Business Internet in Denver: Carriers and Real Rates

Denver is now two business internet markets wearing one zip code.

Inside the new fiber footprints, prices fell. Ting lit up parts of Centennial and Westminster. Quantum Fiber passes some of Denver proper. Zayo, Lumen, and Cogent cover lit buildings in LoDo, RiNo, and the DTC. In those areas, a gig runs $80 to $150. Dedicated fiber dropped under $1 per Mbps.

Outside those footprints, Comcast Business and Lumen still bill 2019 rates. And they quietly renew them.

Your rate is set by your address. Not your carrier.

The 2019 rate card vs. today

Most Denver guides quote a promo price. The 12-month intro rate nobody pays after month 13. That number is useless when your renewal bill arrives.

Here is what actually moved.

| Product | 2019 | Today | |---|---|---| | Comcast cable, 100 to 300 Mbps | list price | mostly flat, still negotiable | | Shared fiber gig (Quantum, Ting) | not available | $80 to $120 flat | | 100 Mbps DIA, lit downtown building | $600 to $900 | $350 to $550 | | 1 Gbps DIA | $1,500+ | under $1,000 |

If your bill still matches the left column, you are overpaying.

Who serves the metro, and where

Carrier names mean nothing without footprint. Ting is useless advice if you sit in Aurora.

Comcast Business. Nearly everywhere in the metro.
Lumen copper and Quantum Fiber. Selective Denver neighborhoods and older suburbs.
Ting. Centennial and Westminster.
Allo and other overbuilders. Suburb lists change every quarter. Check current coverage before you quote.
Zayo, Lumen, Cogent, Crown Castle. Lit-building DIA in LoDo, RiNo, DTC, and Cherry Creek.
Rise Broadband and fixed wireless. The fringe and backup circuits.

How to check your own address: run each carrier's availability lookup, cross-check the FCC Broadband Map, and ask your building manager for the riser inventory.

Three products wearing one word

"Fiber" is not one thing. Quantum's $75 shared gig and a $1,200 Lumen circuit are both called fiber. One has a 4-hour repair commitment. The other has a help line.

Shared broadband. Cable or shared fiber. No SLA. Best effort. $80 to $150 in Denver.
DIA. Symmetric. Written SLA with credits. 4-hour MTTR. Under $1 per Mbps is the fair Denver benchmark.
The in-between. Comcast Ethernet Dedicated Internet, Lumen Fiber+.

Two questions sort them. Is there a written SLA with credits? Is the bandwidth committed or "up to"?

A fair Denver bill, line by line

The headline rate is not the total. Walk a Comcast Business bill and you see it. Base rate. Equipment fee, about $20. The Network Enhancement Fee. If voice is bundled, the Colorado High Cost Support Mechanism surcharge and 911 surcharge. The Denver telecom business tax. Late and paper fees.

Some lines are pass-through taxes. Some are not. Equipment, the enhancement fee, and bundled voice you do not use are all removable.

Rule of thumb: non-tax fees above 10 percent of your base means something is coming off.

The clauses that keep you on the old rate

Your rate did not fall on its own. The contract made sure of that.

Auto-renewal with a written notice window. Comcast wants 30 days before term end, in writing. Lumen enterprise MSAs often want 60 to 90. Miss it and you roll over.

The ETF is a percent of your remaining monthly charges, often 50 to 100 percent. Price-adjustment language lets them raise rates on renewed terms. Special construction clauses let them bill install costs if you cancel early.

Find these in three places. The Service Order. The MSA. And the online Terms pulled in by reference.

The call to make

If you are inside a new footprint: get a written quote from the overbuilder. Call your incumbent's retention line, not the 800 sales number. Read them the competing quote. Ask for a rate match plus fee removal on a 12-month term. Get it in a new Service Order. Not a verbal promise.

If you are outside the footprint: pull a DIA quote from a carrier that will do a site survey. Use the incumbent's own pricing from a lit building across town as your benchmark. Negotiate term length and fee waivers if they will not move on base rate.

Either way, calendar the renewal notice deadline today.

A worked example

A 20-person office in Lakewood pays $189 a month for Comcast cable. The same office in Centennial, inside the Ting footprint, pays closer to $110 on shared fiber. After one retention call with a written competing quote, the Lakewood office should land near $140 with the equipment fee waived.

That is a real gap. It comes from the street, not the salesman.

When to switch, when to stay

Switch when your all-in monthly savings beat the ETF within 12 months. Switch when the incumbent won't put a rate in writing.

Stay and renegotiate when a fiber lateral means $10,000 or more in special construction and a 60 to 120 day build. Unless the landlord or a tenant group splits the cost.

Ask your building manager one thing: who else here is on fiber, and will the carrier waive construction for a group commitment?