US Internet service providers - prices? options?

January 9, 2008 1:46 PM

American high speed internet: what are the options? What is the price range? Why are the websites of the major companies so bad?

My husband and I are moving from the U.K to the U.S. next week. We need to get going on ordering an internet service, but we're coming into the market blind. Everything seems so expensive, unless you get a huge bundle, and that's still more than we need and definitely more than we can afford.

Basically, all we need is high speed internet - anything above 1.5 Mbps download speeds would do (though faster is, of course, nicer). But we do need a good upload speed as well, and no bandwidth limits, because we use Skype a lot, and we transfer data over the internet for our academic work (and yes, YouTube eats up a lot, too). We don't mind peak bandwidth limits, so long as they are not ridiculously small.

We don't really need a home telephone, though if there is a service which would give us a plan old landline for only $10-20 or more so a month above internet, we might get one (for the convenience and security). We wouldn't use cable tv at all - the internet is distraction enough.

So our question(s) boil down to:

- how much upload speed is needed to have a decent conversation via Skype (Computer to Computer and potentially Skype out)?

- what kind of prices should we expect in the U.S.? In the U.K. we were getting high speed internet for £22/month ($40 USD) that included a stable IP and unlimited downloads (and we didn't really need a stable IP). But in the US it seems that the prices are more like $60-100 USD/month.

We will be in New Haven, CT, if that helps (I realize that some services are only available in some areas).

(As for the last part of my question - I have to say that some of the big American companies (AT&T, Comcast, Verizon) have set new lows for webdesign and functionality. I have never even conceived that an internet provider might not have basic information listed on a webpage, but insist on you talking to a live sales represenative, which just pisses me off and probably loses them a customer).

posted by jb to computers & internet (17 comments total)

Why are the websites of the major companies so bad?

They're preparing you for the quality of customer service you will receive. Search on the Consumerist for tales of woe involving those three companies. Of special interest is Verizon face, the face you make when you find you have to deal with Verizon.

I have never even conceived that an internet provider might not have basic information listed on a webpage, but insist on you talking to a live sales represenative, which just pisses me off and probably loses them a customer

When it comes to telecom, the U.S. is quite a bit less uniform than the UK. They may not put the prices up because they vary by area, and certain services may not be available in certain areas. And if the other companies do this too, then they can't really lose a customer.
posted by grouse at 2:00 PM on January 9, 2008 [2 favorites]

I'm pretty sure Connecticut is all AT&T. That means Verizon is not an option for land telephone services or DSL.

Personal Experience: I am about 20 miles north of New Haven and I have AT&T DSL. My bill is $50 / month, for a basic phone line plus Pro DSL, which is 3Mb down / 512k up. (Other speed options here.) The DSL part is $25 of that, the phone is $16, and there's $9 of tax. Or you can get DSL without the phone. Those plans are here. I've had DSL for 6 years or so, and I've been perfectly happy with it. I download a lot per month and they've never complains, and the service has been very reliable. The prices have dropped consistently too.

The other option for most people is going through the cable company. I'm not sure who the cable company in New Haven is, but they would be the ones to talk to. Similar pricing though.
posted by smackfu at 2:06 PM on January 9, 2008

Can't help you with Skype, as I've never used it, but I can provide some pricing information since I just switched from one big company to another big company (Comcast to AT&T).

Comcast always has promotional rates of $20/month, $30/month, etc. but these are all short term rates. After your six month period is up, Comcast drastically changes the rate to their normal price of $50+ dollars. My last month, they increased it to $58/month somehow since I got bumped to a higher-speed plan without knowing it.

You can call in after six months to complain and they usually lower your rates back down to $30/month or so. I did this several times, but decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

Comcast really, really wants you to get cable and HDTV and all the other things, they're big on bundling - you get massive discounts if you buy additional services. Like you, I had no use for these since I had the internet.

So I switched to AT&T's lowest price plan. It costs $10/month with a one year contract, plus another $10 or so for a metered phone line. This is the slowest speed possible (~768 Kbps) on a dynamic IP with unlimited downloads (subject to the fine print in your contract). A phone line with all local calls free may have cost another $5/month. An upgrade to 1.5 Mbps would have cost another $10/month, so your total might be $35/month for a phone line and a 1.5 Mbps DSL connection.

