 Review by BloodRoses 
UPDATED: 40 days ago
member for 6.6 years, 2226 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Worcester,Worcester,MA
 $29 per month (12 month contract)
 about 24 days
 Verizon
 "Low Latency, Consistent"
 "Order to Live Slow, Complicated"
 "Good for the money."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Pre-Sales Information: Pretty good, I knew what speeds my line could handle, what package I wanted, price and contract obligations. I ordered online, but I did call to confirm some information.
Install Coordination: It was otherwise good, but as usual with Verizon the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. I ordered 3.0/768 DSL, but was informed that they had me set for 1.5/384. I had changed this on June 2nd, but upon setting up my account on June 10th, I found my speed was still set for their 1.5/384 tier. Also, they did not send the modem I was expecting (and read they would send off their website) and they got my address wrong (missing apartment number) to top it off.
Edit: It was because of the plan I supposedly got, the one I ordered online was the annual plan which included a Westell 327W, but when it was changed to put me on the 3Mbps tier I ordered, I was put on a "Consumer Plan" and thus received a Westell 2200. Both plans are identical in every way, the only thing that differs are the modems. It makes absolutely no sense to me.
Connection Reliability: I've only had it for a day up until now but so far it's been good, I rated this neutral.
Tech Support: Some of their support staff is very knowledgeable, but you will get someone from India from time to time. Usually the Indian staff are understandable, but some of them you really have to concentrate and if you're lucky you'll understand 2 or 3 words they said and can sort of make out what they're on about... sometimes. Points added for a few that were very helpful, however.
Services: I'm going to rate this neutral because the only service I *really* care about is a good reliable connection, the rest I can care less about with the exception of newsgroups (I may review them further at a later date).
Value For The Money: If I could give this a 4.5 I would, it is definitely cost effective. Even comparing to Comcast, it was 52.95$ even if I had cable for more or less the same upload speed that I have now. Verizon comes out to about the same with a phone line, and I get the added benefit of being able to have a backup dialup account. I also get newsgroup access which (depending how good Verizons servers are) could save me 25$/mo. I was paying Giganews on Comcast. Charter does not offer any similar services so I will not count them, however Charter's newsgroup access is more or less useless.
Okay, and now onto what I said about the good, and the bad. 
The Good
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Low Latency: From my initial testing, I get pings lower than 30ms (averaging approximately 26ms) to the West Coast. In comparison Charter here averages about 60ms to those same servers.
Consistency: I'm not provisioned for what I'm supposed to be at, but testing and retesting comes back at 1505/388kbps every single time. I even tested my download 15 times in a row from the same server and got the same exact result. Beautiful. Hopefully 3.0/768 will be exactly twice as much.
Good Upload: 768kbps for 29.95$ is probably one of the best offers you'll find in the US. Comcast offers the same amount, but at a much stiffer price. Charter offers no such speeds unless you go with business class (5/1 for $399.99).
The Bad
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Order to Live Slow: I ordered DSL on Wednesday, May 18th. My DSL went live on Friday, June 10th. That's 24 days. I'm not the most patient of people, granted. But 24 days is simply unacceptable in my personal opinion. Verizon may argue my phone needed to be installed (which it was Thursday, May 26th), but there were wall plate filters left in the apartment when I moved in leading me to believe a previous customer had DSL and also I was pre-approved for their highest tier. This is still 2 weeks at best after I got my phone line installed. Most cable providers can usually come out within a week, so this is certainly something to work on if they want to be more competitive.
Complicated: This is really just a warning to some that in order to configure the DSL router to work in exactly the way I wanted I did have to spend a bit of time configuring things, and had I not understood how everything works I feel I might have been a bit confused by it. On the other hand, I personally kind of like the complexity of the technology so take this one with a grain of salt.
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Edit 15.06.05: Just a quick update to say I called Monday and have now received the correct modem that I was expecting. They said wait 5 to 6 business days to receive return packaging for the 2200. Still waiting for my speeds to be set to what they should be.
Edit 23.06.05: Still trying to obtain the 3.0/768 service that Verizon and every CLEC I know says I quality for (In fact, I qualify for 7 Megabits!). From what I know of my signal levels they look beautiful, even people on the forums say they do (I had to confirm, just because...). Spoke to someone in MSN support after being transferred around like 7 times (most bureaucratic company I've ever dealt with!). She was finally someone worth talking to, and seems dedicated to getting this fixed. My 30 days are running out and if I don't get the service I'm told I'm able to receive, I'm canceling before I'm bound to a contract. We'll see how things go... by the way Verizon's NNTP Servers are good.
Edit 30.06.05: Yay!! Woke up this morning, reset my router and found I was finally provisioned correctly! Running beautifully using Verizon's "official" infospeed speedtest I get 2842.9Kbits / 355.4KBytes. Upload coming pretty close to what I'm supposed to be at too (using a different test). Good enough for me. Pings still at 26ms to the West Coast. Verizon has just earned themselves a new customer, calling Charter Communications now to tell them where they can go.
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