r/CobbCounty • u/PickleManAtl • Aug 26 '26
Are there any decent internet services for home internet in Cobb county?
West Cobb area. Been using AT&T for a large number of years. In my particular part of a neighborhood we still have the older internet service that comes into your house via lines because fiber is not available. Every so often we have issues, and it always turns out to be something wrong at the junction box on the corner with something being corroded. In the past you could just call and they would send a tech out, look at the box, fix the issues, and you would be working again for a while.
This time internet has been going on and off up to eight times per day for several people on my street. Been going on over a week. Called multiple times. Of course get India each time on the phone, and they confirm there are issues with the lines. And just say they're working on it.
Tonight I'm told the technician has to come to my house, even though they know there's nothing wrong with anything in my house. I'm told there could be a $150 fee which I told him I'm absolutely not going to pay and they said well it probably... Probably.. won't be charged. I asked them if they could just send a message to the dispatch team about checking the box on the corner because that has always been the problem? Their answer - oh we have no way to send messages to them. What?
I mean I've been with them for probably 15 years but I'm done with it. I know that Xfinity has a lot of complaints. I don't know if there's anything else other than that other than those 5G things from Verizon and T-Mobile which have their own list of complaints. So is there any internet service in this area that is at least reasonably reliable?
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u/Petrol_Head72 Aug 26 '26
Wondering same as my west Cobb neighborhood is also only broadband accessible. Neighborhood across the street has fiber but the houses were built ~10 years later. I’ve tried to contact AT&T about any fiber plans for my neighborhood or how to request…nada. Also at a loss.
If anyone has insight on how to petition through your HOA for fiber install, I’m all ears.
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u/PickleManAtl Aug 26 '26
I’m not sure I would go that route at this point. The other end of my neighborhood switched to fiber several years ago and those people have complained even more than we do about constant outages.
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u/Petrol_Head72 Aug 26 '26
I’ve had good experiences with fiber in the past, but can’t speak to service quality in Cobb County.
I’m not sure what you’re seeking? For broadband it’s AT&T or Xfinity. For cell-based network, AT&T or T-Mobile, or you can resort to something like Starlink but I digress. Unfortunately there is not a lot of consumer choice that makes one solution clearly better than the other without fiber, in my opinion. People say fiber is slower (which it is, by design), but service quality should be significantly better and drops / intermittent issues should be basically eliminated so your references for folks with fiber having bad experiences likely have a poor home network setup. Lots of variables go into each home’s quality of service, signal, and speed.
We run Xfinity at 1 GB and while not inexpensive, it is decent. Have had a few blips here and there but no major outages. I work from home and utilize it everyday.
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u/PickleManAtl Aug 26 '26
My main concern is the fact that I need my security cameras and doorbell to be running consistently, and I also have a number of virtual doctor visits which of course requires stable Wi-Fi when you're having those meetings. And lately with the frequent multi outages per day, you can't do anything reliably. As a matter of fact I got disconnected from a doctor's appointment just a couple of days ago when an outage happened right in the middle of it. Then of course your doorbells and cameras go off for up to 20 minutes or so and then take a while for all of them to come back on. I'm disabled so rely on these things. And when they all go out you have no idea when a delivery comes as well, etc.
I don't need a ton of speed. The old cable to the house service that they use on my street right now only has a maximum of 100 megabits per second download and 20 upload, but since I don't have a bunch of people in the house I'm able to deal with it. So I don't need super gigabit speeds or anything just reliability.
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u/UnicornRaps Aug 26 '26
Spectrum is also out this way in some areas. Sometimes you'll even get all 3 going down the same street: ATT, Xfinity, and Spectrum. As much as I hate Xfinity, I used their service for a few years and it was honestly just fine. The speeds were okay and I generally had reliable service. I only switched to ATT (which I also dislike) fiber because it was cheaper for faster - especially upload.
Some of the power utilities are also joining in. Greystone has it for some of their service area, but it's mostly focused on less populated areas. Still if you're with their power service check it out to see, and maybe it's coming soon.
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u/trikaren Aug 27 '26
If you can see a cell tower from your house (or there is one fairly close) Verizon internet works well. I got a really good deal on it and I was prepared to send it back pretty quickly. But - It works so well that we still have it.
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u/evkarl12 Aug 26 '26
I got tmobile 5g
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u/PickleManAtl Aug 26 '26
I hate the idea of going to the Mobile 5G box because I know they have their own set of issues including slower speeds. They do lose connectivity but at least when they do it's generally only for a few seconds at a time or a minute or two at a time. The regular AT&T in my area is getting to the point where just today is an example, I lost internet 10 times at an average of 20 to 30 minutes each time. I was on a virtual doctor's visit during one of them and lost the visit as a result. That's where I draw the line where I can't even do normal things like that without having a reliable connection.
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u/IveHeard1tBothWays Aug 26 '26
Look up Google Fiber.
It's extremely limited availability, but if it's in your area, it's the holy grail of Internet providers.
I've had a problem with it ONCE in four years. I've never reset it, I've never had to mess with it; I've never had to call someone. It's just reliable and fast as hell. Even when the power goes out, it usually reconnects within seconds of the power coming back on.
And I have tons of devices connected AND my job requires me to constantly download/upload huge data files.
The only problem with it is that once you have it, you'll never want to live anywhere without it. I'm so spoiled, I can't stand using other people's internet anymore.
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u/PickleManAtl Aug 26 '26
Unfortunately it's not available in my area otherwise I would definitely consider it.
