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High speed Internet options in northern Colorado (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/colorado

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I'm moving to north Colorado soon, up near Fort Collins area, and I'm looking to get set up with high speed Internet. Anyone have any familiarity with Xfinity? They're offering speeds that work for me, but I'm hoping to get a feel for how consistent they are with service and how easy it is to get issues resolved.

Edit: Went with Quantum Fiber, they just came and installed today. Very happy so far!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

We'll actually be in Berthoud, I was just trying to generalize. What service is that fiber option you were talking about, that sounds perfect! We're not too far away from Longmont, maybe they'll service us there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Unfortunately it won't be available to you there. The providers have managed to screw things over and it was through heavy litigation that Longmont (and now others) have been able to start building their own internet services, however there is still a clause in place blocking us from building out beyond city limits -- unless that has changed and I missed the news. I don't think I've heard of ANY plans in Berthoud to build out a reliable service, so you may unfortunately be stuck with Xfinity.

If you do happen to move a bit further South, our fiber service goes under the name NextLight.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I checked and Quantum is offered there too, I might go with that instead since Xfinity sounds like it's absolutely horrible. We're already under contract in Berthoud, we put in a couple offers in Longmont proper but got outbid, the market there is popping!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

There market everywhere around here is insane. If you don't put a bid on a house sight-unseen within a couple hours the house will be gone!

Please check into Quantum, they just have a spammy feeling to me already but maybe they're just being overly-aggressive about advertising in a new area. I don't actually know anything about them and can't make any recommendations.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

You may want to see if T-Mobile or Verizon offer their wireless home broadband there. AT&T hasn't touched the network in CO in several years so they don't have the added free bandwidth to even consider. Longmont, Loveland, and Ft. Collins all have local muni-provided fiber, but those fiber networks stop at city boundaries, (and in the case of Longmont, the county line, so part of the city in Weld county is unserved.)

In Berthoud, you likely will have "Quantum" (CenturyLink) DSL possibly available and don't believe the speeds they quote as they're generally 1/2 to 1/5 what they claim the wire can drive. Comcast (Xfinity) may end up being your only option for now. Likewise to CenturyLink, what they quote for speed, you will likely not see, so just bear that in mind when signing up.

Whatever works for a stopgap though. Get what works, try to avoid signing an annual or longer commitment so you can leave once you have boots on the ground, and go from there.

Edit: I picked a random address in Berthoud and plugged it into the FCC broadband map: https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/location-summary/fixed?version=jun2023&location_id=1354151253&addr1=218+E+NEBRASKA+AVE&addr2=BERTHOUD%2C+CO+80513&zoom=15.00&vlon=-105.069750&vlat=40.298306&br=r&speed=25_3&tech=1_2_3_4_5_6_7_8

Looks like Comcast/Xfinity will be the only wireline high speed provider in town. There are some wireless ISPs that do point-to-point and put an antenna on your roof if you're in an eligible area. Then Lumen is yet another name for CenturyLink/Quantum and they claim 10/1Mbps which means 3Mbps/200kbps in real life. Also the aforementioned T-Mobile or Verizon 5G home broadbands may be worth looking into but that's capacity/location/address dependent so you'll want to go to each carrier's home broadband page, input the address where you are going to live, and see if they even offer the services.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for this! Would you recommend Xfinity over Quantum? I've had positive experiences with CenturyLink in Washington State before, but no experience with Xfinity to compare, and I'm sure the large distance makes a difference.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You may want to just try one for a few months, then the other if they don’t seem good enough. I’ve used both CL/Lumen/Quantum DSL and xfinity cable around CO in the past. It can really depend on a home to home basis.

The CenturyLink product tends to “feel” more responsive as it tended to have faster back end services, but overall up/down speeds were slower. If you can’t establish a fast uplink due to distance/wiring, video calls and cloud services will become unusable.

Another option, maybe, would be Comcast Business Internet. They have no caps, higher network priority than consumer, faster support turnaround time, and you do not need to be a business to get it. The trade-off is top speeds tend to be a bit lower for the same price. If they offer Xfinity to a home, business service should also be available.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Great advice, thank you very much!