"Small" ISP vs. Mega Corp. ISPs

[wirelessmonk]

With the international presence on these forums, I think this is a good place to ask. How many members are using larger ISPs i.e. ComCast, AT&T, Time Warner? I ended up on Grande in South Texas. I haven't looked into their corporate relationships, so for all I know they are a subsidiary of ... someone.

Thanks,

Wirelessmonk

[Jake]

im on a big ISP in the uk. Talktalk. its good and the broadband is free

[wirelessmonk]

Free? How does that work? What does TalkTalk charge for?

[Jake]

its free when you take your phone service with em, and thats cheaper than bt on its own

[leondz]

BT being British Telecom...

[5M1L3Y]

We'll just to stick to ADSL like every other normal person in the UK who doesn't pay 100's of pounds for a fibre business broadband service until we get FTTC/H at an low low price...

[paulierichie]

Is there a speed difference on big ISPs vs small ISPs?

I get 8MBs (theoretical) here in Michigan with Comcast, but I hear the US is behind compared to the rest of the wordl unless you live in Silicon Valley or something.

[wirelessmonk]

I imagine there can be. For instance, my ISP may have fewer subscribers than say, Comcast, but Grande also doesn't have the infrastructure that Comcast does. I get about 7mb/s download tested but only 400kb/s up.

There's also the customer service component. Whenever I call Grande I feel like I'm talking to the same guy. I don't know if that is better than the anonymity of a big monolithic ISP.

[Jake]

with my big isp, i get my full speed of my connection, about 9meg
(thats faster than the 8meg that its meant to be because i got a nice techie to change a few things. also remember that ADSL works very differently than cable)

[patioheater]

Prefer small myself, that way I'm on first name terms with boss. Check out my Rural Internet post