Technology

Are ISPs transitioning to comedy now?

Ya, and the reason I've never been in a car accident is cause I'm a fantastic driver, not because I've never owned a car...

"excellent customer service" is a really weird to state "monopolistic practices"

Welp, the gig is up. After all of these years we've been publicly pretending otherwise... these companies have finally seen through our charade. We no longer need to excitedly whisper to eachother in basements and bars, and other locals in the shadows, tales of how our local Internet service providers always go above and beyond for each and every one of us. Now they know we think of them not only as a part of our family, but also as one of our children, as kin, and with more esteem than our elders. Truly we are a blessed people. The future is bright my brothers, we can now rejoice openly in the sun the ISPs shine down unto us.

USTelecom, which represents telcos such as AT&T and Verizon, said that "the competitive broadband marketplace leaves providers of broadband and other communications services no choice but to provide their customers with not only high-quality broadband, but also high-quality customer service."

That's so much bullshit in so little space that I'm surprised it didn't become a black hole.

I work for an ISP, we have 10 second to 3 minutes hold times before you're speaking to a real rep, we have had downtime 5 times since I started working for them 4 years ago for maintenance (upgrading hardware to support larger bandwidth in different areas), we sell 1Gbps symmetrical speeds with unlimited data for $50/mo, we have 50k customers (in a specific area) and 5 customer service reps. Customer service quality is definitely important, but providing a service with minimal issues and great prices, that's why the ISP I work for can get away with such a minimum amount of representatives and continue to get a 4.7 star rating on Google as an ISP.

It's fun working for a company like this because you get to see how 50k customers paying for 1Gbps only use 70-85Gbps at any given time on average lol, people think they need a lot of bandwidth when in reality they just need a better router for their local network's bandwidth. WiFi hasn't been a great tech so far honestly, Wi-Fi 6 made a lot of improvements, maybe with WiFi7/8 that changes though. Big name consumer routers like Netgear have been dropping the ball with quality for years, but they still rake in the cash because at one point they made really great hardware.

I've learned a lot about networking because of this job, and it's given me a really great perspective of how awful Comcast/Xfinity/spectrum and CenturyLink/QuantumFiber really are, how much they try to get in the pockets of the people who make the decisions for infrastructure in our cities, there were so many hate ads against the ISP I work for during an election season all paid for by Comcast and CenturyLink.

Anyways, customer service is great, but quality of service is much more important. Having both is a win all around.

Hahahahahaha.

Fuck. It's so fake it makes me feel sick, I hate large corporations, especially ones with monopolies. It's disgusting.

I'm contractually obligated to take it in the ass from the only ISP in town.

The only reason I take their customer service up my ass is because it always sucks no matter what ISP I use.

Stares in local duopoly

if you want to listen to 35 minutes of annoying music, press 1. If you want to get insulted personally by an operator stay on the line

I audibly laughed.

shoutout to Andrews & Arnold, best ISP in the uk. I called to stop using them because I was leaving the country forever and they were like "good, what else do you want?" MFs gave zero shits and gave great high speed service.

https://www.aa.net.uk/

In Algeria no one switches because there's only one ISP.

My ISP's customer service is spectacular. It's literally THE reason I've stuck with my ISP the entire time I've lived here. Well, that and the fact that they're the only option.

Not in NYC. Spectrum is my only option and they are flaky as hell

All infrastructure should be owned by the government

The reason I haven't switched is because I have no real alternatives. I could try a wireless service, but it would likely be a downgrade as signal is not the greatest in my area.

The reason i don't switch is because the price is fair enough and i have less connection issues compared the all the others we have available.

I'm gonna have to sue whoever said that to deal with the whiplash from my doubletake

I was lucky enough to have options after I moved a few years ago, and went with the smaller semi-local isp that offers better speeds for better prices, and no bullshit. The customer service is actually pretty good too. I hope more people get options like that, it felt so good to leave the big guys.

ISPs are generally all equally as bad (except for Spectrum. They're probably the worst.). I stay with my ISP because they've never once complained about any of the torrenting I've done.

Bluntly: If you're fortunate, you'll have two options for internet. DSL and cable. Sometimes there's other "options" like a WISP or starlink, or even a dual up provider, but the speed comparison is not even close, so I usually discard most of those as viable either on ping time or bandwidth.

It's extremely likely that only one provider services your residence with DSL, and one provider does cable. Two providers. All other options are basically a wholesale or resale of these two providers, meaning you still get service from one of those two.

If you're extremely lucky, you'll also have the option of fiber. And IMO, that is the only time you really get three options.

If you go with a third party ISP, the last mile is still one of the two that actually come into your residence.

So the only real options you have are: do you want to buy internet direct from the ISP that owns the line to your house, or do you want to buy internet from someone who will contact that company to give you internet? If you don't like the DSL provider, and you don't like the cable provider, you're completely fucked. Gg everyone.

I live where there's 1 isp and 10 mobile/satellite providers

Lol

I've only had one ISP with excellent service, and it was a small family-run one. It was pretty expensive, too. The rest have ranged from "ok I guess" to "oh my god, I vow never to deal with these shitcunts again for the rest of my days".

Besides, logically, if the ISPs really were a pleasure to deal with, then surely making it easy to switch would be welcomed, no? People would see how good your service is then switch to you.

Curious. Almost like they're chatting complete and utter bollocks.

We have 1 choice or nothing. If my ham sandwich suddenly provided bandwidth, id drop my isp in a heartbeat

I have spectrum or 500kbs DSL. That's it. That's such a a blatant lie anyone that has Internet will confirm.

If they all suck, are they all not doing exceptionally well? I, too, can make statistics say whatever I want. If you manipulate the data, then a lie will sell itself.

TBF they are right in my case. I pay for my ISPs small business offer, which is the former state own ISP, because they are the only ones who get me proper customer service in a reasonable time. (With 8h next business days. I could live with a few days. But it's that or 4-8 weeks) And I need a static IPv4 which none offers for non-business customers anymore.

Damn. But that bill makes me cry every fucking month. Even fucking Starlink would be cheaper,but I do would get offline before giving money to Elon.

lol

Most of the ISPs operating in my city's fiber network are reasonably good and the one I've chosen is honestly good, so from my personal point-of-view, that headline seems perfectly relatable.