Review by joelslavetomazie 
UPDATED: 9.4 years ago
member for 9.8 years, 98 visits, last login: 6.6 years ago
 Detroit,Wayne,MI
 $40 per month
 "It was quite good for months, lately it has steadily declined"
 "Tech support wait has gone from 5 minutes to over an hour, frequent service interruptions, they never fixed the latency"
 "I'm going to try Earthlink via Covad and see what happens"
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Install Co-ordination:
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Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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I currently have had Ameritech's speed path 768/128 service for almost a month here in Detroit. The install date was roughly 5 weeks after I ordered in early-December.
I had a couple of problems, some of which were minor, some of which could have been prevented. The actual installation of the line went very smoothly. The installation of the internal card wasn't so smooth... To get speed path running on the machine I wanted it on required a reinstallation of Win 98 SE, then adding the PCI cards back in. I suspect there might have been a conflict with the sound card, but either way, starting from scratch solved it. It also seemed to me that the installation proceedure was vague, and the instructions not complete. Having a clean system with minimal PCI cards installed helped.
The second minor problem was just a misunderstanding of how I was supposed to enter my user name in the dial up networking dialog. I think a better manual would have avoided waiting a couple of days to have a tech make a house call.
But every time I called tech support, I talked to someone almost immediately. When the next level up called, they scheduled a visit for the next business day, and the tech showed up on time and cleared up the problem.
I have a very reliable connection so far, and usually get download speeds in the 500-750 Kbits/s range. I am located about 6 blocks from the CO for this area (east of downtown Detroit). The system uses an Alcatel 1000 external modem, and an Efficient Networks Speedstream 3010 ATM over PPP internal card. I am finding the ping a little higher than I would have wished for playing network games (the second hop gives a ping around 60-90!!!), but still much superior to dial up (I usually am getting 90-120 ping for the 10 fastest UT servers). I am getting much better service for only $18 more a month than I was paying for my old ISP and a second phone line.
Overall, I rate Ameritech as very good, but there is room for improvement. I'm really glad I chose this service rather than waiting for the local cable company's cable modems; about all they are good for is a rate hike every year for basic service. Umm, next project is satillite TV 
Jay
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