Changing Internet Provider? (1 Viewer)

I'm using the fact the I have an iMac to put this thread in this forum. My apple product will hook up to the internet via my isp so the makes this an apple question, right? My real motivation is this forum is getting more traffic right now.

So I got this flyer in the mail from Fidelity Communications, which must be the cable outfit in our area, it had been Charter.

They are offering 20 mbps for $30 per month for 1 year. Regular price is $55.
They have a 60 mbps for $75 per month, normal price. No mention of it in the flyer.
They also have 100 mbps for $75 per month for 1 year. With a 1 year contract you get a free Kndle Fire HD, which is the lowest Kindle Fire Amazon offers. Be fun to try, but not sure I really need it. I have an iPad 2.

Just went online with uverse and the fastest speed they offer me is the 18 mbps for $61.

Has anyone had any experience or know of Fidelity's reputation and level of service?

Fidelity's prices do not include wifi, it's another $10 for that. I presume that means they provide a router for the $10 per month. I wonder if I'd be better off buying my own? So if anyone has some favorite wireless routers they'd like to recommend, I'd welcome your suggestions.

If I provide the router does not mean there will be a cable modem?

I can't speak to Fidelity but can offer some thoughts:

I have Uverse (they offer up to 30mbps in my area, I have the 24 mbps), bundled with phone (my wife insists we keep a land line), I pay $85 a month. I think the internet only would run me about $70 a month. I do know when I first got it about 2 years ago, my package was only $65 for the first year, then went to the "regular" price. I get a lot of offers from Charter, etc offering a better "teaser" price but after the teaser it would cost me about the same. As for Fidelity, I'd just make sure there isn't any other "fine print" in their offer for the reduced 1st year pricing.

As for Fidelity not offering wifi, I assume they just give you a modem, then the $10 is for adding a wireless router they supply. You would be must better off purchasing your own router. It would be pretty easy to set-up with the Fidelity modem (I actually found the Uverse gateway's wifi lacking, so I shut off the wireless signal and set-up my own router to handle DHCP, etc). Works perfectly.

As for router recommendations, that's subjective. I've always used, and been pleased with, Linksys routers. I currently have an E4200v1. But since you have a Mac, I've heard great reviews of Apples Airport router.

Hope this helps......

Does that airport router work with other non-apple devices like blu-rays, pc's, tv's?

I did some searching on the web and found some local comments about Fidelity and it wasn't pretty. About 10 comments and all of them were scathing. Unreliable service, speeds not as advertised, slow to fix problems. I just summarized. The real comments were very, very bad.

I would be foolish to do business with a company with these reviews.

When we first moved to Maumelle the cable co was Falcon, I think. Cable would go out on Friday and Falcon would close up shop for the weekend and they didn't care. When they installed, they left unburied cable laying around for weeks. They drove me to DircTV and when I cancelled Falcon, they couldn't have cared less.

Since than there's been Charter, Cobridge, and now Fidelity, all running the same system. None of them have ever gotten good reviews. I'll stick with my 18mbps uverse for the moment. Fidelity bought a crap company, maybe they can fix it. I'm not going to be their guinea pig.

Yes, the Apple Airport is "just" a router but from what I've read a very good one (but they are pricey). I've also read good reviews of Asus and Netgear routers; I've just stayed with Linksys because they were my first wireless router and I've never had a problem with the various ones I've owned.

I don't blame you re: Fidelity. I used to live in a small town in WNC. The cable/internet company there was bought/sold by 5 different companies over a 10 year period (and they were all small companies). I'm not even sure who owns it now. Before I moved, I switched to Directv for TV and AT&T for internet because of the problems I had with them over the years.

As for Uverse, I've had them for internet for a couple of years now (previously was AT&T DSL). Other than the initial problems with their gateway (which adding my own router completely solved), I've had no issues with them. I still think I'm paying too much for it, but can't really find a better deal.


Here's the based Apple Airport Express at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-AirPort-Express-Station-MC414LL/dp/B008ALA2RC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410468323&sr=8-1&keywords=apple+airport+express

Johnny - I have a current generation Apple Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS) as my home wifi router. It handles my network traffic to all devices with ease plus I have two external hard drives attached using a powered USB hub: the first serves a an automated Time Machine backup for my MacBook Pro and my wife's MacBook Air, the second is a data backup drive where I store our music, photos, documents, etc... as well as a SuperDuper! disk image of both our Macs. At work, I have a current generation Airport Express as my office wifi router. With the exception of the AEBS, it works better and has better range than most wifi routers I've used in the past. Setup on the Extreme and the Express both is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. Unless you're trying to bend the space-time continuum using advanced routing protocols, it's pretty much plug and play. Apple even goes a step further and includes Airport Utility on all Macs as part of OS X (there's a free iOS version available on the App Store too) which is their setup/management tool for Airport routers.I give the AEBS 5 stars and the Express 4.5 stars (only because the Express has fewer LAN ports and the USB port on it can only be used for shared printing and not Time Machine backups like the AEBS).

Alex, your comments about multiple ownership companies mirror what's happened in my small town. There's just no pride in product by many American companies anymore. Particularly when there's no competition. Actually not true, uverse is competing with them and they still don't care. Clint, thanks for the apple comments. I'll file them for future use.