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This isn't true for Century Link. Lots of people in Seattle, and a growing number of other cities, have Century Link gigabit fiber to their residence. I pay l
by nostromo 7y ago
This isn't true for Century Link.
Lots of people in Seattle, and a growing number of other cities, have Century Link gigabit fiber to their residence. I pay less than $70 a month for this.
Comcast is losing marketshare fast in Seattle because of this.
https://www.centurylink.com/fiber/img/Gigabit-Launch-Map-resized.jpg https://www.centurylink.com/fiber/img/Gigabit-Launch-Map-res...
- linsomniac 7y agoI don't understand, what are you referring to that isn't true?
- bonestamp2 7y agoI guess he's opposing the statement that they're doing as little as possible to upgrade their service.
- ohyeshedid 7y agoWhen you've been beaten by a stick for years that first carrot can taste pretty good.
- ehsankia 7y agoBut are there competing gigabit internet in Seattle? Obviously they will stay competitive, that's beside the point. It's like how Comcast happened to bring cheap gigabit internet to every city Google Fiber entered... The fact that it takes a local competitor to get these big companies to bring cheap gigabit is exactly the problem. Your anecdotal evidence about a city full of competition doesn't really prove anything.
- aloknnikhil 7y agoThere are far more options in Seattle than ever before (and possibly than any other city in the US). WaveG, CenturyLink, CascadeLink, WebPass (Google Fiber), Comcast
- bahmboo 7y agoThat doesn't appear accurate. If you happen to live in a building (condo/apt) that is supported by one of the other gigabit companies you list then you are good to go. But that is a very very small part of the population. Otherwise Seattle has only 2 options for physically connected internet: Centurylink and Comcast. And they are priced accordingly.
- aloknnikhil 7y agoHmm. I wouldn't call that a very very small part. It's not pervasive. But it's still better than the competition in most cities.
- yellow_postit 7y agoYup and there are large swaths of Seattle where Century Link doesn’t have competitive speeds to Comcast. Cities should have even more competition for service providers than rural areas.
- a_e_k 7y agoYes! I live in Seattle and whenever I try their checker it tells me "Great! You qualify for up to 12Mbps" for $45/mo. I'm not a fan of Comcast, but that Century Link offer is a poor joke in comparison. And this is despite living less than three blocks from a Century Link building crammed full of machines (I can hear the hum from the sidewalk when I go by). I don't get it.
- NotSammyHagar 7y agoIt's the cost of the last mile, and the difficulty and expense of running those wires.
- throwaway2048 7y agoOr just apathy by incumbent providers, why do better when doing worse still gets you paid.
- boring_twenties 7y agoHere in Salt Lake City, Comcast is not competitive with Google Fiber at all. It's about 2.5x more expensive ($170 vs $70 if I'm not mistaken), and comes with a 1TB/month data cap, making it completely useless.
- malnourish 7y agoThat's fine though, as long as they're not actively campaigning and lobbying to keep entities from entering the field in the first place.
- munk-a 7y agoNo it isn't fine - the fact that the monopoly is developed enough to suppress competition is already a bad thing - these guys need to be broken up hard. When they additionally lobby to stop locals from fixing the problem - that's them rubbing salt in the wounds and I'm glad they're doing it, it's getting less technical folk to wake up to the BS.
- malnourish 7y agoI think I did a poor job communicating what I meant. I agree with you, the current status quo is abhorrent. Were there to be competition, some providers offering poor deals is fine. That isn't the case though. Thank you for articulating.
- ehsankia 7y agoDo we know that they aren't lobbying? I'm not familiar with CenturyLink for Comcast absolutely is all over the US.
- _b 7y agoCentury Link expanded its fiber network in Seattle when it seemed likely Google Fiber would come, but in the last 4 years while it has been clear it wouldn't, it seems like CenturyLink has stopped expanding their network.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dmoy 7y agoMy block is surrounded by blocks that all have gigabit fiber, but my block never got hooked up. Every year I ask, every year they have no comment.
- robocat 7y agoIf you can set up line of sight to an acquantance's home on a block with gigabit, you can spend a few hundred and connect up an Ubiquiti point-to-point connection. I did that recently with their Litebeam AC. I have always found Ubiquiti's products to be technically great (superb reliability at a reasonable price, configuration is fairly straightforward although may take some googling). Unfortunately their product range is insanely confusing: even with some familiarity using their products and knowing the exact product exists, I always struggle to find the model I need.
- leesalminen 7y agoI just set up a 40 acre property with WiFI coverage throughout using all Ubiquiti gear. Even put up some solar powered APs. Finding the right products wasn’t too bad, though it leaves some to be desired. Their forums are pretty good and there’s tons of information on there for any conceivable project. I’m very happy with all the gear, especially the Rocket 5AC Prism Gen2 with a 60 degree sector antenna. Holy cow those are powerful!
- olyjohn 7y agoYeah, well look just a couple of miles outside of the core city, and you'll find loads of people who still can't get anything faster than 1.5Mbps DSL. Hell, I live in the city, and CenturyLink only offers 12Mbps DSL to me. I know people who live in denser, core residential areas than me (Ballard, Queen Anne, etc) and can't even get over 25Mbps from CenturyLink.
- swasheck 7y agoThere's a comment above that suggests that Comcast owns the physical layer and, as such, is allowed to limit CenturyLink's access on its infrastructure (though there is a contrasting reply to it). I've always wondered why CenturyLink's advertised speeds were so much slower.
- reaperducer 7y agoThis isn't true for Century Link. It's best not to make broad generalizations when it comes to ISP's. A single ISP may provide high speed and low rate in one city, then provide low speed at high rates in another. Your experience in Location A is likely not what other people experience in Location B. It all depends on the competition, regulation, infrastructure, geography, population density, history, and other features of an area.
- Jagerbizzle 7y agoI live in the middle of Capitol Hill and would love to ditch comcast, so I went to check this out. Good news, I qualify for "high speed" internet of up to 7Mbps!
- 98codes 7y agoLosing market share downtown maybe -- all I can get in Fremont is 100MBps from Centurylink, just a few blocks from Adobe, Google, Tableau -- it's nuts.