Reasonable internet service in Eugene?

6

u/DrKronin Feb 08 '13

Comcast is the best deal (sadly). I can't bring myself to give them any more money than I already do, so I have Centurylink. Neither are really all that fast, but Comcast is faster. Let's hope Google Fiber chooses Eugene sometime soon.

Cable companies make a 97% margin on Internet service in the U.S. because they have no competition, and thus no incentive to reduce price.

2

u/Taybaysi Feb 08 '13

No competition was my fear, but thanks for the truth! Thank you for the link too!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '13

Back east we had 3 local cable companies. It made it pretty easy, every year I'd just call up and say 'company x offered me a better deal, will you guys give me a deal to keep me from switching?'. It's like a 5 minute call that saves you a ton of money.

You can still do it here though. Cable may not exactly have any competition here, but you can still do DSL and Satellite. You can often do those cheaper as well, though the service is worse, but you can still use their lower prices to leverage Comcast into giving you a better deal. Just make sure the deal they give you does not require a contract...

2

u/DrKronin Feb 08 '13

I've heard that trick before, just haven't tried it. Honestly, I'm less concerned with the price, and more concerned with the fact that I can't get more bandwidth. I'd happily pay $100/month for 100-500 Mb down and at least 50 Mb up, but those speeds just aren't an option. A co-worker of mine pays the equivalent of $20/month for 5 times Comcast's top bandwidth offering -- in Brazil.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '13

What are you doing that you need that much bandwidth for?!?!?

I had Qwest/Century Link for quite a while and gave up mostly because the upstream was a paltry 768k and they had no better service to offer. My current comcast is 30mb down, 3mb up and I find it does the trick just fine. And though it's not cheap, $75 a month for that speed plus digital starter cable ain't too shabby.

1

u/DrKronin Feb 08 '13

Heh, "need" is probably too strong a term, but I could probably use nearly a gigabit at times. The biggest issue I've had with Comcast/Centurylink has been when I'm involved in some latency-sensitive gaming at the same time my girlfriend is streaming HD video or uploading hi-res photos (she's quite the prolific photographer). I also occasionally like to host private video streams of old, hard-to-find shows for friends, and 5 Mb up only allows a couple of people, and I can't do anything else while that's going on.

Currently, I'm getting about 20Mb down, 5 Mb up with Centurylink, so it isn't all that much slower than Comcast. The upstream speed might even be a bit faster at times.

4

u/mimrm Feb 08 '13

Call Comcast, hit the number for retention/downgrading services, keep saying that the deal sounds too expensive, and after a couple offers, they'll finally give you a good discount on what you are currently getting, for a much lower price.

tl;dr ...

4

u/Taybaysi Feb 08 '13

I'll give it a try, I wasn't sure at first but then I saw the mallard and, well, I'd be a fool to ignore that

2

u/higher_moments Feb 14 '13

You know, I tried that once, but it didn't work nearly as well as people promised. I decided that paying $70/month for 12 Mbps was too steep, but the retention department said that since DSL is objectively inferior (which I'm inclined to believe), the best they can do is give me 5 or 10 dollars off. I can't remember exactly the deal they gave me, but last I checked it looks like they raised the rates again anyway.

I resent Comcast's hegemony in the market, but their internet is fast and reliable. And maybe I'm just terrible at haggling, and you'll have better luck, so I suppose you've got nothing to lose by trying. But the lack of real competition leaves us consumers with very little leverage—Comcast knows that the demand for fast internet is pretty inelastic to price.

3

u/NigelKF Feb 08 '13

I have 50Mb through Comcast for $90/month, and I've had zero issues ever. Very satisfied.

1

u/Taybaysi Feb 08 '13

I suppose I must be getting the same, I just feel bad because it is so much money (I'm a dependent) but considering the internet is good quality (I can't deny that)

3

u/tangentc Feb 08 '13

Comcast is pretty much the only game in town, sadly. DSL cannot compete speed-wise. Whatever they claim, you should never expect more than 1.5Mb/s out of it, and most of the time not even that.

