Overall Grade So Far

Currently, my grade for the overall experience with Grande Communication service and support is:

GRADE: A

They missed an A+ due to some issues below... but still, A is not bad at all. UPDATE: Now a "B" due to price increase and value and still only 50 Mbps upstream. UPDATE: Back to "A" because I was finally able to get my price knocked back down.

I want it (how to sign up)!

NOTE: The current (as of January 2019) monthly price (for me) for Grande gigabit (POWER 1000) with modem rental in Lantana with all taxes and fees is $81.45/month (up from $79.07/month in 2018).

☕ Want to buy me a coffee? It's much appreciated!

Gigabit Internet Arrives in Lantana, TX

In late April, 2017, Grande Communications (Grande speed test) began offering gigabit Internet service (Power 1000) in Lantana and elsewhere. In Lantana, upload speeds will be up to 50 Mb/s (they offer 1 Gb/s upload speed in some areas but said that that requires fiber which Lantana does not have). And the price? Only $69.99/month.
At the time I learned about this new offering from a flyer placed at my door, I was using Frontier business service (75/75), which I've been using since April 17, 2007, around when Verizon FiOS was installed and became available in my neighborhood (I started with 15/2 speeds back in 2007). As you can see below, I am currently getting great ping times and speeds for my service level of 75/75, especially upload speed.
Frontier's service has been very reliable but is much more expensive and much slower on the download side than Grande's new gigabit service. Also, I did not want to have to deal with Frontier's customer "service" due to all the complaints I've heard about it, although personally I've had one not-so-great experience and one quite good experience. Anyway, I decided to switch to Grande service to save money and get those awesome download speeds. I was told I was the 2nd person in Lantana to get their new gigabit service.
I decided to create this page with a log of how my install and experience goes in order to help others who might be interested in this new high-speed Internet service.
My installation is scheduled for early May (2017).

The Install

The install technician arrived as schedule (within the given timeframe) and was professional. I paid a deposit (since I didn't want to give Grande my SS# to do a credit check) and he got started. No complaints except maybe that his cable meter/analyzer wasn't functioning so we pulled up the line quality stats on the modem. He said everything looked good.
I had to have a new line installed because my old line was damaged... so this will need to be buried. Hopefully they will bury it without damaging anything else underground, especially my FiOS line since I am still running my server on it for the time being.
The cable modem is an ARRIS Touchstone CM8200 which I am renting from Grande because it's inexpensive and buying my own doesn't make sense when Grande rents it for $2.99 a month. It's a "nice little modem" but I've noticed that it runs a bit "toasty" (warm). This modem appears to be another version of the ARRIS SURFboard SB8200 (probably the version that cable companies will rent).
The modem lights indicate a DOCSIS 3.1 download connection (the blue light) but a DOCSIS 3.0 upload connection (the green light under the blue light). I hope that in the future the upload speeds will increase, perhaps if they can support a DOCSIS 3.1 uplink. That might also further improve the ping times (closer to FiOS). DOCSIS 3.1 is capable of far more than a "measly" 50 Mb/s uplink.

Speed

All speed tests done with a wired gigabit Ethernet connection unless otherwise indicated.

As expected, my download is much faster, upload slower, and ping times a bit higher. Here is one of my initial speed tests:
Here's a test I did later in the night with some of the fastest results I've seen yet
Test late at night (fastest of several) on 2017-05-07 to a server hosted by Grande Communications in San Marcos, TX
Test with a new pfSense router using an "Intel PRO/1000 VT Quad Port Server Adapter" on 2017-05-23 (over 900 Mb/s!)
Most speed tests come back in the 600's and 700's Mb/s range when my computer isn't choking on something like all the bloated ads some of the tests display and the Edge browser just started fresh so it's not bogged down by bugs and memory leaks or whatever chokes it up. Upload speed tests usually come back very consistent with 50-52 Mb/s.
When I get to it I hope to try very early in the morning and see if I get higher numbers. I was hoping to get something in the 900's but I haven't seen than yet except briefly on a small number of tests. UPDATE: See the new result(s) above showing a 900+ Mbit/s download rate with a new router.
Most speed tests start out strong and then show a gradual decline in speed. I asked Grande if they do anything to cause this or throttle data and they said: "Grande does not slow down or throttle speeds with your services."

Reliability

Overall it has been very good, but see below.

2018-05-10: The entire area lost Internet access for a few hours due to a fiber line cut but has otherwise been reliable. See: Grande Communications fiber line cut, affecting local residents (new window)
2018-01-08: It's been quite reliable lately.
2017-08-17: Went down for awhile (maybe ~150 minutes) in the afternoon but came back up by itself.
2017-07-20: Went down for awhile (maybe ~30 minutes) in the morning but came back up when I power-cycled the modem.
2017-05-21: Reliability so far has been top notch.
2017-05-01: Gigabit service installed and started.

