My Internet Sucks

So I live on the outskirts of Phoenix in North Scottsdale, and I have a choice of three Internet providers here. There is satellite (HughesNet), Cable (COX) and DSL (Centurylink).  Unfortunately all options are horrible, and read the reviews of these three providers and you will see.  HughesNet everyone hates, so that leaves COX and Centurylink. 
 
Long story short, I have COX and Centurylink and I'm deciding which to keep.  Centurylink is 7Mbps down/0.6Mbps up and $35/month.  This is their fastest speed here.  Their speed is to slow for my RING doorbell to even work, but Netflix and Amazon streaming do work well.
 
With COX, for $55 I have 30Mbps down/5 Mbps up. Sounds great, and my RING doorbell does work nicely, the problem is Netflix and Amazon.  If I use these services between 7pm and 10pm (I know how silly of me to use them then) by program freezes with buffering at least 4 or 5 times per hour, and the pauses can last several minutes.
 
COX does have GIGABLAST here (fiber) but its $129/month and personally that is a bit much.
 
I'm leaning to Centurylink, at least because streaming does work. 
 
Update: I found one more using Motorola Canopy equipment.  20Mbps down/3Mbps up for about $60/month.  But $99 to install it.  Anyone have experience with this system?

You have another satellite choice there too called Excede.  It is similarly priced to HugesNet.  Except that they massage your internet and hijack your DNS.
 
Really though I would consider satellite as a last choice or only choice if you lived in the middle of nowhere.
 
DSL, cable or fiber are your best choices.
 
What is Century Link?  That is a slow for the money. 
 
Here utilize cellular backup ISP and it is faster at $20 a month.  That and it is also the back up telephone line.   I have defaulted to it via my PFSense box to test the streaming stuff / VOIP stuff and it works fine for me.
 
The COX speed looks old.  Do you have a Docis 3.0 modem.  If you do it should do 8 streams of downloading and 4 streams of uploading peaking out at over 100Mbs.
 
I have kept Comcast now from the beginning (over 20 years) and have only purchased and updated my modem.  Speeds are much better these days.
 
We stream a movie just about every night here or watch some TV series recorded (IE watched two episodes of 40 minutes each of Halt and Catch Fire the other night).
 
It's what you get and how happy you are.  So if you like streaming a movie and COX doesn't work for you then it sounds like CenturyLink might be a better choice.
 
Googling the Cox tier packages over there in AZ see that their preferred package base is 50 down and 5 up which sucks.

pete_c said:

You have another satellite choice there too called Excede.  It is similarly priced to HugesNet.  Except that they massage your internet and hijack your DNS.
 
Really though I would consider satellite as a last choice or only choice if you lived in the middle of nowhere.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that is what I kinda figured.
 

pete_c said:

What is Century Link?  That is a slow for the money.

Click to expand...

Centurylink is what used to be Qwest, one of the 7 telcos after the split of AT&T.  The problem for me is I'm 5300 ft. from their box, which means its SLOW!!!  But the go part of DSL is it doesn't slow down when others use it.
 

pete_c said:

The COX speed looks old.  Do you have a Docis 3.0 modem.  If you do it should do 8 streams of downloading and 4 streams of uploading peaking out at over 100Mbs.

Click to expand...

COX is a family-run cable business, but a BIG one.  They serve 6M people, but they SUCK.  Yes, the speed I have sounds great, in fact I measure 150Mbps down, but cable is shared.  After dinner EVERYONE is using it, and then it becomes a capacity issue.  I have also heard COX fudges the speed tests. They detect it then give you a big burst of speed, but after the test, its back to the old speed.
 
This other company called Desert iNet only covers a small area, so I might try them.  They use short-range wireless and have to install an antenna outside. 
 
I think my plan is this.  I know with Centurylink, I HAVE the fastest speed possible.  But COX does have fiber to my house, just I'm not paying $125/month, 1 Gbps speeds or not.  So I will call them and say the magic words "DISCONNECT MY SERVICE."  That usually gets you to a special person with magical deals. 
 
COX with 50 down and 5 up would be great, but they don't deliver that 100% of the time.  That would be like buying a Ferrari, but learning that 10% of the time its speed will be limited to 15mph.  But their ad says "Goes 250mph*"     *NOTE: Speeds are not guaranteed.

My Cable modem is a Arris SB6141, which operates up to 343 Mpbs. If you don't pay for that speed, say you pay for 100Mbps, the cable company instructs the modem to limit to that speed. The problem is not speed, but that is why they can charge some people more or less for basically the same service.  The problem is capacity. 300Mbps sounds fantastic, but guess what, its a myth.  When everyone is streaming their movies they my use 10Mbps each, but the total adds up to more than their total capacity. So no matter what you pay for, you are splitting it with everyone else. 

