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Review by EmeraldPBW 
UPDATED: 175 days ago
member for 185 days, 9 visits, last login: 156 days ago
 Booneville,Logan,AR
 $100 per month (12 month contract)
 CenturyTel
 "Reliable, helpful/friendly tech support, no bandwidth cap (That I'm aware of)"
 "The provided modem can be a little sensitive about storms."
 "Great service, great package deal with phone+internet or by itself"
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Note: The $100 listed on the monthly cost is phone+internet including caller ID, etc. "Pure" broadband, especially for the 1.5 service, is cheaper.
I've been a Centurytel customer for years, and I can honestly say the only interruption of service I've ever experienced was over the last couple of weeks, which turned out to be an equipment failure issue outside our area. Now that it's been fixed everything is back to normal. Speedtest.net testing routinely shows 1.58 to 1.61 down with servers 100-250 miles away.
I was advised by our tech when we had DSL installed at our new house out in the country, that I might see speeds slightly lower than the advertised 1.5 down due to distance, but as stated above, that's never been a problem short of the recent outage (And in the years since they've serviced our area, it's one of two that I can recall).
As always, your mileage may vary from region to region, but if you're in the northwest Arkansas/River Valley area I'd give CTel DSL a chance. Even if you're a little farther than recommended, have a tech check your line anyway.
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Review by mikefr24
UPDATED: 189 days ago
member for 5.2 years, 55 visits, last login: 27 days ago
Marlette,Sanilac,MI
$29 per month (12 month contract)
 about 3 days
CenturyTel
"DSL is rock solid. No downtime and excellent pings."
"Slow to catch up to the rest of the world as far as bandwidth."
"Quality product. It's a nice option for rural areas."
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I have had Centurytel for over 2yrs. I pay $39.99 for 1.5Mb DSL. It's kind of pricey but I can't complain too much because I live in a rural area that has nothing else. The DSL is rock solid and it always works. I get my rated speeds at any given time and have had no issues so far. They do not seem to throttle or limit downloads at all. I have averaged 300Gb a month several times with no trouble so I do get my money's worth. I also am a huge online gamer and have had no problems whatsoever. The pings are great (50 or so). I had one outage last year due to lightning hitting my house. The modem fried along with my Linksys router. Centurytel had a new modem on my doorstep in 3 days (cost me $14.99 shipping) and they fixed the phones the next day for free. Tech support was helpful getting me setup with a repair ticket. All in all I have been satisfied with Centurytel. I have a lot of friends that get 6Mb for what I pay and they live less than 10 miles away (I also have buddies that are stuck on dial-up 5 miles away!). Centurytel seems to push out into the rural areas where no one else will so I will give them credit. I wish they would offer the "Pure Broadband" option here in Michigan.
---- Update 03-08-08---------------
I called them again today and they offer "Pure Broadband" in my area finally. Its $29.99 for 1.5Mb. I signed up with no problems. I now have DSL without the phone service. 911 works and I can receive incoming calls on the phone. There is a catch however. Your existing phone number is changed to a new one. The old phone number is lost forever. They told me they do this to prevent people from abusing the free incoming calls on the line. Who knows....I did not really care. Rock solid DSL for a decent price is nice in my area. There is nothing else to choose from.
---- Update 06-14-08 -----------------
I still have the 'Pure Broadband". It has worked perfect for months. I download 100Gb+ a month and never notice any throttling or issues. Great deal for $29 a month.
--- Update 02-25-09 -------------------
Still going strong. Absolutely zero problems and full speed (1.5Mb) way out in the rural country. Centurytel is supposedly getting 10Mb in my area very soon. I also got this confirmed from centurytel today. It will cost me $10 more a month to upgrade. Once 10Mb gets here the value for the dollar is excellent. Without centurytel, I would still have dial-up.
--- Update 05-22-09 -------------------
I have the 10Mb now. It's ridiculously fast and my pings went way down. I pay $39.99 now and it is rock solid. Cheers to Centurytel for their excellent service in my area.
Followup comments:  
dsldude08
Premium,VIP
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI
 ·CenturyLink
| The "Pure Broadband" Call them, you can get the pure broadband option anywhere DSL is available as far as what I was told when I called. I called to ask about it but I didn't take it because I still wanted the landline, but a friend of mine has it and I guess they even give you dialtone for 911 but nothing else.
--
"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
- Abraham Lincoln | |
| mmccrore
join:2008-07-05
Lapeer, MI
·CenturyLink
| centurytel in Lapeer, MI have had great service for years.
have had the same price plan since the first packages were offered in my area, and have been automatically updated as service became available.
