Poll: Your Internet Speed (Mbps down)?

[Old Microbiologist]

Here in Europe where we retired to it is common to have cheap and fast internet. Our speed here in Hungary is rated at 500 Mbps down and 25 Mbps and runs over standard single copper wire coaxial cable television and is part of our package including TV, internet and landline and costs a bit under $40 a month. This morning I got 401Mbps down and 5.2Mbps up. My network runs 7 routers (with a bit over 30 devices) covering roughly 2 acres (3 in the garden swimming pool area) and the rest in our 2 houses. Here wifi can't penetrate the thick brick walls and concrete floors so you need one on each floor. No one ever complains about internet speed. Our town also has free internet in the main areas and our cable service has modem/routers that have a second channel which is shared by all customers when moving about the country if you are in range of someone's house/apartment. We also will be getting 5G nationwide this year with 1000 Mbps minimum. Our mobile plan is roughly $14 for 2 phones and 2GB/month free and free roaming throughout the entire EU. We are not a cutting edge country but compared to the US it seems we are.

 

[NoMoreJob]

We use a local fiber company. We are grandfathered on 15Mbps service at $46.95/month. For new customers they now start at 25 Mbps and charge ten or fifteen dollars more. I've tested our speed many times and always have 17-18Mbps.

We often run 2 concurrent video streams plus we surf on our laptops and have a dozen or so other devices like Alexa, smart phones, smart plugs, security cameras, etc. on the network with no buffering or other issues.

I did have some minor problems with my router/extenders prior to upgrading my to a Google mesh wifi system. Now I have none.

 

[statsman]

We have had AT&T 1G fiber for three years. I have yet to see 1000 download speed but very rarely see less than 600MB. I imagine if I used the ethernet connection I could see faster speeds but we are good with wifi clocking in for 600MB. This includes a macbook, two ipads, streaming tv, and two iphones pretty much downloading the preponderance of the day. We pay $95/mo and have had the same rate for the three years.

That seems to be the reality with AT&T 1G in our neck of the woods. Can see test results in the 825-875 Mbps range with an optimal server, depending on the time of day. I also have a five year-old PC running Win 7 Pro and Firefox/Opera, so I don't know how much of an impact that setup has on the speed tests.

The only reason we chose 1G service was we moved from out of state to an area where we were renting a house and it was an AT&T only community. Since we didn't plan to be in the house more than a year, we signed up for a one year plan. 1G service under the offer we were given was only $5/mo more than their 300 Mbps service, so we went with it. Honestly, we would be fine with 300 Mbps (we had 150 Mbps w/Comcast, testing at 180 Mbps, prior to our move).

With our move into our own house, the service transferred, but once the one year deal expires in October, we'll probably scale back to 300 Mbps. One benefit to the 1G service is if you have a houseful of heavy downloaders, the 1G service doesn't have a data cap.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Here's mine.

 

[tapahelp]

I have 300 mbps internet service with AT&T U-Verse (Fiber) for $75 for combined internet and TV plus taxes totaling around $90. Building has fiber in building and CAT-5 outlets in each of the rooms.

Here’s the screenshot of speed test I just did on my IPad over Wi-Fi.

 

[pc95]

$14.99 / month for 3.5 Mb/s from Spectrum grandfathered in (took over Time Warner). Have been trying to get 20-30 Mb/s for $20 month but no such service. They keep trying to upsell to $45/month for 200 Mb/s. I have been told they will never sell my current service there. 3.5Mb/s covers about 80% of our situations with streaming. If we could get even 10Mb/s it would cover everything.

 

[robnplunder]

Ok, an update of sort.


Xfinity 60 mbps gives me about 70 mbps when connected to the router's ethenet ports.


I've bought Orbi and uses its ethernet ports which also give me about 70 mbps. I am using the e-ports for all the devices I use often. Now, I can stream 4k video fine. No "loading" issues.

 

[W2R]

Ok, an update of sort.

Xfinity 60 mbps gives me about 70 mbps when connected to the router's ethenet ports.

I've bought Orbi and uses its ethernet ports which also give me about 70 mbps. I am using the e-ports for all the devices I use often. Now, I can stream 4k video fine. No "loading" issues.

That's terrific! I'm glad to hear that it worked so well; thanks for the update.

 

[YoungSaver]

Gigabit fiber, $65 per month.

