Ah yes, the phone company! I can contribute a negative experience after all.
Once upon a time I had CenturyTel (tm) internet through the home phone line. The connection was fast when it was there, but it was about as stable as words written on water. At the time I was a moderator on an apostolic chatroom and there were times when I really needed to be there to monitor... and the connection would vanish for anywhere between 5 and 25 minutes at a time. Every time I called their tech support in the faint hope they would actually fix the problem. Every time they insisted on going through the same initial script - reboot computer, reboot modem, no help, access modem and look at settings, no help, seems the problem is at the main server downtown. No kidding, just like the last thirty times.
The last time I called their tech support I explained the chat moderator thing and said, "Look if you were me and you needed a sure-fire, never-fail, always-there, dependable connection, what would you do?" You know what their tech support said? "Well I'd probably get one of those AT&T usb clips."
When THEIR OWN TECH SUPPORT recommends the competition... it's time for this rat to jump ship. I switched to an AT&T data account hotspotting from my phone and never looked back.
I was visiting my mother in east Tennessee in February and she was having trouble with CenturyLink internet (new name, same company, same problems.) She spent more than an hour on the phone before they would send somebody out to fix the problem. So these two guys finally came out and "fixed" it and it still didn't work when they were done. Another two calls and about two hours on the phone and they sent out another guy who actually knew what he was doing. At last report Mom's internet is still working... for now. Heaven help her if it messes up again.