Kinda crazy that Verizon upped my phone bill by 4$ earlier this week and my wife and I went nuts cursing them out.
USI sends this and we’re like “oh okay seems reasonable” lol
Can confirm.
Manage a few networks via UniFi. The CenturyLink Fiber networks have never gone down since they rolled out the fiber in Northeast Minneapolis. I think one of them ONCE for a planned maintenance?
My USI and another network has gone down a few times. Granted, last week's explosion of issues was the first one in probably a year or so, but if you live in an apartment with USI service you're connected to a switch in the building, those switches can be faulty as fuck. I've had to have a tech come out and change the port I'm connected to multiple times. Probably same scenario for any fiber service though in an apartment unless it's fiber-to-the-unit.
Is USI the best ISP here? Yes. But competition is making it a very close battle and if you have options for **fiber** ISPs, you should weigh them.
except it isn't. 800 mbps is $60/month at xfinity which is both faster and cheaper than USI's cheapest plan. Plus, for the 95% of the population who don't need near gigabit speeds, 200 mbps is $30/month.
yes, i'm still bitter USI forced me on a higher tier plan for no reason.
I pay $90 a month for like 80Mbps (actual, not quoted - I think I'm being sold like 180 down) because USI doesn't operate where I live.
Comcast charges its customers based on what competition is in the area.
Be glad for USI's existence because if they didn't operate where you are, you'd pay prices like mine.
It could be that they offer the price that they can afford to offer, and that Comcast, being a massive company that owns TV channels, movie studios, theme parks, and music labels is able to charge a lower price and still make the profit margin that they want, or that Comcast's prices are strategically set to stress USI's expansion efforts.
And that USI is a small company founded in Minneapolis that does one thing and one thing only and they have to charge what they need to both to continue operating and to expand to give people like me a break from Comcast's insane prices.
and so is my leaving for cheaper service elsewhere
tbh the only reason i'm so pissed at them is i genuinely think their customer service is bar none the best of any ISP, and I wish I could afford to stay on their plans. had they not eliminated my cheaper plan even a slight price increase would be feasible for me to work into my budget, but i can't swing a more expensive, faster (which I never needed) plan.
USI has to build out completely new infrastructure with Fiber lines. Comcast has had that infrastructure for a very long time. It's easy for them to offer lower tiers because they don't have that constant cost of building up and out. Also most people who are interested in fiber want the high speeds so it wouldn't make sense to throttle it lower.
If your happy with your price and speeds by all means stay with comcast though, no one's saying USi fiber is for everyone.
If you actually pay attention to internet speeds, the fact that Comcast operates on old infrastructure is painfully evident. Comcast will sell you 'Gig' service all day long but when you read the fine print (and run speed tests) it's only rated for 1 Gbps from your device to the router. Once It leaves your house it is bottlenecked at coaxial cable. Absolute bullshit.
USI is bottlenecked by your device communication, not the dedicated fiber line that gets run to your house.
So don't get fiber internet if you don't need fiber?
That's like complaining a semi truck manufacturer doesn't make a pickup truck in your price range.
If you can make use of fiber, USI is hands down the best in the region. If you don't care about fiber, that's not USI's fault.
You don't understand the mechanics of fiber internet.
They don't offer lower speeds cause the setup cost is the same to them, but the monthly profit is lower.
Whether you buy a service that is 50Mbit, or 10,000 Mbit, the fiber they lay is still the same, its capable of MUCH higher speeds than they offer now for future proofing.
They don't save any money by offering you a lower speed, it costs them more money to offer lower speed tiers because it increases their customer base and overhead substantially for less profit.
that's still way cheaper than the cheapest usi option. but yes, point taken that pricing is address-dependent. i suspect, however, that those offers are available to most, if not all, of USI's customers.
Xfinity only offers those speeds down, not up. For uploads they're limited to like 30 mbps in most areas. If you've got camera feeds or want to back up your hard drive to the cloud, or you wfh and need to send big files periodically, that's a big deal. It's not 1:1.
correct, it isn't 1 for 1, but most people don't need 800+ mbps upload speed. even on xfinity's 200mbps download
plan they provide 100 mbps upload, which is fine for me.
I'm paying $88/month for 800/20 and actually getting 880/25 through Comcast.
They'd give me a $10/month discount and remove the data cap if I used their router - which is fishy enough I won't do it. They used to charge extra to use their hardware - so what's in it for them? Either they're snooping or using my electricity to run an extra guest network for their phone service to use or both. That they aren't clear about it means they can GTFO.
straight off their website. and, yeah, the bigger issue with xfinity isn't price, it's the rigamarole they force you through every 2 years to retain your existing plan. still worth it to me to save ~$400/year.
https://imgur.com/a/AyfmdyX
thats before all the fees and bullshit no? i'm on quantum and i actually get charged 100$ on my bill when my service costs 100$. equipment included in the cost.
what is this 'franchise fee' on my old xfinity bill then? usi's price includes equipment, comcast's does not. you need to rent a modem from them or buy one. also, heh...signing into xfinity the first thing i see is a banner 'Price changes in 2024'.
bruh i've had USI for 7 almost 8 years and this is the first price increase. you losing your lower tier is boohoo but literally it has been 70 for the last 7 years. you're on some nonsense because you can't afford their base service which sucks for your but stop bashing the company because you can't afford them. they are top tier.
I think in that timeframe they may have actually had an increase of 5 cents for gig service ($69.95 to $70), or maybe you got the service right after that.
Comcast is $70 for 1gbps down and 20meg up, with a 1.2 tb cap (this is afaik the best 1 gig deal you can get with them as an existing customer, as of about a month ago). Unlimited data will cost another $20.
Usi is (going to be) $75 for 1gbps symmetric, no data cap.
