What Makes an Internet Provider the Right Choice for Your Home?
With the US having some 3,000+ Internet service providers, choosing an internet provider for your home is like finding a needle in a haystack.
With the most lucrative offers coming at you from left, right, and center, making the right choice becomes hard. Not to forget, the negative and the positive reviews on the top internet providers further add to the confusion.
But it is crucial to make the right choice because most providers bind you in long contracts. Moreover, choosing an internet provider with terrible service further impacts your and your family’s daily online activities, such as streaming, browsing, and gaming.
This is why it becomes crucial to make the right choice.
Now, you must be wondering how to make the right choice.
Don’t worry, after going through the same fiasco last year and learning many lessons, I am writing this guide so that you can save yourself from wasting time and effort.
I am mentioning all the important features of the right ISP that you should consider.
Availability
Availability is a crucial consideration for an Internet Service Provider. This is because not every ISP is available in all of the US.
So, you can start by narrowing down providers by seeing which ones are available in your area or city. I made the mistake of researching everything first, apart from availability. Then, when I called up the customer service to set up an account, I found out that the particular ISP I wanted was not available in my area. In fact, they weren’t even available in my state.
Like I chose Optimum Internet for their affordable packages and reliable connectivity. Plus, their Hispanic customer service was also a win, considering I am Hispanic too. Not to forget, so many people from my family vouched for Optimum Internet. However, when I dialed up Número de teléfono de Optimum, I found out that they weren’t available in Nebraska.
This is why it is important to ensure the internet provider that catches your attention is available in your area.
Speeds
Then you will determine how much internet speed you need. Determining which internet speed will be right for you depends on a bunch of factors, like how many internet users and devices are in your home, and your usage.
The first two are simple gauge, but for your internet usage, here is how you can determine it.
Light internet usage contains online activities like basic web browsing, minimal social media use, and video streaming. For this kind of internet usage, a 100 Mbps internet plan will be more than enough. But if you have more than 4 persons in your home, then you should choose a 200 Mbps internet plan. This is will ensure that even in peak usage, your network will not get congested and there is ample bandwidth for everyone.
However, if you have moderate internet usage and your online activities include HD video conferencing, telecommuting, streaming movies and shows in HD, and occasional gaming. then a 300 Mbps to 400 Mbps speed internet plan will be suitable for you. These speeds are optimal enough to support your online activities without network congestion.
Moreover, if you have a big family that engages in bandwidth-heavy online activities like multiplayer or competitive gaming, 4K streaming, downloading large files, and telecommuting, then you need a high-speed internet plan. To support these, a 500 Mbps to 1000 Mbps internet plan will be more than enough.
After you have gauged your speed requirement, you need to consider which ISPs provide internet plans closest to that requirement.
Internet Connection Type
After you have considered availability and your speed requirements, you need to consider which internet connection you need. Now there are multiple internet connection types, like:
- Fiber Internet
- Cable Internet
- Fiber-Backed Cable Internet
- Satellite Internet
- DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
- Fixed Wireless (5G Home Internet)
Satellite and Fixed Wireless are popular options for rural areas. So, only choose them if you live in a rural area and other internet forms are not available. As far as DSL is recommended, I will not recommend it because it provides pretty low speeds and is quickly becoming redundant. Moreover, Cable internet has terrible connectivity in peak usage hours, so it cannot ensure reliability, while it is pretty affordable.
I will recommend getting Fiber Internet if you have heavy usage and need high speeds with reliable connectivity. However, fiber internet plans are a bit on the pricier side. Lastly, fiber-backed cable connections, like Optimum, give you good speeds and reliability while being budget-friendly.
Contracts
This is an important yet overlooked feat. Some Internet providers love binding you in contracts, so you need to be mindful.
Contracts are not bad per se, but they tie you to the ISP for a couple of years. This won’t matter if the ISP provides stellar internet connectivity. However, if you subscribe to an ISP and sign their contract, and then, after using the internet, you find out that it has multiple service disruptions, then you won’t be able to do anything. Or to leave them, you will have to pay a hefty early termination fee.
This is why it is important to look for ISPs that do not bind you in contracts. This is one reason I wanted to subscribe to Optimum Internet.
These are the major features that you should look for in an Internet provider. Researching thoroughly is an important part of internet shopping. Otherwise, the chances of you ending up with the wrong provider are very high. As you research and answer the questions about availability, speed requirements, cost, and internet connection type, you can easily narrow down ISPs to find the right one for your home.