49.95 when 256 became available
49.95 up to 768
49.95 up to 1.5Mb
49.95 next week up to 10Mb
I noticed that 15Mb is now available through centurytel, but I would imagine that fiber is required up to the house for this. I live far from the road, thus only having copper up to the house, so this will have to suffice for the time being. At least until cable or 802.16 are available locally. Nice to see that centurytel and my satellite provider have combined forces, however!
F* the cable monopoly in this neck of the woods! Haha! | |
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 Review by linicx
UPDATED: 194 days ago
member for 6.9 years, 2113 visits, last login: a few hours ago
United State
$95 per month (12 month contract)
about 30 days
CenturyTel
"telephone works"
"not much go for the dough"
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Gather your wagons around, boys, this has been a circle chuck from the start. I was in the process of buying a house, closing a house sale, and moving between two states with a dying spouse when I ordered the service. The installers were supposed to be at the house the day of closing as we would be returning home the next day. They showed up a day late. And we paid for one month of no service because no one at tha local level bothered to check records. They assumed all was well when it was not. Nothing worked. The copper pair that came to our house had been assigned to someone else. I essentially paid to roll out the truck to fix it.. It still irks me.
The sales gimmck the lady offered would give me a $20 bonus per month for new service for getting the local/LD/dsl bundle. She forgot to mention the caveat. I had to send in one coupon per month six times. Let me be the first to tell you that IF you are the sole caregiver of a blind sick patient at home, you don't think about ponzi schemes, you think about the patient, ER, ICU, Rx. meals, death and dying. And I lost the $120 bucks. It is my fault, but this is one of the most unnreasonable telco I ever dealt wilth. They make Ma Bell look like a piker when it comes to plain old-fashioned mean spirted customer relations.
Something else I did not know is the local telco sold out to Centurytel before we moved. It promised to be a bumpy ride and it has been. I can't keep a signal. Filters were replaced twice and the Starbridge Lynx 220 modem was replaced twice, too. A new copper pair from the office to the house was installed, plus the office equipment was reset or reseated four times. And it sill doesn't work very well. I guess I've been without service for at least 12 days in the last four months.
To their credit, when the phones only worked like a half-duplex card they fixed it the same day but only because the work order went to a compassionate repairman who knows my sick spouse. These guys are the cream of the crop, but they are over-worked and under-paid. Sooner or later someone will be hurt.
The DSL is iffy. When it's hot, it's hot, but when it's not, dial up is faster. A lot faster. CenturyTel has room to improve in terms of consistent up/down speeds. But in terms of office staff and first level tech support, this car-wreck-about-to-happen needs a complete overhaul.
The good news is wireless from a local-owned company in a nearyby town is coming soon. The better news is I have the land, the building, and the electricity to power a new tower.
------------
I need to clear up some things for BBR. Once upon a time this service was GRICS. Century Telephone bought it about two years ago.
I can say with all honesty, no improvements have been made. The promised FIOS was never installed. I do not know anything about this service except it stops 4-5 times a day for no apparent reason. Messages from a genealogy group I belong to are being blocked. I never cared enough about this company to inquire why, because the answer is always the same. The server is always working fine; my PC is the problem. It is the same " all purpose" answer I heard fifteen years ago. The problem is I have not used a PC in a number of years,
Today is 26 Feb 09. I finally had enough.Tomorrow I pull the plug on the internet, and if I like the new ISP, in a couple of weeks I'll add their VOIP and drop Century Telephone completely. When I'm all done, I will save about $100 a month and still have everything I need.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------
It is now mid-May. Good old Century Telephone tried to jerk me around for an extra $200+ for quitting the contract early. The low speed and frequent interruptions was not acceptable for DSL or for the price I was paying, plus I was paying 15 cents per local call.
Some how these arrogant telcos believe two things. 1- Every customer uses a PC, and 2- Rural customers don't know what a computer is. They are wrong on both accounts. By the time I came to CenturyTel, I had already been on DSL for several years and I didn't own a PC. The fact that they did not provide it was not my fault. They fact that it took several months to get the phone service working to a point where I could actually use the Internet was not my fault - but I still paid for it. I stayed with them longer than I should have - only because I did not realize I had another option. The ISP I use now is like a breath of fresh air. The office is awesome I can talk to IT anytime it is necessary, and they do not treat me like I just got off the turnip truck. Now they are upgrading and I have some small connectivity issues. They are aware of it and it isn't anything I am not willing to live with until the upgrade is complete.
