Internet in Fairhope
๐๐ฉ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ฃ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐โฆ
Competition for providing high speed Internet heats up around here. One provider loses customers while another picks up market share. Here are our experiences with three providers. Your results may be different!
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ค๐ข (๐๐๐๐ก๐)
Weโve been Mediacom customers for nearly six years, mainly because thereโs no other viable option at the time we need service. When it works, it works well. But we are often frustrated by drops in service and, more recently, frequent slowdowns in Mediacomโs service which costs about $85/month. A technician describes the companyโs network in our area as โancient,โ which explains a lot of the frustration we encounter with Mediacom. Last year, the company refuses to send a technician out for slow service, saying the modem we own is outdated. We install a new modem, but the problems continue. Download service runs around 300 Mbps, but upload speed many times hobbles along at around 1.5 Mbps. Every time we complain, the technicians who come out almost always find something not working right on the companyโs side of the network. During the last couple of months, our download speed drops to about a third of its previous speed without explanation. We donโt know if thatโs because of more network problems or if it’s intentional.
๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ก๐ (๐ฌ๐๐ง๐๐ก๐๐จ๐จ)
In 2020, damage from Hurricane Sally forces us to move out of our house. We buy in to TMobileโs new at the time wireless gateway and use it at our temporary house. Pay a flat $50 a month, plug it in, do a small bit of configuring, and youโre up and running. Since the gateway gets its signal over the air, you have to be within TMobileโs cellular footprint for the gateway to work. With download speed approaching 100 Mbps, weโre pleased at how well it works. When we move back into our home, we decide to keep the gateway as a backup. And on several occasions, when Mediacom goes down, we switch over to TMobile.
๐ผ๐&๐ (๐๐๐๐๐ง)
Last summer, AT&T installs fiber in our neighborhood. For many consumers around here, this marks the start of real competition. In just our neighborhood alone, AT&T is clearly picking up a lot of customers, and itโs mostly at Mediacomโs expense. Company trucks are a frequent sight in the neighborhood. In fact, two different crews are seen doing fiber installations at homes just a few doors from each other on the same day. For about the same money as Mediacom, AT&Tโs fiber delivers more than three times the download and upload speed. Our first attempt at getting service results in failure when two technicians say they canโt install it in our home. But when we call back and order service again, as if for the first time, a different technician shows up. He knocks the โcanโt be doneโ job out by himself and shakes his head when told of our first experience. 
After watching AT&Tโs service a couple of days, I place the official โweโre doneโ call to Mediacom. Our new fiber service has been up and running for two weeks. It rocks. We have yet to see either upload or download speed fall below 900 Mbps.ย 
No illusions here. No matter what service and technology you choose, outages happen. But having the redundancy of two providers helps guard against being completely offline. At this point, weโre very early in our relationship with AT&T fiber, but the initial results are positive for sure. It really does pay to shop around and learn about current technologies.
AT&T is incurring plenty of expense to install fiber in different communities. The company hopes to pick up market share due to fiberโs speed and–with so much of their network underground–that it will save money on maintenance. This could give AT&T a huge advantage, especially in areas where so much dissatisfaction with broadband exists.
Hope this is helpful to someone!
David Black
