Internet choice in the lower price tier

[PandaBear]

My original $30/month Xfinity deal expired. It was 150mbps / 40mbps with 1.2TB data cap that I am ok with, but will now becomes $62/month unless I either find a new plan or switch to another type of internet like fiber or 5G. I have the following in my area and my use case is pretty much any 150mbps/40mbps and above would be sufficient, price is the priority, connection stability second, and I don't really care too much about speed as everything these days are good enough.

All of them have no data cap:

Choice 1: Xfinity 300mbps down / 40mbps up / 18ms latency, $70/month, 5 year price guarantee
Basically what I have right now with price locked in, $8 extra for no more data cap and slightly faster.

Choice 2: T-Mobile 5G 87-318mbps down / 14-56 mbps up / 18-36 ms latency, $35/month (voiceline discount), 5 year price guarantee
I am concerned about signal problem although I live 2 blocks from the tower and should probably be as good as signal can go. I am going to assume 87/14 worst case connection and it should still be good enough for work.

Choice 3: ATT Fiber to home 400mbps down / 397mbps up / 14 ms latency, $55/month, regular plan price so they can change whenever they want
I like the fast upload speed, I can use that to stream security camera footage to my parents' NVR without worry about speed. I like the latency too, but I just don't trust ATT won't raise prices mid-way unlike Xfinity and TMo with their 5 year guarantee.


I think it is tempting to try T-Mo 5G as it is a no brainer discount compare to Xfinity, and ATT fiber if T-Mo 5G doesn't work well. In the worst case I guess I can always go back to Xfinity if I keep my old modem. However this may be unlikely unless ATT raise their price so high it is not competitive with Xfinity.


What would you choose? $20 more for fiber vs 5G? or keep the savings?

 

[Rob_Roy]

If your goal is to save money and have a predictable price, T-Mobile seems like it is worth a shot.

 

[CarLuver]

do a speed test on your phone if you have T mobile and see how fast it goes . if you get blazing speeds that usually means you have a strong signal . in my area t m has been doing a lot of upgrades and it fast . i have freinds with the home network and its been 50/50 when it comes to satisfaction.

of course comcast price varies from area, but i am paying $50 all in for 600 meg with the 1.2 cap . if i rent their modem then i believe there is no cap

if i had fiber for that price i would jump on it . who cares if they up the price . if they do move to another option. At least you have options

 

[SC Maintenance]

Have ATT in the kids apartment in the city for $55.30 a month. Had about a year, its worked well. I wish we had that option at the house - I pay 3X that for Spectrum.

 

[wwillson]

I would prefer terrestrial DOCSIS or PON over cellular any day. The potential congestion and much higher latency with cellular is a no-go for me. I know I'm a network snob, but I can 'feel' increased latency right away when using the internet. I do often use LTE and 5G for work and it's just not as good as being wired at home or in the office. I like the better predictability of most terrestrial connections.

Another example is uploading large files, which I do every day. The files are > 1GB and uploading over cellular is painful. Uploading over DOCSIS is good and symetric PON is outstanding.

 

[Rand]

I'd go fiber.. can always change again if AT&T gets too greedy.

Cellular is ok until it isnt. Any sort of work/gaming where latency has impact can have issues.

 

[captainbeandip]

Xfinity offers kind of a secret deal that they call "Now Internet" which is $30 total per month for 100 mbps or $45 for 200 mbps, which includes a free modem/router that they give you to use. They won't tell you about this deal over the phone or list it online with their other plans. You have to know about it and specially seek it out to get the deal.

I've had it for a little over the year and it's been good. Definitely worth checking out before giving up on them.

https://www.xfinity.com/now/internet

 

[rstcso]

Choice 3: ATT Fiber to home 400mbps down / 397mbps up / 14 ms latency, $55/month, regular plan price so they can change whenever they want
I like the fast upload speed, I can use that to stream security camera footage to my parents' NVR without worry about speed. I like the latency too, but I just don't trust ATT won't raise prices mid-way unlike Xfinity and TMo with their 5 year guarantee.

What would you choose? $20 more for fiber vs 5G? or keep the savings?

We switched from Spectrum to AT&T fiber well over five years ago. We run multiple cameras and my wife and I WFH, so need fast, reliable service. Since getting AT&T fiber, we have lost service once, and it was a large-scale outage. Once.

Our price has gone up a couple of times, but in the $5 increment range.

If you are a military veteran, they offer a 25% discount. There may also be discounts for teachers, health care workers, EMS, Fire, Law Enforcement, etc. It never hurts to ask.

 

[rstcso]

Double-posted.

 

[AKhan87]

I do often use LTE and 5G for work and it's just not as good as being wired at home or in the office.

I am sure this depends on your area, carrier, and other factors.

My Verizon 5G Ultra Wide phone speeds were always faster, more predictable, especially for meetings for Teams and Zoom in the Chicago area between 2021-2024. I had Xfinity 1G download / don't remember upload speeds at home 99% of the time, there was no internet speed issues, and even my company provided laptop (United Airlines) was really good but my iPhone 13 pro max with Verizon 5 UW, simply out performed in every aspect, I would connect my phone and always have smooth connection for my teams, almost everywhere in Chicago, I don't remember an area where I had issue, same with Wyoming.

