Internet Service in The Villages
 

What is the best internet provider in The Villages?

Xfinity

Spectrum. No data caps.

Comcast aka Xfinity

Where do you live? There are several internet providers in The Villages but they do not all provide service everywhere. If you have access to QuantumFiber (aka CenturyLink via fiber to the house) then they would be a good choice. You can use any router with their service and they are currently at $30 per month for 200 megabits per second up and down.

Different neighborhoods will have different providers, they do their best to eliminate competition

welcome aboard

We have Spectrum, no problems.

Agreed it's Quantum Fiber.

int
 

century link fastest speed $75

Stay away from Centurylink DSL line service. It's slow and unreliable.

It really depends on several things. First check to see who can cover your area, then narrow your choices from that list. Think about what you want/need in terms of data and speed. Then look at: contract/no contract, data caps?, equipment included or at extra cost? We just installed Spectrum wifi/internet only and stream shows we want via services like Amazon Prime, HBO, etc. The company did a good job on installation, which required removal of Dish/Direct TV services line and ground cable installation. They did not charge anything extra for those services. So far it's been good.

Xfinity is reliable and you can choose the speed you want or need. You can use your own modem, verify compatibility, or theirs.

Some of my neighbors have Spectrum and are happy others use Quantum. South of 44 all the options are available. I don’t know about elsewhere.

I have 1GigaBit with them for 5 years now and never had a problem.

Not entirely true, Quantum/CenturyLink is not available in the Village of Monarch Grove.

In order of best technology/speed:

1. Quantum (CenturyLink) Fiber: Fiber has no degradation as user load increases.
2. Spectrum: Spectrum is a combination of Fiber and Cable, so performance will not be as good as pure Fiber.
3. Xfinity - Pure broadband cable. Performance drops as user load increases.
4. CenturyLink DSL: Any type of DSL is very slow compared to fiber or cable. Performance degrades quickly as distance to connection hub increases and as user load increases.

This listing has nothing to do with price - only addresses the best technologies and speeds.

Interesting, but totally irrelevant to most users. Most users care about price, reliability, and service. Also, if you have the Xfinity Internet service, you can buy the Xfinity Mobile cell phone service that uses the Verizon network for way less money than a direct account with Verizon. My cell phone bill is only $13.60 per month.

Verizon
 

I got Verizon free for a year then $25 month. Free modem. About 200 mbs.

Not available in my part of St. John's either.

We tried Verizon's modem box in a trial. We never got above about 80 mbps which is quite slow by today's standards. It also disconnected a lot no matter what area of the house we put it in. Even at cheap it was not worth it. Good to hear you are happy.

All services are good...until they're not.

We have xFinity, best plan they offer. About 5 days ago lightning hit somewhere close...don't quite know where but the flash and the boom happened almost simultaneously. Since then the service drops offline intermittently: at first, just after the flash, several times an hour; since then, maybe two or three times per day. Never for very long (maybe 1-2 minutes). In talking to others in the area, they're having the same issues.

Calls to Customer Service route to BFE and some person with English as a second language reading words off a screen.

When up and running their service is second to none; lightning-fast and ultra reliable. But this exact same thing happened last year at about the same time. Seems like they should be able to get their act together.

(Sigh....feel MUCH better now...)

Most internet providers do a decent job of providing internet services. If you can get a true fiber network provider, get them, stay away from any dsl provider.
The internet provider is only a small piece of the network you need to be concerned about. 99% of the homes have a terrible network setup in their house and probably don’t know what network speeds they are actually getting to each of their devices. You might pay for 1000Mb internet speed but you are probably getting a couple hundred Mb on your phones and tablets. So why pay for 1000Mb when you are getting 200Mb at your phones?
How you can tell if you are part of this 99% group, how many SSID’s do you have access to from your network installer? I bet 2 (which is the default) but you should only have 1. Another way to determine if you are in this group is to go into each room where you watch tv or use your phones/tablets/computers and check your internet speeds and if they are less than 80% of the speed you are paying for, you don’t have a good network setup. If you are paying for 1000Mb internet, then you should be getting at least 800Mb at your phone/tablet/computer (if your devices are fairly new)

Most expensive after contract expires.

Agree
 

I agree. We switched to Quantum. Fast reliable WIFI
with no issues.

I had the exact same lightning issue with Xfinity. Worked great for 2 years...then lightning hit my neighbors house. I stream TV...it started to buffer quite a bit. Had 3 (!!) different techs out. Never fixed. Switched to Spectrum. Working a lot better. Xfinity customer service is abysmal. You must go to either their 441 or Leesburg locations to get any real help. When I called one time they wanted to charge me to send someone out. Went to 441 store, they set up tech visit immediately and no charge. The Xfinity call center is possibly the worst phone experience EVER!! They changed their name from Comcast to Xfinity to better their image -- sure didn't fix their phone service one bit. Horrid! If Xfinity works, great...just don't have a problem.

