Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Piggybacking on Darth Cupcake's thread about phone service...

I too am moving right now and need advice on which internet provider to use. My options I believe are AT&T and Comcast? Is that it? Anyone local have anything different, because the general consensus seems to be that both suck pretty bad.

I've got AT&T at my current place and HATE it. It's overpriced, too slow, the connection gets dropped all the time, etc. (also the modem is 5 years old, which I guess makes it ancient technology). But I've heard that Comcast is just as bad.

I'd really prefer to do this without adding a landline and/or television, if possible. Any suggestions?

We went from at&t to comcast. Admittedly, we've only had comcast for a week or so but it's much, much faster and more reliable than at&t was for us. It's a bit more expensive, but not much.

And yeah, we're not getting tv or landline service either.

I've only had Comcast and AT&T -- really hate the AT&T Customer Service. No complaints about the Comcast when I had it but I think it was a high-speed service that was pretty expensive and probably wouldn't have been worth it if I wasn't splitting it with three roommates.

I thought there was a law that ISPs couldn't force you to pay for a landline for service, might be a SF law though.

I have AT&T and don't have any problems with it - my modem is new though, and I even get TV over it. My connection is super fast. There was a local provider I looked into when I first moved to Oakland, but they didn't have the service I wanted at my location. I think it was this one: http://sonic.net/solutions/home/internet/#

I got Comcast. I have the thing where it's $29.99 for the first six months, then it goes up to $44.99 for the next six months. So far, it's been fast and reliable and I haven't had any issues at all with it.

After the first year, it goes up to $59.99 a month, I think, but my dream is that this time next year I'll be in a better paying job, at which point I'll lump some TV into my package and get a good deal that way, so who knows.

The cost of internet irritates me.

I don't have phone or TV bundled in currently.

We have comcast and it is $29.99 a month and that is for at least the first year. We don't have cable, but I have had luck in some apartments of just plugging the tv into the cable outlet and getting free cable when I pay for Internet. We live in the woods and I think we have only lost service twice. You can rent or buy a modem.I have always had comcast in every state I have lived and I am mostly happy with it, the only thing I don't like is that since I have a Michigan phone number if I call for service I always get transferred to someone in Michigan and it always takes five calls to talk to someone in California.

I just switched to AT&T from Comcast because I had Comcast for a year and they wanted to start charging us like 80/month. AT&T is charging us 30/month for 3 months and after that it will go down to like 20/month. So far I haven't noticed a difference in speed at all but I've only been using AT&T for a few days. As far as customer service goes, for me they are both very hit and miss.

I feel like AT&T is crappier, and their bundles are more expensive if you were also looking to get home phone or something else as well.

Yeah, much as I hate to recommend Comcast (consumerist.com's Worst Company in America several years running!), they beat the heck out of AT&T's DSL around here. Our DSL used to be unreliable, used to drop all the time, used to get weirdly slow... I spent a lot of time on the phone with AT&T support and never got it particularly resolved. We moved house and that was a good excuse to hook up Comcast cable internet and it's been totally reliable in every way, not to mention faster.

So yeah-- around the Bay Area, apparently Comcast is the way to go. Go figure.

Edited to add: We're in Santa Cruz. Oh wait, it says that over there, doesn't it?
Edited: Nope, guess not! Yeah, Santa Cruz.

I figure it's the lesser of two evils. Or maybe just one of two evils in this case. I got a coupon with my AT&T bill for internet service valid for new households only, so... maybe? Urgh.

Also, I worked a temp job a while back at a marketing firm selling Comcast to college students. Everyone had this super rah-rah spirit about Comcast and all I could think was "they're just a client, and I'm losing this job in two months, fork Comcast."

I had AT&T at our old place and even though it was cheaper, it wasn't super reliable. I hate Comcast but our building's cables are way way newer than the phone wiring, so.

I have Comcast bundled internet, basic expanded cable and phone. I don't like my bill but anything is better than AT&T.

I have AT&T for $40/month. It's fine except after two years I think my modem is about to bite the dust and they want me to pay like $90 for a new one.

We had Sonic and CS was great but our connection wasn't so hot for what we were paying for (DH works from home). We switched to Comcast business and skipped most of the comcast stupid that way and service has been good (and speedy) but spendy for your average bear.