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Review by JoshMck 
member for 156 days, 3 visits, last login: 6 days ago
updated 6 days ago
 Grants Pass,Josephine,OR
 $75 per month- (month by month)
 about 7 days "Connection, speed, no hassel." "Price" "Pretty good considering the alternative."
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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We live in Grants Pass, Oregon. A town of roughly 35K citizens. We have two competing companies, Charter Communications and now CenturyLink. Before they bought or merged with Qwest, Charter was pretty much without competition.
At first we were only doing the 1.5Mbps plan. It was slow, but stable. We've now upgraded to their 20Mbps subscription.
Price for a 1.5mbps connection was $40.00 USD
Price for 20Mbps is $75($90 for the first month after switching.) Mind you that uplink is very slow for streaming anything at .869kbps(Yay, DSL.) This is also a monthly plan.
I personally find it a bit expensive, but this is for internet only.
As of 4:02PM Speedtest.net gives us a ping of 41ms, 19.02Mbps down, and 0.83Mbps up.(50 miles away)
At the opposite end of the country at St. John's, NL the connection speed is 276ms ping, 18.48Mbps downlink, and 0.78Mbps uplink.(3,300 miles away)
Nearly exactly what we have paid for. I've rarely seen it below 15Mbps.
Of course, this is most likely thanks to what I assume to be the DSLAM of my area being only a few hundred feet away at an intersection. For now, I don't believe my area to be as congested with internet traffic. Due to Charter taking most of the business.
Overall, we've been very happy with Century Link.
UPDATE:--------------------------------------------------------
Well, service is still the same. Had a random hiccup with my modem/router. Wouldn't connect for a full day. Called CL up, went through some troubleshooting and were unsuccessful. Scheduled a visit from a repair guy.
I bring my device back into my room and plug it in. Suddenly works.
I call them up and cancel the repair guy.
Worked a day, crapped out again, but this time I had a red light on my Router instead of nothing.
Re-configured it with the disc and now it has been working. This could have been much worse if I didn't know much.
Comments:
 | | Don't recommend century link I've been with century link for a couple years and I really don't recommend it as an onternet service provider. Whenever I want to load a new tab for google chrome, it takes me about a minute and a half to load all of it and if I want to watch a 2:30 video on YouTube, it would actually take me about 10 minutes to load the entire video and watch it. | |
| | | | Re: Don't recommend century link Hi All,
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience about our service. Our DSL Escalations Team is happy to help with any problems you are having with our service. Email us your account information along with any questions our issues you are having TalkToUs@Cetnurylink.com.
Thanks,
Corey Tidwell
Ceinturylink Help Team
TalkToUs@Centurylink.com | |
| | | | Run a speed test first with your wireless disabled an using only an Ethernet cable for your computer then go to ctlhelp. Com and run the test you should get the correct speed by doing that | |
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Review by calathea
member for 11.4 years, 1852 visits, last login: 5 days ago
updated 7 days ago
- Scio,Linn,OR
- $100 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 2 days
 CenturyTel- "Easy setup, fast speed and we are way out in the country"
- "could be less expensive"
- "Thrilled with it"
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16 May 2013
Still plugging along, there have been a couple outages in the last year or so. The first one was easy, I called the number and a recording said "there is an outage." The second one, just last week, I must have been the first to call in because the rep kept having me fiddle with the modem settings until they finally decided to call an outage. However the rep was in the US, definitely a plus.
Other than that the connection has been adequate for me to work from home, although not real great for streaming video and such. They keep promising faster speeds. I'm just glad to have the connection out here.
****************************
13 December 2010
I spoke too soon apparently; we are just back up from mostly the whole weekend of what I think was the Lebanon server being down. However, support were courteous and honest about the difficulties -- hope we are back up for good now.
**********************************************
10 December 2010
Since June there have been 2 outages, the most recent one was today. I was surfing and suddenly lost the connection. After waiting a couple hours and cycling power, I called CenturyLink, heard an announcement that there had been a maintenance and people needed to cycle power, waited only a short time, and got a courteous tech who walked me through some arcane reconfiguring of the connection on the westell page.
Now we are back up and running and overall still pretty happy with CenturyLink. It's not as fast as the cable connection we had in town, but we are just grateful to have good DSL, as far out in the country as we are.
One other thing -- I am always ecstatic when a provider right up front lets me know there has been a maintenance or a change, rather than denying it and blaming it on their users. Way to go CenturyLink, they handled this one perfectlyl
**********************************************
15 June 2010
Recently moved here from our place in town. The CenturyLink DSL is working great for us. I was blaming the constant service interruptions at our previous house on my PC or my firewall software, but it works fine out here so turns out it was Comcast. It happened when we reduced our service down a tier. Or, we got some new neighbors, could be somebody was sucking up all the bandwidth. With the DSL you get a dedicated chunk of bandwidth which is great.
