Comcast alternitives

[Jazzsus]

I am tired of comcast forcing me to eat their s**t and i am looking for a better ISP. Do you have an suggestions?

[LienusLateTips]

From what I've heard, there's like no competition in most of the country?

 

AT&T?

[Phentos]

Only competition in my area is AT&T. Orders of magnitude slower than what I've got atm, and I'd be spending more. I'll pass.

 

I've personally had good experiences with Comcast customer service too.

[williamcll]

Can you get google fibre?

[LienusLateTips]

47 minutes ago, Phentos said:

Only competition in my area is AT&T. Orders of magnitude slower than what I've got atm, and I'd be spending more. I'll pass.

 

I've personally had good experiences with Comcast customer service too.

In the Great White North as you Americans call it we actually have competition... Telus (VDSL/FTTH) and Shaw (Cable/FTTN/Future FTTH) are having a price war over their 150 plans, it's gone down as far as $50 Canadian Rupees a month.

[8uhbbhu8]

4 minutes ago, JDE said:

In the Great White North as you Americans call it we actually have competition... Telus (VDSL/FTTH) and Shaw (Cable/FTTN/Future FTTH) are having a price war over their 150 plans, it's gone down as far as $50 Canadian Rupees a month.

WHAT?!!!! Lucky... Sadly here in MB there's nothing of the sort yet...

[Jazzsus]

12 hours ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

WHAT?!!!! Lucky... Sadly here in MB there's nothing of the sort yet...

You think thats lucky in some countries in Europe you can get gigabit fiber for 8€ a month. About 10 dollars.

[Donut417]

17 hours ago, Jazzsus said:

I am tired of comcast forcing me to eat their s**t and i am looking for a better ISP. Do you have an suggestions?

Well first you gotta figure out who serves you. But Comcast is the best cable co in the US, they tend to stay updated on tech. At least internet wise. They were one of the first to offer Docsis 3.1 with gigabit download speeds. My guess is you have Comcast and a shittier competitor. Unless you live in sorta a richer community, where someone like AT&T decided to grace you with their Fiber. 

[jde3]

Just get Fiber, AT&T isn't the only game in town depending on your location. Verizon is also out there. (and an assortment of other phone companies)

 

Fast sometimes isn't about speed, it's about latency, with FTTP you can get the tech to install a rj45 right to your house. When I had that setup I was single digit ms to google.

[Donut417]

Just now, jde3 said:

Just get Fiber, AT&T isn't the only game in town depending on your location. Verizon is also out there.

 

Fast sometimes isn't about speed, it's about latency, with FTTP you can get the tech to install a rj45 right to your house.

Not that simple. Verizon only has Fiber maybe in 13 states out of 50. AT&T is just as stingy. If you dont like in a richer community, that has people who have money, they wont upgrade you. AT&T was in the news for skipping upgrades in areas that are mostly poor people. If the OP is lucky they can get a Gigabit Docsis 3.1 connection. But most likely that will be with Comcast. 

[jde3]

5 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Not that simple. Verizon only has Fiber maybe in 13 states out of 50. AT&T is just as stingy. If you dont like in a richer community, that has people who have money, they wont upgrade you. AT&T was in the news for skipping upgrades in areas that are mostly poor people. If the OP is lucky they can get a Gigabit Docsis 3.1 connection. But most likely that will be with Comcast. 

No thats very true.

 

It has to do with city governments and what they allow. Generally they allow one cable and one telco operator in an area thats it. However.. they don't *have* to do that.. You'll need some geeks on your local city council to get more options passed, but it's worth the effort. local government matters. This the current providers also won't want the competition and will do nasty stuff, watch out for it.

[2FA]

Considering the state of ISPs in the US, it's entirely dependent on where you live.

[Syntaxvgm]

This really depends on not just where you live, but your exact address. Research what you can get and give a list to us? 

[Donut417]

8 hours ago, jde3 said:

No thats very true.

 

It has to do with city governments and what they allow. Generally they allow one cable and one telco operator in an area thats it. However.. they don't *have* to do that.. You'll need some geeks on your local city council to get more options passed, but it's worth the effort. local government matters. This the current providers also won't want the competition and will do nasty stuff, watch out for it.

No you also need companies to come in. WOW told our residents taht we didn't have enough demand for them to come in. Even though everyone hates Comcast in this city. Also the exclusive rights agreement Comcast had with my city has expired. So any Company can come in. The issue is it costs millions to wire up a city. 

 

 

Also ISP choose to enter a market or upgrade a market based on the wealth of an area. It's basic business dude. Poor people don't order as much service. So AT&T only upgrades profitable areas. Also not all ISPs are in all areas. Verizon does not exist where I live with exception to cell service. I don't think they have any wired line services in Michigan. 

 

So I stand by my previous statement. It's not that easy. You take what you get or go without.

[Mikensan]

10 hours ago, Donut417 said:

No you also need companies to come in. WOW told our residents taht we didn't have enough demand for them to come in. Even though everyone hates Comcast in this city. Also the exclusive rights agreement Comcast had with my city has expired. So any Company can come in. The issue is it costs millions to wire up a city. 

 

 

Also ISP choose to enter a market or upgrade a market based on the wealth of an area. It's basic business dude. Poor people don't order as much service. So AT&T only upgrades profitable areas. Also not all ISPs are in all areas. Verizon does not exist where I live with exception to cell service. I don't think they have any wired line services in Michigan. 

 

So I stand by my previous statement. It's not that easy. You take what you get or go without.

I think there's an argument to both - local government can allocate money to improving infrastructure and offset some of the cost to the ISPs through tax breaks and fees associated to running cable. If they plan to use telephone poles then they also have to pay whoever owns them (usually AT&T/Verizon in the US).

 

The reason they look for wealthier cities is because they have to offset how much it would cost them to pay the city to run cable. Last company I worked for, our ISP would be Megapath for example, but our last mile provider was Verizon - because they owned the rights to the path to our building.

 

For example: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/att-loses-lawsuit-in-which-it-tried-to-thwart-google-fiber-construction/

^ This just got public attention, but it happens all the time. Last mile providers in conjunction with city officials try to cock-block new ISPs.

 

@Jazzsus Really you have quite a few choices depending on how much money you have. You could have a company such as Verizon or AT&T run fiber directly to your house, but that could easily cost $100,000+ depending on how far you are from a node with available strands. Businesses with the need typically do this, but offset the cost by being in a business park and others pitching in. Otherwise if all you want is upload, it may be cheaper paying monthly for a cloud solution.