Comcast's pricing is absurd, but they have an effective monopoly, so there's nothing you can do about it. Probably going to stay that way, as no one has the financial resources to lay out the infrastructure to compete with them on a large scale.

2

u/Nolano Feb 08 '13

I've recently gone from comcast to century link. It is regrettable. Call and threaten to cancel until they give you a better deal

1

u/Taybaysi Feb 08 '13

Thanks, I was considering that but I'll have to think twice...

2

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '13

I currently use century link, and while its not as fast, they didn't sign the 6 strike kill policy for suspected piracy. However, if you're sharing or heavily play mmo's it's not so great

2

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '13

They are advertising satellite internet around town, don't do it. It's worse than CenturyLink and has ridiculous caps. I had to do it because there is no comcast or dsl at my house.

1

u/trenchcoatangel Feb 08 '13

Century Link? $36 for the first 6 months, then it goes up.

5

u/Midgath Feb 08 '13

Qwest/Century Link is shit. The throughput and latency is terrible. A friend and I tried switching from Comcast to Qwest 3-4 years ago. The latency was so bad we reconnected our Comcast cable modem within an hour. It may be better now, but knowing Qwest it's unlikely.

2

u/doyouknowdota Feb 08 '13

Century Link has shit internet.

Comcast is the cheapest 1.5 Mb connection I know of.

1

u/Sethora Feb 08 '13

You can get Comcast internet for $30 a month for the first 6 months, and it's faster. After the first 6 months, you can go back and ask for a deal again. They'll oblige you.

I prefer going into the center to calling, but there's usually a 15-30 minute wait.

1

u/Amlethus Feb 08 '13

How much are you paying for it? And which service do you have? What are your needs?

2

u/Taybaysi Feb 08 '13

Almost 89 dollars!!!! I only need internet and that's all I get from Comcast, but also channels 1-14 because they said it'd be cheaper than just internet. I guess I'm kind of a sucker though...

4

u/OddBob212 Feb 08 '13

My service has crept up from 65 to 73 dollars in the last 4 months, just for internet and the most basic TV. I fear I'm not far behind you...

1

u/Amlethus Feb 08 '13

See my parallel comment to OP; if you need fast and stable internet (they have a guaranteed 24 hour max service time for business class), then it's the way to go.

1

u/Taybaysi Feb 08 '13

I'm sorry to hear that.

2

u/Amlethus Feb 08 '13

Yeah, they're giving you a bad deal. If you need good, fast, stable internet, and you're not too bitter to continue doing business with Comcast (I wouldn't blame you if you were), then ask Comcast about their business-class internet for your "home business" (don't worry, there's no legal issues here for lying, just say that you work from home part time, or you're a student, whatever).

Their bottom-tier business class internet is about $64 per month and blazingly fast. I regularly get over 20 Mbps over wifi, and I think I've peaked at about 40 or 50 via ethernet.

1

u/Taybaysi Feb 08 '13

Brilliant! Thanks so much, I would feel so okay paying $65 compared to what's happening now.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '13

No no no don't bundle. It's NEVER cheaper than a single service. What they mean is that it's cheaper relative to the individual cost of all their services added together.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '13

You want cheap or good? Comcast has the best service around. Dunno what you're paying, right now I'm on a 12 month promo with 30mb internet and basic digital cable for $69.99 a month. If you're not on any special plan, call them up, tell them you want to cancel and switch to DSL, they'll lower your rates right quick...

1

u/Taybaysi Feb 08 '13

I want somewhere in the middle? I only need internet, but at this price I'm getting robbed. Calling is a really good idea, I feel silly for not having thought of that... I have been paying more each quarter because of the deal I'm on but it sounds like it's time for a switch... I think I'll call first though. Thanks!