8 ms·

After many years of using Comcast because it was my only option, I recently had my breakup call with them. We have Verizon Fios as an option and at their lowest

After many years of using Comcast because it was my only option, I recently had my breakup call with them. We have Verizon Fios as an option and at their lowest tier speeds, we get 100 mbps symmetric (and every time I've checked the speed over the past week, it has been as advertised). Our overpriced Comcast plan was giving us "up to 60 mbps" but we were getting, wait for it, 1 mbps in the last few weeks of our plan. We could barely load modern web pages in a reasonable time and streaming anything was a mess. Glad to see that Colorado cities and towns are at least being given the option of building their own high-speed infrastructure. If successful, it should provide a great example for the rest of the country.

howard941 7y ago
Verizon offloaded their Floriduh operation to Frontier but fortunately the fios is already built and I too see the 100mbs symmetric. Unfortunately like Comcast (spit), Frontier believes in abusing its loyal customers so I'm going to revert to Comcast (spit) and play the bounce between the two every year because $230/mo is way too much to pay for cable & internet & unused landline.
- johnday 7y ago
  Two hundred and thirty dollars? Per month? Bloody hell. I'm on the highest consumer rate that BT offers and that costs £45/mo.
  - wil421 7y ago
    Does BT include a huge TV package with set top boxes (fees), premium movie channels (HBO etc.), a modem\router (fee), internet, voip, and likely a handset fee? That’s the only way it would get to $230. I’ve paid between $70-$115 for symmetrical gigabit and that’s the most expensive you can buy. A £45 plan might be 100mpbs down and maybe 10 up. From BT’s website: >ULTRAFAST FIBRE PLUS £54.99 Average speed 145Mb Speed guarantee of at least 100Mb £54.99 is actually a worse plan that what AT&T offers. I can get 1gbps up/down for $70.
    - johnday 7y ago
      > Does BT include a huge TV package with set top boxes (fees), premium movie channels (HBO etc.), a modem\router (fee), internet, voip, and likely a handset fee? Yes, no, yes, yes, not sure, yes. And I agree that the speeds are quite sad. It's entirely unclear to me why they feel incapable of offering higher speeds, other than they can upcharge businesses for the privelege. It's consistent across providers though, which makes me think there must be a technological hindrance somewhere along the line.
  - mleo 7y ago
    If you go “off contract” with Frontier it goes up quickly. My bill reverted to $200 / month and I didn’t have premium tv channels and only 1 cablecard and 150Mbps. Made some changes to get to Internet only at 500Mbps for $50/month. That includes the modem I don’t need and can’t not pay for.
    - howard941 7y ago
      I am on a friggin contract. It includes the three useless movie channels at no extra charge, and the landline is now over fibre but they still give me forged CNID. Why can't they give me ANI (why?) . If I delete the movie channels I pay the same. There is a means tested tier for basic offerings that's much more affordable but it's only available to those who can prove Medicaid eligibility.
robohoe 7y ago
Speaking of poor cable speeds, were your downstream/upstream signals poor? Did you have an upstream filter installed on your line by any chance? I too had a similar issue but a tech visit to disconnect a noise filter fixed it.
- Bartweiss 7y ago
  > Did you have an upstream filter installed on your line by any chance? I too had a similar issue but a tech visit to disconnect a noise filter fixed it. Could you explain more about this? I've never heard of a noise filter on a cable line, and I can't really imagine why you'd have one - unless it's something ISPs do to cripple upload speeds on otherwise symmetric connections?
  - qes 7y ago
    Comcast shut us off and informed us we were apparently spewing RF back out the line. They sent a tech to install an upstream noise filter. I believe it's a low-pass filter. I unplugged everything except a short run to the cable modem and they retested our line and removed the filter. I didn't notice any drop in speeds while the filter was installed, but it was some years ago and my upload was only something like 1 or 2 Mbps anyway. I must be lucky with Comcast - I've always gotten 50-100% over my advertised download rates. My total bill is $96/month and I'm getting 200Mbps down and 4-8 up. I'd have to go check what my advertised speeds even are at this point - it keeps creeping up, which is unsurprising since more and more neighborhoods have been getting fiber coverage over the same period.
    - Bartweiss 7y ago
      Interesting, thanks for the follow up! I guess that makes a certain amount of sense, long unshielded cables often pick up RF and I guess in a data cable it might read as a stream of bad requests. I'd be interested to know the theoretical impact, in terms of how many legitimate requests are expected to be below-threshold. If they're only installed on 'noisey' lines, maybe the answer is "none in practice", since any packet that would be filtered would also be wiped out by RF interference? I'm stunned to hear that you've consistently gotten over advertised rates. I've had Comcast in two places, and considered myself lucky when I got close to advertised. One apartment ranged from 80%-105% of advertised, then plummeted to 20% in the last few months I was there. (No troubleshooting available, because I didn't rent my modem from them.) The other just sat at 20% non-stop, except that supposedly Comcast's speed test server was getting my full allocated speed. Honestly, I was halfway convinced by the theory that ISPs throttle connections just so they can report annual "improvements" to consumers and the FTC. But they legally defend those advertised speeds as averages, so I guess someone has to be over the rating to offset the people who aren't. ...now that I think about it, could those "average download speeds" be from a mix of fiber-to-home and fiber-to-hub residences? If they're the mean of something bimodal, it'd explain a lot of what I hear.