I just went through this exercise. I went with Quantum Fiber. $70 (all normally hidden fees /taxes, installation, router included) all up. The service is over 900 mbs with no limits on concurrent connections and data usage.

I have never been without a contract. Yes, Xfinity is expensive if you don't have a contract.

Why? Unless you are moving around large files the bandwidth doesn't matter. For the vast majority of people, their largest bandwidth consumer will be video streaming. Hi-Def (1080p) consumes about 5 megabits per second. Most people pay for much more bandwidth than than need.

Quantum Fiber for $30 per month for 200 megabits per second up and down (much more bandwidth than we consume) with no contract.

Most people can't consume more than a 5 or 10 megabits per second of bandwidth. The vast majority of people who pay for 1000 megabits per second are wasting their money.

[QUOTE=rsmurano;2221796]Most internet providers do a decent job of providing internet services. If you can get a true fiber network provider, get them, stay away from any dsl provider.
The internet provider is only a small piece of the network you need to be concerned about. 99% of the homes have a terrible network setup in their house and probably don’t know what network speeds they are actually getting to each of their devices. You might pay for 1000Mb internet speed but you are probably getting a couple hundred Mb on your phones and tablets. So why pay for 1000Mb when you are getting 200Mb at your phones?
How you can tell if you are part of this 99% group, how many SSID’s do you have access to from your network installer? I bet 2 (which is the default) but you should only have 1. Another way to determine if you are in this group is to go into each room where you watch tv or use your phones/tablets/computers and check your internet speeds and if they are less than 80% of the speed you are paying for, you don’t have a good network setup. If you are paying for 1000Mb internet, then you should be getting at least 800Mb at your phone/tablet/computer (if your devices are fairly new)[/QUOTE]

Phones and tablets — T-Mobile. I regularly get about 500,000 Mbps. Their monthly fee is half of what I was paying Verizon.

I have Century like and if has been good for us.
Is you have a new computer, you be able to get 5g at now extra price and it is fast.
Frank Tibbetts

I live in a section of TV that has only Comcast and Centurylink DSL as wired services. I tried T-Mobile Home Internet and they had no service at certain times of the night. I would regularly have tv streaming drop out at 10:30 PM. During one summer I lost internet connection to my house for a month when I was up north. T-Mobile customer service said it was a wildlife problem in the tower.
When I returned I got Verizon Home internet for $25/month with all the discounts. During the year I've had Verizon there have been no drops. Between my TV antenna and Verizon (Wireless) Home Internet I have truly cut the cord. The speed is fast enough for the wife stream one channel and for me to stream another. I'm getting 157Mbps to the desktop on my Mac with 14ms Ping times using Speedtest.

Internet provider (thru cable) Depends where you live.
 

Certain areas are [cable] covered by Comcast(Xfinity); others by Spectrum (the better deal). YOU don't get to choose. Then Tmobile is over a phone line / slower.

This post is incorrect on almost all of it's points.

In Monarch Grove we have both Comcast and Spectrum available. We do "get to choose".

T-Mobile, which I have, is not "over a phone line" it is provided via the 5G cellular network. I consistantly receive download speeds in excess of 500Mbps so it is hardly "slower" than other providers.

I have had both Spectrum and Xfinity. I had Spectrum the first year but I found that it wasn't that great. I had problems connecting to my phone on the house wifi. This happened several times a week. I also had problem with my Google Assistant connecting to the wi-fi. Because of these problems, about a year ago, I decided to switch to Xfinity. The wifi is stronger and faster and the current price is significantly lower than what I was paying with Spectrum.

However, my biggest problem with Spectrum is their cancelation policy. If you cancel in the middle of your billing cycle, they do not pro-rate the bill. Instead, you are required to pay for the entire month. There have been class actions and some states (not including Florida) have passed laws making this illegal. If you are going to cancel, make sure you cancel in the last week of your billing cycle. If you are a day late, you pay for the entire month! Spectrum claimed that the no-refund policy was for the consumer's benefit because it made the bills "easier for subscribers to understand."

Maine requires cable companies to pro-rate final bills.

Office of the Maine AG: News & Reports

Agreed! I just switched from Xfinity and have better performance at a lower price. The Quantum WiFi pods can be rented for 2 for $15 per month. I decided to go this way for a while and then purchase my own router. Total, all in, $45.