Competition among internet service providers has never been fiercer. Many Americans now have multiple options and can save money and improve their internet access by switching ISPs.
Assess Your Internet Needs and Determine Your Budget
Determine how much you want to spend. Many Americans now have access to 2 Gbps and 1 Gbps fiber internet that costs $150 or $100 a month. But you may not want to spend that much and perhaps may not need that much. As a rule of thumb, the average household needs at least 100 Mbps download. You may need to increase that for each person more than four in your household. You also need to consider the devices you have in your home. Many Americans now have 15-20 devices accessing the internet at any given time, and if that sounds like your household, you can easily use a 1 Gbps connection.
Identify the ISPs Available in Your Area
The easiest way to determine which ISPs provide service in your area is online. There are a number of websites that maintain databases of all the ISPs in the U.S. and the zip codes that they service. All you have to do is enter your zip code to get a list of all the providers in your region.
Find the Best Plan for You That Each ISP Offers
Navigate to the site of each ISP and note the various plans they offer in your area. Find the plan the best matches what you decided on earlier regarding your budget and speed needs. Jot down all of the important points that you will want to refer to later. Be sure to check if what you are looking at is a new customer promotion. You should also be aware of what it will cost you when the promotion is over.
Compare Those Competing Plans
Use those notes you made to compare the various plans. The best plans should jump off the page at you. The pros you listed may separate one from the rest. If you have two or several plans that are too close to call, use the customer satisfactions ratings available online as a tiebreaker. You should check the providers’ reviews from their customers. For an example; HughesNet internet reviews, from there you can check if they provided good services and reliable internet connections to their subscribers.
Contact Your Current ISP About Cancelling
Call your current ISP and tell them that they you are considering switching providers. Inform them of the plan you are considering and the benefits it provides. If you are a good customer—as in pays on time all the time—there is a good chance that they will be willing to match. Spectrum internet is one of the internet providers who does this strategy to keep their good paying subscribers. Just make sure that they are not matching it on a promotional basis, which means that your service would eventually revert.
Contact the New ISP and Sign Up
If your current ISP does not offer you a better deal, then it is time to make the switch. Let the new ISP know that you are considering the switch from the ISP that you have currently. ISPs often assign resources that can be used to sweeten the deal in order to attract new customers.
Contact Your Old ISP to Have Service Cancelled
We recommend waiting to cancel until the new ISP has done its install. This ensures that there is no gap with your internet access. There is a good chance you will receive an offer at this point, but it would have to be rather good to offset the hassle of cancelling a service you just had connected!
