Choosing An Internet Service Provider
Posted on: 26 April 2017
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As with many other choices, we are likely to be overwhelmed with possibilities when choosing an internet service provider. However, we can limit our choices by determining our individual needs.
Just as you don't want to pay for two hundred channels of television programming when you only watch a few shows on a regular basis, paying for higher speed internet services is not economically viable if you only use it to check your email or post to social media sites. Conversely, you don't wan't internet service that is inadequate for your family's needs, with the spinning wheel of buffering a constant presence on the multitude of screens in your household. Here are a few factors to consider When choosing your own internet service provider.
Household internet use
If cost is not the primary motivating factor for your household, you should choose your internet service according to household use. If you live alone and don't stream hours of video each day, a lower priced (and lower speed) broadband service is likely to meet your overall needs. You should also check out the data plan on your cellular service. Many cell phone plans are offering unlimited data plans for a reasonable price, although they throttle (slow) the speed of the service after a specified number of gigabytes have been used each month.
However, even at throttled speeds, you can still use your cell phone as a personal hotspot to provide internet service for he other internet dependent devices in your home. You will be limited to one device at a time for heavier use, but if that suits your individual needs, you can eliminate a separate broadband connection altogether. A household with many screens operating at once will likely be most satisfied with an upper tier broadband connection. Similarly, internet gaming will require higher speeds to allow users to effectively compete against other players.
Cost
Broadband internet service is often bundled in package deals with local cable, cellular, or satellite companies, usually with prices that provide multiple services for about the same cost as one of the services purchased alone, at least for an introductory term.
However, if you rarely watch TV and don't need a land line phone, you can choose to limit your service to high speed internet. This will save you the trouble of returning cable boxes and phone modems after the introductory pricing on a package deal has ended and the cost for the cable TV and/or phone services is raised to their regular prices
You can also choose to accept a package deal and give it a try. You may decide that you don't know how you lived without the wide variety of channels offered on cable TV, and the cable phone service is nice for calling your cell phone when you can't remember where you placed it in your home.
Ultimately, you should buy as much internet as you will use and that you can afford.