Buying an Internet package for your home is more complex than simply making a single order. In fact, just as houses on the same block may look similar but every home is different, residential Internet plans and their experience vary widely depending on what you plan to do with it. With that in mind, let’s dive deeper into five vital tips for getting the best plan for your family.
- Account for Your Kind of Usage
Far too often, we lump the Internet in with all the other utilities we need, such as electricity, gas, and water. While it’s a necessity of modern daily life like those other utilities, however, Internet usage is quite different depending on who’s using it and why.
A gamer who requires high-speed Internet for gaming and streaming, for example, is going to have very different Internet performance and data needs than a grandmother who only uses it occasionally. Know how much data you plan on using or, indeed, if you want to opt for an unlimited internet plan.
- Consider Your Cable Plan
If you already have a cable plan for your TV at home, you may want to consider seeing if it’d be worthwhile making this your Internet provider as well. Many providers like WOW and AT&T offer internet, phone, and cable bundles that make it a much cheaper option than having a provider for each service.
There are several benefits to this, not the least of which being convenience. If your cable and Internet provider is the same, that makes it that much easier to pay for both services at once, streamlining the process. This can also mean getting service from a company you already trust. Some companies offer special packages for cable and Internet together, potentially allowing you to get a discount.
However, if the quality of the company’s service is poor, you could be stuck with not one but two aspects of your residential life being crippled by their incompetence. What’s more, with more monopolization of the industry, cable companies as Internet providers mean fewer free-market choices, which in turn could drive the price up over time.
For that reason, you’ll want to assess the transparency of the plan before signing on. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
- Bandwidth Versus Speed
Another common misunderstanding domestic Internet users often make is conflating bandwidth with speed. While the two concepts are connected, they aren’t the same, as bandwidth is more analogous to the “capacity” afforded by the service. As such, it’s more a promise of potential performance than a guarantee. Just because a pipe in your home’s plumbing setup is large doesn’t mean that the water flow itself will definitely be large, fast, or steady.
Likewise, greater bandwidth may make your Internet faster, but it’s no guarantee. Other factors to assess when considering your residential connection’s potential speed include:
- The nature of your connection (cable, wireless, and so on)
- The quality of your router
- How far your devices are from your router
- If your router and host service is underpowered
- How much traffic there is on the network
- Expect Breakdowns (and Proper Responses)
No matter how good your service and connection may be, even the best-made routers and servers can and likely will At some point, every business has to ask themselves whether or not they should outsource their call center automation needs. Internet connection failures are simply inevitable – and when they happen, you’re going to want them resolved as quickly as possible.
As such, cliché as it may seem, you’re going to need to think about the provider’s reputation for customer service. That can vary for cable and satellite providers between their TV and Internet service as well. They may provide good TV service but spotty Internet connections.
- Added Services
In today’s day and age, everything is more specialized than ever, and unlimited internet packages are no different. Instead of “just” getting an Internet connection, you have the potential to get a lot more.
For example, there has been a surge of voice calling or VOIP options over the past few years. This has coincided with a rise in digital offices and working remotely, which has obviously only increased in importance since the pandemic. In addition, you might consider adding data specifically for streaming and gaming. Some plans also come with apps that can allow you to track data usage.
This takes us all the way back to the first point – knowing how you plan on using the Internet at your home can help you decide which extra services are worth paying for in your Internet package.