********************
Way out here the country in Linn County Oregon, cable is not an option. But we are in line of sight of a cell tower so we could have gotten a 3G/4G connection. Although the portability would have been nice, we didn't like the idea of the download/upload caps so we decided to try the CenturyLink fiber connection. We are right on the edge of their coverage area. We got the phone and internet package for about $100 per month.
The modem is a Westell and we are using a Netgear wireless router. Hooked up the modem and plugged the laptop in -- ZoneAlarm found the network and asked if it was OK. That all worked perfectly, so I hooked up the router. Same thing -- gave ZoneAlarm the approval and everything worked fine. Tested the wireless and that worked too.
I have never had such an easy setup experience before. Always I seem to struggle and work and end up hating my provider until enough time passes that I get over it. But we are delighted with CenturyLink so far. They are in the position of having happy customers and all they have to do to keep it that is not blow it!
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Review by Greedhurtski
Fair warning: reviewer joined this month
updated 10 days ago
- Park City,Summit,UT
- $69 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "nothing"
- "70 kbps avg speed on 6 mbps package still after 14 service calls"
- "Is Century Link run by North Korea?"
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Moved to area where Century Link is a monopoly... in terms of internet, might as well move to North Korea!
Is Century Link the worst ISP in the history of the internet? ...customer consensus says "Yes"! We live in the suburb of a large metro area where Century Link is the only option, aka monopoly. We pay $69 per mo for sporadic internet service with avg tested speeds of 70kbps while paying for the upgraded 6mbps package. Unfortunately there is no other choice and as a result we all suffer including our school age children whose assignments often involve interactive internet activities and internet research. The federal government should absolutely step in and either facilitate / fund / subsidize an end to the Century Link monopoly... divest and distribute interest to other companies capable of operating a reliable ISP. I feel we have reached a point where the fed failing to take action makes them complicit in the dumbification for very large swatches of our country... large areas which are rapidly being left behind in a modern age where access to data is the most essential factor in determining opportunity and success.
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Review by Crusty
member for 4.5 years, 155 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 13 days ago
- Sanger,Denton,TX
- $50 per month
- CenturyTel
- "Decent package speeds, decent cost. Customer service through these forums is outstanding."
- "Connection issues, speed issues, customer service through phone is horrid."
- "If I had another option, I'd jump ship."
| Pre Sales information:
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Update 5-10-13
Issues haven't been resolved and is slowly getting worse.
Update 1-15-13
I'm seeing the exact same issues that I describe below prior to leaving them. Slowness during peak times, very high latency and pretty much crippled if I want to do anything online.
Reliability rating is kicked back down.
Update - 11-14-12
After leaving CTL for a WISP and then coming back after I was promised multiple times that the issues were put to bed, I went back to CTL. Pure broadband only. 10Mb package.
I've been back on it since Julyish of this year. Other than a couple hiccups with slowness, it's been pretty rock solid like it used to be prior to CTL.
So, I'm changing my review (Connection reliability only) just a smidge.
Update 2-14-12
Still having same issues described below. Each and every week night 5pm+, my speeds come to a crawl and just about anytime on weekends they crawl as well.
Multiple phone calls to cust serv and numerous exchanged emails.
During daytime since I've started seeing these issues, my speeds are great if not FANTASTIC.
Updated all rankings to reflect on going issues.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------
I currently pay for the 10Mb package and have had since the first day it's been available in my area. (approx march/april of 09).
I live in the Sanger, TX area.
modem is the 660R
Prior to upgrading to the 10Mb package, I rarely had to call into support for help. Since upgrading i've had numerous speed issues and siginificant amount of downtime. I've got every issue documented since upgrading and they go back to april of 09. Most of the issues have been horrid speeds (worse than dial up numerous times....no joke) but also have had issues of net being completely down.
Customer service through the 800 line is horrible and most folks run you through the script even after you've done it 7 times with everyone else. Gets extremely frustrating when you already know where the problem lies. 
good experiences with centurylink/embarq?? working with the fine techs that monitor these forums. I've gotten much better customer support and response with the folks who monitor these forums compared to the 800 line. Prices are just about right.
Overall?? Unfortunately my side of the street can only get dsl while my neighbors have cable to choose from as well. I've been with this service for years ever since it was sprint/earthlink, then embarq and now centurylink and because of the amount of issues i've had since upgrading to the 10Mb and the frustrations of dealing with 800 line, I'd jump ship in a hearbeat if i had any other suitable option.
