Centurylink Fiber or Cox Cable (again) - North Peoria (Phoenix: vacation home, neighborhood)

[C30volvo]

Greetings,

It's that dreaded question again. I've read such horrible reviews for both CL and Cox, I'm nearly ready to toss a coin. I've moved from Northern VA with Verizon FIOS that was bullet proof for 10 years. (ok, it went down 1 time)

According to CL, I can get 100 Mbits/sec or 1gigabit/sec speeds at my new location. And 300 Mbits/sec via Cox using DOCSIS 3.0/3.1 modems. I'm near West Deer Valley and North Lake Pleasant parkway.

It's not so much the speed I'm concerned about , it's the overall reliability of the connection, and upstream QoS (of sorts - I know they don't prioritize voip traffic not sourced by them) on VOIP traffic. ( I will have 2 vonage lines at home).

I know all connections are shared at some point as the flows are aggregated - but I'm concerned given the sensitivity of voip and the nature of multiple access media like cable that my conversations will suffer.

(sure, just use your cell phone you say!)

So, anyone have any opinions on CL via fiber, not DSL ?

CL seems to get worse reviews for customer service than Cox.

Many thanks!

-ed

[LBTRS]

I've had Cox for 9 years and it has been flawless. DSL (CL) is generally much less preferable to cable internet for reliability and speed.

[MGotcha]

I have had COX for 16 years at 2 locations in N Phoenix and its been very reliable.
My phones are VOIP and I work at home and video conference a lot with no problems with their mid-tiered "preferred" service.
COX's frequent rate increases are frustrating but CL is just as bad.

[Ztonyg]

Originally Posted by MGotcha

I have had COX for 16 years at 2 locations in N Phoenix and its been very reliable.
My phones are VOIP and I work at home and video conference a lot with no problems with their mid-tiered "preferred" service.
COX's frequent rate increases are frustrating but CL is just as bad.

My wife has a knack for arguing with them every year when they try to raise the rates and being successful at it. We get mid tier internet + basic cable for approximately $65/month.

[KurtAZ]

I have had Cox for years, very reliable and was happy with them...3 years ago we tried switching to CTL as they were advertising higher speeds in our area. Locked into a 2 year contract, frequent outages...I couldn't wait to get out of the contract. Cox deployed fiber into our neighborhood right about the time my CTL contract expired and we have had that for about 6 months.

As far as QoS...it is Internet, there is no true QoS on internet although you can set up your router to shape traffic to prioritize VoIP...with enough bandwidth you shouldn't have to worry about it. A VoIP call only takes up about 100kb/s, configure your router correctly and you shouldn't have a problem.

[Ponderosa]

I have CL for almost three years. It is more reliable than the Cox I had before, but not quite as fast but half the price. The main thing I had with Cox is varying performance - sometimes quite fast others barely responsive. CL seems to deliver its promised speed more consistently. My CL contract will run out later this year and if they don't give me a deal it will be Cox for a couple months at least so I can go back as a new customer.

[Bird Street]

I have had Cox internet since the day it became available in my area (25 years?). As I recall, I was one of two customers in the square mile I lived in. There have been growing pains here and there. I have had my email address for a very long time. I began service before the first DOCSIS modem came on the market. I had a brick-heavy Lan City modem that lived on the floor under my desk I almost upgraded to "Gigablast' from my "Ultimate" service I have, but there will be more waiting for the fibers up to my house. I would have to be held at gunpoint to switch my service to someone else.

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

I have CL for almost three years. It is more reliable than the Cox I had before, but not quite as fast but half the price. The main thing I had with Cox is varying performance - sometimes quite fast others barely responsive. CL seems to deliver its promised speed more consistently. My CL contract will run out later this year and if they don't give me a deal it will be Cox for a couple months at least so I can go back as a new customer.

Call centurylink when your contract is up. They will give you a new discount, you just have to ask I just did this last week, there is even an option on the phone menu "did your discount expire?". Also it's nice that you have just a 1 year agreement instead of 2.

Cox was always impossible to deal with. With centurylink it's easy. No argument necessary.

[gil_happy]

Hi, I would like to add my $0.02... as someone whose been in the telecom industry for 23 years now and worked directly on cable modems for 10 years, you should not have an issue with either service. If you do, you need document the issue so you can explain what is happening. It will likely be something in the home and not the service providers network. In fact, I have used cable modem service my entire life (since it pays my bills), but I actually chose CL for my vacation home since I only need internet. If you use Vonage, neither Cox or CL prioritize this data - it all flows over the same pipe (service flow). In terms of speed, D3.1 is overkill - in fact D2.0 'could' be fast enough for some. In fact my CL connection is only 15 or 20Mbps (I forget) and it is plenty. Keep in mind when watching Netflix, the bandwidth needed is in the neighborhood of 3.5 to 4 Mbps.

Feel free to ask any other questions.

[Bird Street]

Although the Cox monthly price of over $100./month is not an issue, I do negotiate with Vonage on the VOIP monthly price. I have had Vonage for fifteen years or so. I also upgrade to the latest in technology as soon as it is available. I have the 32 channel downstream Arris (Motorola) Surfboard modem and Netgear Nighthawk router 911.ac. The higher level tiers of Cox service not only give faster speeds but more data usage too. I don't mean to be a Cox commercial, but my internet quality is very important to me.