howard941 7y ago

Verizon offloaded their Floriduh operation to Frontier but fortunately the fios is already built and I too see the 100mbs symmetric. Unfortunately like Comcast (spit), Frontier believes in abusing its loyal customers so I'm going to revert to Comcast (spit) and play the bounce between the two every year because $230/mo is way too much to pay for cable & internet & unused landline.

johnday 7y ago
Two hundred and thirty dollars? Per month? Bloody hell. I'm on the highest consumer rate that BT offers and that costs £45/mo.
- wil421 7y ago
  Does BT include a huge TV package with set top boxes (fees), premium movie channels (HBO etc.), a modem\router (fee), internet, voip, and likely a handset fee? That’s the only way it would get to $230. I’ve paid between $70-$115 for symmetrical gigabit and that’s the most expensive you can buy. A £45 plan might be 100mpbs down and maybe 10 up. From BT’s website: >ULTRAFAST FIBRE PLUS £54.99 Average speed 145Mb Speed guarantee of at least 100Mb £54.99 is actually a worse plan that what AT&T offers. I can get 1gbps up/down for $70.
  - johnday 7y ago
    > Does BT include a huge TV package with set top boxes (fees), premium movie channels (HBO etc.), a modem\router (fee), internet, voip, and likely a handset fee? Yes, no, yes, yes, not sure, yes. And I agree that the speeds are quite sad. It's entirely unclear to me why they feel incapable of offering higher speeds, other than they can upcharge businesses for the privelege. It's consistent across providers though, which makes me think there must be a technological hindrance somewhere along the line.
- mleo 7y ago
  If you go “off contract” with Frontier it goes up quickly. My bill reverted to $200 / month and I didn’t have premium tv channels and only 1 cablecard and 150Mbps. Made some changes to get to Internet only at 500Mbps for $50/month. That includes the modem I don’t need and can’t not pay for.
  - howard941 7y ago
    I am on a friggin contract. It includes the three useless movie channels at no extra charge, and the landline is now over fibre but they still give me forged CNID. Why can't they give me ANI (why?) . If I delete the movie channels I pay the same. There is a means tested tier for basic offerings that's much more affordable but it's only available to those who can prove Medicaid eligibility.

robohoe 7y ago

Speaking of poor cable speeds, were your downstream/upstream signals poor? Did you have an upstream filter installed on your line by any chance? I too had a similar issue but a tech visit to disconnect a noise filter fixed it.

Bartweiss 7y ago
> Did you have an upstream filter installed on your line by any chance? I too had a similar issue but a tech visit to disconnect a noise filter fixed it. Could you explain more about this? I've never heard of a noise filter on a cable line, and I can't really imagine why you'd have one - unless it's something ISPs do to cripple upload speeds on otherwise symmetric connections?
- qes 7y ago
  Comcast shut us off and informed us we were apparently spewing RF back out the line. They sent a tech to install an upstream noise filter. I believe it's a low-pass filter. I unplugged everything except a short run to the cable modem and they retested our line and removed the filter. I didn't notice any drop in speeds while the filter was installed, but it was some years ago and my upload was only something like 1 or 2 Mbps anyway. I must be lucky with Comcast - I've always gotten 50-100% over my advertised download rates. My total bill is $96/month and I'm getting 200Mbps down and 4-8 up. I'd have to go check what my advertised speeds even are at this point - it keeps creeping up, which is unsurprising since more and more neighborhoods have been getting fiber coverage over the same period.
  - Bartweiss 7y ago
    Interesting, thanks for the follow up! I guess that makes a certain amount of sense, long unshielded cables often pick up RF and I guess in a data cable it might read as a stream of bad requests. I'd be interested to know the theoretical impact, in terms of how many legitimate requests are expected to be below-threshold. If they're only installed on 'noisey' lines, maybe the answer is "none in practice", since any packet that would be filtered would also be wiped out by RF interference? I'm stunned to hear that you've consistently gotten over advertised rates. I've had Comcast in two places, and considered myself lucky when I got close to advertised. One apartment ranged from 80%-105% of advertised, then plummeted to 20% in the last few months I was there. (No troubleshooting available, because I didn't rent my modem from them.) The other just sat at 20% non-stop, except that supposedly Comcast's speed test server was getting my full allocated speed. Honestly, I was halfway convinced by the theory that ISPs throttle connections just so they can report annual "improvements" to consumers and the FTC. But they legally defend those advertised speeds as averages, so I guess someone has to be over the rating to offset the people who aren't. ...now that I think about it, could those "average download speeds" be from a mix of fiber-to-home and fiber-to-hub residences? If they're the mean of something bimodal, it'd explain a lot of what I hear.