Review by ricep5 
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 1355 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Jacksonville,Duval,FL
 $49 per month
 about 4 days
 "Reliable overall (for residential service)"
 "Questionable value arising"
 "Usable, acceptable, kind of like a truck."
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I am moving my ATTBI account across town. Went to the local ATT Cable office and ordered the service. When I asked for Internet as well I got a quick "we don't do that...they don't tell us anything"..."call the 800 number".
I called the 800 number and the rep was competent, but he said he had to cancel the original provisioning order for the TV side and re-provision it as a TV/Internet install which changed the install date/time. But the date offered was acceptable.
He offered cable telephony service, but to be honest, it cost more than a AT&T cell phone would, so I asked him "why would I consider it if it cost more than AT&T Digital One Rate?" He withdrew the offer and apologized.
They recommended that I discontinue my old ATTBI account and open a new one. ATTBI recently merged TV and Internet billing and without my permission merged my internet account with my fathers TV account. Despite 2 notes on the account not to do so, they did anyway and they cannot seperate them. I thought this wouldn't be a big deal I will just have tech support move the email over. (Read on!)
The installers arrived at 1:45pm (they were scheduled between 1-5pm). A quality note, they slipped on carpet covers on their shoes so they would not soil the carpet. A small but nice touch. I requested cable drops in three rooms and it was a professional installation. The only issue was my port outside was not labelled so they had to use the locator to find it.
They used an RCA cable modem and the installer placed filters on the 2 other drops to keep out modem interference on the TV's. Another nice touch. Here is where it gets interesting. They are no longer using the ATTBI provisioning method, but using COMCAST software based provisioning tool.
This requires a software install on at least one PC (I have several) so the Comcast software can complete the provisioning and account setup. The software from Comcast bombed when requesting the email address, first it said it wasn't available then it hard failed when i entered a second choice. Restarted the PC and ran the software again and it said that the provisioning was offline and not available. The tech downloaded a newer version of the software and this time it worked and in fact the original email address took. However, they are no longer using the ATTBI.COM domain now, they are using the COMCAST.NET domain for email accounts. My old account (that I have to cancel) is on the ATTBI.COM domain. The tech was not confident that they could xfer my old account over. I have yet to confront a tech support person on that...wish me luck!
The performance was great. I figured it might be as I decreased my distance to the head end by nearly 3 miles. Per this site roughtly 1.7Mbps download. I know cable is not as distance sensitive, but I was curious. Still DHCP, still rated at 1.5Mbps.
Just beware ATTBI customers....COMCAST is closer than you think!! The tech said ATT branding will be gone in Feb. 03.
Wow, have I been on this long? Update (7/2/2007)
Been on ATTBI now Comcast for 7 years! A few hiccups here and there, but it works. Would like more speed for the dollar however.
(1/28/2008)
8 years on the service now. 6Mbps now. (was 1.5Mbps at the beginning, way back). The Speed Boost kicks in now and then, but not really effective for day to day activity. For what I pay, this should be 10Mbps w/o boosting.
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