 Review by owenhome 
UPDATED: 276 days ago
member for 6 years, 2065 visits, last login: 12 days ago
 Wichita Falls,Wichita,TX
 $36 per month (12 month contract)
 about 6 days
 Southwestern Bell
 "Up before expected. My home connection (only) has been reliable."
 "Tech Support is a JOKE! That's its fatal flaw. Otherwise, it's great."
 "It's been a good service for the home only, not recommended for Biz."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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**4 years ago**
Called on Thursday, live on Tuesday. The modem arrived via UPS before they said it would. The service was active before they said it would be. You will be capped at 192/128. Don’t bother calling them about because they will tell you the 160kps down under the up-to 1500/128 plan. Just like pre-approved credit. Up-to $5,000.00 may be only $1.00. You do have to spend at least $39.00 a month on your local voice line from SBC, so you may have to add some service to your plan to get it up there (call notes, call-waiting ID, etc.). You only have to have $39.00 a month when you apply for service so you can cut everything you don't want off after you get you DSL service running. The setup could not have been easier (a good thing, they charge $150.00 for a tech visit) it is self-install so you will have to open up your computer to install the network card. If you are uncomfortable doing this, take your computer to a local repair shop, they should install it for $25-$50.00. Follow the instructions included with the router (DSL modem) when you install it. Be sure all of your phones on the DSL line have filters installed (included with the router). Don't be surprised when you run a speed test utility. You will not start out with more than 160kps or so. [STRIKE] You will need someone here to uncap your line. "ADSL Guy" took care of me in a couple of hours. You can get more help and info. in the forums here than you will EVER need![/STRIKE]
The low-down
It will be very slow when you get up and running. [STRIKE] Don't freak. Go into one of the forums here and post your problem. STAY CLOSE! You will get an answer in a few minutes. If you come back and check your post in a day or so, you will be reading for the next day or so. Everybody here jumps when someone is having a problem. Tweak it (after somebody uncaps it) and go FAST. My connection before "ADSL Guy" fixed me up was 162/108, now I'm getting 1153/137. Those are speed test results. Their service is good, but their people are bad. Some of the techs that answer questions here are techs for SBC (ASI provides the tech-support for SBC) they are very helpful. You will only get ASI’s first tier techs when you call. The guys here care, and know what they're doing.[/STRIKE]Don't call SBC, they will only make you mad!!
**3 years ago**
Well, I've had the service for a little over a year now and what can I say about it? It has been very reliable. There has not been any down time to speak of. It's always on and always fast. The only problems I have had existed with my own equipment (router and modem updates). I'd have to say I have been very pleased. My speeds are always around 1450/136. Being on the 1500/128 plan, I can't complain! [strike]I have been so satisfied I am slowly moving all of my clients over to SBC one by one (as their other ISP contracts expire).[/strike] (update: read on)
Update...
[STRIKE]I know have SBC DSL at my office and for most of my clients. I have only had to call for repair once.[/STRIKE] I have been using it at home for going on two years. Never had so much as a hiccup.
**2 years ago**
I have the "pro" package now. I love it. 2500 down 250 up. Cool. Big thanks to the SBC techs here on BBR, they're the greatest! And, I would have to say, the standard SBC tech support SUCKS! [STRIKE] If it were not for the support on this site, I don't think I could recommend SBC to anyone.[/STRIKE]
Update (again 10/30/05)
Still have the pro package. 2500 down 460 up. It's fast, sure, but I want more (who doesn't). I pay $35.99/month for the service but some home, it always comes to slightly over $40 on my bill. With all of my other services, my monthly bill from SBC hovers around $120. Kind of steep for just one line with DSL but oh well. We have the unlimited long distance plan with them too. Before that, my wife would average ~$150 a month on long distance and our regular bill was ~$95. So we are paying less than when we started but with cable broadband getting fast and cheaper daily, it is very tempting to axe the SBC account entirely and go with Vonage. That would save ~$50/month and be faster than what I have. My SBC contract ends next month, something to think about.
Reliability though, that's something I never have to worry about with SBC. Ever since I installed a splitter outside and ran a dedicated line to the modem, I have had not one single outage or any kind of speed degradation at all! Not many can say that. I do have problems with email pretty often though. I uses pop/M$ Outlook for e-mail and every few days the servers will have a spell and spit my password back at me. Nothing's perfect I guess.
Tech support is an absolute joke. I mean, it really sucks. Several of my clients have had to dump SBC DSL because when they really did have problems, getting it fixed is a major exercise in futility. When you are hosting your own website and e-mail, and go down, and remain down for weeks at a time, something has to be done. With SBC passing the buck from end to end and back again and nobody can fix anything, you have to either move all of your hosting duties elsewhere and go back to dialup, or find another provider. For many of my clients, that other provider has been Road Runner. I really have to hand it to Road Runner and Time Warner for their extremely fast responses and resolution of problems. Part of that I am sure is that the people you call with a problem are local, the techs are local, and having someone in the same town, who can speak THE SAME LANGUAGE goes a long way.
