Comments
afwriter
2/4/2016 1:42:59 PM
User Rank Platinum
We'll See What Happens
This is a two fold comment.
1. What does this mean for Century Link's partnership with DirectTV? Does that just disolve over night?
2. I am a Century Link customer in this exact market and I know from personal experience how much of a headache it is to deal with their customer service. If they plan on expanding their services without expanding their support and fixing some major issues I do not see this expansion every gaining a foot hold in a market that already has 4 other competitors on top of the cable cutting trend.
Re: We'll See What Happens
I guess I just assumed the AT&T deal killed any sort of partnership between CenturyLink and DirecTV? Does CenturyLink still promote DirecTV?
As to your second point, there must be a reason that CenturyLink is throwing these rescources at gigabit and Prism TV, but people will vote with their wallets.
I feel your pain on the customer service side. When I hear about bad customer service I usually think of a very large service provider (hint starts with a "C") but wasn't aware of it being an issue with CenturyLink.
afwriter
2/8/2016 5:44:31 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: We'll See What Happens
My experience could be 1 in a million, but the only reason I haven't switched is because my only other option for reliable internet is from that other "C" company. I'm not here to talk trash about Century Link and given the IoT going on in my own abode I am fairly interested in the Gigabit service.
I wonder how they plan to package the services and if their will be different price teirs. Will they try to bundle TV/Internet/Phone together like competitors or will they do something else to try to set these new services apart?
mhhf1ve
2/8/2016 11:12:42 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: We'll See What Happens
I think it's a good bet that gigabit services will be introduced in tiers that try to bundle video and voice. VOIP makes traditional landlines pretty useless. I vaguely recall an effort that would get rid of the "dial tone" entirely and replace it with a Siri-like interface for all voice communications. Maybe cloud-based services will be the next bundle in broadband, but it will take a while before customers see the value in cloud services.
Re: We'll See What Happens
I think they're using gigabit to lure customers into TV bundles. The key question, of course, is how long do you get a good deal before the price goes up? I think Verizon went that route ealry on when they were deploying video; people churned back and forth between Verizon and Cablevision, for example.
vnewman
2/4/2016 6:18:36 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: We'll See What Happens
My CenturyLink guy was here today, so I asked him about the deal with DirectTV and his understanding is that the deal stands where Prism TV is not yet available.
mhhf1ve
2/4/2016 9:22:34 PM
User Rank Platinum
Yay! Competition...
Actual, real competition and not just press releases saying that fiber will be deployed to "something" to keep up with Google Fiber -- this is impressive. I have to wonder how many households are really up to using 1Gbps speeds?
Ariella
2/5/2016 10:52:45 AM
User Rank Author
Re: Yay! Competition...
<I have to wonder how many households are really up to using 1Gbps speeds? > @mhhf1ve certainly, mine isn't. When our provider offers us an upgrade for faster speed, I assure it that we're just fine with what we have, and it costs quite a lot already due to lack of competition in our area.
burn0050
2/5/2016 11:04:30 AM
User Rank Steel
Re: Yay! Competition...
You have to remember that part of that gigabit is for Prism TV (much like AT&T U-Verse). One take away from this (as a consumer) is that it's offering high speed at dropping prices, and will force the competition to lower prices as well. It's not like it's gigabit for $500/month - this is truly consumer affordable, and it's about time.
The US lags so far behind other countries when it comes to average bandwidth to the home, and we invented the Internet. The fact that we don't have the highest speed network in the world is frankly embarassing.
mhhf1ve
2/5/2016 12:16:09 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Yay! Competition...
Comparing broadband speeds from country to country is a little trickier than the stats usually suggest. Sure, the US doesn't have the fastest networks, but you can't really compare the entire US to much smaller countries with much higher population densities in a fewer number of cities.
DHagar
2/5/2016 5:12:25 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Yay! Competition...
mpouraryan, I applaud the competition as well. I think that has been one of the keys to our "slow" adoption and full connectivity.
You are right in that this is a business model that should work with the consumer and is designed to truly be competitive.
Finally! (Note: They should give Comcast real competition)
mhhf1ve
2/5/2016 12:08:25 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Yay! Competition...
Out of 100,000 households, I'd guess a small fraction of them are willing or capable of taking full advantage of 1Gbps speeds. And if it's a "best effort" service, no one is actually going to get the full speed anyway. I'd be happy with a reasonably priced 100 Mbps service that didn't dip below 8Mbps up or down. But I haven't seen such a service in the US.....
afwriter
2/6/2016 11:27:51 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Yay! Competition...
My household is definitely far from the "average", but we have 2 computers, 1 tablet, 2 phones, 2 Bluray players, 2 Rokus, and an Amazon Echo all connected to the internet now with plans to automate the entire house over the next year; all of this together definitely slows down the network.
batye
2/23/2016 8:02:07 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Yay! Competition...
@afwriter what about smart Nest universe??? as it almost a smart home on the cheap :) as long as Nest servers works :)
vnewman
2/8/2016 2:53:49 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Yay! Competition...
I doubt many are...there's a laundry list of items that need to be in place with regard to infrastructure/network setup/pc and app capability that need to be put into place first. It's nice to know it's possible and even if you don't get anywhere near it, at least there's nowhere to go but up.
mhhf1ve
2/4/2016 9:26:09 PM
User Rank Platinum
Someone set up another bot to compare...
A Comcast subscriber set up a twitter bot that tweets out a broadband speed once an hour if it falls below 50Mbps (the customer pays for "best effort" 150Mbps).
It would be interesting to see a CenturyLink & Comcast bot set up to compare in the same market.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/02/comcast-customer-made-bot-that-tweets-at-comcast-when-internet-is-slow/
clrmoney
2/5/2016 3:48:47 PM
User Rank Platinum
century link services
I think there will be increased services being virtual which would probably be a good idea with the prism tvs etc.
dlr5288
2/22/2016 2:09:45 PM
User Rank Platinum
Price
I know that in my household we use Comcast and it can be somewhat pricey. I think it's awesome that the Prism TV is only about eighty dollars a month. Even though this service is only in a handful of cities around the country I think it's a great start for them.
I don't know how it will compeat with big competitors like Comcast, but things take time and who knows maybe Prism TV will be the next big thing! It seems like it's doable and the fact that it's keeping up with new technologies is an added plus.
batye
2/23/2016 7:59:55 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Price
@dlr5288 I do hope as result we gonna see as consumers better prices at the end...
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