S Folinsky

Many people from the UK and Europe do not have a true concept of how geographically large the US is. So, when one asks "how does it work in the US?" or "how much does it cost?" -- the answers will vary a lot.

The late "Tip" O'Neil once famously stated "All politics are local." That really applies in spades to internet service. As a general rule, the two physical "pipes" for internet service will be over the telephone lines or over TV cables. As noted, those physical lines were installed by regulated "public utility" companies which had a monopoly. [That said, there are many providers who may use the particular physical lines].

On the telephone infrastructure, the age can vary widely. It is possible for two houses 200 feet apart to have different access -- one will be at the end of the fiber-optic lines and the other still on the copper installed in 1938.

In our personal use, we have not needed true high speed. We were on AT&T [formerly "Pacific Bell", then "SBCGlobal"] DSL service which was fine for our modest needs. Very recently AT&T discontinued DSL and changed us over to "U-Verse" -- they provided the replacement modem/router at no charge for self-installation.

BTW, it is advisable to have a conventional land line for telephone service. A power failure will not cause one to lose phone service [assuming that one also has a handset powered by the phone line].

Spikeh

Well, the reason I started this thread was because I'm aware that the US is vastly different from the UK - I wanted to know how different

Your replies have given me a lot of information - I now feel a little bit more knowledgeable in regards to how it all sits together, and what kind of options I'll have when / if I do finally get over there.

Bob

I thought Comcast had to remove their cap, or at least their throttling. Either way, they were shit in the burbs of Boston. Saying that, FIOS hasn't been much better for me either.

As to the OP, there's not going to be much choice, DSL report is a good website, stick in the zip code to the area you're be living in and see who provides the service. The quality depends exactly on the area and who provides it.

There are some cities with 100+ up/down service being offered, but not many. Tends to be pretty expensive.

The problem with FIOS, you've got to use their modem and it's shit, the wireless part of it is even worse and they make it really complicated to use your own wireless router. You need their modem for the tele to work too, so it's pretty much a no goer but to use their gear, but usually they give you the modem. They do hose you on the extras though.

kimilseung

Must have been the throttling.

Comcast is going to raise the free limit to 300, then charge (rather than sending warnings and cut off notice) for usage above the 300.

GeoffM

Really? I host a source control server which others access, and multiplayer games, both of which need port forwarding and it was a cinch. I can't think what else I've ever needed to do with a router!

Yes, we got ours "free".

Bob

It's shit in that it's got a really slow network through put.

65Mbps v 150Mbps on my n rated one. Also the range is shit in comparison to my old one and this thing is a massive break in comparison to my Netgear.

Not that I need to, but it would also be nice to be able to bridge the network and extend it if you wanted/needed to do that, which using their modem combo isn't as simple as it should be.

GeoffM

Ok. I'm not exactly pumping that much through it - I can get the 25 meg through Wifi without problems, and I don't stream stuff around the house - YouTube is about all, which is bugger all! Maybe I'll try watching live TV on the phone in the jacuzzi which is about 90ft away, through internal and external walls - browsing certainly works fine from there.

Dan725

Have to say I'm very happy with Fios. Managed to get a special "Gamer" deal around Christmas time for 35/35 for the same package price as their basic 15/5 (in reality I get a steady 43 down/26 up). For the phone/net/and "Premium" (i.e. basic) TV package, including HDDVR and all taxes & associated BS fees I pay about $109 a month - the DVR was free for 3 months though and I also got a $330 cashback for a 2 year contract...if you back that out of the bill per month over the 2 years its a pretty good deal really. Also got a few other goodies live a years subscription to Xbox Live and a couple of x360 games.

Guess it depends on what you want to do but I've had no trouble at all with the supplied router for my needs (one hardwired PC plus a ton of different wifi devices and rudimentary home network capability). Never had a range issue with it either for my needs (first a 2200 sqft house, plus now a much smaller apartment). Fios for me has always been absolutely reliable - I've had it in 2 different locations now over about 4 years or so and think I can only recall it going down once, for a very short period of time. What I really like about it is the up/down speeds are *always* the same - with my prior cable (Brighthouse), the speeds would fluctuate a lot and dropouts were far more frequent.