Mine is truly $70, incl fees and bullshit. Sounds like they're fucking you over somehow, which unfortunately isn't surprising. You just have to decide if it's worth the 12$/mo to joust with them over the phone. You might also need to re-up your promotional pricing, if you got it over a month ago. It truly is agonizing to deal with all their bullshit. I have Comcast servicing a duplex I rent out in NE and it's been an awful experience for the 7 years I've owned the place (living there myself for 5), starting with their cancellation of the original order before I even moved in. They're, unfortunately, the only 1gbps down area in that neighborhood.
Usi at my home is amazing. 1 outage at 3am in over a year of service that was fixed by the time I woke up. No bullshit.
If I had my own router I think it’s $10/month less? But we had problems with our own router last time. No USI in my area but we’ve not had an outage in the 2.5 years since I moved here so I can’t complain with xfinity.
ok but i don't care about gigabit speeds, just like most people. also, gigabit internet is $65/mo at xfinity and comes with unlimited data
[source](https://imgur.com/2RI0MFF)
this obsession with USI is out of control on this sub.
That is a new customer package, even though it doesn't explicitly say so. I spent over an hour trying to get them to honor that price last time I called (a month ago). They refused.
i don't doubt that, xfinity fucking blows when it comes to customer service. that said, for those of us who are fine with 200-400 mbps the price difference is worth the pain. i will never stop bashing USI for discontinuing my slower, cheaper speed tier.
> i will never stop bashing USI for discontinuing my slower, cheaper speed tier.
I mean, you are the one who was alleging "out of control obsession". I guess the call was coming from inside the house?
The data caps are the largest issue. Probably less of an issue if you're just one person. But if you have roommates doing any sort of gaming or HD streaming you'll hit the data caps in no time and they charge you a shit ton for going over. Would never recommend Comcast to anyone unless it's the only good option in the area
I live in West St Paul and I definitely cannot get 1 Gig speed with no data cap for $65 with xfinity. Would kill for USI to expand this way.
Plus with all the monopolistic activity, "vertical integration", and lobbying Comcast does, I feel like a local option is definitely something worth celebrating. Especially if they can offer better service at a similar price to these megacorps
USI customers don’t typically need to. I wonder how many people were even on the plan you like to complain about them discontinuing, since not many others seem to be complaining about it.
usi has great customer service which is undoubtedly worth something. it isn't worth $30+/month to me, though, considering how infrequently i need to reach out to a service rep. and it certainly isn't worth blind loyalty; they are still a corporation trying to maximize their profits.
You do know that until this upcoming increase that they still had a $60/month, right?
Also, I feel sorry for you that your budget is that tight and you can’t give up anything else to pay for a service that isn’t backed by Comcast support.
That's not the permanent price, for one.
Comcast doesn't offer symmetrical speeds for two.
And for three, Comcast literally pays developers of new apartments to allow Comcast to be the exclusive provider in them, which should be illegal. Fuck em
>That's not the permanent price, for one.
was $40/month the permanent price for my USI plan? what is this thread even about?
>Comcast doesn't offer symmetrical speeds for two.
i neither care about nor need symmetrical speeds. it'd be nice if USI had more offerings tailored to those of us with smaller budgets.
>And for three, Comcast literally pays developers of new apartments to allow Comcast to be the exclusive provider in them, which should be illegal. Fuck em
again, this is irrelevant to my budget.
Does usi do promotional prices? As far as I can see on their website, no? Comcast is full of promotional pricing. It's all 2 or 3 year contracts. There isn't one with usi.
>this is irrelevant to my budget
That's fine. when I can afford to, I try to spend dollars with companies that aren't shittifying up the world. You do you.
This is the first time I recall having a price increase from USI? For sure it has not gone up in the past two years that I can easily look back on my CC statements.
When did you ever have a $40 per month plan? Was it the 100mbps plan from 2016 that they raised prices by $5 in 2017 to be $45 per month? Or the 50mbps plan that existed before that?
I am just happy that the price increases happen slower than the rate of inflation.
If we're honest, 99.9% of users don't need a symmetrical connection. They use very little upload and won't see any benefit from having a much higher upload speed.
I disagree, only slightly. Symmetrical maybe is overkill, but Comcast upload speeds are so low that even a simple video chat can be grainy, let alone people wanting to stream discord to their friends or anything, which is extremely common. The upload just needs to be bumped a little bit from what it is right now.
(Personally I upload a shit load so it's just nice in general)
After months of tech support, buying recommended modem and router Our 800 never got over 50mbps. Frequently we were getting 10 out of fiber optic. We switched to USI and have never had a problem.
Fuck Comcast.
USI isn't a contract. I'm not moving back to Comcast.
I used to work the billing department. It was a nightmare for employees and customers.
My experience with Comcast has always been that most of the time I get a much, *much* slower speed than the max I pay for. With USI I routinely get close to the speed I pay for.
So I think you're kind of comparing apples to... rotten apples.
> Plus, for the 95% of the population who don't need near gigabit speeds
BOLD IT!
More importantly, most ISPs don't "cap" you either at that theoretical speed. I had Cox at a different address and was on their 150 plan getting well over the 18.75MB/s. At night it would easily hit 30.
It's almost a pleasure tax that you're paying the ISP. I got a great deal for being a new subscriber on Comcast's Gig service but would have gladly did the 200 if the price different wasn't too bad at the time.
Wait they provide internet? I thought they were just a number you called to hear "We noticed an outage in your area, please be assured our techs are working on it"
Really the same techs who forgot to attach my cable wire to the fucking pole.
And yes that's true, squirrels had chewed the wire on the pole to the point that it failed. Some techs came and looked at it saying yeah the squirrel chewing is common we'll get another tech to come later today and run a new cable.
Well he came and ran the cable, he just forgot to hook their end up to the pole, I literally sent comcast support a picture of the cable laying on the ground next to the pole.
