Internet Providers West Omaha

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cvvorst
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Internet Providers West Omaha

Post by cvvorst »

If I am in the wrong section I apologize!


I recently decided I wanted to try a new internet provider after finding out I was paying over $55 per month for cox home internet. I saw century link was offering up to 10 mbps for $19.99 (or something close) I seldom download movies and the like, so that speed would be perfect, and I could save at least $350 per year.

I called century link and found out they do not provide service in my area. (please note that I am in Omaha, but I am in the Elkhorn school district)

Is there really no other high speed internet provider for west Omaha? Does Cox have some sort of monopoly on the area?

Maybe I have missed a provider though, if there is any other company that provides home internet services I would really appreciate it if someone posted it here!
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Linkin5
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Post by Linkin5 »

Chiming in real quick on the Centurylink internet deal, it is only $19.99/month if you bundle it with a home phoneline.  With that said it is still only like $30 or $35 a month which is a lot better than Cox.  I believe you can get Comcast internet service in Omaha, it might be worth it to check them out.
cvvorst
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Post by cvvorst »

I tried looking at comcast, but they did not provide service either. (I also checked AT&T)

The lady at Century Link was super helpful, she told me all the companies/groups that had "cables" in the area. She mentioned T3, cox, and a couple others that an internet search did not find. I was very impressed with how helpful Century Link was though. Considering she had nothing to sell me, she still took the time to look up all the information she could. I would switch to century link immediately if they were out west.

Does anyone else think its odd that cox is the only cable provider in West Omaha? There are a lot of people out this way, did cox somehow buy the rights to be the only service provider?

Anyway, I might just have to start using my unlimited verizon data and tether to the rest of my house using 4G, but that seems more like a temporary fix...
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Brad
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Post by Brad »

cvvorst wrote:Anyway, I might just have to start using my unlimited verizon data and tether to the rest of my house using 4G, but that seems more like a temporary fix...
I have family in California that use Verison 4G as their ISP.  They live in a somewhat rural area and its faster than the local phone company's service.
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Post by HskrFanMike »

I think it depends on your specific part of West O.

A large portion of West Omaha west of I-680 out to about 180th was wired by US West with fiber over 15 years ago for what evolved into TeleChoice.  Qwest basically sunsetted the product, and they may not be selling it anymore.  My understanding is that the underlying technology is obsolete.

I have it, and it is a heck of a value compared to Cox.  7k high speed internet is $26.99, and 70 channels of analog cable TV for $35 a month.  All together, I spend $120 a month for phone, internet, and cable TV.   I priced out Cox 5 years ago, and they were $40 a month more then...I'm betting it's closer to $60-$80 more a month now.

My biggest complaint is reliability.  We've had numerous outages the last two years where things don't work.  I'm sure that may be playing into CenturyLink's decision to not sell this to new customers, because from what I understand, they don't know how much longer this system is going to be functional.

I've heard some speculation that CenturyLink plans to bring their Prism service to Omaha, which would be good.  But that's probably two years away.

Your only alternative, I'm afraid, is either Cox or a cellular 4G system.
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BRoss
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Post by BRoss »

HskrFanMike wrote:I think it depends on your specific part of West O.

A large portion of West Omaha west of I-680 out to about 180th was wired by US West with fiber over 15 years ago for what evolved into TeleChoice.  Qwest basically sunsetted the product, and they may not be selling it anymore.  My understanding is that the underlying technology is obsolete.
From what I remember, TeleChoice is only available in southwest Omaha. I think it starts south of Pacific.
HskrFanMike
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Post by HskrFanMike »

Nope...available north of Dodge...I believe up to Fort in spots.  I know, because I have it north of Dodge.

Image
http://www.qwest.com/vdsl/omaha/availability.html
bigredmed
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Post by bigredmed »

Parts of west O that were in Douglas County during the 70's first may have Cablevision. ,
NovakOmaha
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Post by NovakOmaha »

Is it just the existing choice tv customers or the whole city?  Are they finally going to go head to head with Cox in tv phone & internet, just like most cities where the cable & phone company compete?  Wow and only 10 years late to the party.
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Post by Guest »

Go with anyone but Cox. Cox, like many ISP's, is a shared network, but Cox grossly over-subscribes it's neighborhood networks, thus, you rarely ever get what you pay for - and many times, get much less than what you pay for.
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Post by Guest »

NovakOmaha wrote:Is it just the existing choice tv customers or the whole city?  Are they finally going to go head to head with Cox in tv phone & internet, just like most cities where the cable & phone company compete?  Wow and only 10 years late to the party.
It is available anywhere the antiquated old Qwest fiber network is available in Omaha. A little insight, a former executive, before the CenturyLink purchase, is to blame for the Cox monopoly in Omaha, and thus, why prices are so high. Century has been on a mission to recapture part of the market sahre they lost out of pure stupidy and lack of any foresight whatsoever.
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jessep28
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Post by jessep28 »

