Just out of curiosity, I took a deeper look into the various
residential ISP options available in our area. Here's what I found:
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Verizon seems to be a viable alternative to Spectrum until you read the fine print - it turns out that FIOS service is only available at selected addresses in the City of Saratoga Springs - which accounts for only about 40% of the potential customers in the area). In suburban areas like where I live, Verizon only offers DSL service which doesn't deliver anywhere near the performance of FIOS. It is possible that Verizon could build out their FIOS system, but that would be a major investment with a questionable return, so I don't see it happening any time soon.
There was an accompanying chart that compared the costs of these options. While the monthly charge is one measure, the creators of this chart suggest that a better metric is the
value of the service measured as the ratio of the monthly cost divided by the download speed - and on that basis, Spectrum is the best option, and Verizon DSL is the least favorable (at 30 times as expensive as Spectrum).
In general, the service we get from Spectrum is satisfactory. My issue is that the price seems to go up every month. However, my plan is to eventually dump the TV and telephone service, and use them only as an ISP. If I could only get my family to agree with that plan - - -