Now whenever I traveled to southern California, orange county area, my Verizon service was not as good as it was in other places, and I would feel the latency issues for meetings, and etc.

Best internet connection and service I had was growing up next to Charter Communications in Chesterfield Missouri, I remember since we got cable internet 2001-2010 (when I moved out) not a single day of any internet connection issues of any sort.

Charter was not as good in other cities in MO, and was very average in Wyoming.

 

[AKhan87]

another question, I had no idea we had internet data caps in the US, is this common? I have never heard of it.

I had heard of it in other countries, including developed countries, which I thought was an annoying thing to deal with.

 

[PandaBear]

another question, I had no idea we had internet data caps in the US, is this common? I have never heard of it.

I had heard of it in other countries, including developed countries, which I thought was an annoying thing to deal with.

In my area it is common. We have a lot of geeks downloading stuff and our cable infrastructure was build for TV back then, so those "100mbps" speed back then was shared probably by 100 people, and you never get the advertised speed.

This was a reason why they ended up with data cap, and why my dad moved from cable to fiber even if he doesn't need that much speed. He just don't want to deal with cable company oversold the line capacity. We were asked to upgrade our cable modem pretty often even if we don't use that much speed. In theory you only need 4x1 DOCSIS 2.X but they force you to upgrade to at least 4x4 then 8x4 DOCSIS 3.0, because they can't have everyone crowding at the more critical channels.

I don't think DSL or fiber had data cap, only cellular and cable internet has them.

 

[AKhan87]

In my area it is common. We have a lot of geeks downloading stuff and our cable infrastructure was build for TV back then, so those "100mbps" speed back then was shared probably by 100 people, and you never get the advertised speed.

"Silicon Valley" would explain it.

but thank you for sharing your experience as I am shocked to learn this.

 

[RooflessVW]

Fiber, hands down.

If they raise your price, call customer satisfaction.

I pay half what everyone else does for Spectrum because I call them once a year and whine.

 

[97prizm]

My original $30/month Xfinity deal expired. It was 150mbps / 40mbps with 1.2TB data cap that I am ok with, but will now becomes $62/month unless I either find a new plan or switch to another type of internet like fiber or 5G. I have the following in my area and my use case is pretty much any 150mbps/40mbps and above would be sufficient, price is the priority, connection stability second, and I don't really care too much about speed as everything these days are good enough.

All of them have no data cap:

Choice 1: Xfinity 300mbps down / 40mbps up / 18ms latency, $70/month, 5 year price guarantee
Basically what I have right now with price locked in, $8 extra for no more data cap and slightly faster.

Choice 2: T-Mobile 5G 87-318mbps down / 14-56 mbps up / 18-36 ms latency, $35/month (voiceline discount), 5 year price guarantee
I am concerned about signal problem although I live 2 blocks from the tower and should probably be as good as signal can go. I am going to assume 87/14 worst case connection and it should still be good enough for work.

Choice 3: ATT Fiber to home 400mbps down / 397mbps up / 14 ms latency, $55/month, regular plan price so they can change whenever they want
I like the fast upload speed, I can use that to stream security camera footage to my parents' NVR without worry about speed. I like the latency too, but I just don't trust ATT won't raise prices mid-way unlike Xfinity and TMo with their 5 year guarantee.


I think it is tempting to try T-Mo 5G as it is a no brainer discount compare to Xfinity, and ATT fiber if T-Mo 5G doesn't work well. In the worst case I guess I can always go back to Xfinity if I keep my old modem. However this may be unlikely unless ATT raise their price so high it is not competitive with Xfinity.


What would you choose? $20 more for fiber vs 5G? or keep the savings?

Do you not have gigabit ethernet service available in your area?

 

[Zee09]

T MOBILE all the way
I had it for many years in an area of slow expensive alternatives .

 

[duck__dodgers]

unless you have special needs(gaming, running a server, lots of streaming), my vote is 5G..

Also if you have lots of neighbors, another random consideration is which option's junction box is closest to your house....ATT didn't bury the fiber deeply, and a neighbor cut my brother's fiber last week as his fiber runs through 2 other yards. While the Xfinity access box is at the corner of my lot.

credit to ATT, the service guy arrived the next day....maybe it was because my brother has the highest tier, lol

 

[Rand]

Do you not have gigabit ethernet service available in your area?

no one runs gigabit ethernet to your house.
its fiber or cable. to a modem or ONT then ethernet from there to your router (if separate)

Also Gigabit service from cable is usually a tiny fraction of gigabit speed upload..
for example my "spectrum gigabit" is 1100Mbit/s down and 40Mbits/s up.

fiber is usually symmetrical 500/500 1000/1000 2000/2000 etc. although some arent.

 

[supton]

Considering that cell in my area is like 0G I would be fiber all the way. I do WFH and reliable internet is super important to me.

 

[mk378]

Most of the wired carriers still have a "secret" $30 plan left over from the ACA days where there was a $30 government subsidy, making it no cost to households that qualified for the subsidy. They were required to offer the same service to anyone else for a payment of $30, but of course they did not advertise that much if at all.