As for CenturyTel's antics, I filed a complaint with FCC with a brief history of my problems with their service and stated I thought the 30% per month they wanted to charge on the balance of the contract was outrageous. Century Telephone agreed. They offered to send a small refund - but it takes four billing cycles to write a check - but they want their check every month.
My experience with Century Telephone is a common problem in rural America. Poor service and slower than advertised speeds is as normal as eating a hamburger. And every once in a decade you find a small ISP that works hard to give customers the best service they can provide. Small ISPs are not national telco and cable companies They are at the mercy of these companies who provide the Internet connection -which can be as far as 200 miles from local servers. In 15 years, I found one cell phone company and two ISPs that believe customers are VIPs. The public if fickle. It is a shame that the telcos and cable companies that depend upon us for revenue don't understand it.
.
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Review by capeman12345
Posted: 227 days ago
member for 1.6 years, 72 visits, last login: 227 days ago
Columbia,Boone,MO
$59 per month
CenturyTel
"Always connected, fast speeds. Love the service!"
"A bit pricey a la carte, but its worth it with the service."
"Reliable 10mb broadband speed."
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I switched to Centurytel from Mediacom service because Mediacom decided to jack up my rates after 1 year of being with them and Mediacom cable was consistently down for days at a time. So I decided to order Centurytel, within a few days after I ordered, I received the modem and software in the mail. It was super easy to install, took only 10 minutes. I have used them for the past 6 months and have not experienced any downtime or interruption of service, and I use the internet about 40 hours per week. My upload speed is consistently over 700 Kbps and my download speed over 10 Mbps. The monthly service is $59 per month a la carte, since I don't have TV or phone with them, but because of the reliability and the speed, I am very happy. I highly recommend them in the Columbia, Missouri area.
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 Review by guy54435
UPDATED: 234 days ago
member for 6.7 years, 537 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Gleason,Lincoln,WI
$51 per month
CenturyTel
"Hardly ever have any problems"
"Could be cheaper"
"Very good service, but could cost less"
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We have had Centurytel dsl for 6-7 yrs and before that had dial-up with them for 7-8 yrs. in all that time have never really had any problems at all with service until recently. We used to get 1520 down 260 up now lately it has been sporadic anywhere between 600-1300 down most of the time with the occasional 1520-270
Going strong here still, minor problems with slow speeds seem to be fixed. My only wish would be higher speeds and cheaper prices.
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Review by mellcomm
UPDATED: 262 days ago
member for 1.4 years, 52 visits, last login: 8 days ago
Porterfield,Marinette,WI
$33 per month
about 8 days
CenturyTel
"Field tech has been great and eager to fix problems"
"DSL much downtime, slow connects and latency. Phone techs are worthless, and can't tell you anything"
"If you have a cable alternative take it, otherwise WildBlue is a better alternative if you have the $"
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Cable unavailable here, I would have preferred to get Wild Blue, with am unemployed, and the $30 price tag fit well with CTE.
I got their 1.5 mbps "True Broadband" package (without a phone line to save $), but the bandwidth is not reliable enough to support a Voip phone. If I have to add a phone line for another $25 I will switch to Wild Blue.
=================================================================
UPDATE
=================================================================
Well service has become more consistent but still frequently have slow connection issues that never seem to get fixed - they just go away.
It is rumored that Time Warner may be adding this section to their offerings this summer - maybe that will take some of this burden off of CenturyTel. It's be nice if the just delivered the service they're selling.
Followup comments: 
chd176
join:2003-01-10
Winfield, AL
·CenturyLink
| good luck ha! good luck with wildblue if you this centurytel is bad just wait until you drop some major cash for satellite "broadband" I was with direcway (now hughsnet) for a year it was AWFUL I'd rather go with dialup that satellite again.
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10,000/768 CenturyTel PPPoE DSL line (really 5,000/768  ) Now it's really 1500/256...again lol | |
| | mellcomm
join:2008-06-25
Porterfield, WI
·CenturyLink
| Re: good luck Maybe Wild Blue isn't the answer, but something has to be better than this:
»/testhistory/1561471/2563c
I'm so tired of not having the bandwidth I'm paying for. In some cases, like today, as bad as a dialup. Centurytel should be ashamed of this service. | |
| BigVe
join:2005-07-15
Gulliver, MI
·CenturyLink
| RE Going with Wildblue will get you script reading tech support in India.Not to mention all cash to fork out before you MIGHT get it to work.Not to mention their FAP.If so lucky that you get a connection then forget VOIP with them as that won't work.Get together with Centurytel techs or what it takes and keep what you got as that is many times better than any flavor of Wildblue OR Direcway(Hughesnet) | |
|
linicx
Caveat Emptor
Premium
join:2002-12-03
United State
·CenturyLink
| Absolutely correct A. Satellite Internet is a shell game for suckers. You uplink to a satellite positioned 20 miles above the earths surface so you can be downlinked to the Internet.
