Dropping MediaCON...is Centurylink a good alt for internet?

[zach]

I see that centurylink offers internet speed in my area only at 5 Mbps. I am told that since the phone line operates different than coaxial cable, 5 Mbps will be fine for streaming videos, live events on CycloneTV.com, youtube.... Or would a wifi/USB option from Verizon be better? Any thoughts on this? What is my best internet option not named mediacom? Is buffering going to be a problem?

Thanks in advance,

Z

 

[brianhos]

Centurylink is Ok, but they have gone downhill. The lines from my area are so oversaturated that from 4-11 performance is not up to par. While watching netflix I get stutters/pauses, and then the picture quality goes down low.

 

[azepp]

I think it depends where you are. I switched from Mediacom to Centurylink a couple years ago and my internet performance is 100x better now than it ever was with Mediacom.

I'm on the 7 Mbps plan and I have no problems with streaming.

 

[AirWalke]

12 mbps here, it's about the lowest my wife and I can go since we're often streaming netflix and playing online games simultaneously at night.

 

[cycloneted]

Centurylink's customer service is terrible, the worst I have dealt with. So don't expect anything on that end.

 

[agrabes]

Depending on the area/provider, DSL providers are notorious for throttling streaming video. I don't have any firsthand experience with CenturyLink so they may not be doing that.

 

[cmoore_23]

I wouldnt do it.. my grandpa did and they didnt even tell him that his speed was horrible where he lived and now it takes forever to load a video.. not happy at alll with their service

 

[nj829]

Centurylink's customer service is terrible, the worst I have dealt with. So don't expect anything on that end.

Yes, customer service is terrible. I have had a fiber connection since 2005 with them, and they still do not know how to correct any issues or where to send me without checking with a couple of departments. I have 15 mbps and it stays pretty consistent, but calling in for anything is an absolute nightmare. I have better luck sending tweets at their customer service line and get responses back generally within 30 minutes on any service issues.

 

[carvers4math]

We have Windstream. The speed isn't great but the customer service is fabulous.

We tried to get Mediacom once. After two weeks, they still could not successfully install service.

 

[isuforlife]

changed from cox to centurylink, love it

 

[cytech]

Have had Century Link for a little over a year now. I have the 12mb service, I plan on switching back to Mediacom for internet. Lots of pauses with century link problems I never had with Mediacom when I had their service.
The Century Link hasn't gone down as much as mediacom did but overall I would say the product is worse cause I have had many more short interruptions from them then mediacom.

In the end everyone's neighborhood is different. What is good for one may be horrible for another.

 

[garn91]

I've had 1.5 down CenturyLink DSL for 5 1/2 years with no issues, tomorrow i'm getting upgraded to 7 down. In this day and age, 1.5 down might as well be dial-up.

 

[ltrcola]

Did anyone else just get hit with a Mediacom internet price increase this month? Bill is all of a sudden $5 higher than it was last month and I didn't get any notification of a price hike.

So annoying, I really wish there were more & better options around here.

 

[Skyh13]

Did anyone else just get hit with a Mediacom internet price increase this month? Bill is all of a sudden $5 higher than it was last month and I didn't get any notification of a price hike.

So annoying, I really wish there were more & better options around here.

Did you do a 1-year or 2-year promotional package? Sounds like you did a 2-year, and your first year is up, so it goes up by $5 bucks or something. Wouldn't be surprised if they just hiked it though, they like to do that.

My promotional package ends this month.. went from paying $89/month for TV and internet to $149/month with TV and internet. I called and told them no way in hell I'd pay that much, they came back with $116/month for the first year and $126 per month the second year. Told them that wasn't nearly good enough, so I'll be saying goodbye to cable on the 13th..

Signed a deal to keep my internet from going up another $40 per month, though. Getting to the point where they want to charge as much as or more for internet than TV, despite the fact that it's a cheaper service for them. ******* capitalism, screws us all when cable providers own regional monopolies.

 

[iowa_wildcat]

Centurylink service is dependent on how far you are from their local office and how good are the phone lines between their office and your residence. After using those lines the last 12 years I cannot complain all that much. They do however try to blame all service problems on your equipment and not their relays and boxes. They actually pulled the plug on me downtown by mistake and tried to blame it on me. There tech came to the house and called downtown and told them to hook it back up. The tech apologized but obviously no apology or price compensation came from downtown. Your customer service calls are answered by someone in India most of the time.

Guess what? I like Mediacom even less!

 

[KaiserWilhelm]

Reiterating some of the other thoughts in this thread, CenturyLink's customer service is atrocious. I called in this summer about how awful my upload speed was, and I was told to call my computer manufacturer. I promptly hung up and changed to Comcast. I don't know what options you have in your area, but in my experience, Centurylink is not the answer.

 

[ISUAlum2002]

It's interesting that you post this, as I just had yet another issue with CLink DSL this morning. Woke up and the connection had been lost since around midnight. Multiple resets of the modem and it didn't come back, it was back up and running when I got home from work, thankfully.

I think their service reliability kind of depends on where you're at. When we were in Ames, it was fine, didn't experience many outages and the speed was OK. Here in a new residential development in Clive/Urbandale, the fastest speed they can get me is about 3mbps, even though they had told me it would be 7mbps when I was signing up for it prior to them making the connection. I contacted them to inquire about what they were going to do for me since they are only providing half the speed they sold me, they basically told me to get bent.

The speed in the evening is terribly slow, and the outages are frequent. Anytime it rains, the service will go out, no matter what. In fact, it will usually go out whenever there is rain or storms within about 20 miles west of here. I will be paying the extra fee and going with Mediacom cable internet as soon as this 12 month contract is up......only 5 months left. I had Mediacom for 7 years at our previous house and only had a handful of outages in that entire time.

 

[BigSkyCy2]

Did anyone else just get hit with a Mediacom internet price increase this month? Bill is all of a sudden $5 higher than it was last month and I didn't get any notification of a price hike.

So annoying, I really wish there were more & better options around here.

Actually, you probably did. I had the same thought when I looked at my bill. I was ready to call up and switch providers, until I looked at my bill from the previous month and there was a note in there about the price going up, as well as my internet speeds.

 

[ltrcola]

Actually, you probably did. I had the same thought when I looked at my bill. I was ready to call up and switch providers, until I looked at my bill from the previous month and there was a note in there about the price going up, as well as my internet speeds.

Yup, your're right. I knew I wasn't on a promotion. Thing is, the doofuses hid the announcement on the back of the bill instead of in the announcements section. At least they supposedly bumped up the download speeds.

 

[BigSkyCy2]

Yup, your're right. I knew I wasn't on a promotion. Thing is, the doofuses hid the announcement on the back of the bill instead of in the announcements section. At least they supposedly bumped up the download speeds.

Right there with ya man. I was pretty upset. Ready to call in and light them up, but then I found it on the back. Of course, when I went to speedtest.com, my speeds were no where close to what I was suppose to have.