Review by gopnick 
UPDATED: 2.3 years ago
member for 4.8 years, 964 visits, last login: 49 days ago
 Benton,Saline,AR
 $24 per month (12 month contract)
 about 3 days
 Southwestern Bell
 "Fast; Reliable So Far"
 "Requires land line"
 "Only game in town but they will keep my business"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
I ordered 1.5-3.0 meg service, 384k down. I’m connected at 2 megs down, 512k up. Real world performance in all the tests show 1.1-1.7 megs. It’s not QUITE as fast as I’d hoped, but it is nice, nonetheless. I’m getting about 400k up, which is more than what they promised me. Overall, I’m happy with the speed. It is faster than my cable modem at my old house through Cox Internet. The price is steep (about the cost of cable plus a phone line I don’t need) but the order/install process was perfect with the 2Wire 1000HG Home Portal. It is nice. I was up in about 20 minutes after I plugged in the HP. I don’t have much experience with support, but they didn’t seem too bright. I asked a woman in support what came with it in terms of equipment and was put on hold for ten minutes. People ought to know these things. I’ve got a dynamic IP, by the way.
Here’s what it all comes down to: if you can get cable Internet, look into it. Generally speaking, it will be more reliable and faster. The wireless access at my place of work is also faster and super reliable, but it is a business-grade connection beamed off the tallest skyscraper in town. DSL is a very residential idea, so don’t plan on using it for business; however, for us home users, it’ll work just fine! Check out this site and see how your options stack-up.
Update: We're now getting 3 megs down, with 2.2 megs down of real world bandwidth performance (I guess there is less coming out of the CO than what my line can handle?) Anyway, it's AWESOME.
Update #2: It is now February of 2006 and my service is even better! We now get 2.5 megs downstream and at least 300-400k upstream. Our HomePortal gave out this week (the DHCP server on it is flaky) but they are sending me a new modem free of charge for signing a new contract. My bill will also drop to below $30/mo now... Though I've never liked the telco and the smart network way of doing bandwidth, I am impressed with the level of service I've received. SBC (AT&T) is definitely earning my trust. When Charter Communications comes to town with broadband later this year, I'll have a tough time finding a reason to pay more and switch.
Level 2 technical support is good. Level 1 techs are in India.
Update #3: September 2006 - AT&T is offering a very stable product. My uptime probably five nines and the speed is reliably near 2.5 megs downstream and about 400k up. I can still recommend DSL in Benton. Charter is NOT coming to town. Their corporate HQ says "no more money spent in AR!" I have a feeling the city of Benton won't renew their lease. Maybe the next cable company won't suck.
Update #4: August 2007 - We just moved and therefore had to cancel service. I will stop updating this review. Our service was rock solid, stable and blazing fast up until the day I cut it off. This and AT&T/Cingular 3G made me a believer again.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of AT&T Yahoo |
|
AT&T Yahoo
(57)
·