this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2024
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Asklemmy
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May I ask what city and state you live in? These options seem terrible.
Des Moines Iowa.
Yes I know the options are terrible and I am aware if alternative ISPs but my apartment management only offers just one ISP. It is not Verizon or any other big name, just some not so well known company with a site design from the 90s in every bad way.
Note to self. Do not move to Des Moines. I pay $60/mo for symmetrical gig (1000 Mbps) with no cap.
Try tmobile's wireless internet. They usually have an option to try free for 30 days. Depending on where you live it can be a great alternative.
May I humbly suggest Verizon 5G home internet. I checked and it's widely available in Des Moines. Around $45 a month with a discount if you also have Verizon mobile. 300mbps down and like 30 up. No caps. It's just a white box that uses cell towers, so you are not limited to whatever shitty service your apartment complex has contracted with. I used it for 2 or 3 years in Providence, RI, and it was terrific. Cheap, fast enough for my work needs and streaming on 2 TVs, and I never had any problems.
Tried doing an area search, only got a form for my address to notify me when service is available.
Oh bummer. I used city hall as the address, since that's all I had to go on.
Maybe T-Mobile home Internet is good enough?
Why does your apartment management have a say in it?
If there are other providers in the area then you likely already have lines running to your place and shouldn't need their sign off on it.
Because they are the shitty kind. Here is what I do not get, I have seen CenturyLink and Mediacom vans come in my area. I assume it is to service people's connections or other things. If my apartment management tells me that VisionSystems is all that they can offer, why do I see vans from other ISPs come here?
And Mediacom isnt too far from us either.
Mediacom and CenturyLink claim to not service my building though so something is not adding up.
That is really shady. Unless you live in a rent controlled apartment I'd be curious if they even have legal recourse if you used another provider unless there was damage to the apartment.
You could probably force the complex to let you use whatever provider you wanted as long as the infrastructure (conduits in the ground etc) is there and it probably is. But I would likely be a very annoying fight.
More than likely they are getting a kickback from the ISP to inform users that they are the only option.
We have a (kind of) similar situation here. Our complex has these devices installed by the local electric company that turns our water heater on and off on some randomized schedule that is claimed to be based off of our usage and the local time. We were never told about this device and it's not in our contract. On top of that, the property management group gets a kickback for every one that is installed in a unit.
We don't have the most stable schedules (random schedules, night shift, day shift, etc) so of course the device couldn't figure it's shit out and was just shutting our water heater off at different times. I had to call the power company to have them disable it.
There has been a history of corporate things like this happening where providers do shady shit, kinda like gangs having their own territory and "agreements" not to sell dope in each other's area to keep their profits stable and not mess with each other or whatever other reasoning it may be.
My point is, there is more than likely some shady business practices going on between the ISPs and the property management.
This practice is allowed and it sucks. Try wireless.
I was thinking the opposite. I have 1 option for "high speed" in my town, and it's $90 for 12Mbps that rarely actually gets to that speed. I just barely switched to starlink and it's been amazing.
Yeah thatβs pretty cheeks pricing. I pay less than double that for symmetrical gig speed.
I pay $65 a month for Verizon Fios with Symmetrical gigabit
Tell me where you live. I want to go to there.
Massachusetts lol. Rent will run you $2500 a month, and houses start at $500K. Taxes aren't great either. Welcome!