Some top-line amazing things about this service:
1 - SPEED. One speed offering, and it's symmetrical gigabit. YES PLEASE! I see about 700Mbps up/down when running speed tests, which isn't full gigabit, but daaaayum...
2 - PRICE / VALUE. There's one price offering, and it's $60/mo or $550/year (paid in advance). That's under $46/mo! That's...astounding. For comparison, Cox charges $60/mo (non-promo rate) for 15 mbps down / 2 mbps up. Cox doesn't have any service available at $46/mo on an ongoing basis. (AT&T's prices seem to start at $70, but I can't be sure because their website is garbage.) Sure, you might be able to call up Cox and talk them into giving you a lower price, but Webpass does it right. There's no "introductory rate", there are no tiers, there are no add-on services they try to sell you. It's just a good price on blazing fast Internet, or a superb price on that same connection if you're willing to pre-pay. You could try to call up Webpass and get a better deal, but I suspect they would (with good cause) tell you to take a hike. That's how it should be.
3 - NET NEUTRALITY. Webpass has a strong statement of net neutrality principles on their site, and doesn't do any sort of data cap funny business. They do make the point that illegal file sharing and 24/7 server hosting is against their terms of service, and remind you that this is residential-grade service subject to slowdowns, but that's about it.
4 - CUSTOMER SERVICE. Made an appointment through the website for a Sunday install at 9am, installer was on-site at 8:58am and done by 9:20am. Having dealt with Cox's 2-hour service windows, and Comcast's 4-hour service windows (which they would still somehow be late for), this was glorious.
5 - LACK OF BS. This one's harder to quantify, but when you go on Cox or AT&T's website and look for price / service level information, it can be tough to find. Webpass just lays it out there on their front page, and a quick address check confirms availability and speed level available on the premises.
The only a couple nagging issues:
1 - RELIABILITY. I've only had the service for a week or so, and in that time I haven't seen it go out. However, it got slow during a rainstorm, and I've heard that there can be issues with weather slowing down or knocking the service temporarily. I believe that there's a microwave transceiver on-site that does the heavy lifting, so it makes sense. Still, it's an issue.
2 - AVAILABILITY. I love that my current condo offers Webpass, but it's lousy that I couldn't get it in my old condo because it was too small and old. Webpass is what Internet should be and I just want everyone to have it. If your building does offer the service, I highly recommend it. Some buildings have lower-speed service at this point, but Webpass seems intent on upgrading everyone to Gigabit if possible, so I'd say go for it even if all you can get is 100/100 right now.
Finally, I'll say that Cox ain't all bad. They provide good service, were fairly reliable for the years I used them, and had decent customer support. But their prices have gone up a lot in the last year or so, and they keep making noises like they're going to enforce their stupid cap - they just can't compete with this. The only way to get decent prices in the long run with Cox is to play games with the retention department every year, and that's just not fun for anyone. read more