The price of your monthly CenturyLink internet service goes up after a year of promotional pricing expires, isn’t it? Seeing this is enough to make me want to switch to a new service provider. Fortunately, CenturyLink’s Price for Life on its Fiber plans makes it a provider worth sticking with for the long term.
CenturyLink’s internet service is a solid alternative to AT&T and other internet giants, more than their Price for Life and contract-free plans. In this year’s CenturyLink internet review, I’ll go over the plans, pricing, equipment, and customer service. To show you how the service works from my home, I’ll show you the results of my speed tests, the equipment I received from CenturyLink, and how to access my account from my smartphone.
Service: All the 50 states of the US and the District of Columbia
Arizona’s major cities are Phoenix, Tucson, Denver, Denver, Florida’s major cities, including Jacksonville and Orlando, Minnesota’s major cities, Charlotte and Albuquerque and Nevada’s major cities, including Las Vegas and New York City’s major cities, including Cincinnati and Columbus and Portland and Seattle and Washington’s major cities.
Pricing for Residential Customers: $49+ Monthly
Internet service provided by CenturyLink
The name CenturyLink may only be familiar to you if you recently relocated to an area served by the company. One of America’s fastest-growing fiber internet providers, CenturyLink competes with AT&T and Earthlink, and Verizon in many parts of the country. For internet service, DSL has become less popular. Still, CenturyLink is simultaneously expanding its fiber network to include more DSL customers. They’re usually in the top three for DSL internet speed when CenturyLink is available.
Tradeoffs are involved in CenturyLink’s Price for Life. You’ll have to pay a little more in monthly fees upfront when promotional pricing expires, but that’s fine with me. In my opinion, it’s hard to beat a fixed price if you can get reliable speeds. CenturyLink’s deals stand out in a market where many businesses rely on flashy up-front pricing and hidden fees in the fine print.
My top pros and cons are listed here before I go into details about my experience and explain pricing and the fine print.
Pros:
- Price for Life guarantee means no price increases.
- Contract-free plans with fiber internet service quality and speed
Cons:
- Each plan has a data cap.
- DSL internet plans are expensive when compared to cable or fiber-optic plans
- Poor customer service ratings
How Fast is CenturyLink Internet Service?
Despite the fact that CenturyLink advertises five internet plans with speeds ranging from 10 to 940 Mbps, only the up to 100 Mbps and Gigabit (or up to 940 Mbps) plans are truly worth considering due to their pricing: All plans with speeds up to 100 Mbps are covered by the Price for Life Guarantee, but each plan will cost $49. Earthlink, AT&T, and Suddenlink have cheaper plans than the 100 Mbps plan I’ve analyzed, but they’re not as fast.
Pricing and Speeds of CenturyLink Services
10 Mbps
- A DSL connection capable of delivering speeds up to 10 Mbps is available.
- Data storage limit of 1 terabyte
- The cost is $49 per month.
20 Mbps
- A DSL-type connection capable of up to 20 megabits per second
- One terabyte of data is the maximum allowable size.
- $49 a month is the monthly fee.
40 Mbps
- A DSL-type connection capable of up to 40 Mbps
- One terabyte (TB) of storage is the limit.
- $49 a month is the monthly fee.
100 Mbps
- Fiber-optic connection capable of up to 100 Mbps
- One terabyte of data is the maximum allowable size.
- The cost is $49 per month.
Fiber connection
- Fiber-optic connection capable of 940 Mbps
- One terabyte of data is the maximum allowable size.
- The cost is $65 per month.
From 100 to 940 Mbps, there’s no middle ground plan available. Suddenlink, for example, stands out among CenturyLink providers because of its lower prices. Because of this, the 100 Mbps plan is perfect for most family’s needs.
Data Caps
Many providers have implemented data caps to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to enjoy a fast, online experience. Most cell phone plans now include unlimited data, and experts wish internet service providers would also adopt the same policy. All CenturyLink Internet plans have one terabyte (TB) monthly data cap. But there are no data caps on gigabit plans.
Installation
Installing a new computer is an unavoidable expense. CenturyLink’s professional internet installation costs a maximum of $125 rather than having a set price. This is perplexing to the experts and customers alike.
Contracts
Contract-free internet plans set CenturyLink apart from rivals like Frontier Fiber Optic, and AT&T. Customers who are satisfied tend to stick around, and the lack of a contract fosters confidence. If Centurylink isn’t working out for you, it’s time to get out of there! There was no harm done.