Comments:
 dsldude08Premium,VIP
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI
kudos:2 | Speed Issues Hello,
Based on your documentation about your speed issues and when it started, it is likely that you need to drop your speed level. The 10M speed for some, depending on cable gauge, distance, etc, can be an issue when added resulting in an unstable connection. I recommend calling tech support and have a tech sent out to test your line stats to see the signal loss and as to what speed is best supported by your line, since 10M doesn't seem to be the right speed for you. | |
| | Crusty
join:2008-11-11
Sanger, TX Reviews:
 ·CenturyLink
 ·Speed of Light B..
·Embarq Now Centu..
| Re: Speed Issues Well, when the 10M works, it works great...here's some additional details that I left out of the OP. I won't be reducing my speeds but i will continue to call and get credits on my account until the issues are resolved.
I live within 3/4 mile of the CO of Sanger. I've had my lines tested about 5 times over the past 1.5yrs and they're completely fine.
Issue is totally with the ISP at this time and they know it. They're running new fiber to our town and should be rerouting us to ellivate our speed issues/lag/sync issues. *crosses fingers* I was told this by the tech who was at my house just a couple days ago while he was testing my lines. | |
| | | dsldude08Premium,VIP
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI
kudos:2 | Re: Speed Issues Understood. So rather it is a bottleneck issue at the CO. Unfortunately that can happen (shouldn't, but can). I don't have access to your area just yet to see what the plans are because Embarq/Texas have not been converted over to the legacy CenturyTel systems. Hopefully the resolution comes quickly. | |
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Review by OOMJR
member for 2.2 years, 105 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 15 days ago
- Avilla,Noble,IN
- $45 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 3 days
- CenturyTel
- "Worked for a while, now it's back to jumping through the hoops"
- "Waiting for a solution and a phone call..."
- "Worth it for the end result, hopefully"
| Pre Sales information:
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5/8/13 Update
So... Supposedly... The CO supervisor, local tech and his managers are in contact via email with corporate. The fix would consist of moving some DSLAMS to a different rack. They have 3 racks, each can hold 3 DSLAMS, one not being used, one used for 6Mbps or lower and one for 10Mbps. The 10Mbps rack is at 98% capacity at night and they don't see the issue at the 24/7 line, not sure if they can. Each rack is also connected to a gigE fiber line.
Waiting game and contacting them each day for updates.
4/30/13 Update
Check out my test history »/testhistory/1782576/cba7a . During peak hours the line quality tests fail due to packet loss. After peak hours the test works ok but there is packet loss. My connection from my Modem to the DSLAM is 8ms. After the DSLAM that's where the issues are. It's on their end and they can't except that very easily. Took me a 48minute call to the 24/7 line to get this through their head. Their finally looking into the issue.
The Central Office is one street west of my house and this morning there was a Centurylink Van there along with a normal pedestrian car(employee?)
.7 to 10 Down during peak hours(5-12:30) .4-.6 Up. Ping of 100+ to 500.
I can usually ping at 30ms and have 10 down and .78 up to chicago.
Yahoo.com times out on pings and traceroutes.
Google.com pings at at least 130ms.
After peak hours it seems to be testing ok but I'm not home to use it... I work 8-5.
This will be the 2nd time I've had ping/bandwidth issues in my area. The first time around phone support and chat wasn't helping so I filed a FCC complaint. They gave me a new modem for free and fix the issue. If came back about a week later and I was offered a tech's direct number. He went out and switch me to a newer card at the Central Office. This fixed the issues until 4/28/13. I seem to be back where I was before. I'm guessing it's a bad card or they are having packet loss on their end. I called the tech and he doesn't work in my area anymore so he wasn't of any help. I called the 24/7 service line and they said I had to average 300ms ping with low bandwidth for them to issue it as an actual problem. I kept on them and they said they would look into it. Put me on hold a couple times to talk to a 3rd party company(that I assumes monitors and remotely fixes issues). They said they would see if they could remotely fix the issue and if this wasn't possible they would send a tech out. The window of the issue getting fixed is 24-48 hours. I'm expecting this to be done within this given time line. If it isn't I will be filing my second FCC complaint against the company, which I don't want to do but I don't like getting horrible service and paying for it.
-Matthew Raupfer
1-23-12 Update
After about 6 months of service my package 10Mbps down and 860Kbps up has become a horrible experience. I'm getting "the engineers are working to resolve the bandwidth issue in your area" line for the last 4 months... I can't get my 10 down anymore at anytime and during peak afternoon/evening hours I will range from .6 down to 1Mbps. My upload usually stays around 860Kbps. I've contacted Joey once again about the issue and a local store about it. Waiting for replies right now. Online chat hasn't helped one bit with the issue.
Ordered 10Mbps/896Kbps
1st day it was installed was able to ping Chicago server @ 14ms with a bandwidth test of 10.5Mbps/860Kbps
2nd day the ping went up to an average of 50ms to the same server.
Called 1-877-646-3282 to see if they had me set on interleaved rather then fast mode.