B. The only US broadband telephone provider worth the $$$ is AT&T. Cox, CT and the rest are barely better than dialup and they charge way too much money for poor service.
C. If you live in a large metro area like Dallas or Chicago, there is more competition, better prices and more choices.
Been there; done that..
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Mac: No windows, No gates, Apple inside | |
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 Review by tstolze
UPDATED: 266 days ago
member for 6.3 years, 3354 visits, last login: a few hours ago
O Fallon,Saint Charles,MO
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
CenturyTel
"Fast and Cheap!"
"None for me at this time!"
"Very stable, Current rates 49.99 for 10/768"
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I first ordered DSL about 18 months ago, fastest package at the time was 768/128..Excellent speed for the package, running about 85% of advertised rate. Only two known outages in 18 months, one was middle of the night for about 2 hours, the other was a serious problem and they had to totally rebuild my account, down for 6 hours. Upgraded to 3.0/ 512 as of the first of the year..Speedtest run around 2.8-2.9 download and 425 upload...Reason the download is so close to advertised is the download is synced at 3.5..I give them credit for pushing this up to get actual speeds closer to advertised!! Overall I am very pleased with the service, very stable and customer service is always willing to give credit when there is a problem.( ie. discounted service) My biggest problem with them was last year, I was being charged higher for service than what was advertised on flyers included with my bills...After climbing the management ladder I have this resolved..I must say though, watch your bill and any advertisements, either in your bill or mailers..And when upgrading always ask if they can give you the new subscriber rate, you will probably be locked in for 12 months but this can save up to $30 a month for three months!!
Well it has been about eight months on the new tier. Speeds have been steady, and the pricing issues have gone away for the moment. Had 2-3 outages, seemed they had a problem getting to the Level 3 connection..Still would like Centurytel to lower there pricing to come closer to what others are offering...We pay around twice as much as Bell customers for the same service....
Update: Called the end of January to see about lower pricing, was offered a new package that was supposed to save me $10 a month. Just received my bill, I was lied to, my bill went up $4 a month...Called and they do not want to honor what there rep told me. I have ask for a credit of one months service and to be placed on my old plan, they offered me the credit, but stated I must keep the old plan. I currently have an order to disconnect all of my services on April 10, unless they follow through with what there rep offered me...
Update 6/4/06
I have been without Centurytel for almost 3 months now. They wouldn't give me a pro-rated total for my last bill. I had to pay the whole amount and then I made several phone calls over the past two months to get my refund. Was told twice that they released the money that day and I would get a check in 5-7 days. Finally had to call my contact at home office and received the check in 4 days.
Update 5/4/07
Coming back next week. Ordered phone, 10 meg internet and Dish Network. Will update after everything is switched over! 
9/7/07
Been back about 4 months now. CT continues to struggle with the 10 meg plan in my area. After a few days the modem can no longer sync. I have been locked to 6 meg, stable at this speed and reliable.
I must say the switch back has not been as smooth as I expected, and I hope as time goes on my views will change.
(READ) When I signed up, they stated I needed a new modem. They offered to ship it to me for 14.95, and I had to agree to a 12 month contract. When I received my first bill I was being charged a modem equipment fee. I purchased a modem from Ebay and was able to send the CT modem back with full credit, including the shipping. Nothing was ever mentioned about this fee when I signed up.
I normally wouldn't question this fee, but why did I agree to a 12 month contract?
(UPDATE) 3/16/08 Centurytel did some "updates" in my area about 1 month ago. Since then I have been bumped up to the full 10 meg speeds with no issues. In my area I have not experienced any "bandwidth issues" during evening peak or any other times.
Hopefully they will continue to expand fiber to the home for existing customers in the near future.
(Update) 12/21/08 Connection still stable, even had some late fall early winter thunderstorms a couple nights ago, I was curious as to if the connection would stay up. The answer was yes, many lightening strikes, near and far, with no connection loss.
Helped a neighbor last night with new DSL. Saw the bill and was shocked they are paying 24.9? for a 256/128 connection. This seems a bit pricey in my mind, this tier needs dropped except for distance limited accounts. The price seems fair for a 1.5 connection.