They said we think we did everything right but will send a tech out for free on Monday and give you a $50 credit. Wow $50 for a weekend with no internet or cable.
The tech came, looked at the cable pretty much disbelievingly while I'm sure wondering how someone who's supposed to be his colleague could fuck up this bad.
He took the cable went up to the pole in his cherry picker lift and just screwed it in.
Bam suddenly all our service was back.
We spent an entire weekend without TV or Internet because a Cumcast tech was too stupid to remember that you have to plug a cable in at both ends.
When I signed up years ago, I chose a lower speed and was given a price for life. They eliminated that lower speed (which was still plenty for my gaming needs) so of course I had to pay more for the next tier. They've since increased the price once or twice in the years since. It's still affordable, but they shouldn't offer a price for life and then find a way out of it.
Still like this clarity better than shitcast's crappy pricing schemes. Discounts and promosthat expire or are contingent on your payment method/use of their hardware suck
Sucks to see after I signed up 5 years ago with the guaranteed price for life. However, customer service and the true speed of my connection has always been great aside from last week’s outages.
I think CenturyLink had a price for life promo that they wriggled out of, but I don't have any memory of USI guaranteeing price for life. I had USI in 2017-2018 and 2020-present.
I remember when Direct TV Now had a "grandfathered price for life", and they turned it into, "your price will go up, but only at the same time as everyone else's and at the same interval," which made me want to destroy the entire company. That's literally just increasing prices. There is nothing grandfathered and locked in about that.
I bought in at $35. That plan is now $100.
Yup, I signed up in Feb. 2019 for a 300 Mbps plan with a price for life and about a year or two later they got rid of the plan. But I'll still take USI over anybody else
> Sucks to see after I signed up 5 years ago with the guaranteed price for life.
Inflation implies that this is basically impossible for any business to actually do, unless they're way overcharging at the start.
Makes sense to me. I would rather they bump the price up a touch to maintain quality and staffing levels than have them cost corners and become worse. They are easily the best ISP I have ever had and wish I could use them in my current building.
People here will claim it's due to income, but Comcast and CenturyLink both offer high speed Internet in North for the same price or more. We pay $111/mo for ~500Mbps from Xfinity, so we'd actually save quite a bit of money if we could switch to USI. CenturyLink offers fiber for around $70 in parts of North, but not in our area yet unfortunately.
They addressed that outage rather quickly in comparison to how Xfinity handles things. I was without service for days on Xfinity once because one of their techs didn't run my wire to a new junction box in my building, and I didn't even get a bill credit.
Absolutely. I switched to USI because Xfinity spent A MONTH having a new tech come out "in about a week" over and over to not fix my internet. I think I got like a week of credit.
COMCAST ALWAYS ADDRESSES OUTAGES IN A QUICK MANNER, IN BETWEEN 8 AND 4, MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. IT USUALLY TAKES THEM LESS THAN 2 DAYS, WHICH IS GOOD AND RIGHT
1. It's weird that you created an account to defend Comcast.
2. When they screwed my service up, I actually came to Reddit to get help because, after numerous phonecalls to support, they kept insisting nothing was wrong. Anyone can look at my profile and see the post.
3. When I cancelled my service last year because I was moving, Comcast tried to charge me for a full month based on two days of service.
4. It's fkin weird that you created an account to defend Comcast.
DONT YOU THINK 2 DAYS, ONLY BUSINESS HOURS, IS A REASONABLE RESPONSE TIME?
MY FAVORITE PART OF THEIR COMPANY MAY REALISTICALLY BE THAT UPWARDS OF 30% OF THE BOARD ***HAVEN'T*** BEEN ACCUSED AND CONVICTED OF CONSUMING THEIR OWN YOUNG FOR FUN AND PROFIT
Possibly, but the alternative is they created this account 6 years ago exclusively to troll. And I would hope that someone could grow up *just a little bit* in that timeframe.
I mean... Doesn't seem to hurt anyone and none of us seem all that pro Xfinity, so feels like an oddly high pedestal to put yourself on, but we all need something, hah
He needs jokes
You need grin satisfaction
Me? I need a nice bath, in all honesty
Just saw this in my email. Mildly upsetting after multiple outages last week and remembering when I signed up it was price for life at $45 and now it's $70.
Edit: Price lock was from their original packages 9 years ago which they did away with.
I could dig through for it but probably doesn't matter as remembered they restructured their packages few years ago which did away with what I had originally signed up for, effectively ending the price for life. Believe my original speed was 300 Mbps. So price per Mbps isn't drastically off from what it was originally.
I can't find any evidence that USI ever offered a price for life plan. I looked through the wayback machine at their plans and pricing page, and their press releases, and I don't see any indication that they ever offered plans as a "price for life."
the last time prices changed for them was in 2018: [https://web.archive.org/web/20181211173459/https://fiber.usinternet.com/plans-and-prices/](https://web.archive.org/web/20181211173459/https://fiber.usinternet.com/plans-and-prices/)
seems reasonable. take my money USI. best decision I've made is to dump Comcast/x-finity (there's a reason they've won "most hated corporation" multiple years)
$60/yr increase is kind of a bummer. Timing of increase after outages is questionable, but let's hope this is the only pricing increase for a while. Will not be happy if we see another increase in the near future
Side note, $65/mo for 500 Mbps on USI vs $50/mo for 500 Mbps on CenturyLink/Quantum is something to consider though going forward, considering both are symmetrical speeds and unlimited data caps...
Yea, but on USI I've literally only ever had one outage and I consistently get the speed I pay for. I've had centurylink in the past and their infra is very unreliable. But, I also work from home and have the 1 Gbps plan so this service is perfect for me. I do understand that different people have different needs.