Billing

Will they get it right? This seems to be a sore spot for many telecom companies.

UPDATE 2019-08-26: It looks like my final bill has been generated and service was disconnected on 2019-08-23 when they received the equipment back so I have a credit balance. Good job Grande! I would not hesitate to come back to Grande if Frontier messes up. Now the question remains... will Grande credit back my balance to the credit card used for auto-pay? I guess we'll just wait and see. UPDATE 2019-09-25: Yes! Grande credited back my credit card the balance on September 6th.
UPDATE 2019-08-23: They received my equipment back today and I checked my account online. It says my services are disconnected. That's good. Hopefully I won't be paying for days I didn't use. Grande has served me well... it's just too bad they don't have fiber to the home in my area.
UPDATE 2019-08-21: I did an online chat to cancel service because I have switched to Frontier. I wish Grande had fiber to the home but they don't so they can't (at this point) compete against fiber ping times and upload speeds with their coax (although it's impressive what you can get out of coax and DOCSIS 3.1 nowadays). Anyway, I have to send back the equipment. You can print a return label from their website and use it to send back the equipment via FedEx. My disconnection is scheduled for 2019-08-29 so it looks like I will have to pay for some service I won't get to use. Hopefully they will receive the equipment without issue and send me a final bill. If I have and major issues with Frontier then I will be back with Grande.
UPDATE 2019-07-02: I received a response and I'm going to raise my grade from "B" back to "A" because I was finally able to get the cost lowered to about $80.22/month with taxes and fees ($69.99 for Power 1000 before taxes and fees as currently advertised on their site).
UPDATE 2019-06-13: I'm going to lower my grade from "A" to "B" because of the price increase unless Grande can get the price back down (I'm still waiting on a response on that). For the price they are now charging I think they should be offering gigabit UP and DOWN but it's still only 50 Mbps up.
UPDATE 2019-06-10: Got my new bill and it is even higher than expected at $96.35. That's $84.99 for Power 1000 plus $3.99 modem rental plus $3.17 "Network Access and Maint Fee" plus $4.20 tax. I'm seeing if I can get it back down closer to what I was at before ($79.07). In the "good ol' days" it was only $75.98 for the same speed.
UPDATE 2019-05-03: I've had gigabit service with Grande for 2 years now. Time flies! Unfortunately they want to raise my rate again to $94.44/month since my promo rate ($80.41/month) is expiring. Last time they extended my "promo" rate another year but this time they are being a bit more "difficult", shall we say. They offered me free modem rental for 6 months (a $3.99/month value). Then they offered to drop my speed down to 600 Megabit to save money at $84.66/month which is still more than I'm paying now.
UPDATE 2019-01-07 (price increases): It seems prices are going up for the new year. The monthly cost is now $81.45, up from $79.07. Modem rental (DOCSIS 3.1) is now $3.99 per month, up from $2.99 per month. The "Network Access and Maintenance Fee" is up $1.20 to $3.17 from $1.97. Sales tax is also up slightly. I do not recall getting any notice of these increases but maybe the notices were buried somewhere in the fine print in a previous bill (yep, they were noted on the last page of my last bill).
UPDATE 2018-06-05: Got a "weird" bill today that says I have a "Past Due Balance" of $10.11 even though I've been on auto-pay. I also did not get any credit for my security deposit which I was expecting. I called and they did not know why the auto-pay did not take out the full amount (which left me with the $10.11 "past due" balance) but they said I was current in their system and don't need to do anything. They also said someone would call me about the security deposit issue.
UPDATE 2018-05-04: I've now been with Grande for a full year (boy does time fly). Apparently the price goes up after 12 months as the cost went from $69.99 to $79.99/month (not including taxes, fees, and equipment). However, I did an online chat (with "Melody A") and Grande reduced my rate to what it was before for another 12 months. So it should be back to $79.07 (including taxes, fees, and equipment). I am also suppose to get my initial deposit returned to my account because it's been "12 months of timely payments without a past due balance and/or a returned check". Also, strangely, they had to reset my modem (or something like that) to get me on another 12 month promotion so I lost Internet access for a short time while it reset. Not sure why that had to happen but it did.
UPDATE 2018-03-08: NEW FEE ALERT! Around the beginning of 2018, Grande has added a "Network Access and Maintenance Fee" fee of $1.97 to the bill, bringing the monthly total with all fees and taxes (and including $2.99 for modem rental) up to $79.07.
Upon looking at my first bill, there was a surprise $10 "Account Setup" fee that I was not told about. This goes against their claim of "free install" and is one of those "hidden fees" everyone hates. I emailed about this and we'll see what they say.
- UPDATE: Grande's response is that it's "company policy" and they cannot take it off. I replied and recommended that they don't advertise free installs if they aren't really free (I consider anything setup-wise to be part of an install).
- UPDATE 2: I mentioned this on the Grande Communications Facebook page and they said that the "free install" does not cover the "account setup" fee but because I was not aware of this and it wasn't clearly disclosed they are crediting me $10.
It looks like the total monthly cost with tax will be $69.99 (service) + $2.99 (modem rental) + $3.00 (sales tax) for a total of $75.98, about $1 more than the $75 I was told. UPDATE 2018-03-08: NEW FEE ALERT! - see update above with the increased monthly price after a new fee was added.
I guess they keep the $50 security deposit for who-knows-how-long. I asked about it and await a reply on this as well. If you don't want to pay a security deposit then you can always give them your SS# to check your credit (I didn't want to give out my SS#).
- UPDATE: Grande's response was that the security deposit "can be returned in 12 months as long as you have a perfect payment credit and you may call in the call center and request for it or if you disconnect services."
On a side note, I wasn't happy that Grande's account creation form disables copy and paste. That "forces" me to use a less secure password because I have to manually type it in because it can't be pasted in. Bad move Grande.
So overall there are some things that can be improved with regards to billing and their website but nothing terrible. The hidden fee irks me the most, not because of the amount but because of the principle and because "free installs" should be free and all fees should be clearly disclosed.

