5 ms·

Google Fiber gets this right. They say my Internet package will cost $70 and every month the total I get charged is $70.

Cerium 3y ago
ATT and Sonic fiber too. Both listed a price and charged it (90 and 50 respectfully).
- bsimpson 3y ago
  Also MonkeyBrains in SF: they charge $105 every 3 months.
delvinj 3y ago
Same with US Internet in Minneapolis. I couldn't be more pleased with the service, coming off of 15 years with Comcast.
- jvanderbot 3y ago
  What kind of speed do you get? is this municipal wifi?
  - remexre 3y ago
    I'm a happy customer until the end of the month (moving out of their service area, sadly); I had symmetric gigabit. No IPv6, though.
    - jvanderbot 3y ago
      I live in the area, and loved Centurylink for this reason (symmetric gigabit, extremely low latency), but am stuck with Xfinity.
tzs 3y ago
That's how Comcast works here in western Washington. If you have non-internet service from them (such as TV, phone, or home security) there are plenty of fees on your bill which makes it more than the advertised price of your package, but if you just have internet the bill matches the advertised price.
- fn-mote 3y ago
  > if you just have internet the bill matches the advertised price. Until your fixed-rate introductory period ends. After that, watch the price creep up month by month. I've even seen very low-speed service become more pricey than high-speed service (possibly because it's no longer being advertised, so the rate doesn't have to look good). Source: experience with a non-Comcast cable provider.
  - tzs 3y ago
    > Until your fixed-rate introductory period ends. If you are on a contract then when the contract ends your fixed rate will jump from the contract fixed rate to the advertised fixed rate for month to month service. If you are not on a contract internet is fixed rate at the advertised plan rate. For example if I go to their site and pretend do be someone moving to my area and look at their plans for my neighborhood my current plan without a 2 year contract is $73/month, or $63/month if you go paperless and use use autopay. That's the same price I am paying as a long time customer on that plan. With a 2 year contract it is $45/month or $35/month if you go paperless and use autopay for years 1 and 2, and then goes to up to the prices from the previous paragraph. It really is that simple. Plan price, minus $10/month for paperless and autopay, minus promotional discount if on a contract. When you add TV or voice then you get things that won't necessarily be fixed rate. There's a broadcast TV fee and if you TV package includes sports channels a regional sports fee. If you have voice then there are state fees. There are also state taxes on TV and voice.
  - Arrath 3y ago
    Yup, I've seen this myself. My introductory plan at 69.99/mo (or 79 I can't recall) was good for the first 6 months or maybe a year, and then it steadily crept up in $10 increments every quarter or so for the next 4 years I had their service. To be fair, the plan also went from 200 megs to 1 gig over that timeframe in similar incremental increases, so that was kinda nice.
sschueller 3y ago
Same here. CHF 777 per year for my 25gbit internet and TV service [1] . Any extra fees from interconnects etc are already included. Same goes for sales tax. It must be included in the price of the product when displaying the price. No surprises at the cash register. [1] https://www.init7.net/en/internet/fiber7/ https://www.init7.net/en/internet/fiber7/
- Blammar 3y ago
  Now you're making me want to move to Switzerland, even though I hate living in the mountains...
  - petepete 3y ago
    I wouldn't even know what to do with 25Gbps internet. How many people in Switzerland even have home networks capable of taking full advantage of those speeds?
    - avidiax 3y ago
      I'm also on Init7. 25gbps is pure nerd cred. The only hosts you can talk to with that speed are other 25gbps customers, with custom hardware, and an ultra fast NAS or sending random bits. I have 10gbps, also for nerd cred. 1/10/25gbps from this provider is all the same monthly cost, differing setup fees. The advantage to 10gbps is I have a silent router (Mikrotik RB5009), and every 1gbps port is entirely independent. You will never have 1 machines activities slow another's. Do I ever actually get 1gbps speeds? Yes, sometimes, for large downloads on XBOX. BitTorrent doesn't achieve this because your peers don't have that upload. Google drive doesn't achieve that because their VMs are probably shared 1gbps each. But, Init7 has excellent peering vs other 1gbps fiber providers and no traffic shaping at all.
      - hnbad 3y ago
        The advantage of 1gps and more is that you can talk to multiple other hosts at their max speed if they're all a fraction of your max speed. But realistically for most consumers the only difference between 100Mbit and 1Gbit is how fast their games download on their consoles.
hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago
In Australia all prices are written on the box. Do US quoted prices not include tax or something? How many additional fees are there?
- rajamaka 3y ago
  Also Australian, when I went to the US and ordered a burger at McDonalds for $2 - I was so confused when they asked for more money after I handed them $2. Turns out they don't include taxes in the advertised price for some reason.
- db48x 3y ago
  It depends on the locality. The city, county, and state may all impose taxes. In particular, cities sometimes opt to generate revenue by taxing specific services, such as cable TV. So a resident in City X pays $5 per month extra for cable TV, while someone in City Y pays $7.44 extra. Both of these cities allow just a single cable operator, and require that operator to collect the tax and remit it to them. But if you have satellite TV then you don’t pay the tax. And maybe City Y never updated the law to apply the tax to cable internet service, but City X did. So someone living in City X pays $5 per month if they have both cable TV and internet service (or either one alone), while someone in City Y only pays the tax if they have TV service. If all they have is internet service, then they pay nothing extra. And if the service includes telephone service, then there will be a Federal Universal Service Fee, which pays for reduced–cost land–line telephone service for the poor. It’s like $0.11 per month per telephone line, IIRC. The average customer might see two or three of these things on their bill. But it’s not uncommon to see a dozen either. So it definitely depends on where the subscriber wants the service, and what service or services they subscribe to. None of this is really all that difficult to figure out, and these companies have already automated it. They are just complaining because they will have to raise their advertised prices, which naturally will lead to reduced sales. Currently they just lie through their teeth about their prices, and count on people being too lazy to cancel their service once they see the first month’s bill.
  - hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago
    Interesting, for context in Australia almost all goods and services that aren’t billed based on usage must clearly outline total cost - if you order something you can expect the marked price to match the reciept (unless the receipt is less, common in retail discount offers) We also don’t have tipping culture, you can tip, but it’s not an expectation. Though, the latter is slowly creeping in.
notnmeyer 3y ago
Ziply Fiber is the same way. $70 exactly every month, 1 page bill. Trivially easy to understand. Symmetrical gigabit, no data caps. No ipv6 though which sucks. Left Comcast/Xfinity the moment I had a better alternative. I still get door to door Xfinity folks trying to sell me more expensive, shittier service.

