City of Longmont Power & Communications - Longmont, Colorado

Adam W.

Edit: I left my original review after a negative experience with customer service. The same afternoon another rep, Anna, who had spoken with the Field Supervisor, and developed a workaround plan that will suit all involved with no gap in service. Thank you, Anna!

I'm a Charter Member, and my family has enjoyed NextLight's service and price for nearly 5 years. I am moving within Longmont soon and I wanted to make sure that my new home will be ready to go when we move. The new address is within the service area, but does not have the box installed yet. I asked, with over a month's notice, if we could schedule the installation for the week after our closing date. I was told a work order could not be created because we don't own the home yet. I asked why not, because we will own the home by the time the work would occur and that I would cancel if the sale fell through for some reason. The customer service representative could not give me a reason except that I am not the current owner. She became more and more rude and short with me as I tried to get a straight answer as to why NextLight would allow a gap in service for one of their customers. All she offered was to have someone call me on the date of closing, which I had provided. After that, she said it could be up to a week and a half before the work could be performed. I work from my home office and cannot afford a gap in service like this. Now I will have to go to my old property and sit in an empty house in order to get work done?
I will happily edit my review if a workaround is provided in response to the email I sent. This review would be one star if I hadn't been enjoying the service I've received up to this day. This call was so unsatisfying that it cost this utility three stars.

Catherine B.

UPDATED REVIEW: After a very negative, FRUSTRATING experience with a NextLight phone tech and also our initial broadband connectivity (and other issues), NextLight immediately responded and sent out two qualified, professional broadband technicians who helped us get our broadband maximized. I've changed my rating to 4 stars, and if it were just based on the techs that came out to remedy the situation I would give 5 stars. However, NextLight does need to change how they do business, particularly with their installation protocol - installation techs need to be better trained on where to put routers, etc., and use of phone techs needs more structure. The phone tech I happened to deal with gave me zero correct information (e.g. no the ethernet cables behind my walls ARE NOT old/incompatible with 1 gig) and this was confirmed by the two techs who came out. I basically wasted 20+ min on the phone with that guy whereas he should've just sent out the techs. Finally, if you're looking for the 1 gig just get your own router, don't mess with renting the NextLight router...NextLight should just tell customers this.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: I recently moved from Boulder to Longmont and was so excited to try NextLight 1 GIG and dump Comcast. The home I bought in Longmont was built in 2012 and previous owners did not have NextLight so NextLight did the fiber install and I'm paying for 1 GB. After 4 weeks of horrible WiFi in some rooms of our moderately sized, if not small, home (main floor 1473 sq. ft.) and very slow speeds (nothing close to 1 GB), particularly for my son's Xbox, I called NextLight to try to figure out what the heck was going on. (Yes I should've called sooner but I've been swamped at work.) Over the phone, the tech had me run the router down to my basement where the modem was set up by the NextLight installation tech and plug it into the ethernet cord down there. I'm not a techie person and the tech on the phone had very poor customer service and instructions, but after probably 20-30 minutes, I was able to do what he instructed while on the phone with him. In the end, moving the router down to the basement near the modem did help solve the poor WiFi in most of the home and we're now getting 350-480 Mbsp on our phones and laptops except not in our front bedroom where it is much slower. The tech said the Xbox issues are due to the fact that the ethernet cable behind the wall is old and can't support 1 GB. He informed me that Next Light techs do not do this replacement and that I would need to pay someone to do it. NextLight knew this house didn't have NextLight previously and that there was - what I've now learned - a high probability that the cables in this house wouldn't support 1 GB but NextLight still sold me 1 Gig. I feel duped and misled. And NextLight customer service really stinks. That guy - wish I got his name - is not cut out at all to provide customer service over the phone. While many issues may in fact be customer/user error, NextLight should expect this and have a better strategy for providing A+ customer service. The fact that NextLight doesn't send techs out but rather tries to solve these issues over the phone is ridiculous when you go past like 5-10 minutes and just aren't solving the problem. The least NextLight could do would be to hire technicians who are very skilled at communicating to non-techie people various instructions for troubleshooting problems. NextLight needs to be more transparent with people about whether 1 gig is even really an option for our homes. Overall, I'm fed up with Next Light and sorry I ever tried to get it set up in this house. If this is how a city-run broadband works, give me Comcast any day and paying a little more is totally worth it. What a total disappointment. I work at a business in Longmont and initially had been pushing them to switch over to NextLight but now I will tell them don't even bother.

WeAre S.

So far, I have terrible NextLight speeds. Especially in the evening. So, when everyone else is on at night, the speed plummets. My good feelings about being part of a community network and bypassing Comcast have faded. Even more so when I signed up FOUR days before they started a promotion where everyone else is paying $15 less a month than me. I only need about 40-50 mbps so it’s looking like I’ll go to Comcast because NextLight is just more expensive with no advantage for my needs. NextLight needs to either have fair and equal pricing for all residents/taxpayers or buh-bye.

Rodney S.

I have to assume the negative reviews are by Comcast employees because my experience has been amazing. The one time I needed to talk to customer service (changing my billing credit card), it was painless and the rep was super nice. The price cannot be beat and the service has not gone out once in the two years I've had it. Comcast internet service would generally go out whenever the temp dropped below zero. Next Light is an amazing community resource and one neighboring communities are looking to emulate. Does anyone really want another Comcast in their life? I doubt it.

Mathias H.

Next light is freaking awesome. I used my own router but when I upgraded to an Asus wireless router meant for 1gbps connections I saw a big increase. Regularly get 100mbps from the router+ and my iPhone netmeter app shows it pushing 200. When I wire in, it's 700+. Obviously wireless is limited compared to a wired connection but I'm very happy with nextlight. When i was given the choice between nextlight and Comcast, I switched and have never looked back. Plus it's our community, and I like supporting that more than a corporation trying to lobby agaisnt "the people (their customers!)" on net neutrality. Good lord. Even if nextlight had a few hang ups it's a million times better than the alternative. The install crew was quick and professional and the customer service is responsive.

Jim W.

I've been "plugged in" to LPC on and off for all my 75 years. I can almost count on one hand the electric outages I've experienced with them in all that time. They also are now my Internet Service provider. I get very reliable 1 GHz bidirectional fiberoptic service and also use their best wifi router for great coverage in my home. I'm proud of them.

Geoff K.

Great, this is the best internet provider I have ever had, their service and technicians are great too. I have autopay and have set it up correctly and it works. Its 1000Mbps Download and Upload.. it makes the others look like the stone age. They are also not manipulative or try to oversell you into a multiple hundred dollar a month package. They are supportive of net neutrality and do not throttle your traffic selectively like will be happening with other providers soon.

Also, this is to review NextLight - NOT just Longmont Power and Communications, which is a separate bill for electricity and sewer from the city Utility Company. I feel that mixing these reviews together into one is not helpful.

Nicc E.

Eric and Arthur from City of Longmont Power were ah-mazing in helping me with an electrical emergency today!! They were prompt, kind, informative, and of course expert electrical specialists. I feel secure having utility engineers like Eric and Arthur serving the City of Longmont community!