- In this report
- Overview
- CR Quick Recommendations
- Ratings
- How much speed
- Internet gotchas
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February 2007
Internet service
Fiber joins the fray
NEWCOMER Fiber-optic broadband is fast and reliable, but it’s still available only to relatively few consumers.
Cable Internet service has met its match. In our latest survey of more than 34,000 subscribers--our first to assess the new
kid on the block, fiber-optic broadband--readers gave Verizon’s fiber-based FiOS service top marks across the board.
FiOS users were more satisfied with the service’s speed than were users of cable, which received top marks for speed in our survey a year ago. And they were more satisfied with FiOS’s cost than were users of DSL, which remains the least expensive type of broadband. FiOS also got higher marks for both reliability and technical support than did cable or DSL.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that your chances of getting this promising new service today are slim. Verizon’s FiOS currently is being offered to about 6 million homes in roughly one third of the states.
FEW CHOICES STILL
The consumer broadband market has been a seller’s market, often limited to a single provider. Our survey underscored the lack of choice: Of readers who used any type of broadband service, 22 percent said they had chosen their type because it was the only broadband option available. In some parts of the country, that sole option is satellite. But our readers gave some of the lowest satisfaction scores to a major satellite provider in our Ratings.
Even where phone companies offer DSL or fiber, the number of broadband providers is often limited to two players: the cable and telephone companies. “Two is better than one. But a duopoly is not a fully competitive marketplace,” says Chris Putala, executive vice president, public policy, for EarthLink, one of the few providers that offer competitive broadband service over other companies’ DSL and cable lines.
Such use of existing lines fosters competition. But recent court and regulatory decisions are making it difficult for competitors to use those high-speed lines. Also, markets could be further narrowed by a spate of industry consolidations. Since our survey was conducted, Comcast and Time Warner have carved up Adelphia, SBC has gobbled up AT&T and taken its name, and, as of December, the “New AT&T” was poised to acquire BellSouth.
The main hope for more choice in broadband lies with new services that, while beginning to appear, are probably years from being widely available. They include Internet service over power lines and independent wireless systems that can beam the signal across cities.
Ironically, because competitors can still use the telephone lines of other companies to deliver dial-up service, competition remains alive and well for the original Internet technology, with at least six national providers. But slightly less than 10 percent of our readers were willing to put up with dial-up’s painfully slow speeds, despite its low cost.
For everyone else, choosing Internet service means making the best of a noncompetitive market. Given that, the increasing availability of fiber-optic service does represent some progress.
For one, upgrading to fiber will provide the means for your telephone company to offer subscription television service to your home, giving you an alternative to cable or satellite TV, although such services haven’t always been offered in places where fiber is available.
Plus, the very threat of a cable competitor can have an effect. In the few markets where Verizon has rolled out its fiber-to-the-home service, for example, cable has responded with lower prices on broadband, among other incentives, says Bruce McGregor, a senior analyst with Current Analysis, a Virginia-based market-research firm. While the same could happen to cable-television prices when fiber-based TV arrives, some analysts say that even where Verizon is offering television service over fiber, cable-TV providers haven’t felt much price pressure. And even new subscribers to Verizon’s TV service have seen price hikes.
HOW TO CHOOSE
Even if fiber is available to you right now, there’s no need to switch services if you’re happy with your current provider. About half of our readers said they were highly satisfied, though they were more pleased with reliability, speed, and technical support than cost. Less than 20 percent of the respondents said they were highly satisfied with cost.
If you do sign up with a new broadband provider, you’ll probably need to change your e-mail address in the process. Here’s more advice on how to choose a new provider:
Learn about your choices. Find out what services and providers are available in your area. You can find local providers at www.dslreports.com/prequal. Chances are you’ll have just one DSL provider available--your phone company--and just one cable Internet provider. But there are exceptions: EarthLink offers a competing Internet service over cable in Time Warner Cable’s 40 markets nationwide; that service was one of the better-rated cable services among our readers. EarthLink is also available on the Comcast cable system in Boston and Seattle. Other highly ranked cable companies that have built their own cable facilities to compete with existing providers are WOW, serving parts of Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio; and RCN, serving Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C. There are also two national satellite-based Internet services, but their cost is very high.
Weigh speed vs. cost. For many users, DSL service with a download speed of 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps) is sufficient and costs $20 to $30 monthly.
If you’re on a tight budget, for about the price of dial-up you might find DSL with download speeds of less than a megabit
per second. (For help deciding how fast a service to order, see How much speed.)
If you regularly download videos and other large files, consider higher-speed DSL, cable, or fiber (download speeds of about 5 to 20 Mbps), typically for $30 to $50 per month. If fiber is available and priced similarly to cable, you might want to consider it to give yourself an alternative for TV service, should that become available on fiber.
Opting for Verizon fiber may well mean that your phone service will be converted to fiber as well. Like cable VoIP phone service, such systems require a battery backup to operate during a power outage. Verizon supplies a backup system that provides about four hours of talk time; the customer is responsible for replacing it thereafter. For installation, even if it involves digging or tunneling on your property, Verizon charges $70 but waives the fee if you sign a one-year contract.