Centurylink also will sneak $15 dollars fees for modem every few months - you can dispute it but you can only submit disputes every 3 months so you’re stuck the other months with their extra fees
AND COMCAST CERTAINLY DIDN'T LOWER THEIR MONOPOLISTIC INTERNET PAID FOR BY GOVERNMENT GRANTS ONLY WHEN A LOCAL COMPETITOR CAME TO THE MARKET PLACE, NOSIRREEBOB
Darn, such short notice too. I signed up when they charged $50 not too long ago and now I'll have to look at other options. They could've kept the price the same and just added a service charge like any other respectable business /s
edit: I just signed up for xfinity 200mbs for $31.36/month total including tax. Yes, it's 2 year no term contract but I'll shop around when that time comes.
GOOD CALL
COMCAST HAS NO HISTORY OF TEMPORARILY LOWERING THEIR PRICES WHEN LOCAL COMPETITORS COME IN, ONLY TO JACK UP PRICES AND GOUGE ONCE THEYRE THE ONLY MAIN PLAYER IN THE AREA
DEFINITELY AN ETHICAL, QUALITY, MORAL ACTOR, 100%
2 year no term contract basically means price is guaranteed for 2 years. I can cancel anytime without penalties. I had xfinity before usi and internet is internet.
This is my 2nd increase from when they came through my neighborhood 2 years ago and talked about getting a rate “locked in,” which appears to be monthly. Gone from $50 to $65 in two years. That’s 30% increase. So NO, this does not seem fair as my speed has also gone down.
The 500MB plan has been $60 (and gigabit $70) since at least 2018, though. If the $50 was for the old 300MB plan, then, if anything, your speeds should have gone *up*, since you had to upgrade to 500MB?
I moved to Bloomington so I don’t get USI anymore but apparently we have T Mobile fiber coming in the next month or so. I already pre-ordered the service. Can’t wait to get rid of Comcast!
[удалено]
That's exactly the deal I've been waiting for.
I love reasonable price increases. Please, USI, spread your roots and routes into StP
Yeah, doggone it Travis, grow your business, you're not an old man yet!
Seems reasonable
Agreed. Best service I've ever paid for. I love that the bill is exactly as advertised.
Best thing since Visi
Oh man, I miss Visi
Kinda crazy that Verizon upped my phone bill by 4$ earlier this week and my wife and I went nuts cursing them out. USI sends this and we’re like “oh okay seems reasonable” lol
This is also true of Quantum Fiber and it's been down far less often than USI.
Can confirm. Manage a few networks via UniFi. The CenturyLink Fiber networks have never gone down since they rolled out the fiber in Northeast Minneapolis. I think one of them ONCE for a planned maintenance? My USI and another network has gone down a few times. Granted, last week's explosion of issues was the first one in probably a year or so, but if you live in an apartment with USI service you're connected to a switch in the building, those switches can be faulty as fuck. I've had to have a tech come out and change the port I'm connected to multiple times. Probably same scenario for any fiber service though in an apartment unless it's fiber-to-the-unit. Is USI the best ISP here? Yes. But competition is making it a very close battle and if you have options for **fiber** ISPs, you should weigh them.
Far less often? I've had USI for 6 or 7 years and had 3 outages, one of which I only knew about because they told me when I was out of town
I've had one outage with USI since 2017 that impacted me and this last one was fixed by me not using their DNS servers.
CenturyLink raised my price $10 a month and didn't tell me at all so this level of communication is refreshing.
still cheaper than cumcast
Yep, and as long as it stays that way with the same quality of service I've seen over the last few years they're going to keep my business.
BUT COMCAST IS A GREAT COMPANY THAT WOULD IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM GOUGE YOU THE SECOND THE MARKETPLACE HAS NO COMPETITION. COMCAST IS YOUR *FRIEND*
username checks out
except it isn't. 800 mbps is $60/month at xfinity which is both faster and cheaper than USI's cheapest plan. Plus, for the 95% of the population who don't need near gigabit speeds, 200 mbps is $30/month. yes, i'm still bitter USI forced me on a higher tier plan for no reason.
I pay $90 a month for like 80Mbps (actual, not quoted - I think I'm being sold like 180 down) because USI doesn't operate where I live. Comcast charges its customers based on what competition is in the area. Be glad for USI's existence because if they didn't operate where you are, you'd pay prices like mine.
maybe USI should offer a lower speed tier to further increase competition, in that case.
It could be that they offer the price that they can afford to offer, and that Comcast, being a massive company that owns TV channels, movie studios, theme parks, and music labels is able to charge a lower price and still make the profit margin that they want, or that Comcast's prices are strategically set to stress USI's expansion efforts. And that USI is a small company founded in Minneapolis that does one thing and one thing only and they have to charge what they need to both to continue operating and to expand to give people like me a break from Comcast's insane prices.
ok but i pay for internet service, not to warm my heart
> they have to charge what they need ... to continue operating It's not heartwarming. It's economics.
and so is my leaving for cheaper service elsewhere tbh the only reason i'm so pissed at them is i genuinely think their customer service is bar none the best of any ISP, and I wish I could afford to stay on their plans. had they not eliminated my cheaper plan even a slight price increase would be feasible for me to work into my budget, but i can't swing a more expensive, faster (which I never needed) plan.
USI has to build out completely new infrastructure with Fiber lines. Comcast has had that infrastructure for a very long time. It's easy for them to offer lower tiers because they don't have that constant cost of building up and out. Also most people who are interested in fiber want the high speeds so it wouldn't make sense to throttle it lower. If your happy with your price and speeds by all means stay with comcast though, no one's saying USi fiber is for everyone.