I'd agree with you on AT&T's webpage - the ordering process was so confusing and riddled with places to run into errors that I had to go through the whole process three times, and I wasn't able to enter the right information in the end. These are large telcos/utilities who are used to having a monopoly, and web sites aren't really their priority. Oddly enough, every time I called them on the phone, a live person was on the line within ten minutes.
posted by meowzilla at 2:08 PM on January 9, 2008

which just pisses me off and probably loses them a customer

They could care less. In most locales in the United States, you will be dealing with the local cable or DSL monopoly. It knows there is no other place to take your business to and will treat you accordingly.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:10 PM on January 9, 2008

While living in New Haven I had SBC (Now AT&T) DSL (3.0/512k) for a few years. Never had an outage and I believe it was about $25-30.
posted by sanka at 2:13 PM on January 9, 2008

For those of you on AT&T - have you run into problems with bandwidth limits?
posted by jb at 2:13 PM on January 9, 2008

BTW, I linked to the AT&T site, but I wouldn't try to do anything through that. I've never been able to order anything. It always rejects me and tells me to call. But they have good people on the phone in my experience, so that's not that bad. Whenever my contract expires, I call them up and they give me some new promo and act apologetic that they tried to charge me money.

Bandwidth limits? Like total per month? No, never. And if they don't hassle me, I'm not sure who they would hassle. I abuse the heck out of my DSL.

Also, static IP is considered a business service and is charged like it, so you probably aren't interested in that unless you NEED it.
posted by smackfu at 2:21 PM on January 9, 2008

I'm on AT&T's "elite" package (6mb/sec down for about $35), in San Francisco, and I've had a SBC/PacBell/AT&T DSL line for about 10 years here. I've never run into a bandwidth limit, and I'm a very heavy user (Terabytes per month, easily). In general, bandwidth in the US is throttled, not metered. You purchase a 1.5Mb/sec connection, and whether that line is busy or idle, you pay the same for it -- and don't generally get penalized for heavy use.

There have been some reports of companies (most notably Comcast) imposing limits on some Bittorrent users and other p2p users, but if you're just browsing and using skype, you're unlikely to run into that.

AT&T's web site is awful, but they are the phone company. When I've called them, they've generally been pretty good (especially considering they're a monopoly and I can't really take my business elsewhere). I can count the number of DSL outages over the last 10 years on one hand -- so my contact with them has been rare.
posted by toxic at 2:24 PM on January 9, 2008

1. The reason that there is no real information on the websites is that there are no fixed prices. Cable TV/internet service is one of the few truly price-negotiable products one can buy these days. This means that if you simply call up and say "I'm moving into a new apartment, please sell me service" you will be given a relatively high price.

You need to call up each of the providers in your locality (See #2) and say something like "I'm moving in and so-and-so has offered me [some really good price, say, $25 a month]". They will start making you offers, and hang in there, and eventually they'll give you a good price ($20-30 per month) that's only good for 6 or 12 months. At that point, your monthly bill will shoot up to $45-50 per month, at which point you'll have to call up and threaten to cancel your account and switch to a competitor, and you'll get to bargain again, and you'll get another 6- or 12-month "promotion." If you are ever not on one of these "promotions," you are paying too much.

One exception to this may be Verizon's fiber product (FIOS), which I've seen advertising fairly low prices to begin with.


2. In most states (I believe CT is one of them), cable TV and internet providers are regulated by individual municipalities. This means that some cities are monopolies, and if you're lucky, there might be 3 or 4 providers from which to choose.

3. Customer service pretty much sucks across the board. However, Verizon's FIOS product is superior in a few ways to the RCN and Comcast cable options in most places.

4. If you decide you might want Comcast, Comcastoffers.com is likely the best price you will find. It's administered by a third party. It requires that you sign up for the bare-bones cheapest cable TV service from Comcast first (something around $10) and then sign up on the website. After a mail-in rebate, the total cost (including the cable TV) is around $10 per month for the first 6 months, and then a little over $50 (at which point you will need to call up Comcast, wait for a while, tell them you want to cancel because so-and-so is offering a better price, and re-bargain).
posted by rxrfrx at 2:38 PM on January 9, 2008 [1 favorite]

Here in Beaverton OR, we just got wired for fiberoptic by Verizon, so suddenly there's competition. I'm not sure what Verizon's rate is, but with Comcast cable, it's 8 megabits down, 768 kilobits up, $50 per month. (Myself, I pay twice that because I have a server and have a "commercial" account. It's the same bandwidth but I get a permanent IP and they assume I'll use more capacity, especially upstream, than a normal user.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:08 PM on January 9, 2008

Welcome to the US!

