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Comcast makes me sick. I spent months getting off of them and it was worth every bit of it by switching to Ziply fiber in the Seattle area. I went from this to

Comcast makes me sick. I spent months getting off of them and it was worth every bit of it by switching to Ziply fiber in the Seattle area. I went from this to this: * Comcast 1000/35 Down/up to Ziply 1000/1000 down/up * Monthly bill cut in half * Comcast monthly data caps, to no data caps with Ziply And that's right, Comcast gives 35 Mbps upload, if you are lucky! And data caps.

ortusdux 5y ago
My best option currently is Wave Broadband, with 940/20 costing 100$/mo. I pay an extra 8$/mo for 940/25. The tech installing my line checked my signal and said that they could support 940/940, but they wont offer it in my area. I am pricing the cost of a fiber run that after install will be 1000/1000 for 60$/mo. I would gladly pay $3k to hook-up.
- Analemma_ 5y ago
  Wave Broadband literally doubled my bill out of the blue last November-- not because a trial pricing period ended or anything, but just because they could: I was in an apartment building where they were the only option. It's irrelevant now because shortly after that I moved to a different location, but they're just as bad as Comcast. Private ISPs delenda est.
- GloriousKoji 5y ago
  With comcast in my area the unofficial strategy is to require you to sign up for a new plan every year to slowing tick down your speed and increase costs. If you stick with your old plan the monthly doubles. Right now I'm paying $60 for 60/3.5 with comcast. A few years ago it was $30 for 100/3.5 I have no other real options, it's gross.
  - hellbannedguy 5y ago
    I heard threw the grapevine Xfinity (comcast) has given up on trying to compete with streaming services. Their strategy is just charge more for everything, and make ordering services compliced. Going on their website to just get basic cable, and low speed internet is very hard. They push packages--hoping you will never realize when the deal ends. They rely on senior citizens who just pay the bill, and are not technical enough to even shop around--if they have a choice? Most households don't. Comcast should be required to have have simple billing, and simple ording of service That could be taken care of the next time your local government ok's their next franchise agreement. It's not a franchise. It's some agreement government has with them. Be careful calling Xfinity (comcast) for anything. The calls are routed overseas, and those employees main function is pushing package deals. Don't fall for it. They try to get the customer to agree on voice, so they have evidence. 1. I'm ok with their internet service, except for the price, and lack of competition. 2. The cable tv service is subpar. I have had checkering for ever. I gave up on getting it corrected. After three visits from third party vendors it's still not right. (This third party vendor was working 6 days a week, and was required to lease his service truck for $250/week.). 3. If you do have a lousy connection, it might be partially related to a filter Comcast put on years ago, but never took off. (The new filters are fine, but a certain brand of an older one is bad. I just threw it out so I can't give the part number. If you have voice remote, make sure it's on the right three splitter. I vagly remember it on the outlet with the lowest resistance? 4. I believe Comcast knows they are pushing too much through that coaxial. I believe they preparing for a class action lawsuit, but might not care? 5. I only put up with Comcast because there's no real competition where I reside. Xfinity's agreements with local municipalities needs to be nixed. 6. Comcast promised to not cut off service during the pandemic, but lied. 7. Comcast offers Hotspots. Your router could be the hotspot, and they don't have to tell you. (I don't believe their is any danger to this practice though.) I would love it that infrastructure bill did away with Xfinity. They provide very few good paying jobs. I would like to see free internet provided to every American, even the wealthy.
  - Alupis 5y ago
    My comcast bill is $70 a month for 1000Mbps down / 36Mbps up. Pretty happy actually... and my area has no municipal ISP, and the only other option is AT&T's DSL variant.
