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 Review by dbuth 
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 6.8 years, 1300 visits, last login: 3 days ago
 Turlock,Stanislaus,CA
 $35 per month
 AT&T
 "AT&T's new open DSL with no contract"
 "Elite was $36.95 then $27.00 on contract now $35.00 w/o a contract"
 "DSL Elite needed for file trading household"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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May 2007 Update:
Now coming off the contracted price of $27.00 for the Elite DSL package. With AT&T's new no-contract pricing the price will be $35.00 which is two collars less expensive than the price I remember of $36.95 from last year. I have had only minor service interruptions in the past years time and one service call. The service call was for intermittent sync issues. The problem was on our end between the demarcation point and our triplex unit. The AT&T DSL technician repaired it w/o any charge. He said, "It is better to fix minor problems at no cost to the customer versus charging them and the customer having to deal with an inflated monthly bill from AT&T."
Consistent speeds minus the typical overhead associated with DSL.
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August 2006 Update:
I upgraded to DSL Elite 5MB download speed in May 2006 since my DSL Pro plan had gone off contract in April 2006. The off contract price for the Pro was $36.95, an increase from the contract price of $29.95. The effortless web page increase to Elite for $27.00 saves me nine dollars per month and the increase in speed justifies a needed speed increase with a roommate who file trades day and night.
Zero problems with the upgrade. The speed is consistent. All in all a worthwhile investment. My mother increased her speed to DSL Pro for the new contract price as did a friend of mine down the street; both are saving money over their non contract rates and the doubling of download speed helps when I am over there using their connections.
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December 30, 2005 Update:
Zero problems since my last update. No service interruptions of any kind. Still on my one-year contract of DSL Pro with consistent speed measurements as stated below. Since my last update I have convinced my mother to join SBC will the DSL Express product in Ceres, CA also with zero problems on the DSL side even though she lost dial tone for three days. A friend of mine here in Turlock with a CO connection recently moved to my neighborhood and is on an adjacent RT with perfect sync and excellent numbers on his DSL Express; this did necessitate a call to level-1 tech support and switch to level-2 support to re-activate his account and e-mail address. Simple and trouble free since I maintain his account and computer for him.
Lastly, my father in Sacramento, CA living in an old high rise apartment building in downtown recently went live (12-19) with DSL Express and the self install kit and he has excellent numbers. He was somewhat confused during the self ordering process when the website (SBC $16.50 six month special) suggested Earthlink. He had Earthlink dial-up 4 1/2 years and suffered with tech support back then relating to connection and e-mail problems. I had him try the website again thinking he made an error at his 73 years young and it suggested he call for the DSL ordering process. He had no problems dealing with a CSR at SBC and is happy to finally rid himself of the slow dial-up.
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April 2005 Update:
I moved within the city of Turlock during the month of February 2005. Our new rental in a triplex development came with a DSL line added in addition to an ADT monitored alarm; no problems with the DSL or alarm. I upgraded from DSL Express to DSL Pro for $3.00 more per month and the USF fee. I waited patiently to see the speed increase and it popped from 1200+ down /108+ up to 1600-2000 down and still 108 upload with the new profile.
There was a violent thunderstorm one day two weeks ago and our unit was flooded and I started to see drops in my Linksys router maintaining a PPPoE connection. This continued with occasional drops to no sync on Saturday April 9, 2005. A simple call for troubleshooting with an excellent international call center employee who forwarded the case to ASI. Wednesday April 13, 2005 "John" from ASI did a gel cleanup at the MPOE and a pair change. John did the same pair change inside at our DSL jack. Our numbers increased remarkable with the first SBC speed test; 2531 down and 438.45 upload and a noise margin of 17. John also mentioned that we are on a RT now versus a CO connection at my old apartment and our line is capable of sustaining a 6.0 profile if SBC offers it again at a reasonable price.
It is a pleasure to deal with SBC and ASI and once again there was no charge for John's 10 minutes of work and the pair change.
Earlier in my review see below, I stated it would be nice to have an upload of 256 or 768; however, due to the cost I stayed with the Express package. With the Pro package of $3.00 more than my contracted Express price the upload will be fun to have.
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October 2004 Update:
I noticed recently with a line test through SBC's DSL speed tests and those available through DSL Reports that my upload speed has improved to 300+ and averages at about 323. My download speed is still a rock solid 1.2. I was on an interleaved account however with the new upload I do not know if I still am; having no problems I see no reason in contacting a technician for a question about upload speeds.
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August 2004 update:
I have had my SBC DSL connection for 13 months now. This continues to be the most consistent and reliable broadband experience I have had. If I have had any downtime in the last eight months; I would say it occurred while I was away from my computer and solved by rebooting the modem and establishing a new PPPoE session. I am still on interleave due to the condition of my copper and distance from the CO. I lose a few bytes on the upload without the benefit of current changes to SBC's "Rate Adaptive DSL;" however, the basic upload I have is fine.