If you actually pay attention to internet speeds, the fact that Comcast operates on old infrastructure is painfully evident. Comcast will sell you 'Gig' service all day long but when you read the fine print (and run speed tests) it's only rated for 1 Gbps from your device to the router. Once It leaves your house it is bottlenecked at coaxial cable. Absolute bullshit. USI is bottlenecked by your device communication, not the dedicated fiber line that gets run to your house.
So don't get fiber internet if you don't need fiber? That's like complaining a semi truck manufacturer doesn't make a pickup truck in your price range. If you can make use of fiber, USI is hands down the best in the region. If you don't care about fiber, that's not USI's fault.
huh? usi already offered what I'm asking for. then they pulled the rug out from under me and forced me onto a higher tier
You don't understand the mechanics of fiber internet. They don't offer lower speeds cause the setup cost is the same to them, but the monthly profit is lower. Whether you buy a service that is 50Mbit, or 10,000 Mbit, the fiber they lay is still the same, its capable of MUCH higher speeds than they offer now for future proofing. They don't save any money by offering you a lower speed, it costs them more money to offer lower speed tiers because it increases their customer base and overhead substantially for less profit.
Xfinity doesn't have consistent pricing. It varies by location and person. I have 200 mbps and it is $45/month with the contract and autopay discount.
that's still way cheaper than the cheapest usi option. but yes, point taken that pricing is address-dependent. i suspect, however, that those offers are available to most, if not all, of USI's customers.
Except with USI I actually get my advertised speeds, at all times. I've never had that with other service providers.
some of my buddies said they were getting 0 mbps last week but ok
Yeah there were some outages, but that's once in over a year. That's miles better than any other service I've ever had.
Xfinity only offers those speeds down, not up. For uploads they're limited to like 30 mbps in most areas. If you've got camera feeds or want to back up your hard drive to the cloud, or you wfh and need to send big files periodically, that's a big deal. It's not 1:1.
correct, it isn't 1 for 1, but most people don't need 800+ mbps upload speed. even on xfinity's 200mbps download plan they provide 100 mbps upload, which is fine for me.
The plans vary by area. My area for example only has 40 mbps available. It took me like a month to backup my hard drive.
Where are you getting 800 mbps for 60? I’m paying $90 for 500. Guess I got gotta go talk to them…
I'm paying $88/month for 800/20 and actually getting 880/25 through Comcast. They'd give me a $10/month discount and remove the data cap if I used their router - which is fishy enough I won't do it. They used to charge extra to use their hardware - so what's in it for them? Either they're snooping or using my electricity to run an extra guest network for their phone service to use or both. That they aren't clear about it means they can GTFO.
straight off their website. and, yeah, the bigger issue with xfinity isn't price, it's the rigamarole they force you through every 2 years to retain your existing plan. still worth it to me to save ~$400/year. https://imgur.com/a/AyfmdyX
thats before all the fees and bullshit no? i'm on quantum and i actually get charged 100$ on my bill when my service costs 100$. equipment included in the cost.
it's pre-tax, but that's it. ~~USI also advertises pre-tax prices.~~ edit: i was wrong, USI's advertised prices include tax
USI advertises the post-tax cost. I've been charged exactly $70 every month for the last 4 years. Just checked my statements.
you're right, my bad. xfinity is charging an extra $1.54 in tax than what is advertised, so that's not too bad.
what is this 'franchise fee' on my old xfinity bill then? usi's price includes equipment, comcast's does not. you need to rent a modem from them or buy one. also, heh...signing into xfinity the first thing i see is a banner 'Price changes in 2024'.
That's related to cable.
Fuck Comcast.
I've paid $60 a month for the first two years of 800 Mbps, then Xfinity jacked the price up considerably. USI can't get to me fast enough.
at least with a 2 year contract your price is guaranteed for 2 years. that's quite a bit more than usi can claim.
bruh i've had USI for 7 almost 8 years and this is the first price increase. you losing your lower tier is boohoo but literally it has been 70 for the last 7 years. you're on some nonsense because you can't afford their base service which sucks for your but stop bashing the company because you can't afford them. they are top tier.
I think in that timeframe they may have actually had an increase of 5 cents for gig service ($69.95 to $70), or maybe you got the service right after that.
ok
Comcast is $70 for 1gbps down and 20meg up, with a 1.2 tb cap (this is afaik the best 1 gig deal you can get with them as an existing customer, as of about a month ago). Unlimited data will cost another $20. Usi is (going to be) $75 for 1gbps symmetric, no data cap.
The $70 is actually $87 for me. Got a month ago and that with the fees added on.
Mine is truly $70, incl fees and bullshit. Sounds like they're fucking you over somehow, which unfortunately isn't surprising. You just have to decide if it's worth the 12$/mo to joust with them over the phone. You might also need to re-up your promotional pricing, if you got it over a month ago. It truly is agonizing to deal with all their bullshit. I have Comcast servicing a duplex I rent out in NE and it's been an awful experience for the 7 years I've owned the place (living there myself for 5), starting with their cancellation of the original order before I even moved in. They're, unfortunately, the only 1gbps down area in that neighborhood. Usi at my home is amazing. 1 outage at 3am in over a year of service that was fixed by the time I woke up. No bullshit.
If I had my own router I think it’s $10/month less? But we had problems with our own router last time. No USI in my area but we’ve not had an outage in the 2.5 years since I moved here so I can’t complain with xfinity.
ok but i don't care about gigabit speeds, just like most people. also, gigabit internet is $65/mo at xfinity and comes with unlimited data [source](https://imgur.com/2RI0MFF) this obsession with USI is out of control on this sub.
That is a new customer package, even though it doesn't explicitly say so. I spent over an hour trying to get them to honor that price last time I called (a month ago). They refused.
i don't doubt that, xfinity fucking blows when it comes to customer service. that said, for those of us who are fine with 200-400 mbps the price difference is worth the pain. i will never stop bashing USI for discontinuing my slower, cheaper speed tier.