They told me since I was using a Actiontec Modem and not a rental that they wouldn't support Fast Mode. Also, I never was able to get a answer out of them what mode they were sending me from the DSLAM. She was running me around. At the end she said that there was a fiber issue in my area and they were working on fixing it... I went ahead and hung up.
Went to »www.centurylink.com/Pages/Support/ContactUs/ and did the online chat.
WOW!!! The customer support rep was extremely nice and answered every question I had. I did have to wait here and there after certain questions due to having to look up the info but in the end she was able to tell me I was connected interleaved. She then went ahead and switch me to Fast Mode, then she tested the line.
Online Chat is Superb so far. Phone Support... don't waste your time.
My ping is now back down to ~20ms to the Chicago server and my bandwidth is doing well at 10Mbps/864Kbps.
Overall,
Service has been up 24/7 for 3 months and online chat support is great.
Phone support is terrible. Rude and just want to get the phone call over with.
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Review by JParker
member for 15 days, 0 visits, last login: 15 days ago
updated 15 days ago
- Oxford,Izard,AR
- $156 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "The worst!"
- "Epic failure!"
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I know that living in a sparsely populated and rural area can have its challenges and most of us are used to having to simply take whatever we can get from basic service providers, but this is insane!
If there was ANY other choice, I would cancel this "service" today!
For the past 48 hours, no one out here has had any internet service and very dodgy telephone service. Entire businesses had no way of conducting any transaction because even the cash registers were based on the damn computer services...and that goes through Centurylink. When I called Centurylink yesterday, I got A BUSY SIGNAL...FROM A TELEPHONE COMPANY!! When I finally reached someone, she said they had no idea what had happened but it was nationwide and even THEY did not have internet service...at the company!!
Does anyone know what in the world happened??
I pay an outrageous amount of money just for internet and telephone...nothing else. At almost $160 a month, I should be getting insanely good services! This is the only option out here, but for folks who have a choice, DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! When they bought out Qwest, they even made Qwest look brilliant!
Centurylink could not fix a flat on a wheelbarrow! They couldn't find their butts with both hands and a flashlight!
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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 17 days ago
- Aurora,Arapahoe,CO
- $60 per month
- AT&T
- "nothing"
- "disingenuous, rude, poor performance, most expensive,"
- "very poor dishonest and just plain bad company"
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Century Link offers $19.95 / month (for five years) internet to new
customers, but make me pay $59.95. They made it impossible for me to save
by using my own modem, tech support and customer service are ridiculous,
they lowered my download and upload speeds without notification and said
they did not get the leased modem back ( I sent UPS return receipt and they
signed it illegibly on purpose ).
Much better off with cable. Higher speeds by far and at about half the cost.
Stay away from this untruthful and misleading company and save the
frustration, money and your time
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Review by nealvan
member for 17 days, 0 visits, last login: 17 days ago
lodged 17 days ago
- Tucson,Pima,AZ
- Contract price not specified.
- AT&T
- "Wish there were more services where I live but not much choices"
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Very bad, I've called them several times and so has my neighbor. He is currently without internet and I get continual drop offs and very choppy connection when it does work. They've admitted there's a problem but have not provided a resolution and they don't seem to worried about fixing it.
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 Review by BorgeR
member for 11.1 years, 84 visits, last login: 4 days ago
updated 18 days ago
- Phoenix,Maricopa,AZ
- $120 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 10 days
- Qwest
- "There trucks are always in the nieghborhood...lol"
- "Speeds don't match from what you purchase to what you get"
- "We should have stayed with the more expensive cable"
| Pre Sales information:
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we pay for 3mbps downloads and 600 kbps uploads and Century Links speed test says we are getting 2.4 mbps down and 562 kbps up. The only problem is i can't downloads at any site no matter how big or small the file at speeds faster than 350 kbps. The remarkable people doing the job of tech or online support can't fix or explain why this happens either. Century Link get a Epic Fail in my book
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Review by merlin99
member for 11.9 years, 64 visits, last login: 9 days ago
lodged 20 days ago
- Winlock,Lewis,WA
- Contract price not specified.
- CenturyTel
- "Almost better than nothing at all"
- "Terrible service - wildly fluctuating speed"
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My service has been deteriorating over the past few months. It was never very fast but has been workable. I have 1.5 nominally, but usually in the 1.2 range until the last few months. Now I’ll get 1.5 and a while later .150 as in 150K. That is one TENTH of nominal speed. I complained and they said we are bandwidth starved and the condition is permanent; not enough folks in my area to “make it worth their while” to upgrade service. That sucks. If there was any viable alternative I’d be so gone. And the hint was made that if we complained too much, that they might just decide that ANY service to our area might be more trouble than it’s worth. As in stop providing service at all. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
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