I don't have experience with New Haven, CT but if you put in your zip code here you can find broadband providers in the area: Broadband reports.com. There are also user reviews by zip code so you can track down actual performance for your area...
posted by sharkfu at 3:31 PM on January 9, 2008 [1 favorite]

jb, I'm not sure you need to worry about bandwidth limits too much. Skype uses a tiny amount amount of bandwidth (3-16 kb/sec). At an average rate, if you were talking for 24 hours straight, that would use up about as much bandwidth as downloading an episode of House (not that anyone ever does such things). Unless your work involves uploading massive videos, you're almost certainly never going to hit a bandwidth cap.

As part of an agreement with the FCC, which was basically reversing the break up of Ma Bell, AT&T has to offer low-cost "naked" DSL. Basically, it's DSL without a phone line or any other garbage. It's supposed to be available nationwide as of 2008, but it's hard to saw if that's actually the case. If you're just going to be using mobile phones, this is probably worth investigating.
posted by Nelsormensch at 3:45 PM on January 9, 2008

If you decide to go with cable, you will likely have only one cable company to choose from. I have the 6MB tier Comcast, which - unlike most of the rest of the population - has been great for me for years. Skype runs like a dream, and I use it almost every day. I have Speakeasy DSL at work, the 3MB tier - it works for Skype, but we tend to have some bad quality issues occasionally.

I would also recommend broadbandreports.com to get a feel for what's available in the New Haven area. They have a lot of information, including if there are any smaller, local ISPs that might work better for you than the giant ISPs like Verizon or SBC.
posted by gemmy at 4:32 PM on January 9, 2008

You basically got two options: DSL or cable. Cable is faster, sometimes significantly. Comcast and Time Warner give you around 5 Mb/s transfer speeds. DSL is about a third to a quarter as fast for the same price range (~$45 / mo.) Cable is shared, however, so you'll only hit your max transfer rates during non-peak hours. DSL isn't, so (again, theoretically) you should be able to sustain the stated rates at any time of day. Your mileage will vary.

For Skype, the most important thing isn't overall transfer speed, but latency. The lower the amount of time that it takes to send a packet of information from your computer to your provider's network, the better. Easiest way to measure this is to use ping time.

If you can get FIOS, well... GET IT.

N-thing the broadbandreports.com recommendation.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:58 PM on January 9, 2008

I actually have to say that the AT&T website is substantially better than the Comcast one, and it's looking like the AT&T no-phoneline plans are the best for our needs.

I understand the different prices or plans available in different regions. What I don't understand is why they just can't build a database to serve me a webpage telling me what is available after I plug in the zip-code, and note that details (installation costs, etc) may vary. AT&T does this on their website - Comcast refuses to. Aside from the higher price, I hate the feeling of not being able see all of the options laid out clearly and systematically - and I hate being "sold" to when I just want information.

Thanks for all of your help - this has cleared up a great deal for me.
posted by jb at 9:42 PM on January 9, 2008

Sorry - AT&T doesn't have a database, but it does tell you the basic plan rates, which Comcast does not.
posted by jb at 9:42 PM on January 9, 2008

Compared to the UK, there is really no competition. Like others have said, you generally have the local cable monopoly's option, or the local phone monopoly's DSL option.

If you take the latter, you will likely be screwed for the various local phone charges/surcharges. If you take the former, you will be screwed with a monthly surcharge unless you sign up for one of the lovely cable packages they offer.

Budget $50/mo; try one, and if it's rubbish, try the other. You may be offered a promo rate when you sign up, with a fixed-term contract. You could always insist on a month-to-month rate or look for a way to avoid any penalty. You will be harangued, no matter which one you choose, to sign up for 'bundle' packages, since the cable cos want to sell TV+internet+VOIPish phone, and the phone cos want to sell landline+mobile+internet+satellite.
posted by holgate at 10:10 PM on January 9, 2008