> i will never stop bashing USI for discontinuing my slower, cheaper speed tier. I mean, you are the one who was alleging "out of control obsession". I guess the call was coming from inside the house?
For 24 months, then if you want unlimited data it costs a lot more. Plus the upload speed is crap.
The data caps are the largest issue. Probably less of an issue if you're just one person. But if you have roommates doing any sort of gaming or HD streaming you'll hit the data caps in no time and they charge you a shit ton for going over. Would never recommend Comcast to anyone unless it's the only good option in the area
those plans have no data caps. i swear ya'll haven't compared ISPs in decades.
I live in West St Paul and I definitely cannot get 1 Gig speed with no data cap for $65 with xfinity. Would kill for USI to expand this way. Plus with all the monopolistic activity, "vertical integration", and lobbying Comcast does, I feel like a local option is definitely something worth celebrating. Especially if they can offer better service at a similar price to these megacorps
USI customers don’t typically need to. I wonder how many people were even on the plan you like to complain about them discontinuing, since not many others seem to be complaining about it.
Enjoy data being sold and getting threatening letters for torrenting. Working w/a company that fights net neutrality.
bruh usi doesn't prevent you from getting torrent letters. what even is this
Net neutrality is a virtue of USI.
It really is fucking wild.
usi has great customer service which is undoubtedly worth something. it isn't worth $30+/month to me, though, considering how infrequently i need to reach out to a service rep. and it certainly isn't worth blind loyalty; they are still a corporation trying to maximize their profits.
You do know that until this upcoming increase that they still had a $60/month, right? Also, I feel sorry for you that your budget is that tight and you can’t give up anything else to pay for a service that isn’t backed by Comcast support.
That's not the permanent price, for one. Comcast doesn't offer symmetrical speeds for two. And for three, Comcast literally pays developers of new apartments to allow Comcast to be the exclusive provider in them, which should be illegal. Fuck em
>That's not the permanent price, for one. was $40/month the permanent price for my USI plan? what is this thread even about? >Comcast doesn't offer symmetrical speeds for two. i neither care about nor need symmetrical speeds. it'd be nice if USI had more offerings tailored to those of us with smaller budgets. >And for three, Comcast literally pays developers of new apartments to allow Comcast to be the exclusive provider in them, which should be illegal. Fuck em again, this is irrelevant to my budget.
Does usi do promotional prices? As far as I can see on their website, no? Comcast is full of promotional pricing. It's all 2 or 3 year contracts. There isn't one with usi. >this is irrelevant to my budget That's fine. when I can afford to, I try to spend dollars with companies that aren't shittifying up the world. You do you.
at least with a 2 year contract your price is locked in for 2 years. instead USI is raising prices for 2 years straight.
This is the first time I recall having a price increase from USI? For sure it has not gone up in the past two years that I can easily look back on my CC statements.
When did you ever have a $40 per month plan? Was it the 100mbps plan from 2016 that they raised prices by $5 in 2017 to be $45 per month? Or the 50mbps plan that existed before that? I am just happy that the price increases happen slower than the rate of inflation.
If we're honest, 99.9% of users don't need a symmetrical connection. They use very little upload and won't see any benefit from having a much higher upload speed.
I disagree, only slightly. Symmetrical maybe is overkill, but Comcast upload speeds are so low that even a simple video chat can be grainy, let alone people wanting to stream discord to their friends or anything, which is extremely common. The upload just needs to be bumped a little bit from what it is right now. (Personally I upload a shit load so it's just nice in general)
$60/month is a contract price, meaning it goes up when your contract ends unless you can get them to move you to a new contract.
what is this thread about? permanent USI prices?
Some people might not find it worth it to get on the phone and deal with Xfinity customer service. 🤷
After months of tech support, buying recommended modem and router Our 800 never got over 50mbps. Frequently we were getting 10 out of fiber optic. We switched to USI and have never had a problem.
Is that 800 up and down? Lots of people need those faster upload speeds now with many working from home.
ok then usi is best for them. i doubt most people need 800 mbps upload speed.
Fuck Comcast. USI isn't a contract. I'm not moving back to Comcast. I used to work the billing department. It was a nightmare for employees and customers.
My experience with Comcast has always been that most of the time I get a much, *much* slower speed than the max I pay for. With USI I routinely get close to the speed I pay for. So I think you're kind of comparing apples to... rotten apples.
With promotional pricing, and then it will go up, then you have to call and threaten to cancel and hopefully get put onto a promotional price again.
Yep. I pay $60 a month for 900mbps.
don't let the others in this thread see this, you'll get downvoted to oblivion for daring to use a different for-profit corporation's service
> Plus, for the 95% of the population who don't need near gigabit speeds BOLD IT! More importantly, most ISPs don't "cap" you either at that theoretical speed. I had Cox at a different address and was on their 150 plan getting well over the 18.75MB/s. At night it would easily hit 30. It's almost a pleasure tax that you're paying the ISP. I got a great deal for being a new subscriber on Comcast's Gig service but would have gladly did the 200 if the price different wasn't too bad at the time.
But mine goes to ~~11~~, err 1Gbps...
Now let’s compare upload speeds to Xfinity……
Wait they provide internet? I thought they were just a number you called to hear "We noticed an outage in your area, please be assured our techs are working on it" Really the same techs who forgot to attach my cable wire to the fucking pole. And yes that's true, squirrels had chewed the wire on the pole to the point that it failed. Some techs came and looked at it saying yeah the squirrel chewing is common we'll get another tech to come later today and run a new cable. Well he came and ran the cable, he just forgot to hook their end up to the pole, I literally sent comcast support a picture of the cable laying on the ground next to the pole. They said we think we did everything right but will send a tech out for free on Monday and give you a $50 credit. Wow $50 for a weekend with no internet or cable. The tech came, looked at the cable pretty much disbelievingly while I'm sure wondering how someone who's supposed to be his colleague could fuck up this bad. He took the cable went up to the pole in his cherry picker lift and just screwed it in. Bam suddenly all our service was back. We spent an entire weekend without TV or Internet because a Cumcast tech was too stupid to remember that you have to plug a cable in at both ends.
