Moving to Columbia what are the cable/internet options? (apartments, rental)

[sap1256]

I will be living in Columbia on the east side/south of I70, but while looking around town for a rental I noticed many Direct TV dishes. Is that the better way to go? I know I will be living there for one year, but it could be two.

[cyrano]

Mediacom is the predominant cable/internet provider in most parts of town, with CenturyLink the primary competition. Mediacom is cable internet, CenturyLink is DSL. I've heard less than good things about CenturyLink's DSL, and when we were ready to divorce Mediacom, we looked at CenturyLink, only to conclude that they don't have enough of the channels we want (notably AMC-- we love Mad Men) to make it worthwhile. Dunno about satellite, I don't know anyone who has it in our near-downtown (just to the west of it, south of the public library) neighborhood. Both cable providers are IMO mediocre at best-- they take full advantage of having a duopoly. Mediacom's service has gotten better, but it's very expensive.

We're strongly considering ditching cable entirely and going with a Roku box. The main issue is that broadcast signals come from three different places (at least if you want PBS, which we do), so it's hard to pull them in with a single antenna, esp. since one of them is around 40+ miles away. And with broadcast only, my wife misses her StL Cardinal games and Mizzou football.

[sap1256]

Thank you Cyrano for your insight and reply, it's been very helpful. Direct TV is to expensive if you don't take the 2yr contract, so we're leaning toward Mediacom. Thanks again!

[attrapereves]

Mediacom is the fastest service in town. I currently pay $29.99/Month for a 15Meg connection. I was forced to sign a 2yr contract. After the contract, it will be $69/Month.

There is also Socket. They are a locally owned DSL company. Their prices are higher than CenturyLink and Mediacom, but the customer service is better and prices never fluctuate.

[cyrano]

I didn't mention Socket because the OP was interested in cable (which I interpreted to be TV) as well as internet. You're right, they're not only a viable internet company, but they are better to deal with.

[joelwnelson]

Sorry to bump up an older thread to chime in but I am also moving to Columbia and trying to figure out Internet. The address I think I am moving to appears to have both Charter and Mediacom but Charter only seems to have one package and Mediacom's site actually reports an error for this address (but not other houses we have looked at). Guessing maybe it's actually a Charter-only neighborhood?

Which leads me to wonder -- looks like Charter might have some of the fringe neighborhoods on the north. Is this is a "regular" Charter system or something unique? What is the dividing line in Columbia between Mediacom areas and Charter areas?

[attrapereves]

Originally Posted by joelwnelson

Sorry to bump up an older thread to chime in but I am also moving to Columbia and trying to figure out Internet. The address I think I am moving to appears to have both Charter and Mediacom but Charter only seems to have one package and Mediacom's site actually reports an error for this address (but not other houses we have looked at). Guessing maybe it's actually a Charter-only neighborhood?

Which leads me to wonder -- looks like Charter might have some of the fringe neighborhoods on the north. Is this is a "regular" Charter system or something unique? What is the dividing line in Columbia between Mediacom areas and Charter areas?

Columbia is weird like that. Mediacom seems to have most of the coverage inside the city limits, but when you get further outside of the main part of Columbia, things switch over to Charter. A friend lives right outside of the city limits on HWY63, he has Charter coverage.

[joelwnelson]

Originally Posted by attrapereves

Columbia is weird like that. Mediacom seems to have most of the coverage inside the city limits, but when you get further outside of the main part of Columbia, things switch over to Charter. A friend lives right outside of the city limits on HWY63, he has Charter coverage.

Bumping an old thread but perhaps it will be helpful to new Columbia residents. I put together a map showing areas served by Mediacom vs. Charter. Assuming all of central Columbia is Mediacom so I focused mainly on the fringe areas. https://mapsengine.google.com/map/ed...A.khgmN99eITxw

[Flyover_Country]

Columbia at least in the NW portion of Columbia is typically Medicom for the cable Internet and CenturyLink for DSL. There are some DSL resellers such as Socket and Tranquility as well. Charter, US Cable, and possibly a few others have some of the Columbia market at the edges of town but in general it is Medicom for cable Internet and CenturyLink for DSL. The University of Missouri was trying to be a low-cost ISP in the area about 10 years ago by selling access to their then OC-3 fiber loop between campus and their colocation facility in the Lemone Industrial Park but that was severely smacked down about 10 years ago by former Democrat mayor Darwin "Hind End" Hindman's administration for violating CenturyTel's (CenturyLink's predecessor) monopoly agreement with the city.

In general Internet access in Columbia is expensive and pretty slow due to the large number of heavy users (college students in apartments) and lack of competition. I moved out of state a couple years ago and got four times the bandwidth for half the price (not an introductory rate) in a roughly similar-sized city using the local cable ISP compared to Mediacom. Maybe it's changed in the past couple years but Internet access in Columbia pretty well stinks compared to many other places.

[JCunnings]

CenturyLink is best IF you can get the newest Prism services. They now have more channels available than Mediacom and significantly lower latency and better TV picture. It's just hard to get because not a lot of places are available for the updated service. AMC, as well as a ton of other channels are all on there now.