Switching from Xfinity to i3 back to Xfinity
Xfinity is better
Over the past few years, I had noticed my Xfinity bill creeping up and up. A few years ago, it was about $80/month, and now it was $125/month.
I found that type of thing annoying, and while a few years ago, there wasn’t really an alternative, I knew there were alternatives now.
Enter i3
During the same period, fiber internet became available through i3 broadband. I often saw advertisements for lightning fast speeds for only $35/month.
I didn’t really need TV anymore, and while I didn’t care about the speed because I’m not a gamer, I did care about the price.
i3 came out and installed and got set up for no charge. It was easy and I was online quickly. I bought or had a Wifi extender that I used as well.
The Trouble Begins
I knew that switching to i3 was a risk. Dozens of times I had seen the new fiber optic cable line running across someone’s yard, the sidewalk or driveway just waiting to be destroyed. I work from home, so I did not want my job laying out in my yard for months waiting to be buried.
So I waited a long time to sign up for i3 and when I finally did, the line was laid in my backyard and buried within a few days. No problem. Although they damaged one of the irrigation lines (I don’t use it, it was here from a previous owner), and I let them know, but they never came out or even responded (even though they said they would). Not a big deal.
A few days after I set up on i3, they had an outage. I don’t remember exactly, maybe a few hours. It happens, no big deal, I tethered with my cell phone.
About a week after I was set up, i3 went out for 2-3 days. I don’t remember exactly, but there was a major cut by a ‘3rd’ party that damaged a hub. Most of Champaign-Urbana was offline for a long ass time. I was annoyed. Here is what the CEO wrote:
Pretty terrible. That’s kinda what happens when all the fiber lines are buried where people can’t see them.
Well about 1 week ago, my i3 service started to be laggy. I could tell because I couldn’t understand people, and they couldn’t understand me. On my zoom calls, the communication was choppy and difficult. I got the warning ‘Your Connection is Unstable’ multiple times. While it could have been anything, I knew it was simply the i3 service.
Crawling back to Comcast
Lol, that’s an exaggeration for sure. Comcast has been great, actually. I get set up with like 300 mbps for $50/month (no TV), Peacock, and other stuff, too. I can’t complain. I picked up a brand new, modern modem and router from the store at the mall, I got a little Roku like thingy, too for free, and I am now up and running. I literally switched the internet from i3 to Xfinity during a live call with one of my colleagues in Canada, and miraculously, the lagging went away!
Sorry i3, I know you’re a newer technology that’s supposed to be better, but you’re not. Is there something to be said about the cable infrastructure that was laid during the Cold War? I have never had any problems with Xfinity, and I only had issues with i3.
Moral of the story, go ahead and switch, and don’t be afraid to switch right back.