 Review by tstolze 
UPDATED: 263 days ago
member for 5.3 years, 2768 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 O Fallon,Saint Charles,MO
 $30 per month (12 month contract)
 about 14 days
 CenturyTel
 "Fast and Cheap!"
 "None for me at this time!"
 "Very stable, and fast, only $29.99 month"
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(ratings match consensus)
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I first ordered DSL about 18 months ago, fastest package at the time was 768/128..Excellent speed for the package, running about 85% of advertised rate. Only two known outages in 18 months, one was middle of the night for about 2 hours, the other was a serious problem and they had to totally rebuild my account, down for 6 hours. Upgraded to 3.0/ 512 as of the first of the year..Speedtest run around 2.8-2.9 download and 425 upload...Reason the download is so close to advertised is the download is synced at 3.5..I give them credit for pushing this up to get actual speeds closer to advertised!! Overall I am very pleased with the service, very stable and customer service is always willing to give credit when there is a problem.( ie. discounted service) My biggest problem with them was last year, I was being charged higher for service than what was advertised on flyers included with my bills...After climbing the management ladder I have this resolved..I must say though, watch your bill and any advertisements, either in your bill or mailers..And when upgrading always ask if they can give you the new subscriber rate, you will probably be locked in for 12 months but this can save up to $30 a month for three months!!
Well it has been about eight months on the new tier. Speeds have been steady, and the pricing issues have gone away for the moment. Had 2-3 outages, seemed they had a problem getting to the Level 3 connection..Still would like Centurytel to lower there pricing to come closer to what others are offering...We pay around twice as much as Bell customers for the same service....
Update: Called the end of January to see about lower pricing, was offered a new package that was supposed to save me $10 a month. Just received my bill, I was lied to, my bill went up $4 a month...Called and they do not want to honor what there rep told me. I have ask for a credit of one months service and to be placed on my old plan, they offered me the credit, but stated I must keep the old plan. I currently have an order to disconnect all of my services on April 10, unless they follow through with what there rep offered me...
Update 6/4/06
I have been without Centurytel for almost 3 months now. They wouldn't give me a pro-rated total for my last bill. I had to pay the whole amount and then I made several phone calls over the past two months to get my refund. Was told twice that they released the money that day and I would get a check in 5-7 days. Finally had to call my contact at home office and received the check in 4 days.
Update 5/4/07
Coming back next week. Ordered phone, 10 meg internet and Dish Network. Will update after everything is switched over! 
9/7/07
Been back about 4 months now. CT continues to struggle with the 10 meg plan in my area. After a few days the modem can no longer sync. I have been locked to 6 meg, stable at this speed and reliable.
I must say the switch back has not been as smooth as I expected, and I hope as time goes on my views will change.
(READ) When I signed up, they stated I needed a new modem. They offered to ship it to me for 14.95, and I had to agree to a 12 month contract. When I received my first bill I was being charged a modem equipment fee. I purchased a modem from Ebay and was able to send the CT modem back with full credit, including the shipping. Nothing was ever mentioned about this fee when I signed up.
I normally wouldn't question this fee, but why did I agree to a 12 month contract?
(UPDATE) 3/16/08 Centurytel did some "updates" in my area about 1 month ago. Since then I have been bumped up to the full 10 meg speeds with no issues. In my area I have not experienced any "bandwidth issues" during evening peak or any other times.
Hopefully they will continue to expand fiber to the home for existing customers in the near future.
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