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HELP!!! I have had MTCO Internet for years. I have received not

HELP!!! I have had MTCO Internet for years. I have received not

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by: RambleOn 1810k+ OP 
~ 7 years ago   Dec 2, '18 3:37pm  
I have had MTCO Internet for years. I have received notice that they will no longer offer Internet in Peoria after Feb. 1st. I don't really mind getting rid of the house phone, but I wouldn't care if it stays. My issue is finding affordable, reliable Internet service. I do not want cable or satellite TV. I have AT&T on the house phone, but no long distance on it. Have Sprint for cell phone provider. Had it since the first cell phone back in the late 90s. Ideas?
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Mahkno 1910k+
~ 7 years ago   Dec 2, '18 6:13pm  
AT&T does DSL internet. Lowest I see is $40/month for a paltry 5 Mps, which probably what you were getting with MTCO.
 
Your only other option is probably going to be Comcast. You don't have to have cable TV to have Comcast internet. Lowest option is $30/month (25 Mps) but fast enough to stream TV shows or the city council meeting.
 
Don't know what you are doing for a mobile phone plan, but you might be able to use it as a hotspot. That would only be recommended if your usage is normally small. If you have an unlimited plan... well soldier on.
 
If you have a smart phone... Sprint is showing $24/$34/$44 a month plans for 'unlimited' wireless internet. Hotspots are throttled to slower speeds after so many GB. If you usage is small, this might not be a problem.
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ChefKevin 1925k+
~ 7 years ago   Dec 2, '18 6:30pm  
@Mahkno : I have ATT DSL Pro. It runs at 10Mps. It's $60/mo. I can stream Netflix, be on my phone and laptop all at the same time with out an issue. I'm sure it may not be enough if there were 6 people in my home all online gaming.
I3 ran cable down Prospect and in the alley behind my yard. I'm assuming it is probably heading to the EB next.
My parents have a wifi modem through US Cellular. It works pretty well. I think they pay $20 a month. Once again, they have more expensive plans that run faster, but it is more than enough for them.
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bgbird68 81k+
~ 7 years ago   Dec 2, '18 6:32pm  
Ramble, go with Comcast. We tried AT&T and it was painfully slow. I hate giving Comcast money but they are the best in town and ITv3 isn't available here.
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Mahkno 1910k+
~ 7 years ago   Dec 2, '18 6:32pm  
The AT&T DSL is very line/pole/distance specific. I can only get 5 Mps over here.
 
iTV3 ran lines through here nearly a decade ago but still does not offer residential internet here.
 
I have Comcast, internet only, with no issues.
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pictureme1 51k+
~ 7 years ago   Dec 2, '18 6:36pm  
@bgbird68 : I use them, too, and have never had an issue.
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RambleOn 1810k+ OP 
~ 7 years ago   Dec 4, '18 1:36pm  
Today is the day! I am sadly saying good-bye to MTCO and hello XFinity. The good thing is getting rid of the house phone. No more of those aggravating calls about lowering my interest rate on credit cards or anything else. Only a couple of people call the phone and they have been notified. It's a new day. From NetZero to MTCO, I have always had to have a phone. I will be glad to see it go!
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joepyeweed 1710k+
~ 7 years ago   Dec 4, '18 3:16pm  
Well, this may be too late... you might want to look into getting a wifi hot spot through your Sprint account, rather than signing up for XFinity. The continuity of service sucked when we had XFinity.
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Closeapple 10+ New Member
~ 7 years ago   Dec 17, '18 6:43am  
Too late for RambleOn, but for future reference:
Number one rule: Never use AT&T. I cannot stress this enough. They have totally tanked in the last 5 years. If you already have AT&T, do not take an "upgrade" or "new plan", even if you are supposedly required to because the old service is going away. Cancel everything if they say that. If your only choices are AT&T or moving, put your house up for sale. (I've heard a couple people say they weren't angry at AT&T's cellular service. But never anyone who was anything other than furious at AT&T otherwise.) They will simply bill you for whatever they feel like and throw you on hold for hours until you hang up if you attempt to get service or cancel; most of the time they do not care a bit if your service even exists.
 
