Review by sullim4 
UPDATED: 159 days ago
member for 5.4 years, 463 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Redmond,King,WA
 $46 per month
 "Rock-solid connection, good downstream speeds"
 "Poor upstream speed, expensive"
 "While expensive, it's the best choice under most circumstances"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Update (5/6/2008):
I'm dropping Comcast in favor of Verizon dry-loop DSL. I'm mixed over the decision but I think it's the right thing to do. Comcast's connection was reliable in the sense that it rarely went down, but at the same time, it was very "bursty," and not in the PowerBoost sense. Basically it'd just quit on me in the middle of a download for a few seconds, and then shoot back up, then quit for a few more seconds, etc. Sucked when I was using my CallVantage line - I'd hear a lot of clicks and noise that I am not getting on my DSL line. That, in addition to their ridiculous $10+ surcharge for not subscribing to lifeline cable, pushed me over the edge. With DirecTV and an OTA antenna, I can pull in more stations that I did with Comcast for less money. I can live with the slightly slower yet more consistent DSL download speeds given that my upload just doubled.
Quite honestly I also take offense to some of their questionable business practices. Sandvine in particular is troublesome to me. Now it appears as though they will be instituting caps... that's their right to do so, but it's also my right as a consumer to walk.
Original Review:
I've had Comcast now for about six months after moving out to Seattle.
I called to setup service in late June. This was pretty uneventful, though (as you'll read later on), the information I was given by this person was less than truthful. Installation date was set for the day I was to move into my new apartment. I signed up for the 6000/384 package.
Installation was as easy as I had hoped. Tech came out, brought the self-install kit (Motorola s/b modem), and also set up the digital cable. He was a contractor, and although a bit of an odd fellow, did a good job and was very friendly.
I've got to say - I've had various ISPs in the past, from Time Warner/Earthlink to Comcast in Ohio to various university connections, and this is the most rock-solid ISP I've ever had in terms of connection reliability. This thing hasn't dropped me once since July, power outages excepted. Heck, when the power came back on after the windstorms in December, the internet connection was all ready to go. Speed is as advertised (6000/384). Download is more than sufficient for what I need it to do, but that upload speed is a joke. Heck, Verizon is offering 768 up on DSL. Hopefully once Verizon pushes out FiOS around here a bit more, it will pressure Comcast to increase that pathetic upload speed.
Support.... bleh. My only experience is with the billing department. I was told when I signed up that as an employee of a large company around here, I was eligible for 1 year of promotional pricing on the internet package ($25/mo for 1 year). Since I hadn't started my job yet, I was told to call them after I had my employee number, and in the meantime they'd place me on the publicly available plan ($25/mo for 6 mo). I was also told that a note was placed on my account to allow this. Once I got my number, I tried to call them to switch and I was told that this was not possible, and I was stuck with the 6 mo discount since this is what I agreed to. Petty and cheap of them, imo.
Vonage has played well with them so far... good quality with minimal echoing.
As far as value goes, I really can't complain. $46 is a good chunk of change, but the connection is rock solid, and while upload is slower than I'd like, I'll trade it for reliability any day of the week. I'd give them a B overall.
Followup comments:  
EnasYorl
Thieves World
join:2001-12-02
West | 768k up $10 more and you can have that 768k up. | |
|  | sullim4
join:2003-05-18
Redmond, WA | Re: 768k up That gets back to the value for the money argument though. I don't need 8000 down, and Verizon can somehow offer 768k up for $20 less, albeit with a slower downstream speed. To me, it's not worth the upgrade. | |
| 
CColon
join:2008-04-20
Philadelphia, PA | Verizon DSL FTL Good luck when Verizon doesn't run you a dedicated line from their NID and uses an existing in-house line 4 jacks away from the NID that also happens to run through a carbon block... | |
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