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Huh? "Upgrade to 30Mbps"?

Chuck(G)

25k Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2007
Messages
44,225
Location
Pacific Northwest, USA
I keep getting these ads from my (execrable) ISP (CenturyLink), offering to get me to 30 Mbps download speeds, if I'll just give up my "good for a lifetime" contract and sign up for a new one, complete with installation charge.
Strange thing is that my download speed according to Speedtest is 45.11Mbps. I don't get it. The folks from the next county's electrical co-op are stringing new fiber. When done, 100Mbps will be the base rate,for about the same price.
 
Companies are always looking for a sucker.

When Roadrunner became Spectrum I ended up with 100Mb speed for less then what I paying for much slower cable (I did have to swap out the modem).
 
$40/month guaranteed for life. Not terrible--still allows for streaming video. But we're outside of city limits; probably better rates in town, where competition is higher.
 
I just learned that CenturyLink's company name is actually Lumen now. The CenturyLink name is still going to be used to describe the older technologies like DSL. It doesn't look like they really advertise their DSL speed tiers anymore, and they do not have a price for life plan. Based on what I see, if you are paying around $50 or less, I see no reason to change. From what I remember, they were pushing their speeds up to 60/80mbps a few years ago at that level with price for life, so whatever they are offering now isn't an upgrade.

There is also a new fiber provider coming to town here, so CenturyLink's days are numbered...
 
Down here in the Southern British Colonies we've had that+ unlimited data transfer for a while via fiber. No extra carges when our ISP upgraded either. We also got a refund because the copper maintenance charge was dropped when they moved to fiber.
 
My VDSL+ connection still uses the buried 5-pair telco cable that was put in 40 years ago. I'm surprised that it works at all--there's about 500 feet of it between house and pedestal. High-speed wired internet doesn't exist about a mile down the road. They get a voice-grade line almost 12 wire miles from the CO. Satellite works for some, depending on the exposure in this hilly area.
 
My VDSL+ connection still uses the buried 5-pair telco cable that was put in 40 years ago. I'm surprised that it works at all--there's about 500 feet of it between house and pedestal. High-speed wired internet doesn't exist about a mile down the road. They get a voice-grade line almost 12 wire miles from the CO. Satellite works for some, depending on the exposure in this hilly area.
That's pretty good going Chuck.
 
$40 a month is a helluva deal tbh. I would stick with that plan too if its fast enough. :)

Me I work from home, wife works from home, and son is home 1/3rd the time, when he is , he definitely takes advantage of no cap lol. Shame I have to pay so much for no cap here with Comcast but is what it is.
 
Centurylink (formerly Qwest/US West here), has always essentially been no data cap in my region. The problem with it is they are based on aging infrastructure which leads many people to hate it depending on location, and slow to roll out fiber. They also have had poor billing practices from time to time, but for now, Chuck and I are on a price for life deal done when they were heavily trying people to stay with them, which makes it good to stay with until more fiber is laid.
 
Chuck,
We were lucky enough to get SEMO Fiber installed (out of Sikeston, MO ~30 miles South). Our Electric pole was
less than 1500 feet from their last Utility Pole, and they connected several homes. We have 50MB Unlimited
Downloads for $60 a Month, which was the cheapest rate. They also have 1GB Unlimited Downloads for $80 a
Month. Customers can also add Phone, and lots of TV channels at extra cost.

It sure beats Excede Satellite Internet with a 10Gig Monthly Limit.

Larry
 
Well, when Qwest decided that their underground cable was sliding down the hill and be very expensive to replace, they decided to string fiber. Of course, they needed somewhere to put their terminal. So they came to me and bought maybe 100 square feet that I thought was part of the utility easement. As a result, I'm closest to the terminal--my pedestal sits right next to it. My contract with them calls for 20M down and I was training at 26/1.5. This year, I did another speedtest and discovered that I'd been upped to 45/5 without my knowledge. I'm not complaining. My modem is a Technicolor VDSL2+ model, so it can handle it--heck, it'll even handle bonded pair, if CL would ever offer that. FWIW, there are no data caps.

On March 11, I received the following email from CL:
Faster Internet is now available.
Everyone could use more bandwidth — to work, study, stream, or play. Log in and upgrade today!

You currently have 20 Mbps and qualify for 30 Mbps.

I suspect that a friendly lineman whom we are well acquainted with probably did some terminal magic. One thing that I've noticed is that what's currently being offered to customers are WiFi-only router/modems. I'm still a big believer in UTP ethernet myself.
 
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I was glad to get FIOS when we moved this last time. My FIOS D/L speed is 112 and U/L was 121 mps the last time I checked it. Cheap, heck no. but it's bundled so I'm not sure just plain jane internet FIOS would cost. We had "Timeless Wonder" and Roadrunner in S. Cal., which wasn't too bad on good days, when it was up that is. Trouble was you never knew when it would go down or for how long. Lost productivity never made it a bargain.
 
Bumped up to 300Mbs+ must be a good year.
That speed would blow my mind.

In my area, the only option was 10Mbs for $99/month - but it was actually more like 2Mbs on a good day. Thankfully, they recently changed to LTE and I can now get 50Mbs (more like 25Mbs) for $99/month.

I can finally view 1080p Youtube videos now (but not 4K). What a luxury.
 
Still only 10Mbs up, they just made the bottom tier 300Mbs, 500Mbs for middle and 1Gbs top end for Spectrum.

Only reason I noticed was I was downloading something and hit 43MB/sec.
 
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