Spectrum or Frontier?

[sigfan91]

I currently have Spectrum for internet, phone, and TV. The service was great until recently. I have noticed that internet goes out at 15 past the hour randomly. It might be 15 past midnight, or 3:15PM, or 11:15PM, or 1:15PM,....etc. You get the idea. This would be tolerable except I pay A LOT of money for this. I'm embarrassed to say because it's so high.

Frontier offers the same package for about $80 to $100 less per month. Supposedly the internet speed is even faster than Spectrum, of which I have no complaints. I don't need more speed.

I am in Orange County. Does anyone have experiences with both in the OC? Should I switch or should I stay with Spectrum? $80 a month adds up fast.

[DrjonesUSA]

I'm an I.T. pro. Literally, no exaggeration, in almost 20 years of doing this professionally, I've never once heard a single soul say one positive thing about Frontier.
Avoid at all costs.

Sorry man, it sounds like you are stuck between a rock & a hard place.
Are you 100% positive it's the service? The fact it occurs at a specific time leads me to think it's something in your environment.
Have you checked all cables, power strips, routers, switches, etc. etc?
Even better; unless you know for a fact that you replaced something within the past 1-2 years, you should probably replace it.
Even then; brand new equipment can & does malfunction all the time.

I'm betting it's something in your network or home; electricity; power spikes; something like that.

[sigfan91]

I have not replaced any of the networking hardware over the last few years. The last new piece of equipment I added to my network was a laser printer, back in January. These network outages at 15 past random hour happened after a big outage that happened about 1 month ago that took 15 hours to restore.

Frontier is that bad?

[Marauder2003]

I went through the Verizon FIOS to Frontier handoff when I was in CA. After some initial problems for a few days things settled down. Service was the same as Verizon.

[ibanezfoo]

I'm an I.T. pro. Literally, no exaggeration, in almost 20 years of doing this professionally, I've never once heard a single soul say one positive thing about Frontier.
Avoid at all costs.

Sorry man, it sounds like you are stuck between a rock & a hard place.
Are you 100% positive it's the service? The fact it occurs at a specific time leads me to think it's something in your environment.
Have you checked all cables, power strips, routers, switches, etc. etc?
Even better; unless you know for a fact that you replaced something within the past 1-2 years, you should probably replace it.
Even then; brand new equipment can & does malfunction all the time.

I'm betting it's something in your network or home; electricity; power spikes; something like that.

Same here. Been in IT a bit longer and our company has to setup jobsites all over the US and we have to use whatever internet we can get. Frontier is hands down the worst company for internet. People like to rip on Spectrum but in reality it very regional. Some locations have great service and tech support other areas are complete ***.

If you are having issues with Spectrum I'd try to work through them. If its cable check your signalling, how many spitters you are using, have them check the splitter on the pole or in the box in front of your hose, the MPOE on the side of your house, etc. I got all mine working with near perfect signal after messing with it and having them replace the splitter on the pole outside.

[MyOdessa]

Frontier was the only provider where I live, I hate them with passion. $120 for 6mb/375kb down/up and I never had even that speed, after 15 yrs with POS Frontier, I was able to get Starlink, for the same price I am at @ 150/50 mb down/up. On top of that Frontier customer service suck. Just Google Frontier and you will get all info on that POS you will ever need.

[harbormaster]

[saudadeii]

I'm also in OC. I've been on Spectrum since the "sale" from Time Warner. Came to TW from Roadrunner. I only have internet and phone now (will drop phone soon). While I have plenty of gripes about Spectrum, I hear plenty from Frontier customers. So I'm sticking with the devil I know.

I ditched cable TV years ago due to the price ("cut the cord") and dropped my bill almost $100. You can try going to a local office and simply ask (in strong voice) to reduce your bill and they'll typically work out something. Not happy that all these companies offer great deals to new customers but won't extend them to existing ones without a complaint. I tend to do this once every 12 months or so and get some kind of reduction. Doesn't take long for them to raise fees again.

[Mute]

I went through the Verizon FIOS to Frontier handoff when I was in CA. After some initial problems for a few days things settled down. Service was the same as Verizon.

Same for me. The service itself works very reliably, however whenever there's a hiccup, customer service is crap with Frontier. I had one outtage over the whole time with Frontier. It took those fools almost a week to get it back up and only after they missed two service calls and I raised a stink about it. Their technician was good and did a great job when he came out, but the CS reps were completely useless.

[arrix]

Sounds like Spectrum is doing some network updates or something. Is your modem rebooting during those outages?

[sigfan91]

Sounds like Spectrum is doing some network updates or something. Is your modem rebooting during those outages?

No, not rebooting, just losing connections. Rebooting usually takes longer.

[Dnele928]

[sigfan91]

Everything is original from Spectrum. We learned a similar lesson when my dad added extensions galore and killed the signal years ago.

[arrix]

I would go and exchange the modem for a new one (assuming you're renting the modem).

[skkppy]

I was a spectrum technician for 5 years before changing careers and leaving CA. "the plant" aka the infrastructure leading up to your house is most likely solid, spectrum takes very nice care of its infrastructure. The cables in and potentially on your house is another matter. the fundamental problem that as a tech spectrum/charter does not do a good job crediting its techs to install and maintain the equipment inside or on your actual home. I have spent days righting decades of wrongs when it comes to the internet wiring. if you think about it all the other utilities stop working on your house at the drop site, think about your plumbing/gas/electrical the utility company provides service to the street and the rest is on you to hire your own plumber/electrician. internet is unique because the utility company bring its all the way inside your house with "plumbing" they didn't install when the house was built. also when the people who built your house did it, they used the cheapest coax cable and twisted pair wiring they could get their hands on because back then pumping megabytes and gigabytes though the phone jack or cable socket just didn't exist. your best bet is to cry once pay once and find a true pro that will wire your house up like a pro. If you want good internet gear that you own, I would expect to pay around $500 for your own modem and router that will effectively cover around 1500 square feet, If your home is bigger than that then I would expect to run more new wiring and buy more customer owned equipment. Repairing and running new wiring at your house could be fairly easy or a huge PITA. Anything is possible with the right pro, my parents live on a 2 acre lot and you can not set foot on a single place of their property with out getting full speed internet both inside and outdoors. the equipment cost on that was about $2000 but been installed for 5 years now without any maintenance or problems.

my advice would be to hunt for an independent pro and pay up 1 time and enjoy years of great internet. and to answer your specific question, the infrastructure spectrum offers technologically compared to frontier blows it out of the water. if you go the pro route and run your own equipment you will save somewhere around 15-30 a month that will pay for the pro install and equipment over time. also if you look closely at your bill you are getting bent over on cable TV no the internet, I would wager the internet part of your bill is less than $80.