I imagine with you being a techie though Bob, you are probably connected to the Matrix or something...so can see the supplied router might fall flat for your needs!

Bob

Around here, FIOS has been shit, it's cut out a few times, especially the tele.

It's better than Comcast and the 25/25 internet has for the most part been that, unlike Comcast which was the same level but realistically was lucky to get 15/5.

The $330 gift card, they wouldn't give it to us because they ballsed up a online payment and it wasn't a big deal because the few folks we know that did get it found they couldn't use the card at most places around here and it had a hefty service charge for not using it quickly.

The other issue was signing up on their special for $90 a month for the cable/phone/internet but realistically ended up being $150 a month once you factored in the HD, DVR, just the one and just the basic tv, and then all the taxes and other addons.

Basically, they're not entirely shit, but they're really no better than Comcast, which down my way wasn't that great. That and the modem/router needs to be restarted every couple of weeks, which was more frequent than the Comcast modem.

Dan725

I reckon it must be localized Bob - wonder if its anything to do with reuse of existing infrastructure or something. When they first rolled out Fios down here they spent millions and caused chaos literally digging up the entire city area - but the result has been great. The TV I especially notice the HD picture seems far less compressed than my old cable - a real noticeable improvement in quality on fast moving/camera panning events - footie matches, basketball etc. Similarly down here with router restarts - very rare I have to do it. And have to say, had no dramas with the gift card - basically just used it to put gas in the car and buy groceries.

Bob

Aye it must be, because I know folks on the other end of MA who love it and say it hasn't been a problem.

The quality of the HD tele, for the most part has been better, especially on some of the sports, but on some of the others, especially NESN, to watch the Redsox, it has been a munter.

Also really dislike the guide, it is much better than when we signed up, but it doesn't matter how often I go into the settings for it to only show our subscribed channels, it never remembers it since the last update and will show all the channels. Massive ballache that one

Dan725

Now that's one thing I will agree with you about...not just the guide but the workings of it. Just as I was leaving the old cable provider, they rolled out a new guide - and the best thing was on the DVR you could fast forward through the ads at very high speed, and when you pressed play, it rolled it back a prefect amount to restart watching the show. With Fios, you have to be a bit of a ninja and get on the button *immediately* when the ads stop, or you are doing the old back a bit/forward a bit thing

GeoffM

I discovered the "Skip" button the other day, just above the rewind/forward buttons. It skips 30 seconds (or whatever you set it to). Even if you skip past the last advert and into the programme itself, a lot of programmes recap what they just told you in the last segment anyway!

MarylandNed

Totally agree.

Yep - DSL is fine for modest needs. I have Comcast broadband partly because I have kids who always seem to be streaming something. Since I work at home and must have internet access to function, I also have Verizon DSL as a backup just in case Comcast goes down. DSL is perfectly fine for email, general browsing and working at home (I use Remote Desktop to remotely connect to other PCs at my office). However, DSL often buffers when watching online videos.

Yep - although a lot of people also have mobile phones so it's not as much of an issue. My daughter doesn't even have a land line at her apartment. However, I'm old school and still have a conventional land line with multiple cordless phones - but I also have one basic handset powered by the phone line. This came in handy last week when I lost power for 7 days due to the 'derecho' wind storm that hit us recently and knocked out power to millions of people. So I still had a working home phone. However, as my daughter pointed out, I also still had a working mobile phone and maybe only needed the home phone because that's the number I keep giving out to people. I have no interest in an internet phone as there are too many internet outages in my area.

Bob

I don't have that option on my remote. Bugger.

Oh and has anyone ever been able to get the program in program function to work? PIP never worked on Comcast either.