Got my online bill today and for Cox Essential internet. The rate went from $46.99 to $51.99

Starter will change from $32.99 to $34.99.
Essential will change from $46.99 to $51.99.
Preferred will change from $60.99 to $66.99.
Premier will change from $71.99 to $77.99.

Don't worry. When you call to complain they will tell you that they raised the speed for 'free' 3 months ago. An increase you didn't want or need so they could justify raising prices yet again.

Why do you think they were running all those commercials about bumping up speed for its users?

. We cancelled our tv with them years ago over the same price increases year after year. Ihope a good alternative to Internet comes along soon.

I just want 5 mbps DL speed and 100 gb monthly bandwidth. As far as I know, nobody will provide that for less than $50/mo now.

I just want 5 mbps DL speed and 100 gb monthly bandwidth. As far as I know, nobody will provide that for less than $50/mo now.

Stick,
What level is the 5 mb monthly charge with Cox? That's probably what I will want when I move. The place I'm moving to has free Cox Basic which has everything I want, so I will take their internet as well.
C. T.

If this ever gets here; how will they run fiber down through all the neighborhoods, to every house; dealing with all the fences, etc?

https://fiber.google.com/

As nice as that is; I personally think the future may be wireless(due to speeds increasing). No more cable/DSL. So the cable company is going to continue to fleece us for maximum money knowing their days are numbered and DSL has always been a joke(speed wise).

The phone company totally dropped the ball in the early days of the internet. An unimaginable amount of time was wasted on waiting for pages to download or files to download all those slow years on 28.8, 33.6, or the joke that 56k was. All that time we could have been on ISDN. Even a 64k line was superior. Let alone a 128k line. But the phone company didn't know what they had and didn't want anything to do with it. I really thought back then some day we would be using T1, or T3 or better lines to the home.

Our dial up connections were less than $20/month. Maybe even $14/month. ISDN was over $100/month. A T1 to the home was supposedly $1200/month and a fractional T1 was supposedly $600/month at the time(early - mid 1990's).

The cable companies have been miserly with the speeds since the start. Anyone remember when @Home first came to town? It was like a 1mbit connection. The modems were likely 10mbit or higher. Right now; it's capable of 300 Mbps or more and they have had the connection capped since day one. I doubt we'll ever see full speed before they are phased out(and out of business).

I've got 90 on the download and 12 on the upload: Speedtest.net by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test (http://www.speedtest.net/)

I just want 5 mbps DL speed and 100 gb monthly bandwidth. As far as I know, nobody will provide that for less than $50/mo now.

You should be able to get AT&T DSL for less than $50 and it will likely meet those requirements.

AT&T DSL Internet and Home Broadband Service (http://www.att.com/shop/internet/internet-service.html)

I would be nice if OKC would get Google Fiber.

You should be able to get AT&T DSL for less than $50 and it will likely meet those requirements.

AT&T DSL Internet and Home Broadband Service (http://www.att.com/shop/internet/internet-service.html)

I would be nice if OKC would get Google Fiber.

Yes the ATT Elite DSL plan (up to 6mbps DL speed) offers 150 gb bandwith for $35 f/12 mo but then goes up to $52/mo. Imagine that! The same rate as Cox! I'll pass.

Stick,
What level is the 5 mb monthly charge with Cox? That's probably what I will want when I move. The place I'm moving to has free Cox Basic which has everything I want, so I will take their internet as well.
C. T.

C.T., The Cox Essential plan is now $52 a month after you get past the 12 month introductory rate.
The Cox Starter plan (which they don't show on many of their rate pages has a 1mbps speed which would be too slow for videos and also caps bandwidth at 50 gb.

Why wait for Google? Maps 4, gigabit internet for the entire city. If Chattanooga (http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/20/technology/innovation/chattanooga-internet/) can do it, so can we.

Why wait for Google? Maps 4, gigabit internet for the entire city. If Chattanooga (http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/20/technology/innovation/chattanooga-internet/) can do it, so can we.

That's a good deal if you actually need the higher speeds. The starting price is still about 50 dollars.

C.T., The Cox Essential plan is now $52 a month after you get past the 12 month introductory rate.
The Cox Starter plan (which they don't show on many of their rate pages has a 1mbps speed which would be too slow for videos and also caps bandwidth at 50 gb.

Stick,
Thanks for the information. I think the "Essential" plan would be my choice. The "Starter" plan would not work for me.
C. T.

It really surprises me you can no longer get cheap DSL. It seems just a few years ago you could get basic high-speed service for as low as $20. It looks like both AT&T and Cox have also severely handicapped their lowest speeds, AT&T at 768 kbps and Cox at 1 Mbps. Those speeds were acceptable a few years ago but today in the age of streaming it no longer cuts it. I just did a check and even the cheapest AT&T DSL that is barely adequate for anything today would be almost $40 after the first year introductory rate.