I am told that the Internet only "out the door" price with taxes and modem rental is $75/month (turns out it's closer to $76/month), or $72/month if you provide your own modem. Also, Grande advertises that no contract is required. UPDATE 2018-05-09: The current monthly price has increased to $79.07 with all fees, taxes, and the modem rental charge.
New customers to Grande (like myself) may qualify for some promo deals like free installation and a free month of service. Instead of the free month of service they may pay a contract termination fee of up to $200. The better deal for me is having them pay my Frontier contract termination fee. These offers may not be available online.
Grande wanted my social security number to do a check on me when signing-up, but I try to never give that out unless absolutely necessary. I was told I could pay a $50 deposit and first month of service up front to the technician when my service is installed. I don't really mind that since it doesn't cost any more money; I just pay some money up front.

More Technical Stuff for Geeks

UPDATE 2019-01-07: I have been experiencing a strange issue when trying to connect to a Linode server that I use for my business. Sometimes the connection times out. Strangely it only seems to be with this server and with initial connections (once connected it works fine; it's not a 'typical' packet loss problem) although other tests show no problem with the server. I am not sure what the problem is so I'm not going to blame Grande for it but something is going on somewhere that is not right. If I ever figure it out then I'll update. UPDATE 2019-01-15: The problem seems to be resolved now although I still do not know what it was or whose "fault" it was but I'm glad that it seems to finally be resolved.
This level of speed requires a DOCSIS 3.1 modem, which Grande will rent to you for $2.99 plus tax a month (or so I'm told). $2.99/month is a very reasonable price for a DOCSIS 3.1 modem (they current sell for around $170-$200) and Grande will troubleshoot or replace it for free if anything goes wrong.
The cable modem Grande provides does not include a built-in router but they will provide a separate router or you can use your own router (like I do). I wonder if my router can handle gigabit though. I'm currently using an Asus RT-AC68U (AC1900) router which is a well-rated and popular router.
- UPDATE 2017-05-21: Due to some issues I had getting my network partitioned the way I wanted it ("secure" devices on one subnet and "insecure" ones on another subnet so that the "insecure" devices can't talk to the "secure" ones) with a single IP address (with Verizon FiOS I had 5 IPs), I have upgraded my router to a pfSense box and am using the Asus routers as access points... but don't worry, typical homes won't need to do all this.
UPDATE 2018-04-26: It seems that Grande may have recently started blocking outgoing port 25 because my Dell multifunction printer/scanner could not connect to my Linode email server anymore on port 25. I was able to reconfigure it to use port 587.
Compared to my Frontier 75/75 service, Grande's download speed is MUCH faster but the upload speed of 50 Mb/s will be a little slower. 50 Mb/s is 30 Mb/s faster than Grande's slower offerings like their 200, 300, and 400 Mb/s service (which all have up to 20 Mb/s upload speeds), and should be fine for the vast majority of people. The only exception might be people who have a need to upload a lot of data. If you need high upload speeds then Frontier may be the better choice for you (assuming it's available in your subdivision).
So how does the extra speed "feel" compared to my previous 75/75 speed? Just browsing the web seems a little quicker in some cases but it's not a big difference. I did notice that PDFs open quicker and Netflix streams start and buffer significantly quicker (this was very noticeable). I haven't had any big downloads yet but that's where the speed difference should really become apparent.
Reliability: While my business FiOS Internet was very reliable, everyone says Grande is reliable as well, so I hope it is just as reliable as my FiOS service. See the 'Reliability' section for more details.
Need or want IPv6 support? Sorry, not supported (yet). Grande said (on 2017-05-25): "At this time, we do not yet use IPv6 and it is still in the testing phase with our service."