Today, I want to share my thoughts on my previous DSL Internet Service Provider, CenturyLink. They were a local U.S.-based company that provided DSL service to our home for over 15 years. If you had questions or needed tech assistance, customer service was available Monday through Friday with just a phone call. As a bonus, the representatives even spoke fluent English!
For a little background, we live in the country, so our options for internet service were extremely limited. Back then, the primary choice was dial-up. There was no fiber, no 5G, and certainly no Starlink. Keep in mind, this was more than 20 years ago. At one point, I tried HughesNet, but between weather-related disruptions, dish realignments, mediocre speeds, and high costs, it wasn’t worth it. I must have called every service provider in the area, constantly inquiring about availability.
Then one day, a mailer arrived announcing, “DSL coming soon to your area”. Service would be provided through our local phone company. I was beyond excited and made sure I was on the list for installation as soon as it rolled out. I even made it a habit to stop by the local phone hub a mile up the road to check with the service technicians on their progress. They probably thought I was stalking them—but in reality, I was just eager to finally get DSL!
At the time, the speeds offered were great—especially compared to dial-up. Our only plan option was 25 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. Compared to today’s standards, that’s slow, but it was more than enough for our family of four. We weren’t power users or bandwidth hogs, just regular internet users. By 2020, after the kids moved out, it was just my wife and me. We had all the data speed to ourselves!
So, what were our internet needs? Between two TVs, a desktop PC, laptops, an iPad, a tablet, four cell phones, two Kindles, three weather stations, and a few other devices, it may sound like a lot. But in reality, not all these devices were online simultaneously. On an average day, we had one TV streaming movies, a laptop, and an iPad using data at the same time. Our cellphones were always on Wi-Fi, along with the weather stations uploading data at set intervals. Even with all this, our DSL plan was sufficient. By avoiding excessive bandwidth usage, we were able to do everything we needed online without issues.
Throughout our 15+ years with CenturyLink, we were very pleased with the service. Our speeds remained consistent, and buffering was minimal. Over that entire period, I can only recall three service outages. The first two were resolved quickly, but the last one—caused by a contractor cutting the line—left us without service for seven days. That was rough.
Then came the buyout. CenturyLink sold its service to BrightSpeed. Thankfully, our $45 per month lifetime plan carried over, but the difference in customer service was immediately apparent. On the two occasions I called their 800 number, I struggled to understand the agents due to poor English skills and excessive background noise. It was frustrating. You don’t truly appreciate the importance of clear, U.S.-based customer support until it’s gone.
However, in hindsight, the buyout was a blessing in disguise. It pushed me out of my comfort zone and motivated me to search for new service providers in our area. After all, it has been almost 20 years. After some research, I found a better option. Our new ISP service started on February 25, 2025!
So, has anyone else dealt with DSL? If so, how was your experience? Are you still using DSL? For those who have access to fiber or cable—consider yourselves lucky! And for those who think their 1 Gbps or faster speeds are too slow, just remember—it could be worse. You could be stuck with dial-up. Maybe I’ll do a write-up on our new Service Provider next…