    - mjevans 5y ago
      Your area has no Broadband Internet competition. You have extremely poor upload and presumably a cap that you can go over by accidentally leaving a video streaming service tab open on. How are you happy again? It sounds like you're happy to be in an abusive relationship rather than none at all.
      - Alupis 5y ago
        I'm happy because it satisfies my needs for a reasonable price. I don't have a use for 1Gbps uploads... mostly nobody does actually... and I stream a lot of 1080p content, which comes nowhere near the "data cap" any month of the year. Perhaps things would be different if I were streaming 4k, but I'm not - and that would only be an issue with a data cap (I agree, data caps are absurd). BTW, the limit on the upload is a physical issue with cable lines and the DOCSIS protocol... I don't feel it's realistic to demand fiber to everyone's home when nearly nobody has an actual use-case for symmetrical home connections... Lastly, getting the government involved in maintaining lines to everyone's homes is a disaster waiting to happen. What infrastructure is the government doing an excellent job maintaining as it is? With salary caps on staffers, and the inability to terminate underperforming employees - municipal-owned lines and/or ISP's will start out great, and over time suffer the same bureaucratic disease the rest of the government already has.
        lotsofpulp 5y ago
        >BTW, the limit on the upload is a physical issue with cable lines and the DOCSIS protocol... I don't feel it's realistic to demand fiber to everyone's home when nearly nobody has an actual use-case for symmetrical home connections... Nobody had a use case until a family of 4 needs to work and school from home simultaneously or upload video. Somehow, we had a use case for delivering people ad laden garbage tv shows via cable, but something like fiber internet which might actually be used for productivity and creativity is not worthy of public support?
JohnTHaller 5y ago
In NYC, I have exactly one broadband provider. Spectrum (formerly Time Warner). Their highest end package is 500 down / 20 up. I can't get FiOS because, even though Verizon contractually agreed to wire all of NYC up for fiber, they lied and didn't. So, my only other option is Verizon DSL with offers 'up to 7Mbps' down. T-Mobile is rolling out their home 5g internet now. It doesn't support streaming yet, but it hits around 200+ down and 25 up on my phone, so it may get there.
- ep103 5y ago
  nyc has sued verizon multiple (?) times for failing to roll out fiber into the city and just keeping the money. Each time verizon does some update, or rolls out a little bit more, and the story repeats. Telecom is a utility, end of story.
  - toss1 5y ago
    NYC needs to get serious Tell Verizon and the others that if they fail to fulfill their contract, the will get their license pulled, or, at the very least, they will operate their own local municipal broadband. Of course the incentives are probably for each individual politician such that with enough graft, campaign donations, etc., that they just stick with the status quo, but I'm not familiar with the local situation. [edit: typo "fulled" => "pulled"]
    - thomastjeffery 5y ago
      It sounds like that is what they have been doing. What they need to do now is tell Verizon that they failed to fulfill their contract, pull their license, and operate their own municipal broadband.
      - lotsofpulp 5y ago
        New York City government has been all talk and no walk because they also do not want to pony up the sufficient funds to make it happen.
xedrac 5y ago
I've found that I almost never get the rates I pay for with Comcast. I'm currently on their 600/35 plan, and I'm lucky to get 200 down and 15 up. So even if Comcast were to roll out "gigabit" everywhere, it would likely be very inferior to municipal fiber.
- tzs 5y ago
  Have you considered switching to a lower speed plan? If you are only actually getting 200, you might as well switch to the 200 plan and save $20/month.
heavyset_go 5y ago
> And that's right, Comcast gives 35 Mbps upload, if you are lucky! And data caps. Before I switched last year, I only got 10Mbps up from Comcast.