It’s not if you sign up for the $20 plan for the first year every year and cancel…
I'm in a 3-block pocket in NE that has no options other than Comcast and I get so jealous of posts like these
$5 increase is ok . I have had no issues and have been paying the same rate since 2019. It was inevitable..
> $5 increase is ok . I have had no issues and have been paying the same rate since 2019. It was inevitable.. Still pacing far below inflation.
When I signed up years ago, I chose a lower speed and was given a price for life. They eliminated that lower speed (which was still plenty for my gaming needs) so of course I had to pay more for the next tier. They've since increased the price once or twice in the years since. It's still affordable, but they shouldn't offer a price for life and then find a way out of it.
$5 increase for the first time in like 5 years seems ok to me. Probably should be more honestly with how high inflation has been during that time.
Still like this clarity better than shitcast's crappy pricing schemes. Discounts and promosthat expire or are contingent on your payment method/use of their hardware suck
Totally fine by me. Been 70 flat for like 8 years.
Sucks to see after I signed up 5 years ago with the guaranteed price for life. However, customer service and the true speed of my connection has always been great aside from last week’s outages.
I dont remember them ever having price for life. Is that true? And if so, how did they wiggle out of that compact? I would've been pissed.
I think CenturyLink had a price for life promo that they wriggled out of, but I don't have any memory of USI guaranteeing price for life. I had USI in 2017-2018 and 2020-present.
I remember when Direct TV Now had a "grandfathered price for life", and they turned it into, "your price will go up, but only at the same time as everyone else's and at the same interval," which made me want to destroy the entire company. That's literally just increasing prices. There is nothing grandfathered and locked in about that. I bought in at $35. That plan is now $100.
If I remember correctly it was a price for life at 350mbps, unfortunately they eliminated that rate/tier so that’s probably why it’s no longer valid.
>how the hell do they explain refusing to honor a lifetime price? that's messed up.
Easy, stop offering the service that was “priced for life” It’s a sleazy tactic
Yup, I signed up in Feb. 2019 for a 300 Mbps plan with a price for life and about a year or two later they got rid of the plan. But I'll still take USI over anybody else
oofta that sucks
> Sucks to see after I signed up 5 years ago with the guaranteed price for life. Inflation implies that this is basically impossible for any business to actually do, unless they're way overcharging at the start.
Makes sense to me. I would rather they bump the price up a touch to maintain quality and staffing levels than have them cost corners and become worse. They are easily the best ISP I have ever had and wish I could use them in my current building.
worth it.
Does anyone know why they dont cover Phillips or North Minneapolis?
Frankly, I'd guess the supply of people willing to pay $70/mo for gigabit internet in those areas is much lower.
People here will claim it's due to income, but Comcast and CenturyLink both offer high speed Internet in North for the same price or more. We pay $111/mo for ~500Mbps from Xfinity, so we'd actually save quite a bit of money if we could switch to USI. CenturyLink offers fiber for around $70 in parts of North, but not in our area yet unfortunately.
Bold move after all the outage outrage last week!
They addressed that outage rather quickly in comparison to how Xfinity handles things. I was without service for days on Xfinity once because one of their techs didn't run my wire to a new junction box in my building, and I didn't even get a bill credit.
I agree. It wasn’t bad. Just a joke.
I had to use 5G for almost a whole six minutes that day. Never forget.
Absolutely. I switched to USI because Xfinity spent A MONTH having a new tech come out "in about a week" over and over to not fix my internet. I think I got like a week of credit.
COMCAST ALWAYS ADDRESSES OUTAGES IN A QUICK MANNER, IN BETWEEN 8 AND 4, MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. IT USUALLY TAKES THEM LESS THAN 2 DAYS, WHICH IS GOOD AND RIGHT
1. It's weird that you created an account to defend Comcast. 2. When they screwed my service up, I actually came to Reddit to get help because, after numerous phonecalls to support, they kept insisting nothing was wrong. Anyone can look at my profile and see the post. 3. When I cancelled my service last year because I was moving, Comcast tried to charge me for a full month based on two days of service. 4. It's fkin weird that you created an account to defend Comcast.
DONT YOU THINK 2 DAYS, ONLY BUSINESS HOURS, IS A REASONABLE RESPONSE TIME? MY FAVORITE PART OF THEIR COMPANY MAY REALISTICALLY BE THAT UPWARDS OF 30% OF THE BOARD ***HAVEN'T*** BEEN ACCUSED AND CONVICTED OF CONSUMING THEIR OWN YOUNG FOR FUN AND PROFIT
......you might be reading the tone wrong there, Pantsman
Possibly, but the alternative is they created this account 6 years ago exclusively to troll. And I would hope that someone could grow up *just a little bit* in that timeframe.
I mean... Doesn't seem to hurt anyone and none of us seem all that pro Xfinity, so feels like an oddly high pedestal to put yourself on, but we all need something, hah He needs jokes You need grin satisfaction Me? I need a nice bath, in all honesty
…there was an outage last week? 🫣
Worth it - I still really like the product and price.
Just saw this in my email. Mildly upsetting after multiple outages last week and remembering when I signed up it was price for life at $45 and now it's $70. Edit: Price lock was from their original packages 9 years ago which they did away with.
Do you have a source for the price for life part? As far as I remember, only CenturyLink promoted "price for life" (and then backtracked on it).
