4 ms·

I'm in a combo CenturyLink / Comcast market, and it's AMAZING what competition between even just those two firms does to my offerings. Switched from Comcast's $

I'm in a combo CenturyLink / Comcast market, and it's AMAZING what competition between even just those two firms does to my offerings. Switched from Comcast's $90/mo gigabit with a 1 TB data cap and only 90 Mb/s upload to CenturyLink's $60/mo symmetric gigabit with no data cap. I have a contract-less "lifetime price guarantee", they did free install (which included running a fiber line from the pole to my house with a cherrypicker), and threw in a free fiber endpoint box (I don't know what it's really called) and a modem/router that's actually pretty good. I get 980 Mb/s up/down with a 1ms ping in speed tests. Games are amazing, downloads are amazing, hosting files to myself is amazing...all it takes is a little competition.

cdeutsch 7y ago
Make sure you do your speedtest to a server beyond CenturyLink. My speeds were about that to the CenturyLink data center, but anything outside that was slower than Comcast 150 Mbps. Which leads me to believe they don't have a fat enough pipe to the internet in my area. Which was too bad, because the $60/mo price was a deal
linsomniac 7y ago
I wonder why we are stuck with these options (in the town referenced in the post): 1gbps Comcast and 40mbps CenturyLink.
- jyrkesh 7y ago
  Lots and lots and lots of regional lobbying.
- peterlk 7y ago
  Colorado has laws that give monopolies on the infrastructure to whoever owns it. But in order to get around anti-trust laws (or for some other cynical reason), so in your case, there is really only one provider, but they share their infrastructure with their competition and throttle them to nothing. So your options are "whatever comcast offers" and "whatever comcast decides CenturyLink can offer"
  - linsomniac 7y ago
    I don't understand. Comcast has their own infrastructure: a bunch of coax in the ground. Century Link (previously known as: QWest, USWest, and Ma Bell) has their own: Cat-3 coppter in the ground.
    - mperham 7y ago
      DSL/Telephone copper line has physical limits to the bandwidth it can provide. It can't do anything close to gigabit and plummets very quickly with distance from the telco box.
ajb 7y ago
"threw in a free fiber endpoint box (I don't know what it's really called)" PON ONU. Memorable, it isn't.
philjohn 7y ago
> free fiber endpoint box (I don't know what it's really called) That would be an Optical Network Terminal, or ONT
gsk22 7y ago
If you have no contract, what's to stop CenturyLink from reneging on the lifetime price guarantee?
- thw0rted 7y ago
  If it's in writing on the GP's "welcome packet" or whatever, then violating the guarantee is advertising fraud.
- cnlevy 7y ago
  nothing but competition
droithomme 7y ago
> gigabit with a 1 TB data cap and only 90 Mb/s upload Do you actually get that throughput or is it bullshit and you get 1/50 that rate? Post some real stats based on your own personal benchmarking which we can verify. Thanks.
- exotree 7y ago
  This is aggressive and unnecessary language.
  - droithomme 7y ago
    I strongly disagree with your corporate positioning and aggressive convenient spin that no "real person" would establish.
  - wavefunction 7y ago
    Adopting an antagonistic stance towards American telecoms is a patriotic duty of all functional Americans.
droithomme 7y ago
> gigabit with a 1 TB data cap and only 90 Mb/s upload Do you actually get that throughput, or is it nonsense and you in real life only get 1/50 that rate? Please be so kind as to post some actual stats based on your own personal benchmarking which we can VERIFY. Thank you very much good sir!

cdeutsch 7y ago

Make sure you do your speedtest to a server beyond CenturyLink. My speeds were about that to the CenturyLink data center, but anything outside that was slower than Comcast 150 Mbps. Which leads me to believe they don't have a fat enough pipe to the internet in my area. Which was too bad, because the $60/mo price was a deal

linsomniac 7y ago

I wonder why we are stuck with these options (in the town referenced in the post): 1gbps Comcast and 40mbps CenturyLink.

jyrkesh 7y ago
Lots and lots and lots of regional lobbying.
peterlk 7y ago
Colorado has laws that give monopolies on the infrastructure to whoever owns it. But in order to get around anti-trust laws (or for some other cynical reason), so in your case, there is really only one provider, but they share their infrastructure with their competition and throttle them to nothing. So your options are "whatever comcast offers" and "whatever comcast decides CenturyLink can offer"
- linsomniac 7y ago
  I don't understand. Comcast has their own infrastructure: a bunch of coax in the ground. Century Link (previously known as: QWest, USWest, and Ma Bell) has their own: Cat-3 coppter in the ground.
  - mperham 7y ago
    DSL/Telephone copper line has physical limits to the bandwidth it can provide. It can't do anything close to gigabit and plummets very quickly with distance from the telco box.

ajb 7y ago

"threw in a free fiber endpoint box (I don't know what it's really called)" PON ONU. Memorable, it isn't.

philjohn 7y ago

> free fiber endpoint box (I don't know what it's really called) That would be an Optical Network Terminal, or ONT

gsk22 7y ago

If you have no contract, what's to stop CenturyLink from reneging on the lifetime price guarantee?

thw0rted 7y ago
If it's in writing on the GP's "welcome packet" or whatever, then violating the guarantee is advertising fraud.
cnlevy 7y ago
nothing but competition

droithomme 7y ago

> gigabit with a 1 TB data cap and only 90 Mb/s upload Do you actually get that throughput or is it bullshit and you get 1/50 that rate? Post some real stats based on your own personal benchmarking which we can verify. Thanks.

exotree 7y ago
This is aggressive and unnecessary language.
- droithomme 7y ago
  I strongly disagree with your corporate positioning and aggressive convenient spin that no "real person" would establish.
- wavefunction 7y ago
  Adopting an antagonistic stance towards American telecoms is a patriotic duty of all functional Americans.

droithomme 7y ago

> gigabit with a 1 TB data cap and only 90 Mb/s upload Do you actually get that throughput, or is it nonsense and you in real life only get 1/50 that rate? Please be so kind as to post some actual stats based on your own personal benchmarking which we can VERIFY. Thank you very much good sir!