The blazingly fast fiber service that is often heralded as vanquishing cable offers download speeds of up to 50 Mbps. But such higher speeds can come at quite a premium. For example, Verizon recently charged as much as $200 monthly, depending on where you live, for one of its highest-speed services. And most Internet users don’t yet need that kind of speed. For $35 per month, you can expect between 5 and 10 Mbps download speed and 2 Mbps upload.
The need for such speed is bound to be more widespread in the future as computer users demand faster and faster connections to accommodate downloading high-definition movies and other bandwidth-intensive applications. But by then, new, higher-speed offerings from cable providers as well as fiber-DSL hybrid services from telephone companies should also be more widely available.
If fiber isn’t available, it might be worth calling your local phone company to find out whether it’s on the way. Verizon plans to offer FiOS to about 18 million households by 2010 in states where it currently provides phone service.
Some high-speed plans aren’t recommended for use with computers running Windows 98 or ME. Before signing up, ask your provider to give you a real-world speed estimate based on your equipment and other factors. Inquire about whether there is anything you can do to speed up your connection. Ask neighbors who subscribe to the same service about their experience. Once you have service, you can compare the speeds you’re actually getting with the advertised speed by testing it free at www.dslreports.com/speedtest.
At the other extreme, if you’re using Internet only for e-mail or basic Web browsing, dial-up service might be enough. Expect to pay around $10 to $20 a month.
Consider your other services. There’s a good chance you can save by subscribing to more than one service from the same provider. Cable companies typically offer double- and triple-play packages that include television, and either Internet or telephone or both. For all three, promotional prices can have you paying as little as $100 a month for as long as a year. After the promotional period ends, you’ll be saving $5 to $20 off the cost of buying each service separately.
Telephone companies already have double-play packages that include telephone and Internet service. They also are beginning to offer triple-play deals over their own lines as they upgrade their networks and obtain permission from local and state authorities to include video. This year, providers are expected to begin rolling out quad-play packages that add cellular service. For consumers, the main benefits of bundling are cost savings and the convenience of paying just one bill.
Don’t assume that bundling is cheaper than buying separately and from different providers. Getting separate VoIP telephone service from a company such as Vonage, for example, could make it easier to change your phone service later on. And buying a bundle might make it harder for you to change providers for any individual service if you’re tied into a long-term contract for them all.
Look for features. Consider whether a service offers multiple e-mail accounts, spam and spyware blocking, parental controls, and a personal Web page. If you travel often, look for a broadband service such as EarthLink’s or BellSouth’s that includes dial-up access. Also look for Web mail, which lets you access e-mail from any Internet-enabled computer.
Test-drive it. Once you have a new service, if there’s a trial period, test the features before it expires. If possible, maintain your old account during that period in case you want to go back.
FiOS users were more satisfied with the service’s speed than were users of cable, which received top marks for speed in our survey a year ago. And they were more satisfied with FiOS’s cost than were users of DSL, which remains the least expensive type of broadband. FiOS also got higher marks for both reliability and technical support than did cable or DSL.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that your chances of getting this promising new service today are slim. Verizon’s FiOS currently is being offered to about 6 million homes in roughly one third of the states.
FEW CHOICES STILL
The consumer broadband market has been a seller’s market, often limited to a single provider. Our survey underscored the lack of choice: Of readers who used any type of broadband service, 22 percent said they had chosen their type because it was the only broadband option available. In some parts of the country, that sole option is satellite. But our readers gave some of the lowest satisfaction scores to a major satellite provider in our Ratings.
Even where phone companies offer DSL or fiber, the number of broadband providers is often limited to two players: the cable and telephone companies. “Two is better than one. But a duopoly is not a fully competitive marketplace,” says Chris Putala, executive vice president, public policy, for EarthLink, one of the few providers that offer competitive broadband service over other companies’ DSL and cable lines.
Such use of existing lines fosters competition. But recent court and regulatory decisions are making it difficult for competitors to use those high-speed lines. Also, markets could be further narrowed by a spate of industry consolidations. Since our survey was conducted, Comcast and Time Warner have carved up Adelphia, SBC has gobbled up AT&T and taken its name, and, as of December, the “New AT&T” was poised to acquire BellSouth.
The main hope for more choice in broadband lies with new services that, while beginning to appear, are probably years from being widely available. They include Internet service over power lines and independent wireless systems that can beam the signal across cities.
Ironically, because competitors can still use the telephone lines of other companies to deliver dial-up service, competition remains alive and well for the original Internet technology, with at least six national providers. But slightly less than 10 percent of our readers were willing to put up with dial-up’s painfully slow speeds, despite its low cost.
For everyone else, choosing Internet service means making the best of a noncompetitive market. Given that, the increasing availability of fiber-optic service does represent some progress.
For one, upgrading to fiber will provide the means for your telephone company to offer subscription television service to your home, giving you an alternative to cable or satellite TV, although such services haven’t always been offered in places where fiber is available.
