Comcast ISP Review & Reader Survey Results

[rantoc]

Darn i feel sorry for you guys, in Sweden my 1gb costs 20$ a month and yes its full duplex and get speedometer tests of about 970-980mb both up and down over the internet and its also insanely reliable. less than 20 mins of downtime the last year (have a home server that records net stability).

Downloading that new game release over steam at >110-120mb/sec is insane to be honest.

 

[leo2kp]

I've had no issues with Comcast and I've used them in three different homes over 6 years. I own my own hardware and my network is on a UPS, and like someone else said, it's more reliable than our electricity. We have power outages every so often but our internet stays connected. Their upload performance is way better than what CenturyLink offers in our area (the only other ISP available), so Comcast was really the only option for us, but we've been very happy with them. Like the review states, their prices are the only thing I'm not excited about. We pay about $80/month for 105mb (122mb on SpeedTest). But for the reliability and performance, I'm willing to do that until they start enforcing a data cap. We stream EVERYTHING to avoid the cost of HD cable/satellite.

 

[dgingeri]

For those of you in small countries bragging about getting 1Gb for $20, that's the advantage of a small country. They don't have to lay out so much cable to get to people. The cost in the US of laying out coax cable for these things is extremely expensive. Where in South Korea or Sweden, a mile of cable connects to 12-50 people, in the US a mile of cable connects to one person, on average. (There are neighborhoods where a mile can connect to 6 people, and apartment complexes where it can get to 100 people, but there are many miles where it won't connect to anyone.) Plus, with the cable mostly unprotected for so many miles (laying in the ground, but no road or sidewalk or building foundation to protect it) it is exposed to water more often and for longer times, so it degrades more quickly. In addition, the equipment must be built with long distances in mind, and drive a higher signal power, so it is more expensive. With our wide open spaces. it just costs more to lay down the cable, maintain it, and operate the equipment. So, yeah, internet is going to be a bit more expensive here.

We also don't have the socialist government paying for most of it. Government money comes from the people. So, you're paying for it in any case, but with government involved, it's going to be significantly more expensive overall. Those of you under socialist rule just don't realize it.

 

[Jrestes927]

Never had an issue with Comcast's performance. I currently have the "Extreme 250Mbps" (bundled with 220 HDTV Channels), and I'm currently getting about 290Mbps down, and 30Mbps up for $119/month for internet and TV. Would ideally like to get a slightly better ping (getting about 20ms now), but it's rarely noticeable in online gaming. Also - there's nothing better available in my area yet...so yeeahhhh. I'll stick with what works. Thanks Obama! I mean...errrrrr...Comcast!

 

[10tacle]

For those of you in small countries bragging about getting 1Gb for $20, that's the advantage of a small country. They don't have to lay out so much cable to get to people....[snip]...We also don't have the socialist government paying for most of it. Government money comes from the people. So, you're paying for it in any case, but with government involved, it's going to be significantly more expensive overall. Those of you under socialist rule just don't realize it.

THANK you. I get so frustrated by people constantly whining that small EU nations have better mobile phone and ISP/cable service. They pay way more in taxes than we in America do, with middle-income groups paying over 40%, and a good portion of that confiscated income in taxes goes to government-run utilities and networking infrastructure.

I'd rather have more money in my pocket and competitive choices in my ISPs. And if I lived in an area with little population, I would not complain about only having one ISP servicing the area. I live in a major US city and have no less than 5 ISP and cable companies to choose from, excluding satellite dish providers (DirectTV, Dish). And this city is one that will be getting Google and AT&T 1Gb fiber.

 

[Thexder]

I don't know about Comcast, I just know that I have had DSL service before and like everyone I have talked to who currently has it, or had it in the past, they all think it is generally very slow and far more expensive than cable. I recently looked at AT&T again because time warner gave me some problems and I was shocked to learn that I would have to pay more than twice as much for one tenth the speed. Not believing this as I see AT&T trucks in my apartment complex regularly I contacted their support, first I was told that I could not get service, to which I responded that the website says I can, the adjustment complex says I can, and there is an AT&T box in my closet for internet and phone. Then they told me that I need to fill out the form on the website to check if I could get service 3 times and each time I responded saying I already did that and that I wanted to know if there was anything available that was not listed

 

[profoundnoah]

What about that god awful gateway that they "provide for free," but charge you a mint once you look at your yearly bill for? My family has been using that for 3 years, meaning that we could've spent $360 on performance internet equipment instead of gateway garbage. 1/5 for me. I only just now upgraded to a Netgear N900 Router and my family is blown away with it. We'll be buying a new modem soon to replace the gateway completely. Can't recommend doing this enough.

 

[dgingeri]

That gateway wireless router and cable modem in one? That's a major security flaw waiting to happen. All the Comcast employees, and ex-employees, know the back door login for it. It could easily have a program inserted to track internet usage and steal passwords. I recommend getting rid of that as soon as possible.

