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What's your Internet Speed and how much speed matters? (1 Viewer)

Ronald Epstein

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I seemed to have lucked out BIG TIME.

Verizon Fios is making an affordable deal for all their customers on their fastest 1GB speed. It actually falls somewhere at 920-980 MBPS. I called Verizon and they told me I would have it in two weeks.
 

Stan

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If I was paying $75/mon for 3Mbps and there were other providers, I'd be shopping post haste.

We've got 50/50, cable, phone for $110/mo + taxes. We're at the top end of what I should be paying; in two years I've got to plan for shopping around. Comcast's new-customer 2-yr contract for similar plan is $90/mo.

My stumbling block is my contract ends around New Years, and I don't remember to plan on shopping for an ISP in December.
Was going to switch to Comcast, but due to past issues with them, they're not on my favorites list and I'm not on theirs. They want a $450 deposit, so I live with 3Mbps for now. No big downloads so it's adequate. Much better than the old 14.4K modems from years ago.

Microsoft was my original ISP, had to pay for the service and email at that time. Still have my original email address from the late '80s, wow, I'm getting old :rolleyes:
 

ManW_TheUncool

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I was on 50/5 from Time Warner here in Brooklyn, and then, Spectrum took over and bumped it a tad upto 60/6(?)... although Speedtest.net usually shows 70/6 actual speed.

Looking forward to some competition from Verizon FiOS finally getting into our neighborhood soon-ish -- actually set my mother up w/ FiOS 50/50 earlier this year when they finally got to her coop building in Bay Ridge.

For us, I find 50/5 (or 70/6 actual) plenty enough. Only times I could likely use more (especially upstream) are when I need to upload large-ish video files, which are rare... although much faster upstream speed probably yields noticeably better response times -- I noticed my mother gets much faster ping times circa 5ms w/ her FiOS 50/50 vs circa 15ms for my TWC/Spectrum 60/6, which isn't bad at all.

I'm perfectly fine w/ taking say 15-20min to download 5-6GB on rare occasions...

IF I actually needed much faster service, I might also need to upgrade my PC as that probably means I'm spending lots more time postprocessing/editing photos and videos and doing whatever else (like maybe simultaneously watching/listening to some streamed baseball games) that would actually result in the need... Actually, I've been looking at some modest upgrades and finally ordered a 32GB set of RAM to feed my 4th gen Core i7 Dell PC -- almost ordered a 1TB Samsung SSD as well, but that's probably overkill.

I don't stream at 4K HDR though (even though I did finally pick up a Roku Premiere Plus on a Sling TV deal), so...

_Man_
 

JohnRice

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There isn't much competition where I live in N. Colorado. At work, up until about three years ago, 1.5 Mb (In their dreams) DSL was the only option. This isn't even outside town (pop: 150,000) but near the edge. Now we have 20/3.5 cable for $70/month. Not exactly a great deal. At home, I also pay $70/month, but for 35/6. I might actually be able to get faster service for the price at home, but my modem is so old, that might be all it can do. I have a new one waiting to be installed, I just haven't gotten around to doing it.

I wouldn't mind a little faster, but for my needs, 35Mb is just fine.
 

Stan

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Speed hasn't improved, but I got my bill lowered for the exciting 3 Mbs service I receive. Centurylink has been running ads for pretty decent prices, as long as you're a "new" customer.

I bitched and moaned a lot, been with them for years, why are my rates so high?

They finally dropped me to $39 a month for phone and internet, naturally with a two year contract, but a heck of a lot better than paying nearly $100 a month like I have been.

Mentioned earlier about possibly going back to Comcast, a company I despise. $450 deposit and another $150 for the install. The line is already connected to the house, some twit just has to push a button to activate it, no way am I giving them $600. They run at about 100 Mbs., so it's tempting.

I may just start "piggybacking" off my neighbors, or offer to split the cost with them. I can drive half a mile and get free Wi-Fi from my local library, that may be the best way to go and it's much faster than the service I get.
 

theJman

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I'm in the NW corner of NJ, and for me it's $200 a month for cable, TV and internet from Crapcast. And that's with a package 'discount'! I get 100 down and 15 up, mostly. Sometimes it slows well below those numbers. No matter the speed though, it never seems that fast; webpages act sluggish and downloads don't finish in a flash, which at that speed they should. My browser has extensions for ad, flash and tracker blocking, so it should be lightning fast. It sure doesn't seem feel like it. I don't stream, so I can't say how that might work.
 

gadgtfreek

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Still loving my ATT gigabit. Old laptop hits 200 up and 200 down regularly, and it has been way more reliable than Mediacom cable.