The same rate of $26.95 still applies for me to renew again for another year; I believe I may have to pay the USF fees which I have been free of so far; although, I have not checked into that. Why pay more? Unless one needs faster throughput which I do not, I see no reason not to have SBC's service. I still have the excellent ping times to Yahoo, no packet loss, and speed tests to SBC's test servers consistently run 1200 on the download and 130 upload.
I am still using my P-3 1GHz tower with 512MB of Ram with SBC's modem, I have not purchased a router yet since I only have the one computer and live alone; the Kerio PFW performs as I expect it to protect me. A router would be nice when friends come over with their laptops and want to utilize my DSL connection.
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January 2004 update:
What a great DSL connection. Consistent and reliable, whatever problems that an on-site ASI technician found with my IW or underground line between my apartment and the demarcation point has resolved itself or the landlord did have work performed on the line. I do not know since I was never contacted. Consistent speed tests using SBC's test page of 1200 and over. Still waiting for SBC to upgrade my CO for the increased upload profile.
The 130 to 135 upload is fine for what I am using it for. File transfers are not the priority they were when I had Earthlink DSL or when my SBC connection went live on July 1, 2003. The thrill of obtaining or providing files wore off.
I signed up for a new 12 month contract at the new price of $26.95 during late November. The $3.00 savings off the old rate of $29.95 makes this the most competitive rate. Combine the low price with the service one gets from the BBR members and technicians in the SBC Pacific and Nevada Bell forum here and the service and reliability cannot be beat by the other DSL companies providing service over SBC's lines and CO's.
Lastly, I have no packet loss and trace routes to Yahoo.com return times within 40 to 60 MS.
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I ordered SBC Yahoo DSL via a website on approximately June 20, 2003. I chose the 384-1.5 profiled plan at the current special of 29.99 per month with a 12 month commitment. I requested a connection date of July 1, 2003, I did not receive any confirmation that service was successful, however, I previously had Earthlink DSL. UPS showed up just after 17:00 hours on July 1 with the self install kit, including the Speed Stream 5100 modem, filters, and installation CD. Not wanting any of the bloated Yahoo junk software on my system I connected without any problem using the Win XP Pro PPPoE dialer. Eddie from ASI had previously installed a splitter on my 2 pair line while I was an Earthlink customer, I did not need any filters on my one phone and dial-up modem. The immediate problem were the sign-up pages were loading extremely slow, this turned out to be my phone line copper between my apartment and the MPOE. (See below)
July 2, 2003 the service was a pleasure to use, 1100 plus downloads and 135 upload before tweaking; no ramp up to worry about. I managed to complete the email addresses and merge with Yahoo on their pages.
Sunset occurred at 20:30 hours and exactly at that time my connection slowed down to sub-par dial-up speeds with packet loss. A call to SBC's tier-1 support and Andy in Colorado helped me with checking my connection. My speed tests through SBC's website showed speeds dipping all over the range of what I thought was blazing fast speed back in 1993 using a 9600 baud modem and an ancient Intel 33 MHz processor. Andy could not see any network problems on SBC's end and entered a trouble ticket for ASI.
Instant messaging BeachBoy who is a SBC tech in St. Louis and posting a question or two in the PacBell forum helped confirm what the night time problem could be. The MPOE was dry not wet and covered in spiders, webs, and dirt. My phone line is underground between my apartment and the MPOE. Not finding any obvious EMI, street light or other interference, I would have to wait for ASI.
Fernando from ASI arrived as scheduled on July 7, 2003 to evaluate my connection problems. Granted they were only at night after sundown and miraculously cleared up at sunrise. Fernando found a signal margin loss of db between the MPOE and my phone jack. He cleared what problems he found on SBC's end and advised my to contact the landlord to repair or replace the copper; he said it could be simply a short from a nail or the underground line getting wet at night.
When I was an Earthlink DSL customer I had problems day and night, I was dreading this with SBC. The old problems were slow speeds, extreme packet loss, and ping times exceeding 300MS. Capping the line at 768 did not help, ASI installing a splitter at the MPOE on the yellow/black pair did not fix my concerns with Earthlink. Earthlink is known for overselling and exceeding capacity on their servers. I managed to have them cancel my contract in the 11th month after complaining to my local NBC affiliates consumer affairs division. Earthlink is known for an arduous journey through their phone tree to reach customer service or tech support. Their are quite a few valuable DSL Reports members in the Earthlink forum who helped during my problem times; thankfully SBC is one call away with short waits and fast turn around times for a truck roll.
During daylight hours it is a pleasure to have the speed I need with SBC to watch broadband video, and download what I need in software without having to wait. It would be nice to have 256 or 768 upload but I cannot justify the cost; binary files on the newsgroups and the RI AA causing their problems, searching for classic music on WinMX will wait for now.
Anyone considering SBC DSL service at least in my area of Northern California and the oppressively hot San Joaquin Valley would be wise to order; price, service, and the technicians who are available in the SBC forum are invaluable. Special thanks to Toaster2K who is always ready for a challenge.
Anyone having similar problems with their apartment phone line copper and have suggestions or success in having it repaired or replaced by their landlord please post a reply.
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