Plus, the very threat of a cable competitor can have an effect. In the few markets where Verizon has rolled out its fiber-to-the-home service, for example, cable has responded with lower prices on broadband, among other incentives, says Bruce McGregor, a senior analyst with Current Analysis, a Virginia-based market-research firm. While the same could happen to cable-television prices when fiber-based TV arrives, some analysts say that even where Verizon is offering television service over fiber, cable-TV providers haven’t felt much price pressure. And even new subscribers to Verizon’s TV service have seen price hikes.
HOW TO CHOOSE
Even if fiber is available to you right now, there’s no need to switch services if you’re happy with your current provider. About half of our readers said they were highly satisfied, though they were more pleased with reliability, speed, and technical support than cost. Less than 20 percent of the respondents said they were highly satisfied with cost.
If you do sign up with a new broadband provider, you’ll probably need to change your e-mail address in the process. Here’s more advice on how to choose a new provider:
Learn about your choices. Find out what services and providers are available in your area. You can find local providers at www.dslreports.com/prequal. Chances are you’ll have just one DSL provider available--your phone company--and just one cable Internet provider. But there are exceptions: EarthLink offers a competing Internet service over cable in Time Warner Cable’s 40 markets nationwide; that service was one of the better-rated cable services among our readers. EarthLink is also available on the Comcast cable system in Boston and Seattle. Other highly ranked cable companies that have built their own cable facilities to compete with existing providers are WOW, serving parts of Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio; and RCN, serving Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C. There are also two national satellite-based Internet services, but their cost is very high.
HIGHER-SPEED CABLE Cablevision’s Optimum Online Boost has a download speed of 30 Mbps--competitive with fiber. Total monthly cost ranges from
$30 to $65 depending on a variety of factors.
If you regularly download videos and other large files, consider higher-speed DSL, cable, or fiber (download speeds of about 5 to 20 Mbps), typically for $30 to $50 per month. If fiber is available and priced similarly to cable, you might want to consider it to give yourself an alternative for TV service, should that become available on fiber.
Opting for Verizon fiber may well mean that your phone service will be converted to fiber as well. Like cable VoIP phone service, such systems require a battery backup to operate during a power outage. Verizon supplies a backup system that provides about four hours of talk time; the customer is responsible for replacing it thereafter. For installation, even if it involves digging or tunneling on your property, Verizon charges $70 but waives the fee if you sign a one-year contract.
The blazingly fast fiber service that is often heralded as vanquishing cable offers download speeds of up to 50 Mbps. But such higher speeds can come at quite a premium. For example, Verizon recently charged as much as $200 monthly, depending on where you live, for one of its highest-speed services. And most Internet users don’t yet need that kind of speed. For $35 per month, you can expect between 5 and 10 Mbps download speed and 2 Mbps upload.
The need for such speed is bound to be more widespread in the future as computer users demand faster and faster connections to accommodate downloading high-definition movies and other bandwidth-intensive applications. But by then, new, higher-speed offerings from cable providers as well as fiber-DSL hybrid services from telephone companies should also be more widely available.
If fiber isn’t available, it might be worth calling your local phone company to find out whether it’s on the way. Verizon plans to offer FiOS to about 18 million households by 2010 in states where it currently provides phone service.
Some high-speed plans aren’t recommended for use with computers running Windows 98 or ME. Before signing up, ask your provider to give you a real-world speed estimate based on your equipment and other factors. Inquire about whether there is anything you can do to speed up your connection. Ask neighbors who subscribe to the same service about their experience. Once you have service, you can compare the speeds you’re actually getting with the advertised speed by testing it free at www.dslreports.com/speedtest.
At the other extreme, if you’re using Internet only for e-mail or basic Web browsing, dial-up service might be enough. Expect to pay around $10 to $20 a month.
Consider your other services. There’s a good chance you can save by subscribing to more than one service from the same provider. Cable companies typically offer double- and triple-play packages that include television, and either Internet or telephone or both. For all three, promotional prices can have you paying as little as $100 a month for as long as a year. After the promotional period ends, you’ll be saving $5 to $20 off the cost of buying each service separately.
Telephone companies already have double-play packages that include telephone and Internet service. They also are beginning to offer triple-play deals over their own lines as they upgrade their networks and obtain permission from local and state authorities to include video. This year, providers are expected to begin rolling out quad-play packages that add cellular service. For consumers, the main benefits of bundling are cost savings and the convenience of paying just one bill.
Don’t assume that bundling is cheaper than buying separately and from different providers. Getting separate VoIP telephone service from a company such as Vonage, for example, could make it easier to change your phone service later on. And buying a bundle might make it harder for you to change providers for any individual service if you’re tied into a long-term contract for them all.
Look for features. Consider whether a service offers multiple e-mail accounts, spam and spyware blocking, parental controls, and a personal Web page. If you travel often, look for a broadband service such as EarthLink’s or BellSouth’s that includes dial-up access. Also look for Web mail, which lets you access e-mail from any Internet-enabled computer.
Test-drive it. Once you have a new service, if there’s a trial period, test the features before it expires. If possible, maintain your old account during that period in case you want to go back.