 

[Sirka]

Gigabit Fiber FTTH for $65 is great after years of DSL headaches. DSLExtreme was OK, but it was like being on your own trying to fix the connection. I thought we were done with DSL, until we bought a vacation property. We're happy to have it out in the boonies - 10 Mbps at $69

 

[Oz investor]

1 Mbps .. yes ONE

on the crappy Australian NBN which has an alleged minimum of 12.5 Mbps ( that is the minimum promised ) (years behind completion and already at least 2 times over budget )

it has been worse my personal record is 4bps ( no i didn't leave out a 'K' or ' M' )

maybe i should dust of my old ( 10/100 ) router and turn it into a firewall ,

you just have to pity the rural folk ( and i am NOT currently in a rural area

no Huawei 5G ( allowed ) so i dread to so what sort of rubbish the local 5G will be ( which such a tragic backhaul partner )

 

[FreeBear]

1 Mbps .. yes ONE

on the crappy Australian NBN which has an alleged minimum of 12.5 Mbps ( that is the minimum promised ) (years behind completion and already at least 2 times over budget )

it has been worse my personal record is 4bps ( no i didn't leave out a 'K' or ' M' )

maybe i should dust of my old ( 10/100 ) router and turn it into a firewall ,

you just have to pity the rural folk ( and i am NOT currently in a rural area

no Huawei 5G ( allowed ) so i dread to so what sort of rubbish the local 5G will be ( which such a tragic backhaul partner )

Yikes! Feel much better now! Just crazy.



I was jealous of folks with fast fiber connections cheaper than my 20 Mb cable line, which clocks around 30. More than enough speed for me.

 

[Car-Guy]

Reviving an old thread....

Living "way out" in the country like we do, I've always feel lucky to have any high speed Internet service... We got DSL about 10 years ago but it was capped at 3meg. In practice, it was more like 1 to 2 meg but sometimes we would see 3 meg. Pretty much worthless for streaming anything but it was fast enough for surfing the net, banking, bill paying, reading and posting to forums like this, etc.

Then a few months ago, our ISP sent out a letter saying up to 12 megs was now available in our area. (free upgrade and same monthly cost). So I called and they came out and did the upgrade.

The way they did it was interesting. With the newer DSL technology they were able to bump the line speed to 6+meg.... Then they added DSL to a second line we had for another 6+meg. Then with the new modem/technology they "bonded" the two lines together for an aggregate speed of 12+ meg... I've actually seen speeds over 13meg... First thing I did was hook up our ROKU capable TV..... Another world has opened up for us out here in the county. Now I am thinking about dumping Direct TV (at $200+ mo) and go for premium based Internet streaming services for all my TV needs/wants...


For others that live in the rural areas with lower speed DSL's, you may want to check with your ISP to see if you can upgrade too. (now or in the near future)

 

[REWahoo]

For others that live in the rural areas with lower speed DSL's, you may want to check with your ISP to see if you can upgrade too. (now or in the near future)

I lived in a rural area for 20 years with no DSL or any other ISP that didn't come over the air. Slow speeds and unreliable service was the norm until our Rural Electric Association started offering fiber. Now it's a whole new world...

 

[Clone]

Our winter place here in Phoenix is only served by a microwave service. After a few weeks of 2 to 3 Mbps, sometimes less, we called to downgrade the service plan. (We were supposed to be getting 23meg.) The ISP came out, and I suspect switched to a better antenna. We now have a solid 20 to 27 M. Very functional.

We had a phone call from the company that provides service to our old house in the country, 15 miles outside of town. They were upgrading all of their customers. Our service would be upgraded from 1 Gig to 2 Gig, but they needed to replace the fiber modem in the house. They also noted that most household wireless routers were not capable of those speeds. Dear Son said he could deal with that. Also, FYI, no charge for the upgrade service or the service call. That is a company that understands the concept of customer service!

The condo in town where my other son lives is being upgraded from 100M to 250M. Again, no charge. The fiber does not go into the building, so he is 'stuck' with the 'slow' service. Meanwhile, where we have our primary residence, we are stuck with a cable modem. Service is ok, but not as reliable or fast as what we had out in the country.

 

[pb4uski]

We have 100 mbps at home. When we started service at our winter condo, we learned something. If you just ask for "internet" they put you on 100 mbps that is $40/month after promotinal credits (but $70 retail). I asked if they had a lower level of service available and they said they had a 30 mbps service for $30/month. I took the 30 mbps service with the idea that if it was too slow I would call and increase it... 3 1/2 months later it is working just fine for us and we are saving $10/month.

 

[W2R]

I'm paying for $83.99/month for 100 Mbps

Since the above post, Cox Cable upgraded my internet for free. Instead of promising 100 Mbps, now they promise me 150 Mbps for $83.99/month.

I am getting 154 Mbps from my wireless network tonight, so that seems like a reasonable speed for this plan. This is in an urban inner suburb of New Orleans.

 

[FIREd]

I have fiber internet. I get 200-400 Mbps for ~38 dollars a month (full price), reduced to ~25 dollars until the end of the year since I am a new customer.

