Internet in NC sucks

[TarPanther9180]

I've been saying this for a long time. NC has 7 cities out of the 10 worst in the US with the worst broadband connections at price per Mbps.

Bottom 10 by Average Price Per Mbps

1 Anchorage, AK $65.50

2 Greensboro, NC $62.03

3 Winston-Salem, NC $61.86

4 Columbia, SC $61.35

5 Raleigh, NC $60.98

6 Cary, NC $59.53

7 Durham, NC $59.18

8 Wilmington, NC $56.83

9 Charlotte, NC $52.73

10 Shreveport, LA $52.72

http://gigaom.com/broadband/bandwidth-com-launches-a-better-broadband-map/

[Carolina Husker]

That's good for me.

[Paintballr]

It's what happens when your big two companies around here for internet is TWC and At&t.

Its starting to change though, other companies are starting to make a move down here and starting to put price ahead of the big two. Clearwire is starting to get bigger for the casual user. Mobile broadband is also a option. But untill comcast/fios etc makes a move down here to NC you will be paying 50-60 bucks for 10-15 Mbps and 30-40 for 3-6 Mbps.

[TarPanther9180]

Wilson did it right:

Wilson's community network, marketed as Greenlight, has the fastest Internet speeds in North Carolina - from 10 Mbps all the way up to 100 Mbps, many times faster than anything else available here.

http://www.wilsonnc.org/living/fiberopticnetwork/

Which is a damn shame the biggest cities in the state can't come up with something.

[Paintballr]

Wilson did it right:

http://www.wilsonnc.org/living/fiberopticnetwork/

Which is a damn shame the biggest cities in the state can't come up with something.

TWC has internet with speeds that high. You just gotta ask for it/pay for it. They have wideband which I think is 50 Mbps and they have something else that is higher. Its expensive as hell but its not impossible to get speeds like that here.

It's also alot harder to get speeds really high in big cities and high populated area's with providers like At&t and TWC. Cable uses nodes that split the signal for a block/neighborhood. If everyone decides to get on, it slows down. If only a few are on it speeds up. With At&t the farther away you are from the original signal the slower the speed will be.

[Davidson Deac II]

Their methods for calculating are flawed. They are calculating cost per mb or something to that effect.

Calculating it per mb or whatever is incorrect. Its more correct to say that NC has some of the cheapest internet rates, but the speeds are slow in a lot of places.

I pay 36 bucks a months for ATT DSL extreme, which seems like a reasonable deal to me.

[TarPanther9180]

Their methods for calculating are flawed. They are calculating cost per mb or something to that effect.

Calculating it per mb or whatever is incorrect. Its more correct to say that NC has some of the cheapest internet rates, but the speeds are slow in a lot of places.

I know several folks around the country and we discuss this quite a bit. For what I pay for 6M down and 512K up (DSL) other people are getting 20down/20up.

[TarPanther9180]

TWC has internet with speeds that high. You just gotta ask for it/pay for it. They have wideband which I think is 50 Mbps and they have something else that is higher. Its expensive as hell but its not impossible to get speeds like that here.

It's also alot harder to get speeds really high in big cities and high populated area's with providers like At&t and TWC. Cable uses nodes that split the signal for a block/neighborhood. If everyone decides to get on, it slows down. If only a few are on it speeds up. With At&t the farther away you are from the original signal the slower the speed will be.

Yeah but TWC and cable Internet sucks. They say you can get up to 5mb upload, but that isn't all that great. Plus if you actually order that, you would probably only get half of what they claim (for the reasons you said above).

[Paintballr]

I know several folks around the country and we discuss this quite a bit. For what I pay for 6M down and 512K up (DSL) other people are getting 20down/20up.

Are they in bigger cities than where you are located? Also who is the provider? While you are paying for DSL they might be using Fios or Cable. Just lack of competition here, which means its basically one or the other which ties down the network.

[Paintballr]

Yeah but TWC and cable Internet sucks. They say you can get up to 5mb upload, but that isn't all that great. Plus if you actually order that, you would probably only get half of what they claim (for the reasons you said above).

True, I mean I have them and they aren't perfect but its a price we have to pay for living in Charlotte and the city not attracting more competitors and TWC buying everyone out except At&t

[Davidson Deac II]

I know several folks around the country and we discuss this quite a bit. For what I pay for 6M down and 512K up (DSL) other people are getting 20down/20up.

My coworkers are in Charlotte, Iowa, Arizona, San Francisco, and NYC and we all work from home on a regular basis. Except for the guy in Charlotte, they all pay twice as much as I do for at best, slightly better service. The company pays for our internet access, up to a certain level. The employees in NC are the only ones that stay below the level the company pays, all the other locations are above the company's limit.

[TarPanther9180]

Are they in bigger cities than where you are located? Also who is the provider? While you are paying for DSL they might be using Fios or Cable. Just lack of competition here, which means its basically one or the other which ties down the network.

It is a mix. Some are bigger cities, some are smaller...but they do have better options than TWC and AT&T.

[TarPanther9180]

My coworkers are in Charlotte, Iowa, Arizona, San Francisco, and NYC and we all work from home on a regular basis. Except for the guy in Charlotte, they all pay twice as much as I do for at best, slightly better service. The company pays for our internet access, up to a certain level. The employees in NC are the only ones that stay below the level the company pays, all the other locations are above the company's limit.

Do they combo their phone and TV with their Internet service? That's how TWC and AT&T will get their prices down. Me, I don't want to combo any of that (actually I've boycotted TWC all together).

[Davidson Deac II]

Do they combo their phone and TV with their Internet service? That's how TWC and AT&T will get their prices down. Me, I don't want to combo any of that (actually I've boycotted TWC all together).

Don't know if they do. I do combo home phone and internet. It brought the internet price down a little bit. But its still fairly cheap in Winston.