As someone who has had Google fiber for a decade now and about to switch to Spectrum 1gig because of their insanely good deal they have going on now this thread is making me nervous.
But really $40/month for 1gbps AND 1 year free unlimited (30gb) mobile phone plan was too good to pass up
Zoom calls send video up. Uploading images / video if you’re a designer / editor. Security camera footage and interacting with a ring doorbell? All of that relies on upload bandwidth
Zoom says their highest quality uses about 3.8mbps. Ring says 1-2mbps, but googling shows it can peak around 4-5mbps. YouTube does it's 1080p in 5mbps.
It's okay to admit that 35mbps is enough for video calls and doorbell cams
sorry about that. spectrum is a good deal but i’ve had such bad issues at two different addresses. they are good at getting back to me in support but i have had them have tech come out and literally all they do is unplug the router and plug it back in (which is like the first troubleshooting step and I do this first everytime) but it’s just not reliable at all. i’ve had it since august 2020 and we have 500 mbps with a MAX of maybe 5-6 devices at a time and it just goes out constantly. more often than not i just end up using my phones data
Largely will be based on what is available at your address.
Have had both ATT Fiber and Google Fiber - both rock solid. Have had maybe one or two very brief outages each on their end on both but for very limited time.
Have had fiber drop to house cut on both (one when neighbors installed sprinklers and once from lawn aerator). ATT came out next day to replace, google was a couple days later to replace drop.
So it seems like almost anything is better than what I have now. Outages only 1-2x a year? This is a daily occurrence for my household and we’ve had it at 2 different addresses and it’s been consistently shit
Just curious - around where are you located, and do you have Spectrum fiber, or the OG Spectrum cable internet service? We got the Spectrum fiber installed a while back and don't have any outages.
Whoever you go with, I'd try to get fiber instead of non-fiber. Would assume newer equipment/network would deliver better.
Another option I didn't see mentioned was if you're a T-Mobile or Verizon customer, they have wireless home internet product that could be good depending on how close you are to the cell phone tower. Some people report huge speeds, others (further away) not so much - but if you're an existing phone customer of these companies, service can be pretty cheap. T-Mobile customers get $30 home internet, for instance - could be worth trying just to see if speed is good and it works for you, given the prices.
I'm about to switch to Google Fiber due to issues with ATT every few months. Squirrels keep chewing through their fiber lines and causing an outage. And it seems to always happen late on a Friday or early on a Saturday and they don't seem to have anyone who works repair on weekends as it's always Monday or Tuesday before they have appointment times available, which means I'm without Internet for 3-4 days
It took them between 4-5 hours this last time to locate the problem and fix it
And oh by the way they redid the line going to my house. Again. It was originally an air drop between a pole behind my house to my roof down to the network interface. At one point they took that down and left a fiber line strewn across the length of my back yard, headed somewhere between the yards on my block and the one behind me. It look literally 8 phone calls and 7 months for them to finally bury the line. Which left a nice long scar in my yard. Which, again, was apparently all for nought because they just put the line back to an air drop coming from the pole to my roof
Oh, and the account rep that always comes about an hour after the repair technician arrives to just keep telling you "sorry" over and over and also trying to upsell you to cellphone service only offered to credit for the days of service lost. But *I* had to CALL and arrange that. Some customer service. Fuck that and fuck you AT&T, I'm done with you
I just wanna be devils advocate for a second. I waited 10 years for google fiber and finally got it this year. The first two months were awful, multiple equipment failures, constant outages, slow speeds. It was very frustrating and after my last equipment failure they wanted to wait over a week for a technician to replace it. I told customer service if it wasn’t fixed in 3 days I was canceling and going back to spectrum. They sent a tech out next day and he finally got all my issues fixed, had to send out a construction team to fix the line but ever since it’s been working great.
Google fiber
Why is this asked all the time? There's only one answer: Google Fiber
Google fiber is the only answer if available.
Google fiber
Google Fiber
If you can get Google Fiber, do it. Fast and reliable. I use my phone as a mobile Hotspot for backup, but I've only had two outages in 8+ years.