So, basically the old USWest Telechoice area will get the benefit of fiber, while outlying areas will still need to get DirecTV through Qwest if they want HD channels?
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Post by Guest »

jessep28 wrote:So, basically the old USWest Telechoice area will get the benefit of fiber, while outlying areas will still need to get DirecTV through Qwest if they want HD channels?
correct
NovakOmaha
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Post by NovakOmaha »

what about east of 680?  are they wiring all of Omaha?
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Post by Guest »

NovakOmaha wrote:what about east of 680?  are they wiring all of Omaha?
Most everything east of 680 has CenturyLink fiber, or any corridor of commercial development. Unfortuantely, it was single-family residential they abandoned in the 90's.
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Post by Guest »

But yes, as far as I know, CenturyLink is investing heavily in their Omaha network, trying to direectly compete with Cox, which until recently, they were only able to do with apartments and business.
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Post by Guest »

My guess is that CenturyLink will eventually do all of Omaha.  But they have an issue with the TeleChoice system; the system is obsolete and they can't get parts for it.  In areas, it's failing.  So they have to do something to TeleChoice because they unplugged all of the copper in the mid 90's to put phone service on the fiber.  If that goes out, they send their remaining customers running to Cox.

So they'll upgrade west O first, and then roll out throughout town.
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Coyote
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Re: Internet Providers West Omaha

Post by Coyote »

My sister who lives in West Omaha was told their regular cable service and internet would be dropped and their only option would be to upgrade to Choice a TV, but Century Link has been a pain in the butt for them for several months. Customer Service has been dismal. They still have cable laying in their back yard from the box to their house. Their backyard has been dug up twice yo bury cable. Any one else having problems with them?
TheGoodLife
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Re: Internet Providers West Omaha

Post by TheGoodLife »

We switched everything from Cox to CenturyLink last fall. Their billing and customer service has been atrocious. We're saving about $35 a month by switching but are now thinking about switching back. Some months we have a $99 charge and then the next month a $400 charge and they just can't get it straightened out...It might sound a little petty but I hate their cable remote too.
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BRoss
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Re: Internet Providers West Omaha

Post by BRoss »

TheGoodLife wrote:Some months we have a $99 charge and then the next month a $400 charge and they just can't get it straightened out...
Why are they charging you $400 some months?! A billing issue? If so, it shouldn't be that complicated to get something as simple as that working correctly...pretty greasy if you ask me.
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Re: Internet Providers West Omaha

Post by KEA »

I just moved back to the metro from west central Iowa and I swore I would NEVER have Cox again. I originally moved to Bellevue and had service set up with Century Link. Nothing great, nothing horrible to say about that. Bought a house in northwest Omaha but the seller removed all of the phone jacks. I called to cancel CL and told them why and they said they would do the phone jack install and charge $99 but split that into 10 payments (so $10/month) and drop my service to $10 less than I was paying for 12 months so that way my monthly charges would not change, plus I get two months of this next year at the discounted rate. Posting from DSL right now and glad I didn't get price gouged by Cox. By the way, $26.99 is my monthly charges for internet only as opposed to Cox who wants $59/month for internet only. If Century Link is available in your are, don't hesitate to switch from Cox.
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Linkin5
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Re: Internet Providers West Omaha

Post by Linkin5 »

Centurylink and cox are both terrible. I didn't even know you could still get DSL, is that really still a thing?
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iamjacobm
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Re: Internet Providers West Omaha

Post by iamjacobm »

Is there any provider that gets good reviews? I doubt anyone here is begging for Comcast or Time Warner...
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schumatt
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Re: Internet Providers West Omaha

Post by schumatt »

I just had a horrible experience with Cox trying to move my service from one downtown apartment to another. They missed the original install date (scheduled for the Saturday before Labor Day, but they came a week and a half early -- before I moved). When I moved in on Labor Day, of course nothing hooked up and had to wait until Tuesday. They had an all-day open-ended "appointment" since there was nothing to be done inside the residence, just at their connection point in the building. They came at 8:45 PM (of course the office was closed so no way for them to get in), so I was rescheduled for the same all-day deal on Wednesday. They came at 7:30 PM (seriously?!). Only when I kept them on the phone for an hour Wednesday night did they agree to put in a REQUEST to escalate my appointment within their dispatch department to get someone to read the notes and come before 5:00 when the office closes. They FINALLY made it on Thursday. If they had managed to miss the Thursday appointment, I had decided I was going to cancel and get set up with CenturyLink Prism TV and 40 MB (not DSL) Internet.

Cox's Internet product has always been top-notch and reliable for me. The mid-range tier ("Preferred" I think?) is a good value; not cheap, but fairly priced. I wasn't looking forward to switching, although I have a few friends with CenturyLink's Prism TV & Internet, and they've really liked it.
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Post by ajwees41 »

Linkin5 wrote: Thu Oct 25, 2012 5:12 pm Chiming in real quick on the Centurylink internet deal, it is only $19.99/month if you bundle it with a home phoneline.  With that said it is still only like $30 or $35 a month which is a lot better than Cox.  I believe you can get Comcast internet service in Omaha, it might be worth it to check them out.

it's cox or in certain areas century link which only covers part of the city no other cable providers here
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