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  • USTelecom, which represents telcos such as AT&T and Verizon, said that "the competitive broadband marketplace leaves providers of broadband and other communications services no choice but to provide their customers with not only high-quality broadband, but also high-quality customer service."

    That's so much bullshit in so little space that I'm surprised it didn't become a black hole.

    • competitive broadband marketplace

      Represents multiple supposedly fierce competitors

      I see the problem. Someone must've convinced them that opposite day was real in 4th grade, and they've been stuck that way ever since

  • I work for an ISP, we have 10 second to 3 minutes hold times before you're speaking to a real rep, we have had downtime 5 times since I started working for them 4 years ago for maintenance (upgrading hardware to support larger bandwidth in different areas), we sell 1Gbps symmetrical speeds with unlimited data for $50/mo, we have 50k customers (in a specific area) and 5 customer service reps. Customer service quality is definitely important, but providing a service with minimal issues and great prices, that's why the ISP I work for can get away with such a minimum amount of representatives and continue to get a 4.7 star rating on Google as an ISP.

    It's fun working for a company like this because you get to see how 50k customers paying for 1Gbps only use 70-85Gbps at any given time on average lol, people think they need a lot of bandwidth when in reality they just need a better router for their local network's bandwidth. WiFi hasn't been a great tech so far honestly, Wi-Fi 6 made a lot of improvements, maybe with WiFi7/8 that changes though. Big name consumer routers like Netgear have been dropping the ball with quality for years, but they still rake in the cash because at one point they made really great hardware.

    I've learned a lot about networking because of this job, and it's given me a really great perspective of how awful Comcast/Xfinity/spectrum and CenturyLink/QuantumFiber really are, how much they try to get in the pockets of the people who make the decisions for infrastructure in our cities, there were so many hate ads against the ISP I work for during an election season all paid for by Comcast and CenturyLink.

    Anyways, customer service is great, but quality of service is much more important. Having both is a win all around.

  • The only reason I take their customer service up my ass is because it always sucks no matter what ISP I use.

    • The only reason I do it is because I have no other choice. For me it's either suffering with Comcast or using extremely shitty DSL (which is too slow for me to do my job properly). I live in a suburban area, but for some reason, my neighborhood has only one high speed option. And I know there are plenty of other people all over the country in the same predicament.

  • shoutout to Andrews & Arnold, best ISP in the uk. I called to stop using them because I was leaving the country forever and they were like "good, what else do you want?" MFs gave zero shits and gave great high speed service.

    https://www.aa.net.uk/

  • Bluntly: If you're fortunate, you'll have two options for internet. DSL and cable. Sometimes there's other "options" like a WISP or starlink, or even a dual up provider, but the speed comparison is not even close, so I usually discard most of those as viable either on ping time or bandwidth.

    It's extremely likely that only one provider services your residence with DSL, and one provider does cable. Two providers. All other options are basically a wholesale or resale of these two providers, meaning you still get service from one of those two.

    If you're extremely lucky, you'll also have the option of fiber. And IMO, that is the only time you really get three options.

    If you go with a third party ISP, the last mile is still one of the two that actually come into your residence.

    So the only real options you have are: do you want to buy internet direct from the ISP that owns the line to your house, or do you want to buy internet from someone who will contact that company to give you internet? If you don't like the DSL provider, and you don't like the cable provider, you're completely fucked. Gg everyone.

    • Depends on where you live. In the USA, I've got one cable (coax) option and three fiber options. My area has overhead power + utility cables rather than underground, so it was easy for ISPs to run extra fiber lines. In Australia, there's one network (the NBN - National Broadband Network) that the ISPs resell.

      • I'm in Canada, fiber is fairly rare right now. Some big cities are getting it pushed into neighborhoods, and new condos generally only have fiber, but any home or residence that's over 5 years old probably still has CATV/coax and an analog telephone hookup.

        So with few exceptions, the majority of Canadians have the option of DSL, usually from Bell, which is still mostly dominating Canada for ownership of the PSTN wireline services (though some provinces are other companies, like Telus on the west coast, and SaskTel... In Saskatchewan). Even if you buy from another DSL ISP, the last mile is still Bell owned connections.

        Cable is a bit more diversified from area to area from what I've seen, one of the bigger providers is Rogers. Different areas can be other providers, Cogeco is pretty prevalent in the Niagara region near me; but the story is unchanged. If you go with another ISP for cable service at your residence, the local cable provider is delivering the last mile connection.

        In my area, there's a regional fiber provider, we have overhead lines, and I contacted that provider about getting service, and my home is not serviced by them. Interestingly, the addressees across the damn street (where the utility poles are located) are serviced by the local fiber provider.

        The local cable ISP, who I ended up getting service from, was able to quite easily run a cable over the road from the utility post to my residence without issue. Why the fiber provider can't, is beyond me.

        I'm lucky that there's even active fiber on my street that I could tap into if the company would run it over the road. Many places I've lived have either cable or DSL as the only options.

        I know many others are in a similar spot.

  • Most of the ISPs operating in my city's fiber network are reasonably good and the one I've chosen is honestly good, so from my personal point-of-view, that headline seems perfectly relatable.

  • I mean yeah, Virgin has been pretty solid in that regard for the 20 years I've used them, and their service has been solid too.

    I'd be wary of switching to another company that doesn't have such a good proven track record, though due to prices I'm considering swapping to Brsk for a bit to see how they hold up, given that they have symmetric gigabit fibre to the house with static IP for a very nice low price.

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