For the city of Peoria and city of East Peoria, your only options (as far as I know) are i3 Broadband (former itv3) or Comcast (xfinity). Both provide Internet, TV, and phone:
* i3 is rock-solid but only builds where it wants to right now; in Peoria, it's available in most of the area north of Lake Avenue, but you have to enter your address (or at least the block) on their front web page to find out if it's available. If you can get it, they run fiber into your building, the Internet is the speed promised, and they can provide phone service to your home phones through the router also. They have an East Peoria HQ (though they're now co-owned with a Texas broadband company), a Grand Prairie sales office, and local people.
* Comcast is required to provide TV service everywhere in the city, and since their Internet and phone are over the same cable, it's all the same to them. Their Internet usually has good speeds during certain times of the day. During high usage, the speed goes down. I've heard of Comcast routers conking out occasionally; but same for self-purchased ones. Some people who hate Comcast on and off; but the complaints have gotten less the last 3 or 4 years, especially compared to AT&T. (Did I mention not to use AT&T?)
 
Alternatively, all the major cellular providers now also offer two similar services: (1) WiFi hotspot, which can be done from your phone, tablet, or a special device, and gives you Internet wherever there's a signal. (2) Building hotspot/router service, which provides a somewhat more stable cellular link to your home or office, providing WiFi for Internet and/or dialtone service for your existing wired phones. Both of these usually have monthly data limits after which your Internet slows down and/or they charge you for overage.
 
Outside of Peoria & East Peoria:
* MTCO isn't shy about where they cover: See www.mtco.com/?main&m ap for the coverage map. In particular, Germantown Hills, Metamora, and Washington are almost totally covered. Unfortunately, as mentioned, they quit taking Peoria residential customers a few years ago, and are shutting down their existing Peoria customers on February 1, 2019. (That, by the way, is because they have to go over AT&T lines there, and AT&T is intentionally destroying the copper network so that they can claim that services that are still subject to government anti-monopoly laws "aren't available". Did I mention not to use AT&T?)
* Heartland Cable, based in Minonk, also has a sister company Heartland Fiber.
They provide fiber service with Internet/TV/phone in Minonk, Eureka, and Roanoke, and a bunch of tiny towns around the Tazewell/McLean and Woodford/McLean/Livingston borders. I don't know much about them.
 
I don't know what's available in Peoria Heights. Stratus Networks is based there, but they mainly do big-business/multi-site projects; they're definitely not a residential service.
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DennisinMH 1410k+
~ 7 years ago   Dec 17, '18 10:17am  
We have had Comcast for years with very few issues. Many times if cable TV gets lagging or pic gets too digitized, or internet goes out, I simply unplug cable TV box or Xfinity modem for 30 seconds or so, plug back in. Problem solved.
However, if I3 Broadband ever decided to build in MH-NP area (which I doubt because of number of residents), I would consider them.
We have Comcast for TV, internet and landline. Landline is something we'll always keep. But despite their best marketing efforts, I'm not interested in upgrading to Xfinity X1 service.
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itsme7 100+
~ 7 years ago   Dec 17, '18 12:11pm  
Whatever you do, use ATT.com for research only. Tried to make changes to my account, and got my internet shut off twice in four days. Each time, it has taken hours to get back on. Today, after more than an hour, I finally got to a guy in Florida who found that the problem was that I had to register my non-ATT modem. Now, all is good.
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Patrick710 1100+
~ 7 years ago   Dec 17, '18 2:33pm  
I want to switch from Frontier (12Mbps DSL) to Mediacom (50Mbps) but the reviews aren't very good.
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skutfarcus 1410k+
~ 7 years ago   Dec 17, '18 3:45pm  
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Patrick710 1100+
~ 7 years ago   Dec 17, '18 5:07pm  
Patrick710 www.noizecommunicati ons.com/
 
@skutfarcus : It doesn't look like it's available in Chillicothe.
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