Cox internet speed changed today. Advertised that it would double speeds on all tiers. I was on the Essential 5mbps plan @ $51.99/mo which went to 10 mbps. The new $34.99/mo Starter plan speed went from 1mbps to 5 mbps.
5mbps is ample for us so I switched and will now be saving $17/mo. :)

Cox internet speed changed today. Advertised that it would double speeds on all tiers. I was on the Essential 5mbps plan @ $51.99/mo which went to 10 mbps. The new $34.99/mo Starter plan speed went from 1mbps to 5 mbps.
5mbps is ample for us so I switched and will now be saving $17/mo. :)

Don't worry Cox will make sure you will be spending the same amount as you were in two years.

Cox internet speed changed today. Advertised that it would double speeds on all tiers. I was on the Essential 5mbps plan @ $51.99/mo which went to 10 mbps. The new $34.99/mo Starter plan speed went from 1mbps to 5 mbps.
5mbps is ample for us so I switched and will now be saving $17/mo. :)


Just looked at my upcoming bill. Sure enough, I was on essential for 46.99 per month or something, but this month will be 51.99. I wasn't even notified.

I am on the webpage, and I cannot even find anything lower than the essential package which is listed as 15MBPs for the 51.99. DId you call?

I just want 5 mbps DL speed and 100 gb monthly bandwidth. As far as I know, nobody will provide that for less than $50/mo now.

http://support.usr.com/support/5668d/5668d-ug/messagemodem.jpg

Cox internet speed changed today. Advertised that it would double speeds on all tiers. I was on the Essential 5mbps plan @ $51.99/mo which went to 10 mbps. The new $34.99/mo Starter plan speed went from 1mbps to 5 mbps.
5mbps is ample for us so I switched and will now be saving $17/mo. :)

Stick,
Good news for you, and thanks for the update. I'm still waiting to move and it looks like my bills have dropped by $17 before I even get settled.
C. T.

Just looked at my upcoming bill. Sure enough, I was on essential for 46.99 per month or something, but this month will be 51.99. I wasn't even notified.

I am on the webpage, and I cannot even find anything lower than the essential package which is listed as 15MBPs for the 51.99. DId you call?

I searched cox internet starter plan and found this page
High Speed Internet Pricing and Plans | Cox Communications (http://www.cox.com/residential/internet/prices.cox)
& then went on chat with a cox support rep who made the switch for me.

Stick,
Good news for you, and thanks for the update. I'm still waiting to move and it looks like my bills have dropped by $17 before I even get settled.
C. T.

Didn't really save anything CT. Should have kept quiet instead of pointing out how I was a good steward of our expenses. Soon as I mentioned it the Wife earmarked the $17 towards upgrading her cell phone plan. It started out as a good day anyway... <lol>

Thanks for the heads up, stick.

Just got my internet downgraded to "Starter" for the 34.99 per month. We stream Netflix, stream Youtube, and play games all on our 5MBPS, I see no reason to get more unless you are downloading or uploading a lot of data.

The lady on the phone tried to probe into why I wanted to downgrade, and wanted to know what we used the internet for. I understand it was just the standard sales pitch - but to most people they would blurt out how they stream all these video services and the saleperson will try to encourage a more expensive package.

Can't wait for internet to be deemed a utility.

http://support.usr.com/support/5668d/5668d-ug/messagemodem.jpg

My first model was a 9600 Baud

My first model was a 9600 Baud

Stick,
You know what they say, the first liar doesn't stand a chance! I had a 300 baud modem, then a Hayes Smartmodem, 1200 baud. I also had a 2400, a 9600, and a 56000. I think I left some of the speeds between 96kb and 56kb, but my memory is failing me. By the way, the 300 baud was an acoustical modem. I had to plug my telephone handset into it, no direct phone wire.
C. T.

Stick,
You know what they say, the first liar doesn't stand a chance! I had a 300 baud modem, then a Hayes Smartmodem, 1200 baud. I also had a 2400, a 9600, and a 56000. I think I left some of the speeds between 96kb and 56kb, but my memory is failing me. By the way, the 300 baud was an acoustical modem. I had to plug my telephone handset into it, no direct phone wire.
C. T.

What in the world could you do with a 300 baud modem? Morse code? ;)

What in the world could you do with a 300 baud modem? Morse code? ;)

Stew,
No, it pre-dated Morse code! Actually, we had a "Luggable" (really heavy) unit, an Execuport by brand that was a keyboard with a roll of paper. If you typed a wrong character, backspacing required multi key combinations, so I usually just cancelled the line I was typing and started over. Fortunately, I'm a good typist. We eventually bought a Texas Instruments Silent 700. A lot lighter, but the same speed and drawbacks. And we loved both of them because we could dial into work and resolve problems without getting dressed and driving to work. And that's the answer to your question "What in the world could you do with a 300 baud modem?". Instead of 20 miles round trip in all kinds of weather, burning gas, wear and tear on the car, I could dial in at a very slow speed and still be back to tv, bed, or whatever I was doing in ten minutes.
C. T.

"Internet" in those days was text only.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X84muuaySVQ