Who’s Hot, Who’s not. A Review of SE Idaho broadband Providers.
Connection Speed
Some of these companies run sign up specials, and also price reductions based on long term commitments. We will make best mention of current specials AS OF THE WRITING DATE OF THIS REVIEW if available but will base our review off the long term prices without long term commitments.
CableOne 
Setup Fee:
$30-$70 Depending on if you store a credit/debit card with them. Also may be waived.
Modem Fee:
$5 monthly or purchase your own. (Motorola surfboard approx. $70.00)
Speeds:
1500kbps 
/ 200kbps 
$39.95 monthly
3000kbps / 300kbps $49.95 monthly
4000kbps / 400kbps $99.95 monthly
CableOne provides three basic service plans. It isn’t completely clear from their website, but their prices are based on whether or not you subscribe to their cable TV service. They would have received a higher rating if their lowest package was a bit cheaper.
We gave CableOne a rating of 4.5 stars for two reasons.
- CableOne’s lowest package has a great speed rating. 39.99 for a 1.5mbps connection is pretty good.
- CableOne’s best package has an awesome speed rating, all though the price is quite high for the speed.
Qwest
Setup Fee:
$99 activation waived and $49.99 technician installation
Modem Fee:
$5 monthly or purchase from Qwest for $59.99.
Speeds:
256kbps / 256kbps $26.99 monthly w/phone service $31.99 monthly w/o phone service
1500kbps / 896kbps $39.99 monthly w/phone service $44.99 v w/o phone service
3000-5000kbps / 896kbps $49.99 monthly w/phone service $54.99 monthly w/o phone service
Qwest also provides three basic service plans. Unfortunately, Qwest’s prices depend on whether or not you also subscribe to a qualifying phone service.
We gave Qwest 5 stars for several reasons
- Qwest’s lowest package is extremely affordable, and if you have phone service with Qwest, it’s only a few dollars more than dial up!
- Qwest’s best package has an amazing download speed. 3-5mbps is really unheard of in this area!
- Qwest’s best package is almost HALF that of CableOne’s best package and rated about the same for download and TWICE the upload!
MicroServ 
DSL
Setup Fee:
$99 Qwest setup
Modem Fee:
$3 monthly or purchase for $59.99.
Speeds:
256kbps / 256kbps $34.95 monthly
1500kbps / 1000kbps $47.95 monthly
1024kbps / 1000kbps $187.95 monthly Dedicated Connection
4096kbps / 1024kbps $364.95 monthly Dedicated Connection
Wireless
Setup Fee:
$99 (Waived for 36 month commitment)
Modem Fee:
n/a As far as we can tell there isn’t one, but Microserv retains ownership of equipment.
Speeds:
512kbps / 512kbps $40 monthly
1000kbps / 1000kbps $50 monthly
1500kbps / 1500kbps $60 monthly
2000kbps / 2000kbps $100 monthly ($60 w/36 month contract)
Microserv provides many levels of DSL service which have not been included in this review. These are the speeds/packages that we feel are the best deals concerning both speed and price.
We gave Microserv a rating of 3.5 stars for several reasons.
- Microserv has a lot of package choices. Unfortunately they have to resell their DSL through Qwest, thus their prices are higher for same speeds. We would recommend their wireless, as probably, would they.
- Microserv’s wireless speeds are asynchronous, which means the upload is the same as the download. This is awesome for those that need upload speeds.
Teton Wireless
Setup Fee:
$99 Standard Installation
Modem Fee:
$80 Wireless Cable Modem
Speeds:
256kbps / 128kbps $24.95 monthly ($19.95 with annual contract)
384kbps / 191kbps $29.95 monthly
500kbps / 256kbps $39.95 monthly
1000kbps / 500kbps $59.99 monthly
Teton Wireless has four Internet plans and is pretty affordable if you get their television too. They have only basic cable though.
We gave Teton Wireless a rating of 3.0 stars for the following reasons.
- Teton Wireless has the basic speeds that have been available in this area for years. Nothing really too special as far as top speeds.
- Teton Wireless has an excellent price on their base package, for the same price of dialup you can get a 256kbps connection!
August 26th, 2005 at 8:21 am
I like your website, it has eye appeal and easy to navigate.
I noticed you do not list Fairpoint as local broadband connection.
Gene A Crawford
August 29th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
I like your website, it has eye appeal and easy to navigate.
Thanks, Gene. We have worked quite hard to find a design that is (hopefully) easy for all to use and navigate.
We did not list Fairpoint for a couple of reasons.
1) Their web site(s) had little to no information, especially when it comes to their technical support. This article relied heavily on the information made publicly available, which, fairpoint made either very obscure, or non-existent.
2) There isn’t really any one “fairpoint”. They operate mainly through third party retailers, whom, as luck would have it, are mostly our competition. I just don’t feel comfortable sending our traffic to our competition, for any reason.
Thanks for posting though, hopefully we’ll be able to keep some content here for the local area that people will be interested in. If you have any ideas, please feel free!