Veracity Networks

Description of Work: Horrible service, very bad customer service, very expensive.

Description of Work: Fixed my internet problem.

Description of Work: Veracity provides the internet service in the condo/townhome complex in which I live

Description of Work: Internet, phone, tv bundle

Description of Work: This is a comparative review of the five companies that currently provide Internet service throughout Utah by using Utopia, which currently is the only statewide fiber optic network in Utah. Fiber optic service is much faster than traditional Internet service. The five providers are Brigham.net (based in Brigham City), InfoWest (based in St. George), Sumo (based in Murray), Veracity Networks (based in Provo), and XMission (based in Salt Lake City). This month, December 2012, our family is reaching the end of a two-year Internet residential service contract with Veracity Networks. Under this contract we had paid Veracity $58 a month at first, which had increased to $65 a month by December 2012. With our contract about to expire, I talked with representatives of all five providers to see which one would give us the best service for the lowest cost. I asked them about connection speed, whether a contract is required and for how long, what the monthly payment would be, and whether they have an introductory or promotional discount. There are two things you need to know about our family, because these things affect what people pay for Internet services: first, we live in Orem, Utah (all the Internet providers we talked to asked us what city we live in). Second, we use our provider for Internet and phone service only. We use Internet-based email (gmail), and we use Roku instead of using our Internet provider for cable TV. More about Roku below. The phone service that Internet providers give is VOIP, or Voice Over Internet phone service. We've found the quality of VOIP phone service to be as good as what the traditional phone companies offer (though there are people who probably wouldn't agree), and the cost is much less. I eliminated Brigham.net from consideration because they would have charged me roughly $40 a month more than the two Internet providers who are next-most-expensive. Perhaps they charge less to people who live in or near Brigham City, where they are headquartered. Veracity Networks and XMission, currently the two most popular fiber optic Internet providers in Utah, and both headquartered in the Salt Lake City/Provo area, would both have charged me $65 to $70 a month in 2013. InfoWest, although headquartered farthest from us (in St. George) quoted me about $42 a month, and Sumo, another provider headquartered in the Salt Lake area, quoted me about $48 a month. Beginning in 2013, the earliest residential users of the Utopia fiber optic network (these users are known in the industry as "legacy" users) will be charged $12 a month by Utopia; this charge will be added to the monthly bills sent out by these five providers. Based on connection speed, monthly cost, and the ability to not have a contract, my choice was between InfoWest and Sumo. I went with Sumo because it offered me the following: 1—the fastest connection speed for the money: 100 megabytes for about $48 a month. I’m no techie, but I was told that this speed is more than adequate for normal household use and for all but the most intensive Internet game-playing. I was also told that this connection speed also gives a better TV picture than TV signals that aren’t transmitted through a fiber optic network. 2—A one-year contract instead of a two-year contract, and for an extra $3 a month I could have had no contract at all. If not being under a contract is important to you, most of the five providers either don't require contracts or will charge only a few dollars more per month if you don't want a contract. Bear in mind, though, that a contract is supposed to guarantee that your monthly cost won't go up during the time the contract is in force. Since Veracity raised its cost a couple of times during the two years I was with them, there appears to be some way a provider can get around that. 3—The next-lowest monthly cost for Internet and phone, about $48. There are a few other things you should be aware of. There is a nominal charge in Utah for changing from one Internet service provider to another. Also, the new provider may need to charge you for installing a new router if yours is an older model. You can expect to pay the provider in the neighborhood of $40 for a new router, but you can avoid some of that expense if you know how to buy a new router and install it yourself. I don't know how old a router must be in order to be "too old," but my new Internet provider told me that my two-year-old router will be OK. Also, if your current provider provided your router at their expense, they own it and you will have to pay for a new one. Your current provider can tell you who owns it, you or them. If you want cable TV included by your Internet provider, it will cost extra, and some providers don't offer cable. For our family, Roku is a better value. Roku is an online service that offers many channels (some free, some with an extra charge) and a somewhat abbreviated version of Netflix that is adequate for most purposes. Roku costs about $10 a month if you don't choose any "additional fee" channels. Also, at least one provider, Veracity, offers "promotions" that will save you some on your monthly payment, but the least expensive providers don't offer promos. They don't need to, because their prices are currently lower than the competition's promotional prices. We've been told that since all five providers use the same fiber optic network, there is no difference in the quality of service, regardless of where you live. All this may sound like a lot of bother to think about, especially if, like me, you are technologically challenged. But I found that all the providers I talked to were friendly and willing to explain the things I asked them about. To summarize, with Sumo I'll be paying about $60 a month for 100 megabyte-speed Internet and unlimited land-line phone use (for calls in the continental U.S.) in 2013, and the $60 includes my $12 a month “legacy” fee. The total cost would have been nearly $80 a month with my former provider, who would have given me a lower speed, and I'll have only a one-year contract. For $3 more a month I could have had no contract at all.