 Review by USAFA82 
member for 4.7 years, 321 visits, last login: 2 days ago
updated 4.3 years ago
 Colorado Springs,El Paso,CO
 $36 per month about 1 days "Fastest advertised speed available in my area" "Customers with bad wiring introducing inpulse noise into the system" "Comcast is responsive IF you keep on them to fix problems"
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I switched from Sprint Broadband Direct, which was my ISP for over six years. I went with Comcast because Qwest DSL in my neighborhood is only available at the 1.5Mb tier. I signed up for Comcast's 8Mb tier at a promo rate of $33/month for six months plus a $3 modem rental. I've been experiencing slightly faster speeds according to dslreports.com and speedtest.com. The regular rate is $52.95 for the premium service.
I placed the order on 5/2/07 and picked up the equipment and installed everything on 5/3/07 Connecting everything went off without a hitch, however I started having some latency and speed problems the next day. I called Comcast on 5/5/07 and they sent a tech over on Tuesday, 5/8/07. He swapped out the modem (old=Scientific Atlanta, new=Terayon - refurbished model) and speeds have been back up to where they should be. I experienced zero lag on a couple of online games I play (Halo and Guild Wars) yesterday and today. Hopefully that will continue.
6/27/07: I have experienced a lot of frustration from Comcast over the past two months. The speeds are very inconsistent and have been dropping off dramatically around 9pm local time. Download speeds that I have saved via screenshots and bbcode are around 100 to 300 kbps, nowhere near the 8000 kbps I get at times during the day.
Local tech support has also been inconsistent. Occasionally, I'll get someone that seems to know what is going on. Most of the time, all they do is confirm that ping times to my modem are slow and offer to schedule a technician. The fifth visit of a tech is scheduled for tomorrow the 28th of June 2007. Just like the other techs, he'll find that my signal strength is great, and can find nothing wrong with the modem (my third one, I'm back to Scientific Atlanta) or the cabling. The speed will be great for a day or two and then fall off again. It seems like a never-ending, catch-22, cycle of frustration: Call tech support, schedule a tech, tech arrives, fiddles around, speeds are fine for a few days, speeds drop off, call tech support, schedule a tech... etc. One tech told me that our neighborhood is tied into the worst node (called Rattlesnake) in Colorado Springs. The phone tech I spoke with on Sunday night (June 24th) said they were working on that node that night. I fully expected the tech tonight to say the same thing, but he could find nothing saying any work was being done. I suspect the node was probably being worked on, but communication is not a strong suit for Comcast. The left hand rarely knows what the right hand is doing.
I am now taking screenshots of the download/upload speeds and keeping logs of the ping times. When I travel around town providing IT services, I find that my customers who have Qwest 1.5Mbps service have much lower ping times and decent download speeds compared to my 8Mbps service. And they pay less.
6/28/07 Update: Female tech came out. She checked the cable out to the neighborhood stub/pedestal and noticed significant noise spikes from the main line into the stub/pedestal. None of the other four techs, to my knowledge, checked the main line. It's been bumped up to the Denver LMC for them to handle it. I requested the order number so I could also follow up. My problem has been escalated to LMC in the past, but nothing was done. Maybe this time they'll fix it. Fingers crossed. Latest speed test: »/im/32496127/9648.png
9/27/07 Update: Things finally got rolling towards the end of July and mostly fixed by the end of August. My area of town has had a lot of problems - especially with impulse noise - but Comcast has been working through them. There are still issues to be resolved in my area, but I'm happy with my service now. Comcast has a solution to help my area, but it's a little ways out.
Colorado Springs thread: »[Connectivity] Connection drops constantly in Colorado Sprin
My Test History: »/testhistory/1457308/f33d9
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