I ask because I feel I need to save some money in the oncoming months. Currently, I pay over $76 for 100MBps/1000GB cap. And I don’t think it’s a bad deal, but they’re going to be hiking it up to $90+ by next October and I feel it is not worth that. But I also need to save money too.
What is the difference between 55MB and 100MB when it comes to speed? The cap for the 55MBps plan is 350GB and I tried asking if that could be altered but the ISP says they can’t. This plan will cost me $30 a month.
All I ever do anymore is just stream YouTube, sometimes Hulu/Netflix/Tubi. Occasionally I’ll download a game or two, multiplayer gaming is non-existent.
Edit: There’s been a lot of good responses replied to this and I appreciate it.
I’m leaning towards on downgrading with the volume of people that suggest that it isn’t that bad, but it boils down to preferences and habitual behaviors when using the internet. With so many games already downloaded and being left to just streaming/Second Life, I think it warrants the change.
I just wish that my ISP would’ve kicked up the cap to 500GB because that’d sweeten the deal much more but this ISP is not well known and these kind of ISPs operate on different worlds than the big names.
Furthermore, people have suggested going 5G Wireless but the problem with that is that my apartment management is stingy as fuck so it’s not an option for me nor does Verizon say that they can offer a plan in my current location. Fiber connections such as Google Fiber, MetroNet .etc aren’t an option.
Century Link seems to only offer $70 for…10MB in my location (Fucking awful)
Mediacom says they can’t even service my area (then how come I see your vans around where I am with other customers?)
Des Moines Iowa.
Yes I know the options are terrible and I am aware if alternative ISPs but my apartment management only offers just one ISP. It is not Verizon or any other big name, just some not so well known company with a site design from the 90s in every bad way.
Note to self. Do not move to Des Moines. I pay $60/mo for symmetrical gig (1000 Mbps) with no cap.
Try tmobile’s wireless internet. They usually have an option to try free for 30 days. Depending on where you live it can be a great alternative.
Maybe T-Mobile home Internet is good enough?
May I humbly suggest Verizon 5G home internet. I checked and it’s widely available in Des Moines. Around $45 a month with a discount if you also have Verizon mobile. 300mbps down and like 30 up. No caps. It’s just a white box that uses cell towers, so you are not limited to whatever shitty service your apartment complex has contracted with. I used it for 2 or 3 years in Providence, RI, and it was terrific. Cheap, fast enough for my work needs and streaming on 2 TVs, and I never had any problems.
Tried doing an area search, only got a form for my address to notify me when service is available.
Oh bummer. I used city hall as the address, since that’s all I had to go on.
Why does your apartment management have a say in it?
If there are other providers in the area then you likely already have lines running to your place and shouldn’t need their sign off on it.
Because they are the shitty kind. Here is what I do not get, I have seen CenturyLink and Mediacom vans come in my area. I assume it is to service people’s connections or other things. If my apartment management tells me that VisionSystems is all that they can offer, why do I see vans from other ISPs come here?
And Mediacom isnt too far from us either.
Mediacom and CenturyLink claim to not service my building though so something is not adding up.
This practice is allowed and it sucks. Try wireless.
That is really shady. Unless you live in a rent controlled apartment I’d be curious if they even have legal recourse if you used another provider unless there was damage to the apartment.
You could probably force the complex to let you use whatever provider you wanted as long as the infrastructure (conduits in the ground etc) is there and it probably is. But I would likely be a very annoying fight.
More than likely they are getting a kickback from the ISP to inform users that they are the only option.
We have a (kind of) similar situation here. Our complex has these devices installed by the local electric company that turns our water heater on and off on some randomized schedule that is claimed to be based off of our usage and the local time. We were never told about this device and it’s not in our contract. On top of that, the property management group gets a kickback for every one that is installed in a unit.
We don’t have the most stable schedules (random schedules, night shift, day shift, etc) so of course the device couldn’t figure it’s shit out and was just shutting our water heater off at different times. I had to call the power company to have them disable it.
There has been a history of corporate things like this happening where providers do shady shit, kinda like gangs having their own territory and “agreements” not to sell dope in each other’s area to keep their profits stable and not mess with each other or whatever other reasoning it may be.
My point is, there is more than likely some shady business practices going on between the ISPs and the property management.