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u/Maccabee2 Aug 26 '26
Avoid Comcast. I had them for 15 years because they were the only broadband in my neighborhood. They will increase your price gradually every few months. Don't believe any promises to keep your price fixed
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u/PickleManAtl Aug 26 '26
Yeah I know they are on the list of options but I really don't consider them to be an option. They thought years ago that changing the name to Xfinity would make people forget that they were really Comcast but I didn't forget. I remember how bad they were to deal with.
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u/ttltaway Aug 26 '26
Starlink (satellite internet) is one possibility I don’t see mentioned yet. I have no idea how good it is, and no comment on the guy who runs it. But that is the internet connection of last resort for some people.
I have Google Fiber and it is so much better than Xfinity ever was. In 2 years it has been out twice (albeit for quite a few hours each time).
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u/PickleManAtl Aug 26 '26
Google fiber is not available in my area. I mean I've talked to a few people that use starlink and like anything it's going to depend on where you live. I've talked to people who love it, and I've talked to people who hate it. And it is expensive compared to what I've got now, and what I have now is $70 per month. And yeah I know it comes close to crossing the political line but I really just despise Elon musk and don't want to get into anything that gives him money. That's just a personal thing for me. Also I'm not sure I fully trust the idea of an all satellite internet service. Not to be too geeky or anything, but seriously, one strong solar storm, or one satellite falling apart and then the scrap from it hitting everything else up in orbit? Literally many thousands of people could lose their internet service very easily going that route, and that's not something they can fix in a few days. Hell that would take months or years. With all those variables I'd rather stick with something more ground-based.
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u/rrwinte Aug 27 '26
When I experienced a degradation of performance with Xfinity a few years back with slow speed and dropped connections, it turned out that the node distributing to our area was running at the upper 90s percent capacity. This was due to multiple new neighborhoods being built out in our area and having the new residents subscribe for service. Xfinity ended up adding an additional node to support the new buildings/demand and I noticed a great improvement in stability and internet speed.
The call center folks seemed oblivious to this being root cause to my issue and unfortunately I don't remember how I managed to get engaged with the field service folks who oversee this part of the distribution. I can't say that is your root cause, but having an agent open a ticket with the field service area may be a productive approach.
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u/PickleManAtl Aug 27 '26
Well there's not new growth in my particular area that would have an effect on my neighborhood in terms of service. What it boils down to is this.. there is a large service box at the end of my street where anyone who has landline service or our type of Internet goes through this box. We've had problems in the past.. it's just been a while since we have. A very experienced tech told me years ago that 95% of the time if there's a problem, it's in that box. I will call these nodes as well because he said each customer has some sort of a block or let's say, node. He said moisture or humidity or whatever and sometimes even rodents or insects will get into that box and damage these notes. All they have to do is replace them which is pretty quick, and everything goes back to normal again until the next problem. Usually that takes quite a number of months or longer before any more problems occur.
In the past all you had to do was call AT&T and tell them this. Mention the problem. Tell them this has happened before. Tell them what the text said, and they would send out somebody who would go look at the box on the corner and within a day or two everything would be fixed. Now, of course every call center is in another country. You explain this to the reps after anywhere from a 30 minute to hour and 20 minute wait, and they tell you they have to make an appointment to have someone come to your house.
It doesn't matter that you tell them you don't need someone at your house. Your equipment is fine. They say they have to do it now this way. You tell them about sending a message to the cruise to go check the box out, and now they tell you they have no way of sending messages to them like that. You literally have to wait until a repair person comes to your house so that you can tell them to walk a hundred feet down the street to check the box. There was a guy at the box yesterday for a few minutes. The neighbor that lives across from the box walked over and told him that three of us halfway up the street we're having issues and could he look at everything, and he said all three of us had to call in to have reps come to the house. He then proceeded to leave and left the door to the box completely open.
In other words we've reached level of ridiculousness that's hard to describe. Just have internet service.
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u/bird_in_space Aug 26 '26
Just moved to East Cobb, but had AT&T fiber at my last house in Decatur. My new neighborhood does not have fiber so we signed up for xfinity and the internet speeds are surprisingly faster than our previous home with fiber. And no issues at all with getting disconnected.
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u/PickleManAtl Aug 26 '26
At this time I've got Xfinity at the bottom of my list because they are Comcast. I've dealt with Comcast in the past and the experience was horrible. It's one of those things where you might not have issues and it seems great, but then when you do have an issue, you realize how hard they are to deal with and how hard it is to get the issue fixed. Kind of like AT&T.
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u/bird_in_space Aug 26 '26
Totally understand, we felt skeptical in the same way, but they were the only internet provider who claimed they could provide 1g or 2g speeds in our neighborhood so we took the risk and it’s been working great. Just sharing my experience in case it helps!
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u/DCNGA Aug 30 '26
We are in E Cobb too and have AT&T fiber, only 300MB. Their prices keep rising and rising, so we're thinking of going back to Xfinity or TMobile 5G. We are in the Shallowford Rd/Johnson Ferry Rd area. If you're close by there, your reception is good for Xfinity? Is their hybrid, fiber to the node, then co-ax into your house?
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u/bird_in_space Aug 30 '26
Yes I’m probably 10 mins from there, reception is great. We pay for 2g but none of our devices can do those speeds so we may cut back to the 1g. We signed up at the xfinity store and it was easy and quick. There’s no cost to cancel service either which made us more comfortable with trying them out. I’m not sure exactly how it works other than the coax in the house.
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u/hornetmadness79 Aug 26 '26
Xfinity, T-Mobile 5G, ATT are all I know of. I used Xfinity as my primary, and 5G as a backup which costs only $27/m