 

[Anaxamenes]

I noticed that the service cut out a lot less when we gave back our Comcast modem/wifi router and plugged in our own Motorolla modem and an Apple Airport. Way less resetting the modem, uplugging things, hang-ups and the like. If you have intermittent problems, you may want to get your own equipment. It pays for itself over time.

 

[rgd1101]

If you are eligible then you can get Up to 25 Mb/s for $10 https://internetessentials.com/ and that from comcast too.

 

[skippyboy92362]

I lived in Richmond VA for 12 years and 9 of those years we had Comcast. Yes there rates where outrages and poor service. We switched to Verizon Fios as soon as it was available in our area. Never had a complaint with them. But now that we have moved back home to Iowa were stuck with Mediacom as the only option in our community. lousy service and pricing. Worse than Comcast. Until these local and state utility boards start allowing for competition in areas, were just going to have to suck it up.

 

[dgingeri]

I lived in Richmond VA for 12 years and 9 of those years we had Comcast. Yes there rates where outrages and poor service. We switched to Verizon Fios as soon as it was available in our area. Never had a complaint with them. But now that we have moved back home to Iowa were stuck with Mediacom as the only option in our community. lousy service and pricing. Worse than Comcast. Until these local and state utility boards start allowing for competition in areas, were just going to have to suck it up.

The big problem is that cable companies fund the election campaigns of local government, and use that leverage to make sure no competition comes into town. Comcast alone spends nearly $10 million on local elections, and that pays off for them.

 

[10tacle]

The big problem is that cable companies fund the election campaigns of local government, and use that leverage to make sure no competition comes into town. Comcast alone spends nearly $10 million on local elections, and that pays off for them.

Interesting. I think I'm going to do some homework and find out what campaigns Comcast has donated to in my city and state (Democrat-controlled city in a Republican-controlled state).

 

[f-14]

i had comcast for more than a few years. the phone tech support wasn't the greatest, if you got an idiot hang up and call back until you get some one who displays intelligence. i wound up doing this 3-25 times per instance.

the service dropped atleast 1-2 times every 2 weeks, not a biggie except when it came back online my modem always had to be reprogrammed which was a massive p-in-t-a i have recently come to the conclusion it was because of all the burn out signals being sent thru the lines to pirates.

another thing a current comcast user friend of mine was told by the tech support who knows quite a bit is that when the service gets upgraded the company does not send out the new modems to take advantage of the faster service unless upon request or you get a tech who knows alot and automatically sends it out after you have been a p-in-t-a long enough on the phone and have displayed above average networking knowledge. so if you didn't get a new modem when you enrolled for the higher speed or were automatically upgraded to the higher speed and didn't get the new modem, you're not going to get the faster speed. the tech that told my friend this said it is 90% of the problem most of the time hence why they contract out tech support to india, the less you know, the more they profit, there isn't enough tech support to handle the changes to the upgrade service and they roll it out as they have the ability to handle the tech support upgrades.
this is why i found the pricing for the problems outrageous. spending 2-4 hours a month on the phone with their bad tech support of my life is $20 an hour starting and they are not paying me to waste that amount of precious time. that's over a 40 hour work week of my time per year.

 

[falchard]

90% of the problem with cable internet is in the wiring. They either try to use a 50 year old coax that cannot support the QAM signal, their fittings are crimp instead of compression letting in interference, their is damage to the wire, the line is not grounded, the electrical is not properly installed, or they used an inadequate splitter.
Insufficient channels on a modem happens maybe 5% of the time.

 

[dgingeri]

i had comcast for more than a few years. the phone tech support wasn't the greatest, if you got an idiot hang up and call back until you get some one who displays intelligence. i wound up doing this 3-25 times per instance.

the service dropped atleast 1-2 times every 2 weeks, not a biggie except when it came back online my modem always had to be reprogrammed which was a massive p-in-t-a i have recently come to the conclusion it was because of all the burn out signals being sent thru the lines to pirates.

another thing a current comcast user friend of mine was told by the tech support who knows quite a bit is that when the service gets upgraded the company does not send out the new modems to take advantage of the faster service unless upon request or you get a tech who knows alot and automatically sends it out after you have been a p-in-t-a long enough on the phone and have displayed above average networking knowledge. so if you didn't get a new modem when you enrolled for the higher speed or were automatically upgraded to the higher speed and didn't get the new modem, you're not going to get the faster speed. the tech that told my friend this said it is 90% of the problem most of the time hence why they contract out tech support to india, the less you know, the more they profit, there isn't enough tech support to handle the changes to the upgrade service and they roll it out as they have the ability to handle the tech support upgrades.
this is why i found the pricing for the problems outrageous. spending 2-4 hours a month on the phone with their bad tech support of my life is $20 an hour starting and they are not paying me to waste that amount of precious time. that's over a 40 hour work week of my time per year.

I had a problem like that at my old apartment. The cable box got cracked somehow, and water got in and corroded the coax. The tech clipped off the end and put a new end on it, then sealed it over with heat shrink wrap. I'm not sure how waterproof it is, but I had a good signal for the next four years without any additional trouble.