Cerium 3y ago

ATT and Sonic fiber too. Both listed a price and charged it (90 and 50 respectfully).

bsimpson 3y ago
Also MonkeyBrains in SF: they charge $105 every 3 months.

delvinj 3y ago

Same with US Internet in Minneapolis. I couldn't be more pleased with the service, coming off of 15 years with Comcast.

jvanderbot 3y ago
What kind of speed do you get? is this municipal wifi?
- remexre 3y ago
  I'm a happy customer until the end of the month (moving out of their service area, sadly); I had symmetric gigabit. No IPv6, though.
  - jvanderbot 3y ago
    I live in the area, and loved Centurylink for this reason (symmetric gigabit, extremely low latency), but am stuck with Xfinity.

tzs 3y ago

That's how Comcast works here in western Washington. If you have non-internet service from them (such as TV, phone, or home security) there are plenty of fees on your bill which makes it more than the advertised price of your package, but if you just have internet the bill matches the advertised price.

fn-mote 3y ago
> if you just have internet the bill matches the advertised price. Until your fixed-rate introductory period ends. After that, watch the price creep up month by month. I've even seen very low-speed service become more pricey than high-speed service (possibly because it's no longer being advertised, so the rate doesn't have to look good). Source: experience with a non-Comcast cable provider.
- tzs 3y ago
  > Until your fixed-rate introductory period ends. If you are on a contract then when the contract ends your fixed rate will jump from the contract fixed rate to the advertised fixed rate for month to month service. If you are not on a contract internet is fixed rate at the advertised plan rate. For example if I go to their site and pretend do be someone moving to my area and look at their plans for my neighborhood my current plan without a 2 year contract is $73/month, or $63/month if you go paperless and use use autopay. That's the same price I am paying as a long time customer on that plan. With a 2 year contract it is $45/month or $35/month if you go paperless and use autopay for years 1 and 2, and then goes to up to the prices from the previous paragraph. It really is that simple. Plan price, minus $10/month for paperless and autopay, minus promotional discount if on a contract. When you add TV or voice then you get things that won't necessarily be fixed rate. There's a broadcast TV fee and if you TV package includes sports channels a regional sports fee. If you have voice then there are state fees. There are also state taxes on TV and voice.
- Arrath 3y ago
  Yup, I've seen this myself. My introductory plan at 69.99/mo (or 79 I can't recall) was good for the first 6 months or maybe a year, and then it steadily crept up in $10 increments every quarter or so for the next 4 years I had their service. To be fair, the plan also went from 200 megs to 1 gig over that timeframe in similar incremental increases, so that was kinda nice.

