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Review by dvarona See Profile

  • Location: Richmond Hill, Queens, NY, USA
  • Cost: $175 per month (24 month contract)
  • Telco party Verizon
Reliable enough to ignore
Behind-the-times webmail interface
Does what it should, keeps on ticking
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Signed up for Covad's ADSL2+ 8Mbps service in October 2007 via a web page sign-up for $159/mo. Hookup was quick but was not without the typical local carrier / ISP confusion. Service has been running without a glitch since it was installed so that I don't even think about it, and that that is exactly what it should do. My download speeds are reliably about 600-800KB/s, which is pretty close to the theoretical limit.

Covad provides a wireless router that they manage, but will allow you to control it yourself if you know what you are doing. I haven't taken advantage of this self-control possibility, but I might in order to prevent wireless thieves.

Their tech support / webmail interface is far from slick, but is functional. When/if FIOS becomes available I might switch, though I hate the idea of Verizon being able to rip the copper out of the wall just because competitors use it. Until they get around to serving us city folk I'll keep my DSL.

Update July 2011: late last year, Covad and Speakeasy merged with MegaPath. A couple of months later, they decided that they should start charging taxes *on*top*of* monthly service charges. So, after about 3 years of service, my charges went up by a little over $15 to $175/mo. However, when browsing their portal I saw that I could upgrade from 8Mbps to 10Mbps with no change in charges, only a "commitment" of another year. I signed up, and now am getting download speeds of 1070KB/s throughput, and that corresponds to the new upgrade speed. Downloads easily reach 1MB/s, if I'm downloading a file.

I have had a few small outages, but these were resolved fairly quickly with calls to tech support. Their e-mail support response is very spotty, so call in to Covad/MegaPath if you have any problems.

Update June 2014: I am finally able to switch to FIOS. Although the Covad line comes with static IPs, the $175/mo price for this service is overkill compared to newer offerings. My Verizon FIOS will come with TV + Internet for about $130/mo, so perhaps I'll get rid of my $90/mo TWC bill in the process. Reducing my costs from $265 to $130, while bumping my download speeds by a factor of 7! (Currently 10/1 going up to 75/35 Mbps.)

member for 24.3 years, 1382 visits, last login: 6.8 years ago
updated 9.5 years ago