[jrref]

An update. After doing more speed tests at friends homes around the Villages with Quantum Fiber, most homes are provided the correct speeds. The problems mostly appear in Osceola Hills. After yet another technician came by my home the other day, they again verified the incorrect, super slow upload speeds of 10-40 Mbs all the time and conceeded it was a Central Office problem on their end. While all this is good, there is no feedback on, if or ever the problem will be fixed.

Quantum Fiber's, which is owned by Lumen, residential support and call center are actually very good. Meaning if there is a problem with the equipment in your home and or the fiber connection, they are usually very responsive and knowledgable in fixing the problem. The issue is when there is a problem in their network. These fixes usually take forever to get resolved.

When I worked for Verizon, we never had these issues becasue Verizon is a regulated company. So, if service wasn't provided, the Public Service Commission would get involved. They also have a "president's hot-line" that you can call to get an advocate to resolve the issue.

With Quantum, the FCC regulates them so if issues are not resolved in a timely fashion you can submit a complaint on-line to get resolution. This is an option when the company is not resolving the issue and shouldn't be used lightly but at least it's an option of last resort.

Interestingly, although we have some internet competition here in the Villages with Quantum, Spectrum and Xfinity, there are considerations to understand.

Xfinity has data caps so if you use too much data per month you will be charged for the extra usage. In my opinion, in today's world this is unacceptable. If you live up north for example where there is fierce competition, Xfinity has no data caps.

Spectrum is the best of the cable companies becasue there is no data cap and the service is relatively reliable and cheap but they don't offer any of the newer more modern plans here in the Villages. If you want to pay for it, they provide 1Gbs download speeds but you get a maximum of 45 Mbs upload. Why is this significant? Because with doorbell and other security cameras used by homeowners today, that speed is a little too slow to get a crisp response to see the video when somone rings your front door bell for example. The video has to be uploaded to the server then down to your viewing device. Some people have a local video hub which gets around this problem. Also, if you backup your computers to the cloud, it can take a very long time at these upload speeds to do a full backup. If you are a YouTuber, again, you need faster upload speeds to upload your video. For everyone else, speed doesn't matter.

Fiber Internet is the "sweet spot". Whether its provided by Quantum or Centric, it offers the best bi-directional speeds for the lowest cost. Both Quantum and Centric also provide top-of-the-line in-home wifi equipment included in the price.

The final leg of internet competition is wireless internet provided by T-Mobile and Verison. This wireless service's performance will depend on how close your home is located to one of their wireless towers so you need to try the service and see how it works in your specific home. But even at best, expect 200-300 Mbs download speeds which is probably more than enough for most Villagers but upload speeds will be terrible in the range of 10-20Mbs at best. The other issue is, like cable, this is a shared system so you performance will vary, sometimes wildly depending on the overall usage at any given time of the day.

So all this said, although fiber internet companies have cable companies as competition here in the Villages, there really is no competition because Cable internet is OK for most but not competitive with Fiber internet.