Google Fiber has finally made its way to my street! To say I’m thrilled would be an understatement. For the last 4 years, my only choices for high speed internet have been AT&T (who I refuse to use*) and Spectrum (my current provider).
My problem with both AT&T and Spectrum are sketchy business practices. They offer a “promotional rate” then tack on fees, taxes and surcharges that increase the price. Then, after a year, they increase the base rate exorbitantly. In my case, Spectrum started out at $49/month for Internet service, then sent me a letter 1 week before raising the rate to $79/month. I then had to play the “game” of calling, waiting on hold for hours, threatening to cancel, being told there was nothing they could do….until they finally agreed to give me a “new special discount” at $59/month.
You know the routine – every Internet provider does this. And because they have monopolistic territories, if you want high speed service, you are stuck.
But now that Google is here, I have a 3rd option. As much as I abhor Google’s tracking and advertising practices, I’ll take their Fiber connection – at least for now. They don’t play the bait and switch game with rates. They offer super high speed at a reasonable price with no hidden fees and surcharges.
So next week, hello Google and bye bye Spectrum.
Because I have moved so often and refuse to pay when my ISP does the rate hike game, I have dealt with many major Internet & TV providers – Comcast, Cox, AT&T, BellSouth, Xfinity, DirectTV. They all used the same “screw the customer model”.
I love that I can finally opt out. Some day, I suspect we could have more provider options when wireless broadband service becomes ubiquitous. There will be a brief window of unfettered competition and then consolidation and monopolization will happen again just like it did for ISPs.
But until then, I’ll keep giving the middle finger to these companies whenever I can.