I say this with absolute confidence: people in the Treasure Valley do NOT like their home internet options. It doesn't matter who I meet, what post I read, it seems people just hate what we have going on here in the Treasure Valley when it comes to jumping online. Remember Dial Up? Yeah, those were the days...while nothing to my knowledge is THAT slow anymore--we are used to being spoiled with fast data speeds on all of our devices. Not being able to watch a video with NO buffering can get really annoying.

I see the posts go up all of the time on local boards like Boise Bench Dwellers:

Which is better? Century Link or Sparklight?

The general consensus is the same: angry locals saying that they both suck.

I've had Century Link since I moved back to Boise in 2016 and honestly haven't considered making a switch because it has been fine. The service at my place locks up frequently enough to where I DO notice it and get annoyed from time to time. But is it worth the switch to another provider?

I decided that yes, I was going to give Sparklight a try. Over the weekend I got used to my new service and found that according to my internet speed test app...the service is exactly the same. Go, ME? How frustrating.

I'm no internet expert so I did a little digging and I actually came across a survey from about this time last year that seems to show internet in Idaho isn't all that great. The findings rank each state in the United States by overall access, pricing, and those coveted download speeds.

So where does Idaho rank? Nowhere impressive. The Gem State is ranked 39th-- that's closer to the bottom than I would like to see--when it comes to internet performance.

I'm curious to know if you're content with your service at home? Which service, if any, do you prefer?

 

READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

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