Fiber Optic With US Internet (Minneapolis: apartment, renting, neighborhood)

[SmoothOperator545]

Howdy ya'll, I've posted a few times in this forum before about moving to MPLS and I'm finally within a matter of days of making the move.

My wife and I will be renting a U Haul and heading out to the area to drop our stuff off in a storage locker, after which we're going to start apartment hunting like mad, primarily focusing on the Uptown area.

Both of us tend to spend a lot of time indoors on the computer/phones, so having a quality internet connection is important to us, and I recently found out about US Internet's fiber optic offerings that, if accurate, are amazing. Even the "slowest" plan, at 50 mbps, is only $35 a month, and you can get even faster speeds for not a lot more.

I do tend to be the kind of person who is skeptical of things which seem too good to be true, so I was wondering if anyone here is a customer of their's and can testify if the speeds really are that fast (and reliable for that matter).

Thanks!

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by SmoothOperator545

Howdy ya'll, I've posted a few times in this forum before about moving to MPLS and I'm finally within a matter of days of making the move.

My wife and I will be renting a U Haul and heading out to the area to drop our stuff off in a storage locker, after which we're going to start apartment hunting like mad, primarily focusing on the Uptown area.

Both of us tend to spend a lot of time indoors on the computer/phones, so having a quality internet connection is important to us, and I recently found out about US Internet's fiber optic offerings that, if accurate, are amazing. Even the "slowest" plan, at 50 mbps, is only $35 a month, and you can get even faster speeds for not a lot more.

I do tend to be the kind of person who is skeptical of things which seem too good to be true, so I was wondering if anyone here is a customer of their's and can testify if the speeds really are that fast (and reliable for that matter).

Thanks!

We have had it for several years now, and yes, it really is that fast— all the time— no peak time slowdowns like cable because you have your own dedicated fiber. It’s fast, it’s cheap, it’s incredibly reliable, the customer service is fantastic. You definitely want to get this.

One heads up is you need a newer modem as the older ones can’t handle those speeds. When they upped our speeds our service wasn’t as fast as advertised but it turned out that our modem was too old. As soon as I upgraded the speeds shot up.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

We are getting this soon. What type of modem was needed? Did you go with a modem/router combo?

[FloatOn]

Yep, we have fiber optic through US internet at my place. Ours is $50 a month, and we split it with our duplex neighbor, so we don't pay much at all, and the service has always been great.

You can browse around to see what areas are or will be covered soon, but if you're focusing around uptown, you should likely already have it available.

https://fiber.usinternet.com/coverage-areas/

Good luck with the move!

[Drewcifer]

I have US Internet's $35 plan and it is great. If you are in a neighborhood that they have wired there is no reason to use anybody else.

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by Cruz Azul Guy

We are getting this soon. What type of modem was needed? Did you go with a modem/router combo?

Nothing special. I bought a new Apple Time Capsule that has 802.11ac WiFi. My old modem was about ten years old and had 802.11n WiFi. 802.11n has a real world top speed of about 30 Mbps and 802.11ac can go to about 90Mbps.

[Brinson]

If you are considering the gigabit option, keep in mind you will usually be bottlenecked by the server which seldom will give you the file at that speed. It's ridiculously fast still but you might often find downloads at 25% of potential because of this.

Also, even most ac WiFi routers that claim gigabit speeds will rarely be capable of it unless it's perfect conditions and you are a foot from the router.

It's still really awesome, but I ended up downgrading to a few hundred Mbps because the real world difference is often minimal.

[billhelm]

You don't need a modem, they provide the equipment needed to plug a wireless router into (and you don't pay any equipment fees!).

Join the chorus here and say it's great and so worth it. Their customer service is excellent too.

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by billhelm

You don't need a modem, they provide the equipment needed to plug a wireless router into (and you don't pay any equipment fees!).

Join the chorus here and say it's great and so worth it. Their customer service is excellent too.

My bad. I meant router not modem. An Apple AirPort is what I have.

[pannierpacker]

I am strongly considering moving into south Minneapolis so that I can experience the cost savings of cheap internet and not having to haggle with the ISP every year. I absolutely am disgusted with Centurylink right now. They more-than-doubled my internet bill after the first year promotion. On top of that, they told me they would lower it after I called in (haggle-dependent kind of business) but even after promising to lower it they've left the price the same for the last 3 months).