I have a buddy who was the IT guru of a ski area in Leadville. Fiber right outside his office. Company wanted like 40K to terminate into his network. Because #reasons.
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When I lived in Bailey we suffered thru crappy internet for years. Started with dialup. Then upgraded to satellite. Sucked. Finally got a hi-freq radio hookup. That was better service but the company was terrible. For the last 10 years or so we had CL DSL. Started at 1.5 mbps. Gradually upgraded to 7, then finally to 12 for the last 4 or 5 years we lived there.
Personally, I thought CL was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Mostly because all the other options sucked so bad.
Only problem we had was loss of signal when it rained. Talked to a local guy who was one of their service techs in the area. He tested the line and said there was a break somewhere between our house and the road. 2 days later some dude was there with a trencher and opened a 950' trench from our house to the highway. CL then laid a brand new line to the house...no charge for anything. Phone service and DSL improved significantly and the problem was solved.
My only complaint was the price. $70 month bundled with phone service I didn't need.
Me: "What if we drop the phone line because we don't really need it? We have good cell service here."
CL: "Then the price for DSL goes up to $75 month."
Me: "Why is it more?"
CL: "Because it is."
Me: "OK. I'll keep the landline."
In Denver Comcast is the best internet service. CenturyLink is just awful and their customer service is worse, as if you could get worse than Comcast' customer service.
I don't have much time to go into detail but I was in sales for an IT company that worked only with dental practices. We covered the entire US with hundreds of accounts here in the front range. Having been through all the options & dealing with all the vendors from every standpoint (construction, installation, service & performance) I can tell you, without a doubt, do NOT switch to Century Link from Comcast. That's not to say Comcast is a pillar of performance & service. Whatever problems you currently have with Comcast WILL be magnified with Century Link. Until we get fiber options from other companies just have as little interaction with them as possible & try not to think about it. Best advice I can give.
I've had the opposite experience, but the truth is both suck ... ALL ISPs suck ... this is just how it is.
That said, I think Comcast sucks more because they'll police your data and sanction you if they catch you torrenting (whats the point of having all that speed if you can't use it?)... Century Link doesn't (or at least hasn't to me). Also Comcast owns NBC, funds the DNC and is part of the MSM trying to censor and control us.
I think ultimately it comes down to the infrastructure in your area. If its good you'll have a good experience no matter who the provider, if its not it'll be hell (in part because nobody does good customer service anymore and all of them will nickle and dime you if they can).
In Pleasant Valley on the west side of The Springs, we have had good experience with CL (and they just upgraded our neighborhood to fiber which I haven't switched to). However we couldn't even get Century Link DSL at our office on Garden of the Gods Road so we went with Comcast Business (to be fair, the customer service on Comcast Business is significantly better than Comcast Residential) I hate the router they gave us because it has almost zero features that are user accessible (opening ports on it is a bitch and usually requires me contacting them to do it remotely).
In the past 5 years I can count the number of down days on both ISPs on one hand.
They both suck. I forced to switch from Centurylink to Comcast because I work at home. Centurylink was throttling my VPN access and I couldn't work. They tried telling me it was my VPN. So I went right after that call to Comcast - signed up for 30 days. No issues with VPN through them. Also Centurylink had way my outages than I've had with Comcast.
I still can't believe that in 2017 we are still having these kinds of problems with internet providers. Not sure if they are reluctant in doing infrastructure upgrades if cellular technology is getting better and faster or local and state regs are not friendly for laying new fiber optics.
I will not support Comcast for above reason of their outward politics and support against what most of us here support. But I understand where some have to because of job needs or want because of gaming. I bundled CL through DISH to have one price for TV, internet and phone. Works for me.
Never had any problems with comcast, was getting a great deal prob because i know someone that gave me a good package. No downtime, no need to reset modem, fast speeds, reliable, etc. After i moved, I signed up for Century link. Using their modem it sucked! Had to reset on a regular basis. I bought my own modem, and its been fine. But i only get 12mb/sec, up is not even 1mb/sec. Been down a few times, but it was up within 15-30 minutes. My only gripe about CL is the speeds!! My phone gets better up/down speeds than your "high speed" internet.
I would gladly pay $100+ a month to get comcast at my place.
I've had comcast for about well, most of my adult life. I love them. Fast speeds, reliable. But like any where you can get some shit CSRs. Just depends on who you talk to.
In fact I just got off the phone with them. Managed to get my cost down to ~$65 a month with the modem for 100 Me download speed. Good for what I need.
I had century link twice. The first time I decided to give the a chance. I was told I'd get one month free and some gift card. Well I was surprised when I got my first bill... the first month. I called and asked, "wasn't the first month free?" To which they replied, The first free month was your 30 day money back trial. This of course being on day 29 of that. I told them I'd like to use that then and cancel me. Cool done and canceled.
Next month I get a double bill. Hey goobers I cancelled. bill was wiped.
next month I get a $300 bill for the modem I "didn't Return" So I call them, I sent that back I said. No you didn't they said. Weird well let's track the box I have the number right here. "Oh yes we did receive that."
Assholes
Second time was not by choice but we couldn't get Comcast there. It was basically round two of the above.
In closing I don't recommend you use century link. Customer service sucks, service sucks, equipment sucks. Comcast isn't the best, but they're, in my opinion better than CL.
But If you do, get everything in writing, and save every piece of paper that relates to them.