Recently had Directv installed and bundled, saved me $64/month for 24 months. Gigabit and Directv Xtra are $145/month.
 

Ronald Epstein

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I think I mentioned this previously but I am now at 1GB speed via Verizon Fios.

I really don't see a difference in regular browsing. As far as downloading files, however, it's unbelievable how fast I can obtain content.
 

mattCR

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I'm at 1.3Gb up/down. Speedtest gives me about 900Mb/down, 875 up. It comes in most handy when I am downloading to Playstation or XBOX. Very nice there, especially on new large titles.
 

Adam Lenhardt

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Spectrum (but still basically Time Warner Cable) Albany, NY:
6437735996.png


I think the limiting factor here is the crappy rural connection. I occasionally have TV issues, as well. When I was in the city with the same service, it was faster.
 

Johnny Angell

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I'm at 1.3Gb up/down. Speedtest gives me about 900Mb/down, 875 up. It comes in most handy when I am downloading to Playstation or XBOX. Very nice there, especially on new large titles.
That's an unusually high speed for upload.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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Can't imagine having gigabit service at home. Would probably ruin me for when I'm out/away, haha... :P

_Man_
 

Clinton McClure

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The past couple of weeks I've been dealing with download speeds in the kilobits per second because my ISP sucks. Multiple complaints but nothing's changed. Man, I wish AT&T or someone would offer something here.
 

Tony Bensley

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The past couple of weeks I've been dealing with download speeds in the kilobits per second because my ISP sucks. Multiple complaints but nothing's changed. Man, I wish AT&T or someone would offer something here.
Welcome back to the '90s! SHEESH!! :rolleyes:

Have you considered going with an independent for just your internet connection, Clint? Surely, it couldn't be any worse than your current situation.

CHEERS! :)
 

Clinton McClure

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Welcome back to the '90s! SHEESH!! :rolleyes:

Have you considered going with an independent for just your internet connection, Clint? Surely, it couldn't be any worse than your current situation.

CHEERS! :)

My ISP is an independent. They used to be really good but have tried to expand their service area too much and now they can't provide service to their core subscribers. I heard about a cable company that recently started offering cable internet in my area so I called them and they are supposed to do a site survey/install this coming Thursday and put me on a 10Mbps package for about half what I'm currently paying. I did some online research and they have pretty poor ratings but one of my friends who lives in the same city as me got their service back in the spring and said he has no complaints. Also a neighbor across the street went with their service about a month ago and said it's tons better than the provider I am using now. We'll see what happens Thursday.
 

DFurr

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Frontier provides our street with a fiber optic line. Direct plug in at the modem is 100 up, 100 down but we use wireless so it's more like 45/45. Fast enough for what I do on a computer.
 

Tony Bensley

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My ISP is an independent. They used to be really good but have tried to expand their service area too much and now they can't provide service to their core subscribers. I heard about a cable company that recently started offering cable internet in my area so I called them and they are supposed to do a site survey/install this coming Thursday and put me on a 10Mbps package for about half what I'm currently paying. I did some online research and they have pretty poor ratings but one of my friends who lives in the same city as me got their service back in the spring and said he has no complaints. Also a neighbor across the street went with their service about a month ago and said it's tons better than the provider I am using now. We'll see what happens Thursday.
I suppose your unfortunate situation with the independent isp is something that we should consider when we relocate in a few months. Insofar as the main 2 providers down London Ontario way, in my experience, neither are any great shakes, and our experience with Bell wasn't good. Unfortunately for us, our current provider, Cogeco doesn't service the London area. If we decide against the independents, it'll likely be Rogers by default.

Anyway Clinton, all the best with your new isp! Sometimes we just have to make the best of what's available.

CHEERS! :)
 

DaveF

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I'm still at 50/50. I haven't had time to talk to Verizon about mid-contract gigabit upgrade. But practically I don't need that speed, and am ok with 50/50. And I don't really need to add another $20+/mo to my bill. Maybe this Winter when work slows down, I'll check into 1000/1000.
 

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