 

[NotYourAverageJones]

Just ran Ookla speed test. It's bundled w/cable and a phone line (that we don't use). Runs us around $140 a month. Not as cheap as the states, but not awful because allows us to use a Slingbox to watch US TV by piggybacking off our families cable service.

 

[Car-Guy]

When we moved to the country, we found we were to far away to get the "big city" TV stations OTA. Even with a top quality and super high antenna it wouldn't work. Tried to get Direct TV to allow us to receive the major market channels but they said they were not allowed to because of some "marketing" rules/laws. Anyway, with Roku I'm able to stream the major market channels to my location so why can't Direct TV allow it? (rhetorical question) It's just an example, but it's no wonder why Direct TV and Dish networks are in so much trouble. With their ever increasing pricing and exceptionally poor customer services, they deserve the loss of market share.

 

[mountainsoft]

Cox Cable upgraded my internet for free. Instead of promising 100 Mbps, now they promise me 150 Mbps for $83.99/month.

I've had Comcast cable internet for quite a few years and was paying about $79/month for 75 Mbps service. A few months ago I was snooping around on their web site and saw they had a similar 75Mbps plan that cost about $10 less. So I switched to the cheaper plan. Then last month I was looking on the web site again and saw a new faster 100 Mbps plan that only cost $55. Thanks to their stupid "promotional" rates it's only costing me $45/month for the first year.

The annoying thing is Comcast never notified me of either of these plans. If I hadn't searched on my own, they would have continued billing me at the older more expensive rate.

My VOIP phone service was the same. I saved about $10/month by switching to a cheaper plan with the exact same features. But I had to find it myself, they never let me know it was available.

So now I routinely check my various bills to see if cheaper alternatives are available. They're certainly not going to volunteer to save me money.

 

[Bir48die]

Went from 20/20 to 30/30. Then 50/50 with Google mesh. Better now. When Dish came out they realized much of the streaming problem was a bad DVR unit. Either way life is better now

 

[GreenEggs]

We just moved into a new home last June & I received a new customer postcard ad from AT&T for $40 per month for 1 year. That sounded good, so I signed up for it. After about 4 months they sent a bill for $70, so I sent them $40 figuring they'd realize their mistake. Then I got a few robo calls from them, but I always hang up on robo calls. Finally, a real person, with a ridiculously foreign accent, called to discuss my bill. I explained I had been offered $40 for 12 months, and she replied that it "was a computer glitch". I told her that was crazy, because I had responded to their mailer & I expected the $40 price. We "disussed" it for well over an hour, because I'm retired & don't like getting screwed. We ended the conversation with her saying that they would stick with the $40 deal. I figured everything was fine,...until the SOBs turned off my service 2 weeks later!
Then, they extorted a higher price & a reconnection fee!! If I were younger & a little less restained I'd.....

So, the other internet provider here is Spectrum. They sent a $29 new customer mailer, so I figure "great I'll give them a call". They come out a determined that driveway is too long to run a direct feed from the street, so they'll have to install a box between the street & my house. That would take 45+/- days to get installed. (I'm a little concerned about them damaging my irrigation lines & power to the accent lighting.)

I'd read about cellular hot-spots that use cell data for internet, but figured they would be expensive or too slow. But we just bought an RV and I figured we'd need an internet solution for it. So I did a little YouTube research & ordered the hot-spot. The best cellular data plan seems to be with, you guessed it, AT&T. It's $35 for unlimited 4G LTE data, but I wasn't 100% sure if it was truly unlimited based on online reading. I got it set up and it's not super fast, but good enough for watching TV shows. I think we've had it about a month now & it's still working fine. I called a canceled the Spectrum installation.
I'm also hoping this will work at our mountain cabin too, so we can drop the internet/phone service there too. It cost about $115 & we're almost never there. If so, this will be a huge savings. "Fingers crossed". It will be great to cover both locations & the RV for $35 per month.
So far the speed usually ranges between 10-30 mps, which works. A better antenna would improve the speed some. We may need it at the mountain place, but I haven't been up there to test it yet.

 

[eastnortheast]

I lived in a rural area for 20 years with no DSL or any other ISP that didn't come over the air. Slow speeds and unreliable service was the norm until our Rural Electric Association started offering fiber. Now it's a whole new world...

Except for the last sentence and a half, that is us. Out in the country. No DSL, etc. Rely on line of site to the tower of the local internet provider. We typically get about 2-4 Mbps download and ~1 Mbps upload.

Since we dont know any better, it works for us. Able to surf the net with multiple devices and stream Netflix. Pay $30/month.

 

[retired1]

I just replaced my modem + Router with Netgear Nighthawk modem with built-in router. It has made a huge difference in my internet speedtest. Upstairs now gets as strong signal as downstairs. Earlier I was using an extender which I took out since new unit is much more powerful.