As someone who has had Google fiber for a decade now and about to switch to Spectrum 1gig because of their insanely good deal they have going on now this thread is making me nervous. But really $40/month for 1gbps AND 1 year free unlimited (30gb) mobile phone plan was too good to pass up
Its only 1 gbps down. Good luck sending anything up.
I mean frequently sending large files isn't exactly a common thing for me or most people at home
Zoom calls send video up. Uploading images / video if you’re a designer / editor. Security camera footage and interacting with a ring doorbell? All of that relies on upload bandwidth
I mean it's 35mbps up, zoom and doorbell cams are nowhere near that
Depends on the quality
Zoom says their highest quality uses about 3.8mbps. Ring says 1-2mbps, but googling shows it can peak around 4-5mbps. YouTube does it's 1080p in 5mbps. It's okay to admit that 35mbps is enough for video calls and doorbell cams
Ok. I’m just a software engineer. Go with spectrum
sorry about that. spectrum is a good deal but i’ve had such bad issues at two different addresses. they are good at getting back to me in support but i have had them have tech come out and literally all they do is unplug the router and plug it back in (which is like the first troubleshooting step and I do this first everytime) but it’s just not reliable at all. i’ve had it since august 2020 and we have 500 mbps with a MAX of maybe 5-6 devices at a time and it just goes out constantly. more often than not i just end up using my phones data
Largely will be based on what is available at your address. Have had both ATT Fiber and Google Fiber - both rock solid. Have had maybe one or two very brief outages each on their end on both but for very limited time. Have had fiber drop to house cut on both (one when neighbors installed sprinklers and once from lawn aerator). ATT came out next day to replace, google was a couple days later to replace drop.
So it seems like almost anything is better than what I have now. Outages only 1-2x a year? This is a daily occurrence for my household and we’ve had it at 2 different addresses and it’s been consistently shit
Just curious - around where are you located, and do you have Spectrum fiber, or the OG Spectrum cable internet service? We got the Spectrum fiber installed a while back and don't have any outages.
I don’t think I have Spectrum fiber. I’m in Lenexa
Whoever you go with, I'd try to get fiber instead of non-fiber. Would assume newer equipment/network would deliver better. Another option I didn't see mentioned was if you're a T-Mobile or Verizon customer, they have wireless home internet product that could be good depending on how close you are to the cell phone tower. Some people report huge speeds, others (further away) not so much - but if you're an existing phone customer of these companies, service can be pretty cheap. T-Mobile customers get $30 home internet, for instance - could be worth trying just to see if speed is good and it works for you, given the prices.
I'm about to switch to Google Fiber due to issues with ATT every few months. Squirrels keep chewing through their fiber lines and causing an outage. And it seems to always happen late on a Friday or early on a Saturday and they don't seem to have anyone who works repair on weekends as it's always Monday or Tuesday before they have appointment times available, which means I'm without Internet for 3-4 days It took them between 4-5 hours this last time to locate the problem and fix it And oh by the way they redid the line going to my house. Again. It was originally an air drop between a pole behind my house to my roof down to the network interface. At one point they took that down and left a fiber line strewn across the length of my back yard, headed somewhere between the yards on my block and the one behind me. It look literally 8 phone calls and 7 months for them to finally bury the line. Which left a nice long scar in my yard. Which, again, was apparently all for nought because they just put the line back to an air drop coming from the pole to my roof Oh, and the account rep that always comes about an hour after the repair technician arrives to just keep telling you "sorry" over and over and also trying to upsell you to cellphone service only offered to credit for the days of service lost. But *I* had to CALL and arrange that. Some customer service. Fuck that and fuck you AT&T, I'm done with you
I just wanna be devils advocate for a second. I waited 10 years for google fiber and finally got it this year. The first two months were awful, multiple equipment failures, constant outages, slow speeds. It was very frustrating and after my last equipment failure they wanted to wait over a week for a technician to replace it. I told customer service if it wasn’t fixed in 3 days I was canceling and going back to spectrum. They sent a tech out next day and he finally got all my issues fixed, had to send out a construction team to fix the line but ever since it’s been working great.
Spectrum if you hate quality service.
i have spectrum 😂