ortusdux 5y ago

My best option currently is Wave Broadband, with 940/20 costing 100$/mo. I pay an extra 8$/mo for 940/25. The tech installing my line checked my signal and said that they could support 940/940, but they wont offer it in my area. I am pricing the cost of a fiber run that after install will be 1000/1000 for 60$/mo. I would gladly pay $3k to hook-up.

Analemma_ 5y ago
Wave Broadband literally doubled my bill out of the blue last November-- not because a trial pricing period ended or anything, but just because they could: I was in an apartment building where they were the only option. It's irrelevant now because shortly after that I moved to a different location, but they're just as bad as Comcast. Private ISPs delenda est.
GloriousKoji 5y ago
With comcast in my area the unofficial strategy is to require you to sign up for a new plan every year to slowing tick down your speed and increase costs. If you stick with your old plan the monthly doubles. Right now I'm paying $60 for 60/3.5 with comcast. A few years ago it was $30 for 100/3.5 I have no other real options, it's gross.
- hellbannedguy 5y ago
  I heard threw the grapevine Xfinity (comcast) has given up on trying to compete with streaming services. Their strategy is just charge more for everything, and make ordering services compliced. Going on their website to just get basic cable, and low speed internet is very hard. They push packages--hoping you will never realize when the deal ends. They rely on senior citizens who just pay the bill, and are not technical enough to even shop around--if they have a choice? Most households don't. Comcast should be required to have have simple billing, and simple ording of service That could be taken care of the next time your local government ok's their next franchise agreement. It's not a franchise. It's some agreement government has with them. Be careful calling Xfinity (comcast) for anything. The calls are routed overseas, and those employees main function is pushing package deals. Don't fall for it. They try to get the customer to agree on voice, so they have evidence. 1. I'm ok with their internet service, except for the price, and lack of competition. 2. The cable tv service is subpar. I have had checkering for ever. I gave up on getting it corrected. After three visits from third party vendors it's still not right. (This third party vendor was working 6 days a week, and was required to lease his service truck for $250/week.). 3. If you do have a lousy connection, it might be partially related to a filter Comcast put on years ago, but never took off. (The new filters are fine, but a certain brand of an older one is bad. I just threw it out so I can't give the part number. If you have voice remote, make sure it's on the right three splitter. I vagly remember it on the outlet with the lowest resistance? 4. I believe Comcast knows they are pushing too much through that coaxial. I believe they preparing for a class action lawsuit, but might not care? 5. I only put up with Comcast because there's no real competition where I reside. Xfinity's agreements with local municipalities needs to be nixed. 6. Comcast promised to not cut off service during the pandemic, but lied. 7. Comcast offers Hotspots. Your router could be the hotspot, and they don't have to tell you. (I don't believe their is any danger to this practice though.) I would love it that infrastructure bill did away with Xfinity. They provide very few good paying jobs. I would like to see free internet provided to every American, even the wealthy.
- Alupis 5y ago
  My comcast bill is $70 a month for 1000Mbps down / 36Mbps up. Pretty happy actually... and my area has no municipal ISP, and the only other option is AT&T's DSL variant.
  - mjevans 5y ago
    Your area has no Broadband Internet competition. You have extremely poor upload and presumably a cap that you can go over by accidentally leaving a video streaming service tab open on. How are you happy again? It sounds like you're happy to be in an abusive relationship rather than none at all.
    - Alupis 5y ago
      I'm happy because it satisfies my needs for a reasonable price. I don't have a use for 1Gbps uploads... mostly nobody does actually... and I stream a lot of 1080p content, which comes nowhere near the "data cap" any month of the year. Perhaps things would be different if I were streaming 4k, but I'm not - and that would only be an issue with a data cap (I agree, data caps are absurd). BTW, the limit on the upload is a physical issue with cable lines and the DOCSIS protocol... I don't feel it's realistic to demand fiber to everyone's home when nearly nobody has an actual use-case for symmetrical home connections... Lastly, getting the government involved in maintaining lines to everyone's homes is a disaster waiting to happen. What infrastructure is the government doing an excellent job maintaining as it is? With salary caps on staffers, and the inability to terminate underperforming employees - municipal-owned lines and/or ISP's will start out great, and over time suffer the same bureaucratic disease the rest of the government already has.
      - lotsofpulp 5y ago
        >BTW, the limit on the upload is a physical issue with cable lines and the DOCSIS protocol... I don't feel it's realistic to demand fiber to everyone's home when nearly nobody has an actual use-case for symmetrical home connections... Nobody had a use case until a family of 4 needs to work and school from home simultaneously or upload video. Somehow, we had a use case for delivering people ad laden garbage tv shows via cable, but something like fiber internet which might actually be used for productivity and creativity is not worthy of public support?

JohnTHaller 5y ago

In NYC, I have exactly one broadband provider. Spectrum (formerly Time Warner). Their highest end package is 500 down / 20 up. I can't get FiOS because, even though Verizon contractually agreed to wire all of NYC up for fiber, they lied and didn't. So, my only other option is Verizon DSL with offers 'up to 7Mbps' down. T-Mobile is rolling out their home 5g internet now. It doesn't support streaming yet, but it hits around 200+ down and 25 up on my phone, so it may get there.

ep103 5y ago
nyc has sued verizon multiple (?) times for failing to roll out fiber into the city and just keeping the money. Each time verizon does some update, or rolls out a little bit more, and the story repeats. Telecom is a utility, end of story.
- toss1 5y ago
  NYC needs to get serious Tell Verizon and the others that if they fail to fulfill their contract, the will get their license pulled, or, at the very least, they will operate their own local municipal broadband. Of course the incentives are probably for each individual politician such that with enough graft, campaign donations, etc., that they just stick with the status quo, but I'm not familiar with the local situation. [edit: typo "fulled" => "pulled"]
  - thomastjeffery 5y ago
    It sounds like that is what they have been doing. What they need to do now is tell Verizon that they failed to fulfill their contract, pull their license, and operate their own municipal broadband.
    - lotsofpulp 5y ago
      New York City government has been all talk and no walk because they also do not want to pony up the sufficient funds to make it happen.

xedrac 5y ago

I've found that I almost never get the rates I pay for with Comcast. I'm currently on their 600/35 plan, and I'm lucky to get 200 down and 15 up. So even if Comcast were to roll out "gigabit" everywhere, it would likely be very inferior to municipal fiber.

tzs 5y ago
Have you considered switching to a lower speed plan? If you are only actually getting 200, you might as well switch to the 200 plan and save $20/month.

heavyset_go 5y ago

> And that's right, Comcast gives 35 Mbps upload, if you are lucky! And data caps. Before I switched last year, I only got 10Mbps up from Comcast.