Threatening a customer by saying "You can't cancel you're under contract!" means NOTHING to the customer when they have been down two solid weeks. When a DSL customer's servers are at their site and nobody can access their website, they can't get their e-mail, and they are loosing THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS in sales EVERYDAY because of BS SERVICE, they don't give two s%#ts about some piddly cancellation fee!
Update 4/6/06
All of my personal clients have finally been moved to other providers. This was done after time and time again, they would go down, and it would take a major miracle to get them fixed. I find that strange because personally, my connection at home has been flawless. That's good though, because my experience suggests that just like my clients, if I were to have a problem, it would take weeks (sometimes months) to get it back up. I doubt I will be renewing my contract. Even though my personal account has had almost no problems since day one, I have had toooooooo many dealings with SBC/ATT and the 100% lack of concern for their customers. It should also be said that some of my clients had very few problems, others were down daily. But with all of them, the one thing that remained constant was the complete lack of service from SBC/ATT's support folks. Also, it should be said that most of my clients went to Roadrunner and have had a great experience. Roadrunner RARELY goes down but when they do, they have it fixed the next day at the latest.
I am not crapping on the techs here. They do a fine job for the most part. But when a business depends on their connection for their business to operate, a week to get a problem fixed simply wont work. It's one thing if little Johnny can't download his music for a few days, but another entirely if a business is loosing thousands and thousands of dollars every day it's down. Even with a backup connection, DNS doesn't propagate instantly, and for that time, ya got nuthin.
So if you want SBC/ATT DSL for your home, great. It's cheap and it gets the job done. But, if your connection is very important to you, if you depend on it, if you HAVE to have it, go elsewhere. It's not that their service in and of itself is even that unreliable, rather, it's that when you do have a problem, write your congressman.
10/16/07 Finally left for RoadRunner. Love the 10mbps!
Followup comments:  prince_ind
join:2005-11-01
india
| hiiiiiii people hi
iam an indian and a tech support guy here . i have been lookint at the circumlocution at the forums here . jeez u guys need some training in politeness . believe me the tech support in india is working against all odds and doing their best to make u satisfied .
pls understand their our situation . our training and scope of support is limited . sbc has moved out non strategic tech support to other countries . for u blokes who believe indians are dud , india produces the highest number of graduate engineers in the world , this compared to the fact that the average american child is one of the worst performers in school grade math ........
leave behind ur racialist attitude and look at the world with open eyes .... this is a globalized village , we have lost jjobs with influx of american and western companies , our farmers have committed suicide unable to compete with ur genetically modified products , our electronics industry has not withstood the onslaught of amercian giants ....
this is a free world ..... with cut throat competition .... u either swim or u sink .... outsourcing is helping america as much as it is helping india ... every dollar saved is invested back in the us economy creating more jobs .... making products cheaper how in world would u get dsl for a paltry 14 dollars had not been for outsourcing .....
set right ur myopic view of the world ... i salute the free nature of the american society but not its racialist attitude and its insinuations .... LETS LIVE IN PEACE . GOD BLESS AMERICA | |
|  | attsbcisgay
join:2003-03-18
Beverly Hills, CA
edit:
November 1st, @05:23PM
| Re: hiiiiiii people i don't believe in capitalism or communism where both will rape you for what you are and it enslaves people due to our fear of death, fear of pain and our ignorance of dependency on others which is all chained together like a pyramid scheme top few, bottom inferior slaves. one uses money the other just comes over and take everything from you and say it's for the benefit of the community. the key here is control and so long as people like you who believes whatever is being taught to you, you will continue to behave in a manner predictable by others. the world is not free, their is no peace. we are in a constant war but it's not happening everywhere at the same time. outsourcing is a way to kill jobs in america and exploits other country by paying them next to nothing. my opinions may not have an impact on society because the world only changes when people are self aware and willing to make changes. changes are not easy, most rather just move on and forget whatever that's bothering them. | |
| | mgerst
join:2002-06-06
Saint Louis, MO
| Myself; not a racist - but I do long for the days of tech support that knew what they were doing.
It used to be that I could call tech support, and yes, I may have gotten a young kid that was high as a kite, but they knew how to help you. They kept you calm, worked through your problem (not a script), and you were on your way.
Now it takes always jumping to 2nd tier to get that kind of support.
I have no problems with people from other parts of the world, just the 'training' and knowledge level. Heck, I used to work tech support when I was in college - that's right, I was that stoned kid - and do you think I recieved training? No. Heck no. I had 0 training hours and a little web-based Q&A script to read; we'd run through that script top speed or skip it all together and focus on that individuals problem. Yes, our call times may have been longer, but nearly every customer had their problems solved in one call.
In summation:
Lack of training is no excuse. Find an old used PC and start breaking it and fixing it on your own time. Learn the material - get real world. Have some pride. | |
| | mgerst
join:2002-06-06
Saint Louis, MO | And by the way - you are correct. I know several extremely intelligent engineers whom happen to be indian. I even know a few highly recommended surgeons whom also happen to be indian. | |
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