ISPs in PDX?

April 13, 2023 10:05 PM

My current internet service provider (CenturyLink) just upped their monthly fee and I'd like to check out my alternatives. What ISP would you recommend?

I'm in the Southeast and I'd prefer a fiber connection.
Googling turned up a bunch of dubious review sites and Yelp, which was singularly unhelpful.

posted by HE Amb. T. S. L. DuVal to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

I would suggest the Portland subreddit. This search suggests Comcast is surprisingly good.
posted by blob at 10:33 PM on April 13, 2023

As a Portland Xfinity subscriber I’d recommend Century Link.
posted by bendy at 11:20 PM on April 13, 2023

I had CenturyLink fiber for the last year in SE and never had a problem. Comcast was also good at the same place. CL was definitely the better deal though. Are there other legit options?
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 4:32 AM on April 14, 2023

If you want fiber, you probably only have one choice because the ISP owns the connection to your house.
Likewise, if you want internet over coax, that's Comcast.
The other two ISPs I know of are T-Mobile or Verizon which are wireless.
I'm in NW PDX and only have access to Comcast or T-Mobile.
posted by elmay at 5:57 AM on April 14, 2023

I've had both Comcast/Xfinity and CenturyLink at various places in Oregon, they're both okay and I go with whichever is cheaper (currently Xfinity). Both dick you around approximately equal amounts and have perfectly fine internet service, IME.
posted by momus_window at 8:20 AM on April 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've used BroadbandNow to search for ISPs and it's pretty decent at it. Seconding that you probably only have the one option for fiber; fiber providers tend to avoid overlapping service areas. You may be able to get a better promo deal with switching to Xfinity, though they have a bandwidth cap and you won't get nearly as good upload speeds as fiber. My experience has been that Xfinity costs more than fiber for similar service once the promo period is up, so you'd either need to call in to negotiate or switch back eventually to keep the costs down.
posted by Aleyn at 11:08 AM on April 14, 2023

I live in the Pearl and have never had a problem with Xfinity. Good speed, very stable, low maintenance (I've been with Xfinity forever, like 20 years, and can count on one hand the number of times I've had to interact with them for tech support/outages), and the price is reasonable - not cheap, but also not out of control. And if I call them once a year and threaten to leave or price-shop, they more or less hold my monthly cost at the same level it's been at for the last probably 5 years or so.
posted by pdb at 5:03 PM on April 14, 2023