Internet Service: Comcast or Century Link? (Denver, Parker: credit card, houses, transfer)

[lurtsman]

Originally Posted by blendin

"According to a recent study by Ookla Speedtest, the U.S. ranks a shocking 31st in the world in terms of average download speeds

The 1996 Telecommunications Act- allowed cable companies and telecoms companies to simply divide markets and merge their way to monopoly, allowing them to charge customers higher and higher prices without the kind of investment in internet infrastructure,"
Why is American internet so slow? - The Week

Yeah. 31st is pretty terrible for download speeds, and it is before we adjust for prices. When our speeds and prices are both factored in, it is incredibly ugly.

[jmedelman]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

Plus Google Fiber is on the way here.

Is that conjecture or do you have a source for that (would be) fantastic news?

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by jmedelman

Is that conjecture or do you have a source for that (would be) fantastic news?

https://fiber.google.com/newcities/

[serate]

We had Century Link for 10 days. They could only offer us 3mbps due to where we lived, but promised it would work with our Directv On Demand. Internet was pretty good but it wouldn't work with our Directv On Demand. Phone worked good. Day 3 it rained. We never had phone service again. Internet kept kicking us off, or going way too slow. Called for service and they said it would take them 3 weeks to come out. Canceled them and went to Comcast. Finally joined the 21st Century and don't have a land line because it was too expensive with Comcast. But the internet is sooooooooooooooooooo much better. I'm sure Century Link is good in areas they can actually offer decent service to. But if you live in an area that they can only offer 3mbps run away fast.

We received and paid our FINAL bill on Oct 30. Received a letter from Century Link Oct 31 threatening us for not paying the final bill. Yesterday we received a revised Final Bill that said we owed an additional $2.39. Called and they said no we owed $4.82. Told them no we paid our final bill and supposedly they took care of it. I just wonder how long we would have received revised final bills and how many people out there they nickel and dime and the people just pay it.

[Mire]

I'm not really a big fan of either.. I had Comcast in CS, and I have Century Link now.... if I could do it all over again, I think I'd rather put up with the hassles of Comcast than with those of Century Link.

[emm74]

Originally Posted by Mire

I'm not really a big fan of either.. I had Comcast in CS, and I have Century Link now.... if I could do it all over again, I think I'd rather put up with the hassles of Comcast than with those of Century Link.

Can you go into a little more detail on what the hassles were? I'm about to sign up for new service. Have had Comcast for the past 7 years, and not particularly happy with the actual service (lots of outages) and the usual customer service complaints. So I'm leaning towards giving CL a try, esp. because they have more attractive new customer deals. But I'd love to hear the negatives so I can factor those into the decision.

[Suzatlarge]

As has been mentioned above, the merits of CL vs. Comcast will depend on what neighborhood you live in. Unless you're in an older neighborhood where Century Link has upgraded ts old phone wiring, you're most likely to get good broadband speeds from CL in newer areas like Stapleton or new developments in the burbs. I'm not surprised that there are CL connectivity/service problems in Arvada.

I live in Denver in an area that's been built up since the 60's (and I'm sure had phone service long before that). CL internet around here is awful because it's coming through the old phone infrastructure.

Two years ago our condo's management company changed from Comcast internet at its onsite shop/office here, to Century Link, trying to save money. Internet connectivity is critical for the onsite office. Sadly, the CL experiment was a total bust. Often offline, and when online it was slooww as turtles. Never achieved reliable connectivity or a decent speed. Our management company went back to Comcast after a CL tech finally admitted their wiring in this neighborhood just doesn't support high speed broadband.

OTOH a friend who lives in Stapleton (new development, new infrastructure) has CL broadband, gets high speeds, and is happy as a clam.

I wish CL would give Comcast good competition all over the metro area, but it's hit or miss. I've had no big problems with Comcast, and I hope that record will continue. BTW, I just ran a speed test:

[Mike Sweeney]

We got slammed on CenturyLink.
My step-son answered the phone to practice his English.
Next thing we knew, something called USB had attached itself to the CenturyLink bill and charged us $2,000.

[Timmyy]

Originally Posted by Mike Sweeney

We got slammed on CenturyLink.
My step-son answered the phone to practice his English.
Next thing we knew, something called USB had attached itself to the CenturyLink bill and charged us $2,000.

Did you get it removed? I don't think that is any reason to give up on CenturyLink but maybe just a misunderstanding.

I have Comcast and I am happy with them. That may sound surprising to some.

[Winter01]

Wow--just dumped Xfinity last week and cannot believe how much better Century Link wireless is. We only have the 20 mbps w/ Prism TV and it is SO MUCH faster and a much better connection. We had to use an extender w/ our Xfinity Wireless-- we don't even need it anymore. We even had someone from Comcast come out because our wireless connection was so horrible, constant buffering, bumping us out, slow--he told me it was because my home was built really well and had thick walls. Apparently this is no issue with our new service. We can all be on multiple wireless devices at the same time, 3700 sq foot house, no issues. So glad we switched. We can watch Netflix, Amazon, etc. w/ absolutely zero buffering. We are also paying $50 less per month and instead of having to call Comcast every 3-6 months about my constantly rising bills we are actually locked in for 2 years. So far very happy. I sound like an ad for Century Link....seriously I am just so happy to be done with Comcast!!!! It's amazing what a difference good wireless can make in a person's daily life.