CarolinaConnect Internet Reviews

Carolina Connect has been a reliable internet provider in South Carolina. The direct fiber connection provides symmetrical speeds that are fast and low latency allowing you to get things done in near realtime. The provider also lets you pay for speeds based on your budget which is nice for those who don't have a lot of money and only need Internet for basic communication and tasks. For those who are looking for a competitive edge whether that be in gaming, business, or simply wanting the best, you can pay for the most expensive package and get some of the best internet speeds in the world. With unlimited data, it allows you to conduct business without limits and bing watch the latest TV hits.

Carolina connect was very easy to setup. We have had minimal to no issues with their service since installation. We have 3-4 smart TV's, 4 cell phones, a tablet, a desktop PC, a PS5 and more running on that one Internet and there's no lag. I believe we're on the smallest package available. Definitely great!

My Internet provider works through my local electric co-op. There wasn't much interest in my neighborhood for highspeed fiber Internet, but I pushed for it and as a result was the first house connected. I couldn't be happier with the service or the speed or the look on my neighbors faces when I told them my connection is ten times faster than theirs at a quarter of the price.

We absolutely love our internet provided by Carolina Connect. Previously we were under a "cable company" internet and it was more expensive and at least in our area, ran slower. Ever since Carolina Connect started covering our neighborhood and we made the switch its been night and day. The cost fits our budget and the speed has been better than the previous provider. We had family who live 30 minutes away get set up first for Carolina Connect internet and any time we visited their house we noticed how strong the signal was and how fast the speed was. We knew as soon as we heard they were finally setting our area up to be able to use Carolina Connect we joined a waiting list to get signed up as soon as it was available. Great internet service and provider

My Internet Carrier is a pretty new carrier, only came into existence about 4-5 years ago. Some Electric Cooperatives got together after ATT and Comcast and Segra and Time Warner kept shoveling terrible intermittent internet services our way. A personal example/statement based on friends/family would be that ATT would go down once to twice a month for 2-4 days, and Comcast would go down 2-3 times a day for about 30 minutes a piece. This was seen by multiple people and companies. Time Warner in the Area just didn't bury anything so their lines would get cut all the time, in our local area they would even drape lines across the highway. My workplace had Segra and while they didn't go down often(2-3 times every half year), when they did it was always a 12-36 hour event due to something 2 hours away. The Electric Coops got together and formed a new company to help communities thrive better, and bring the standard of internet up.

ATT started laying fiber lines, but then stopped half way through and decided to try to stop it through the local Govs, but failed to do so--Though they did stall the whole thing for like a year and a half claiming that they weren't qualified and were wasting Government funding (They had funding from a government act that I can't recall the name of). After Carolina Connect formed, ATT started rushing their fiber together and did actually improve the quality of internet, but they kept the speeds the same up until 2 years ago, capping at 32mbps like they were still DSL. In addition, instead of rushing fiber to areas that Carolina Connect hadn't reached yet, they spent the money/upgrades in areas that CC Was up and running in, to try to lower the rate of consumer switch over, it wasn't very successful. In Comparison, at launch Carolina Connect was offering 1000mbps for roughly 120, and 100 up/down for like 50 dollars, though they did have a install fee. Later on, they would upgrade their packages to do 1000mps for 89 dollars at the consumer level, and 350 at 50.

There were some hiccups at first, but the project was super smooth over all, much smoother than I would have suspected. One of the things that impressed alot of business owners is there was a major node nearby that most of the Inet carriers route through, on a particular power pole. This pole got obliterated during a traffic accident, bringing down EVERY SINGLE MAJOR CARRIER IN THE AREA THAT USED LANDLINES. (I was a System Administrator at the time, so was able to monitor from work's 4g backup line). ATT, Comcast, and Segra took about 2 days before they were up and running, and Carolina Connect just brought up some alternate routing to restore services to the majority of their customers.

Some of the bad things about Carolina Connect is it is run super lean, they do installs via the order they are received rather than areas, which results in installers taking more time to do installs as they have to drive cross county alot. There are only 2-3 major techs, so if something needs their attention, a message typically needs to be left before they can figure out if a site visit is needed--But to be honest, that's probably a good thing. They are still figuring out Calix Cloud, but have gotten better, and as a tech support Lead I was able to identify several practices they did when they first started rolling out service that they stopped, undoubtedly because it caused problems. Two examples that come to mind is how they bind IP addresses to modems, and naming the WIFI names the same between the 2.4 and the 5ghz.

Overall, having seen literally dozens (60+) of ISPs start up or run for extended periods of time, compared to them if given a generic rating that averages all the other criteria (Reliability, Speed, Pricing, Responsiveness, Customer service) I would prob give them a 8.7, loosing points on the install times primarily.

In comparison, having had ATT, Segra, Time Warner, and Comcast at several locations, I would give ATT=3.2 (Literally had a senator send a complaint to ATT, Response told the senator to mind his own business), Segra=4, Time Warner =5, and Comcast a 3. I could write about others, but I don't want to hit a invisible word cap.