So I've been looking for ways to pinch some pennies. The local telecom company has a 3 month deal where I only pay $29/month for their everything hi-def tv, internet, phone, etc.. Unfortunately, because of the DSL connection not being fiber just yet, it's a dip down to 5mb (I'm currently at 10mb). Why the dive? Realistically, I've looked at my internet usage and other than Netflix and browsing, I don't do anything hardcore enough to worry about super high speeds. Not to mention it's saving me an extra $400+ over 3 months. AND..in 3 months time, my wife can sign up her name on the cable provider, switch back over, and save a buttload of money again.
I recently switched from the local phone company DSL to Roadrunner. Zoomtown DSL: paid for 5Mbps, was getting <1.5Mbps. Roadrunner: paying for 10Mbps, getting 25+Mbps! About 5 bucks more a month, and worth every penny.
High-def for Netflix needs a minimum 6 Mb/s to be even halfway reliable. Though in my area it's completely worthless between 5 and 10 at night.
Not sure if we have such good deals as Roadrunner in Canada, MSP. And great decision. We have a shitty 3 Mbps DSL at work and it's sufficient for browsing. If you don't torrent/newsgroup, 5 Mbps is gonna be enough... for now.
It's a win-win. They are busy installing Fibre in the area, and in order for the cable company to stay competitive, they need to leech off that backbone. So by the end of October, I can look at one of two possibilities: 1) Switch back and get savings. 2) Stay with the DSL and hopefully they can have Fibre ready in my area. So for an extra 10 bucks a month, I can always bump up to 20mbps Internet. Or take another jump and go up to 100mb. As a consumer, I'm looking at my needs right now, and saving is more important than speeds.
So a little update. Fuckers finally came out LATE Friday afternoon to do the changeover. For browsing purposes from my phone or home computer: ZERO difference that I can notice. AND...speedtests consistently show 5mb or over for download. Not too shabby. Not to mention my ping is like 32ms consistently too. Nice. TV wise...wow. The box is LIGHTYEARS beyond my cable providers box. So much snappier and responsive and...yeah...a LOT more channels to explore. Now I just need to get the remote DVR app working on my phone to be able to record whatever I want, whenever I want.
