Internet and telephone - Qwest or Comcast? (Lakewood, Boulder: cost of, vs)

[80skeys]

I've had Qwest for the past two years and I'm very happy with them.

The few people I talked to about Comcast didn't have good things to say.

[Currency Pair Crocodile]

Both of them suck. Their fibre optics hoopla has been coming and coming. So much for their technological expansion

[maciesmom]

I've had both and had both good and bad experiences. Go whereever you get the best deal....

[maximusmgm]

I've had a good experience with Qwest. You can bundle with DirecTV and Verizon which is nice.

[Murmur]

My experience with Qwest has been marginal at best. I couldn't recommend them, but I don't know if it would be better with Comcast or not. I don't want cable or satellite, and Verizon is a dead zone in my part of the neighborhood, so there's no point to these "bundles."

I supposedly have a 1.5 MB connection. I never get that. I get .5 most of the time. My connection used to drop once a day, sometimes for as long as 2 hours. Of course, Qwest says it's nothing on their end. I took it upon myself to get into the phone box on my house to rewire stuff they did. Apparently, they may have done it wrong, since I've had internet access for the whole week now, with no drops - the first time in literally months. Of course, I still have to deal with .5 MPs speeds.

Lame. But it's not clear that there's a better option.

[BarryK123]

Since I started this thread, I'll post my results...

Went with Comcast. Internet has been 100% reliable with speeds better than advertised (~15/9 for what was supposed to be 6/2). Comcast telephone also 100% reliable, no problems. TV has also been reliable, but it's overpriced and mostly garbage programming (could partially be my bias as being not much of a TV watcher). Not very many channels are HD. I would have preferred just over the air reception, but we're in a dead zone for that. May try DirectTV when the introductory offer expires, but will stick with the phone and Internet, as is.

Only customer service issue was with an equipment rental price quote. They quoted me one price for the cable modem, then when the bill came I was charged another. I called cust. service and got the "rep from hell." She actually said to me "why should I believe what you're telling me?" and it went nowhere from there. A few hours later, just when I was ready to call back and ask for a supervisor, the rep from hell called back, apologized for being snippy and corrected the error. I wonder if she got nailed by "your call may be monitored for quality assurance" and it really was monitored. (If I were her boss, I would have fired her.)

[myrab]

Thanks for sharing your experience BarryK123. Very helpful since I'm about to make the same decision.

[steveindenver]

Don't overpay for phone service. Lingo, Vonage, and dozens of other reputable VOIP providers will sell you a phone line for 15-25/mo with more features.

Comcast is capping, Qwest is not (as of this writing). You will see quick burst speeds for a minute or less and then things taper off.

[myrab]

Originally Posted by steveindenver

Don't overpay for phone service. Lingo, Vonage, and dozens of other reputable VOIP providers will sell you a phone line for 15-25/mo with more features.
...

If our electricity goes out VOIP won't work as far as I know. That concerns me. What if one needs to dial 911 for example? Or the electric company.

By contrast, a traditional land line will work when our electricity goes out.

[steveindenver]

Put the VOIP machine and your router on a UPS like I have. Comcast provides this as part of their VOIP package.

911 works exactly the same.