[trimbo]

I live in SF and Comcast doesn't charge me to have my own router.

I pay $130 for 1.4gbit and unlimited data. It's expensive but I also have no other choices. Sonic stops only one block over and we haven't been able to convince them to wire up my block.

[jamestimmins]

I'm so jealous of SF internet options.

In LA I pay $105 for "supposedly" 2-300mbit, but this week I've been seeing 30.

I keep looking for alternatives but haven't found any in my area.

[dp-hackernews]

I'm guessing a 5G mobile option is too expensive. In the UK I have a 3Mobile (Smarty unlimited data) 5G connection, using an MC801, for £20/m and I get around 1gb/100mb with it - until the tower hits a busy period, then it drops to about ~500mb/20mb

[hansvm]

I'm in the Bay. My only reasonable options are Comcast cable and T-Mobile 5G. I had enough problems with Comcast that I went to 5G, and it's ... fine. The bill is $5/mo worse than the alternative, but there's been zero extra billing bullshit, so my actual internet expenses are slightly less than normal and don't involve 20hrs on hold every year.

The quality of service is the real problem. When the tower is busy (happens at least once a week), I usually drop to 30Mb/30Kb or so, which is little enough upload that even download-intensive applications often struggle. Plus, the jitter is terrible, latency is slightly worse on average, and 3 times so far I've had internet effectively down (spotty connections in the 1Kb/1b range) for days at a time.

Interestingly, "predictable uptime" is something I care about and is much better with T-Mobile. With Comcast I'd have at least one hang every 10 minutes or so for multiple seconds on an otherwise perfectly functional connection. With T-Mobile, it's either down for days (tower maintenance) or up (perhaps slow, but definitely up). That makes all sorts of near-real-time activities easier to coordinate.

I'd probably do it again (I don't think I actually have any options unless I get off my ass and finally sue Comcast), but it isn't a clear win.

[reaperducer]

I'm guessing a 5G mobile option is too expensive.

It's more about availability.

I have 5G for home internet, and it's $55/month, including taxes. I get 100 to 300 mbps, though during lunch on weekdays that can slow to 50.

There are two other 5G Home Internet providers in this state. One wants $100/month for 5-100 mbps. The other won't let me sign up because it doesn't have the capacity where I am.

[kimixa]

I live in San Jose and Comcast shouldn't charge me for my own router, but every couple of months the "equipment hire" charge appears on my bill again and I have to go through the song and dance of calling them again and getting it removed.

I also pay a little more than $130 for gigabit with a 1tb limit.

I wish I had options.

[joshstrange]

Ouch, I think a limit would drive me crazy. I pay $110/mo for FTTH, 1Gbps symmetrical, unlimited bandwidth, static IP (by default you get CGNAT), ISP (MetroNet) provides the modem, and I use my own router.

For fiber is it popular to use your own modem? I always bough my own cable modems (Surfboards) but once I switched to fiber I didn’t really investigate it. As long as the ISP gives me a “clean line” out of the modem then I’m happy.

I use about 4TB of download and 4TB of upload a month on average so a 1TB limit feels incredibly limiting.

I’m in Lexington, KY which can account for it being cheaper but if you told me 5-10 years ago that KY would have better internet than SF/San Jose/etc I would have laughed in your face. I also can get 2Gbps/1Gbps for an extra ~$30/mo but all my equipment is 1Gbps max so I haven’t considered upgrading until I do a more general refresh of my network hardware. I think they have 5Gbps (not sure the upload speed) coming soon but I haven’t followed it closely. And yes, I realize I could benefit some from having 2Gbps Internet, even if most of my equipment doesn’t support it because I could use some of it over Wi-Fi and the rest of it hardwired. My eero does support 2.5Gbps, just nothing else in my house does more than 1Gbps.

That’s also insane to me, I’ve spent quite literally my entire life chasing faster internet speeds and always paid for the best plan available (aside from 10x priced business plans) and now I’m passing up a 2x download upgrade because what I have works great.

[doctorpangloss]

You do have a choice, it's Astound, and you're about to save like $1,000.

[1oooqooq]

he said modem... he also have own router dowstream.

[trimbo]

Sorry yes I meant modem