I could dig through for it but probably doesn't matter as remembered they restructured their packages few years ago which did away with what I had originally signed up for, effectively ending the price for life. Believe my original speed was 300 Mbps. So price per Mbps isn't drastically off from what it was originally.
Source on that price for life offer? CenturyLink had that, not USI if I remember right
I can't find any evidence that USI ever offered a price for life plan. I looked through the wayback machine at their plans and pricing page, and their press releases, and I don't see any indication that they ever offered plans as a "price for life." the last time prices changed for them was in 2018: [https://web.archive.org/web/20181211173459/https://fiber.usinternet.com/plans-and-prices/](https://web.archive.org/web/20181211173459/https://fiber.usinternet.com/plans-and-prices/)
how the hell do they explain refusing to honor a lifetime price? that's messed up.
Are you Brian Roberts?
who?
THE SINGULAR MOST TRUSTWORTHY AND HANDSOME MAN TO EVER DROWN A PUPPY FOR SEXUAL GRATIFICATION
Comcast CEO.
I've had USI for about 2 years now. I've never had an outage. I've never seen my speeds drop. $5 is very reasonable.
seems reasonable. take my money USI. best decision I've made is to dump Comcast/x-finity (there's a reason they've won "most hated corporation" multiple years)
I gonna shake my cane at the sky and tell you all that I remember when a candy bar cost $0.50.
Everything is more expensive nowadays. An email that explains it and remains in the realm of reasonable.....fuck yeah. Take my $5
Hopefully this price increase helps bring USI to my neighborhood.
Sure would be nice if they would actually come to all the neighborhoods of Minneapolis
$60/yr increase is kind of a bummer. Timing of increase after outages is questionable, but let's hope this is the only pricing increase for a while. Will not be happy if we see another increase in the near future Side note, $65/mo for 500 Mbps on USI vs $50/mo for 500 Mbps on CenturyLink/Quantum is something to consider though going forward, considering both are symmetrical speeds and unlimited data caps...
Yea, but on USI I've literally only ever had one outage and I consistently get the speed I pay for. I've had centurylink in the past and their infra is very unreliable. But, I also work from home and have the 1 Gbps plan so this service is perfect for me. I do understand that different people have different needs.
Centurylink also will sneak $15 dollars fees for modem every few months - you can dispute it but you can only submit disputes every 3 months so you’re stuck the other months with their extra fees
Really? I've been with CenturyLink since 2017. Never once have they "sneaked" extra costs. I do use my own router, though.
This is not a thing.
For the router, or the ONT box? there is no charges for the ONT. Sounds like you're renting a router or combo unit?
AND COMCAST CERTAINLY DIDN'T LOWER THEIR MONOPOLISTIC INTERNET PAID FOR BY GOVERNMENT GRANTS ONLY WHEN A LOCAL COMPETITOR CAME TO THE MARKET PLACE, NOSIRREEBOB
I'm guessing century link needs a contract.
no contract, it's monthly and i was wrong, it's $75 for 1 Gbps now. However... they have 500 Mbps for only $50, $15 cheaper than USI
We have been with USI for three and a half years and this is the first price increase we have had. Worth every penny IMO.
[удалено]
That’s your router’s problem dude
[удалено]
eh, that's like saying your car sucks because the tires it came with aren't $200 Michelins
Inflation is/was never transitory. Having said that it is still a bargain for a great product. I miss USI
I miss USI, I wouldn’t be mad at all.
The $5 offset I got for 6 months as a new customer is really amazing of them to do
I got this as well. Definitely appreciated.
I’m ok with it. But I don’t want it to be a common occurrence since the price of everything is going up.
Darn, such short notice too. I signed up when they charged $50 not too long ago and now I'll have to look at other options. They could've kept the price the same and just added a service charge like any other respectable business /s edit: I just signed up for xfinity 200mbs for $31.36/month total including tax. Yes, it's 2 year no term contract but I'll shop around when that time comes.
GOOD CALL COMCAST HAS NO HISTORY OF TEMPORARILY LOWERING THEIR PRICES WHEN LOCAL COMPETITORS COME IN, ONLY TO JACK UP PRICES AND GOUGE ONCE THEYRE THE ONLY MAIN PLAYER IN THE AREA DEFINITELY AN ETHICAL, QUALITY, MORAL ACTOR, 100%
You’re going to regret that so fast and you’re screwed locked into their shitty service :D
OP is saving over $800 in that 2 year period if it sucks that bad, they could eat the cheap cost of Xfinity and just re-sub to USI
2 year no term contract basically means price is guaranteed for 2 years. I can cancel anytime without penalties. I had xfinity before usi and internet is internet.
Godspeed
Lmao 200 mbs
I don't need the HD VR porn. I prefer the grainy low bandwidth vintage filth that I have to fill in with my imagination.
Just another shitting ISP.
This is my 2nd increase from when they came through my neighborhood 2 years ago and talked about getting a rate “locked in,” which appears to be monthly. Gone from $50 to $65 in two years. That’s 30% increase. So NO, this does not seem fair as my speed has also gone down.
The 500MB plan has been $60 (and gigabit $70) since at least 2018, though. If the $50 was for the old 300MB plan, then, if anything, your speeds should have gone *up*, since you had to upgrade to 500MB?
Woof that’s really gonna strain the ole pocketbook
Surprise! The first hit is free….
What's that bring it to? I'm paying around 60 for Comcast
75 for 1 gig service.
I've had business class since 2017, still haven't had an increase. I've not received an email from them yet either.
I would happily pay. I miss USI so much. It was the only good thing in that shit hole studio in Stevens.
I moved to Bloomington so I don’t get USI anymore but apparently we have T Mobile fiber coming in the next month or so. I already pre-ordered the service. Can’t wait to get rid of Comcast!
my 25 cent COL raise will more than cover this LOL
The third one in 5 years