Yes here have a Motorola SB6141 - think this is the last Motorola modem made before going to Arris.
 
Cable companies have been using that burst speed thing much lately. 
 
Your provisioning of the service tier is on the SB6141 encrypted but very Cisco router looking.
 
Originally dealing with Verizon for many many years for copper / DSL they sent me a letter that they were offering fiber.  The first year deal was $99 which was good for internet, television and telephone.  Second year went to $160 and third year it was just over $200.  Stayed like that for years until Frontier took over.  I do not want to write about the Frontier debacle here.
 
I have an old friend that has been using wireless now for many years on his farm.  Speeds are ok.  The connection is shared and does go up and down some.  Thing is that are only a few farms around such that it's probably not too bad.
 
I used Sprint Wireless internet when it was first introduced.  I liked the service and speeds at the time.  (before cable).
 
I do not pay attention to the bandwidth of streaming movies.  I am seeing total internet used now on my Comcast bills and it is not exceeding their limits.  That said it does mention how much more I have to pay if I go over the limit of my internet connection.

I've had 30mbs down for the last 8 years or so, and I'm planning on upgrading to 150-300 mpbs in the next week.  We'll see how much of an improvement it provides.
 
Will also switch back from DTV to xfinity for TV, after 5 years.  DirecTV service has sucked, going to try xfinity/comcast again, for a couple years.
 
I don't like paying the higher cost for higher download speeds, but it's the going rate.  Google Fiber is 6 miles away, but I don't think it's getting any closer.

Neurorad said:

I've had 30mbs down for the last 8 years or so, and I'm planning on upgrading to 150-300 mpbs in the next week.  We'll see how much of an improvement it provides.

Click to expand...

Let us know the difference. I could barely tell 5Mbps from 50Mbps for web surfing. 
 

Neurorad said:

Will also switch back from DTV to xfinity for TV, after 5 years.  DirecTV service has sucked, going to try xfinity/comcast again, for a couple years.
 
I don't like paying the higher cost for higher download speeds, but it's the going rate.  Google Fiber is 6 miles away, but I don't think it's getting any closer.

Click to expand...

I have DirecTV also. It seems to work, but one possible solution is to go to COX for both TV and Internet to get the fiber Internet and TV for the same cost I'm now paying for slower Internet and TV.  Changing is a pain, as my wife records ALOT, so she has to watch all her shows before the DVR goes back.

Here have been using DTV since it began many years ago.  We switched from using DTivo to their recorder and that was very low on the WAF.  Never have changed the contract and it is understood that it is higher these days.
 
Wife does record everything. 
 
At one time there was a concurrent Comcast for TV connection which today is long gone.  I did try the MythTV to HD Homerun devices which worked OK for me but not for wife.  I have left in place the OTA HDHomerun boxes but this box is not utilized much these days.
 
I have recently reviewed the "rules" for Comcast and they have changed.  Here own my modem.  Noticed that now any service call for any work outside is a charge unless you pay $6.00 a month even if your cable was installed by the same provider. Way back when I had irrigation installed the installers did cut the cable wire.  A few years back the cable company did show up unannounced and replaced my cable which was good.  Only issue was that they left the cable on the grass and didn't bury it until I made a big deal out of it.  New stuff looks to be a signed two year contract with a guarantee on a one year rate and a forced paperless billing thing (not an an option).
 
In retrospect the internet deals all suck these days whatever you utilize.  The cable companies were slapped on the wrist for only offering bundled deals and no deals on Internet only and they skirted the issues with a disregard to the consumer...so shutting down TV and telephone and getting a la carte Internet isn't really that good of a deal these days.

pete_c said:

Here have been using DTV since it began many years ago.  We switched from using DTivo to their recorder and that was very low on the WAF.  Never have changed the contract and it is understood that it is higher these days.
 
Wife does record everything. 
 
At one time there was a concurrent Comcast for TV connection which today is long gone.  I did try the MythTV to HD Homerun devices which worked OK for me but not for wife.  I have left in place the OTA HDHomerun boxes but this box is not utilized much these days.
 
I have recently reviewed the "rules" for Comcast and they have changed.  Here own my modem.  Noticed that now any service call for any work outside is a charge unless you pay $6.00 a month even if your cable was installed by the same provider. Way back when I had irrigation installed the installers did cut the cable wire.  A few years back the cable company did show up unannounced and replaced my cable which was good.  Only issue was that they left the cable on the grass and didn't bury it until I made a big deal out of it.  New stuff looks to be a signed two year contract with a guarantee on a one year rate and a forced paperless billing thing (not an an option).
 
In retrospect the internet deals all suck these days whatever you utilize.  The cable companies were slapped on the wrist for only offering bundled deals and no deals on Internet only and they skirted the issues with a disregard to the consumer...so shutting down TV and telephone and getting a la carte Internet isn't really that good of a deal these days.