(Update) 3/6/09 Things are going well, this is by far the most stable connection I have every had, over the last 6 months or so.
Have helped some more friends recently and support has been awesome when needed.
The techs in the forums are great, thanks to all Centurytel employees who frequent and help on this site!
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 Review by satcomlink
UPDATED: 266 days ago
member for 8.8 years, 867 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Breaux Bridge,Saint Martin,LA
$101 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
CenturyTel
"Rock solid connection."
"Don't have any at this time"
"Good deal all around."
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I have a bundled service from CenturyTel that includes phone, dsl and tv. Phone service has unlimited long distance and all calling features including voicemail. My DSL speed is 1.5/256, and 120 channels with CenturyTel/DishNetwork. It was the best deal for my money.
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Review by rpresley
Posted: 269 days ago
member for 6.5 years, 22 visits, last login: 228 days ago
O Fallon,Saint Charles,MO
$84 per month
CenturyTel
"Tech support usually helpful"
"Download speed 360-500 kbps on 1.5 mbps service"
"No other real choice"
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I hate Charter, my only alternative to Centurytel. I am on the outer limit of area served by DSL which may expain why my speed tests so slow. Rarely lose service. I do not use their email client. I pay for 1.5 meg service.
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Review by BigVe
UPDATED: 270 days ago
member for 4.3 years, 1508 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Gulliver,Schoolcraft,MI
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 6 days
"Stable connection."
"Price a lot higher than other ISP's for the same service.Speeds have gone to the bottom"
"Need A LOT more bandwidth here"
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Finally have a choice besides dial-up(and satellite).Signed up as soon as it was available in mid March.19.95/mo. for first 3 mo.Modem supplied was a Netopia 3341 but i also have a Westell B-90.They both work equally well.I am VERY happy so far with my first 3+ months with Centurytel Dsl.Have talked to tech support online with some stupid questions i have had since this is new to me and i have always received helpful response.Also the technical staff that works for Centurytel around here i know somewhat and that i hope should make things easier if i have problems in the future.Only two outages so far.One was caused by a cut fiber cable and the other was login problems(PPPoE).I signed up for the fastest they offered 1500/256 and i have a constant 1250+ down and 205+ up so no complaints here(my dial-up was about 48/20 ) I am 14500' + from office.Had my line tested by installer and it is good for 6000+down/ 600+ up.I know that some areas serviced by Centurytel can get 3000/512 but i was told that it will be quite some time if ever for us here but i live on the hope.Have seen many negative thing from other users but i would recommend Centurytel.And YES tweaking do help.
Update 11-04-05
Now close to 8 months and have never had any issues worth mentioning with speed or connection.Speed is still around 1250/215 every time i test it.So bottom line is that i am a happy customer with Centurytel DSL just still hoping that they will lower prices to be more in level of other providers.
Update 2-20-06
Even though it works great i have lowered my rating on services as well as value for money.Centurytel keeps falling behind competition more and more.Have 1500/256 (1250/215 after overhead) and no way to get any faster package unless i purchase a business line then they upload goes to 512.Don't think its worth a 50+dollars one time cost and an extra $5/month.Come on C-tel wake up before you get run over.
Update 4-12-06
Still going strong.Actually my download and upload recently got a little faster up from 1250 to 1400 down and 215 up increased to around 265 up.Still like to know where upgrades to 3000/512 went.Otherwise i am a happy camper
1-24-07
Nothing major has happened except that my modem died.Was replaced the following day for free by Centurytel.Speeds still in the mid 1400's down and 250+up.Still hoping of a speed increase but that is wishful thinking.Lower price would be great too as this must be the most expensive Dsl in the whole US (maybe even the World)
6-23-07
Still working as expected so no complaints here.Going strong but we need higher speeds and lower prices to match other providers.
1-27-08
Working but bandwidth is lacking due to overload of customers and not enough BW to go around specially prime time.Looking in to IPTV so hopefully i am going to have enough steam for that to work reliable.Time will tell.Otherwise i can highly recommend Centurytel in this area since our techs are great.
3-20-08
Things are going downhills so my ratings have been updated accordingly.Still better than dial-up but it's getting closer.with pings between 500-1000ms and download speed less than 100
2-3-09
A little better now but major slowdowns later afternoon/evening hours.They also know their bandwidth problems but it look like i am in for a long wait....again.Why can't they just add bandwidth when they know it's needed and fiber is available to them? Speeds between 300-1500 down and always a stable ~260 up
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