who offers internet there, what are the speeds/prices/caps etc?

[Mattie]

The fastest speeds are from Comcast, unfortunately (because I hate their customer service). We pay $54.95/month for internet. A&T is also in the area, but we ditched them, because they were much slower. I will say we rarely have problems with Comcast, but when we do, the frustration level gets high before it's resolved.

[WinterMadness]

What about Charter?

[bryantm3]

i have a question. i hate AT&T. i hate comcast. is there any alternative? i really don't understand why there hasn't been an antitrust investigation by the FTC over this. it's ridiculous.

[skbl17]

Hello WinterMadness!

Charter does not, from my knowledge, serve Alpharetta. It does serve Roswell, parts of Cobb County, and most of Gwinnett County. For most of metro Atlanta, you have to choose Comcast for cable service. In fact, should the pending merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable be approved, all metro Charter systems will be transferred to Comcast as part of a deal requiring Comcast to divest systems in other parts of the country to either Charter or a new cable company tentatively called "SpinCo".

Comcast, the incumbent cable company in metro Atlanta, gets mixed reception from customers, myself included. For residential customers, Comcast offers the best speeds (up to 105Mbps in most areas, with some areas having the option of purchasing 505Mbps service,) and generally has rock solid reliability. Of course, if service does go out, you may have to deal with Comcast's customer service, which is not very good. In addition, if you are a heavy data user or your family uses a lot of data each month, Comcast has enforced data caps of 300GB in place. Fortunately, Comcast allows users to exceed the cap three times before overage ($10/50GB) charges kick in. Thus, if you use a lot of data each month, you may want to look at Comcast Business or the other competitor, which I will address below.

AT&T, formerly BellSouth, is the incumbent local exchange company (ILEC/"phone company") for much of the state of Georgia. They offer two main residential services: FastAccess DSL, which uses legacy phone infrastructure, and U-verse, which is a mixed fiber/copper system. I can tell you that speeds and caps are more generous on U-verse than DSL, not to mention that AT&T does not enforce the 250GB cap on U-verse at the moment. Their customer service, from my experience, is a bit better than Comcast's, but it is nothing to write home about. Speeds, while tolerable (up to 45Mbps in some areas,) pale in comparison to Comcast, and while Comcast is investing in its infrastructure, AT&T has stagnated in recent years with regards to investment in its wired infrastructure.

There are other internet options, but they either use AT&T's legacy DSL infrastructure or are for use by businesses only.

Originally Posted by bryantm3

i have a question. i hate AT&T. i hate comcast. is there any alternative? i really don't understand why there hasn't been an antitrust investigation by the FTC over this. it's ridiculous.

In simple terms, high costs of entry (it's expensive to build a new fiber/cable network,) antiquated local government restrictions, and restrictions on other types of broadband service, namely municipal broadband (not in Georgia, thankfully). Most provisions requiring shared access to fiber lines, and most common carrier provisions were gutted by the FCC between 2002 and 2005.

- skbl17