sschueller 3y ago

Same here. CHF 777 per year for my 25gbit internet and TV service [1] . Any extra fees from interconnects etc are already included. Same goes for sales tax. It must be included in the price of the product when displaying the price. No surprises at the cash register. [1] https://www.init7.net/en/internet/fiber7/ https://www.init7.net/en/internet/fiber7/

Blammar 3y ago
Now you're making me want to move to Switzerland, even though I hate living in the mountains...
- petepete 3y ago
  I wouldn't even know what to do with 25Gbps internet. How many people in Switzerland even have home networks capable of taking full advantage of those speeds?
  - avidiax 3y ago
    I'm also on Init7. 25gbps is pure nerd cred. The only hosts you can talk to with that speed are other 25gbps customers, with custom hardware, and an ultra fast NAS or sending random bits. I have 10gbps, also for nerd cred. 1/10/25gbps from this provider is all the same monthly cost, differing setup fees. The advantage to 10gbps is I have a silent router (Mikrotik RB5009), and every 1gbps port is entirely independent. You will never have 1 machines activities slow another's. Do I ever actually get 1gbps speeds? Yes, sometimes, for large downloads on XBOX. BitTorrent doesn't achieve this because your peers don't have that upload. Google drive doesn't achieve that because their VMs are probably shared 1gbps each. But, Init7 has excellent peering vs other 1gbps fiber providers and no traffic shaping at all.
    - hnbad 3y ago
      The advantage of 1gps and more is that you can talk to multiple other hosts at their max speed if they're all a fraction of your max speed. But realistically for most consumers the only difference between 100Mbit and 1Gbit is how fast their games download on their consoles.

hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago

In Australia all prices are written on the box. Do US quoted prices not include tax or something? How many additional fees are there?

rajamaka 3y ago
Also Australian, when I went to the US and ordered a burger at McDonalds for $2 - I was so confused when they asked for more money after I handed them $2. Turns out they don't include taxes in the advertised price for some reason.
db48x 3y ago
It depends on the locality. The city, county, and state may all impose taxes. In particular, cities sometimes opt to generate revenue by taxing specific services, such as cable TV. So a resident in City X pays $5 per month extra for cable TV, while someone in City Y pays $7.44 extra. Both of these cities allow just a single cable operator, and require that operator to collect the tax and remit it to them. But if you have satellite TV then you don’t pay the tax. And maybe City Y never updated the law to apply the tax to cable internet service, but City X did. So someone living in City X pays $5 per month if they have both cable TV and internet service (or either one alone), while someone in City Y only pays the tax if they have TV service. If all they have is internet service, then they pay nothing extra. And if the service includes telephone service, then there will be a Federal Universal Service Fee, which pays for reduced–cost land–line telephone service for the poor. It’s like $0.11 per month per telephone line, IIRC. The average customer might see two or three of these things on their bill. But it’s not uncommon to see a dozen either. So it definitely depends on where the subscriber wants the service, and what service or services they subscribe to. None of this is really all that difficult to figure out, and these companies have already automated it. They are just complaining because they will have to raise their advertised prices, which naturally will lead to reduced sales. Currently they just lie through their teeth about their prices, and count on people being too lazy to cancel their service once they see the first month’s bill.
- hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago
  Interesting, for context in Australia almost all goods and services that aren’t billed based on usage must clearly outline total cost - if you order something you can expect the marked price to match the reciept (unless the receipt is less, common in retail discount offers) We also don’t have tipping culture, you can tip, but it’s not an expectation. Though, the latter is slowly creeping in.

notnmeyer 3y ago

Ziply Fiber is the same way. $70 exactly every month, 1 page bill. Trivially easy to understand. Symmetrical gigabit, no data caps. No ipv6 though which sucks. Left Comcast/Xfinity the moment I had a better alternative. I still get door to door Xfinity folks trying to sell me more expensive, shittier service.