 Review by skeechan 
member for 1.1 years, 583 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 75 days ago
 Laguna Hills,Orange,CA
 $100 per month about 3 days "Fast, very low latency, reliable" "High price" "14 years of reliable service"
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(ratings above consensus)
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I have had Cox HSI since the early @Home days, about late 1998 when Orange County, CA was one of the first markets to get cable HSI.
PRESALES: I saw an add in the newspaper for cable Internet and their new Digital Television and signed up.
ORDERING: The order was easy. The price then was $30/mo for service and $15 for the CDLP modem rental. The modem was a Motorola Cybersurfr and could be purchased for $400.
INSTALL: The install was 3 days later and two technicians came out. Back then there were techs who specialized in the modem installs and others for digital TV. Now all of the techs seem to do both. Even though my house has RG59, it was fine. They ran RG6 from the outlet to the modem. Since then I've had the modem moved to a different room and the tech ran a separate RG6 line directly from the J-box to the modem.
RELIABILITY: Over these 14 years the service has gone down but VERY rarely. I would call it extremely reliable. Latency has also been good over the years. To local speed test service in Los Angeles and San Diego I'm seeing less than 10ms, pretty darn good.
TECH SUPPORT: Tech support was never a problem. Issues that cropped up or calling in for tech support to update the MACID for a new modem install were always handled quickly.
SERVICES: The original service was provided by the now defunct @Home and was static IP 3000/256kbps, screaming fast in a day of dialup, 100X faster. Now offerings are typical for a cable provider, multiple tiers starting at around $25-$30 for 3Mb service going up to $100/mo for 50Mb service. Over the years the price has crept up a bit but so have speeds. Now triple bonding DOCSIS 3 provides 25000/2000kbps with "power boost" to about 70000/5000kbps with my plan at $65/mo. Cox has caps but they don't charge for overages and will likely send out a nastygram if you go over a bunch of times. I don't know of anyone who has had their service cancelled for abuse. I got an abuse letter once but it was 12 years ago during the @Home days. I've gone over my Cox caps tons of times and never got an abuse letter.
PRICE: Overall the price is pretty fair with the 25Mb tier going for $65/mo. There are cheaper services around. Cox has caps but as mentioned earlier, there are no overage fees, at least not currently.
VALUE: For all 14 years I think I've been getting good value from Cox for HSI and don't plan on changing unless they start charging for the overages or take substantial price increases without substantial speed increases.
RECOMMENDED: Like ALL services, your mileage will vary and just because service on my street is great doesn't mean service in say CT or AZ is great or even great in the next town. Talk to neighbors, read local reviews, browse the forums for posts about service in your area. Take Cox up on any cancelable promotions and avoid entering in any contracts until you have a chance to really try out the service.
Plan: Cox Ultimate 50/5 DOCSIS 3
Cap: 400GB/mo unenforced
Equipment: Customer owned Motorola SB6180
Bonding: 4 CH Down / 1 CH Up
UPDATE 23.5.2012: Cox has seen fit to "fix" the unlimited power boost people were getting here. Where just a few weeks ago I was seeing 70+Mb with power boost, now I hit the wall at around 32Mb, which isn't much faster than the 25Mb tier I'm paying for so I may as well not have power boost at all. Powerboost should be at least 2X whatever the tier speed is to make any difference, otherwise it isn't worth having. I'm not going to knock off any stars for this change since Cox always advertised PB being this speed, and never claimed I would get 50+Mb with PB but darn it these austerity measures!
UPDATE - Upgraded to 50/5 service, $100/mo. Same modem. Powerboost is about 60Mbps.
UPDATE - 20.12.2012 Cox changed bonding from 3/1 to 4/1
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