Click to expand...

Yes, things are a mess.  They do everything possible to make everything more expensive. You mention MythTV and I think I had that, but we had Windows Media Center, which in its day, was pretty sophisticated.  We used Cablecards and multiple tuners, and could record multiple shows and watch them in multiple rooms.  This was years before you could do that with Cable or satellite. At one time I even had this software running that could detect commercials on a recorded program, and actually skip them when you played it back. 
 
Today there are many steaming services, but many don't have a DVR, and many don't let you watch local stations or only some.  Its just a money grab, and the actually customers are at the bottom of the list.
 
You say you have DTV since the beginning, but if you don't want to get ripped-off, you have to renegotiate every few years.  You HAVE to.  I had DirecTV and my bill was like $85/month. Then my contract ran out and it jumped to $145.  But lower your bill is very easy.  You just need to know this secret phase.  "Cancel Service."
 
Just call up, and when the computer says "Please Describe Your Problem?"  Say your secret phrase.  You will bypass any wait, and immediately be sent to special operators whose only purpose is to lower your bill.  You may have to repeat your secret phase to them as well.  Now I pay about $80 for DirecTV with DVR and two remote boxes.

Yes have done similar with DTV and currently using one of their DVR's and two boxes here too with a similar price to you.  For the longest time it was around $60 with my DirectTivo. Wife did get way upset seeing the "sports" tax fixed on to the bill which truly is mickey mouse.   The only issues over the years was giving up our owned direct tivo box and when Direct TV switched over to AT&T.   The Tivo box worked great while Direct TV told me it wasn't compatible any more.  I do recall requesting a replacement for free which DirectTV did do.  When AT&T took over they wanted to redo my contract offering all kinds of stuff.  I said no.  Today I still do not have any sort of contract with them that I know of.  I like that I still get a paper bill that I manually write a check for every month.  Over the years have seen issues with auto debit but none have been our issues.    Well too wife is in banking and seen the auto debit stuff exceed death. 
 
The satellite stuff started here with a BUD in the 1980's initially while concurrently getting digital TV when it was introduced.
 
MythTV started with Microsoft Media center and currently it is only connected to HDHomerun tuners for OTA streaming and recording with Kodi.
 
There are custom Kodi programs today that will recording streaming live TV.  The option to save a streamed movie has always been there.
 
Personally here do not watch TV (or television series) live.  Wife records her cooking shows and other stuff and only watches the recordings.  Never see her watch anything live.  I do not watch her stuff. 

So I decided to cancel COX, because while Centurylink DSL is VERY VERY slow, it does stream Netflix good and 7Mbps is fast enough for my needs.  So I call them up, and get their call center, you know, where you can hear 500 people in the background talking to other customers?  As it turns out, all their systems are DOWN, and I need to call back in a few hours.  That's reassuring!!!

Have a look here...makes for an interesting read...
 
Other ways of canceling service?
 
 
And if you have problems may be..
 
Where and who would I contact someone at Cox who I could complain and write to about continuing problems with Cox and their quality control as well as customer service?
 
 
Customer Contact Information:

Customers trying to reach our Corporate Offices should call (888) 566-7751Call: (888) 566-7751
 
or
 
send an email message to: [email protected]

pete_c said:

Have a look here...makes for an interesting read...
 
Other ways of canceling service?
 
 
And if you have problems may be..
 
Where and who would I contact someone at Cox who I could complain and write to about continuing problems with Cox and their quality control as well as customer service?
 
 
Customer Contact Information:

Customers trying to reach our Corporate Offices should call (888) 566-7751Call: (888) 566-7751
 
or
 
send an email message to: [email protected]

Click to expand...

 
NONE of them make it easy to cancel EVER.  In fact if you want to upgrade services, you can do that online, but if you want to downgrade services, forget about it, it can't be done.
 
Also, remember, calling to "Cancel" isn't REALLY just about cancelling. Its getting access to this "Super Dealmaker Agent" who has access to special deals other agents can only dream of accessing. ^_^

So I discovered there are two wireless Internet providers in my are. Both are smaller companies the offer 20M/3M for about $60/month.  If it doesn't work out after 30 days, I can cancel. I do have fiber here, but its $120/month.  Personally I don't think its worth it.

Good news Ano.
 
You got me looking at the DTV monthly invoice which I have not really paid attention to.  It is now a tad over $100 where as last time I looked and mentioned it above it was $60 a month.  May try the retention thing or go to DISH.  I do not want to sign or approve any contract for anything; just lower the monthly rate.
 
Only thing would be the WAF and her DVR.  IE: Tivo to DTV DVR was a traumatic experience here for my wife.  DTV is only for Wife here as I do not every watch or record anything these days from DTV.  Personally only stream these days.