 Review by Packeteers 
member for 7.8 years, 3249 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 1.1 years ago
 Forest Hills,Queens,NY
 $40 per month- (12 month contract)
 about 7 days Verizon "Reliable Availability, Speed, FastPath Latency, Low Packet Loss" "All Verizon Employees will pass the buck every time if you let them" "definitely worth trying the first Month free in hopes they get it right"
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(ratings match consensus)
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Original Install: I was one of Verizon's first $30/mo customers for my area back in 2004 and had to suffer a lot of their growing pains. the problems reached it's worst at the summer'05 when I finally complained consistently to Verizon that there were problems with my phone wires to the CO (less than a mile away) and poor routing from the CO to the CLEC. Once I got past a few Tier-1 idiots, I finally found a Tier-3 tech who confirmed all my packet loss issues. They changed my pairs and routing over a few days time, and ever since then I've had nothing but rock solid performance and speed during this past year. So all is forgiven, and I don't hesitate to recommend this service to others. I even sold several other friends and relatives in other areas of Queens on getting Verizon this past year, and not a single one got back to me with any complaints thus far. I sometimes find their DNS a bit sluggish, so I supplement that by using TreeWalk.
Dry Loop Update: I went "naked" in March'07 and migrated my POTS line phone number to another wireless carrier. Months later when I noticed my DSL speed and latency were deteriorating, I inadvertently found out the people who moved me from POTS to Dry Loop screwed it up, and they would have to migrate my account to a new phone number. Sounds like a clerical problem right? but instead I suffered 2 weeks of bouncy intermittent service, then I was totally cut off twice for a week at a time while Verizon twice tried to migrate me over to a new phone number.
I had to spend 600 minutes on my cell phone with tech, billing, sales, and even service cancellation counselors to get them to clean up this mess. I finally had to camp out at the employee entrance of the Verizon CO and catch a DSL cross connect tech on his way back from lunch, and bribe him with a box of doughnuts, in order to get someone to finally straighten out this Verizon created debacle that same day. As I update this my DSL is rock solid with 8 hops to Yahoo and zero dropped packets all day. Now I have to go back and waste another 100 minutes making sure they don't charge me extra to reconnect me twice, and hopefully get credit for the Month of service I was unable to enjoy.
Best advice: take nothing for granted! follow up a day or two later on all customer service related calls to make sure the person you originally spoke to didn't just pay you lip service and pass the buck to the person you are now calling back.
2010 Update: I've gone 2 years without any line problems since going Dry Loop. They recently lowered the Monthly 3.0/768 charge from $40 to $30 (you have to call them to start the lower rate) so I could not be happier. 7.0 is available for my line, but I'm satisfied with 3.0 even while streaming vuze, game playing, etc. I'm using public 4.2.2.3 and 4.2.2.5 as my DNS, since Verizon's own DNS can be annoying when you get a URL wrong. I'm using a magicJack for a voice phone, so I don't miss my POTs line at all. When over air TV went DTV - I got a $10(-rebate) box, so now I enjoy my own "triple play" for a bit over $30 per Month thanks to Verizon. I just hope they don't yank my copper once FiOS come here, because there is no way I'm going to spend >$100/mo for stuff I can obviously live without.
2011 Update: other than being pissed at Verizon for raising my rate over $40/month for the same old 3.0 aDSL using the same old modem, who's activity probably costs them nearly zero per month to provide - I continue to be satisfied with my connectivity. I came close to switching to TimeWarner, then I realized I watch so much TV content now on my PC, that getting basic cable TV with broadband would be pointless. It's nearly 2012 and still no FiOS in my dense suburban area despite contracting with NYC it should have been built by now.
2012 Update: I signed for another year after struggling every day for a week with billing and tech support to upgrade me from 3.0 aDSL FastPath on my old Westell 2200 to 7.0 aDSL-2+ FastPath on a new Westell 7500 (which includes a 802.11g WiFi) on my 4,000' clean copper pair to the CO.
$40/mo is not competitive for my area, since I can get 10.0 speed from TWCable broadband($30/mo) and 30.0 speed from TWCable wideband($50/mo) around the same price, but once Verizon actually provisioned a 7.0/.768 low latency FastPath service, I decided to stay with quaLity (low Latency) over quaNTity (higher Speed).
with Verizion shifting it's business focus away from aging DSL and further delayed FiOS build out, over to the more profitable wireless business this year, I sure do hope I don't get stuck with any more headaches now that my speed upgrade is stable. If you don't see any updates after January, you can assume my latest upgrade is stable and keeping me happy despite the premium cost.
March'2012 Epilogue: After a long struggle, and trying out TWCable in my area, I decided to terminate my aDSL service here before getting locked into another year with Verizon. I'm happy now that I made the switch, and would advise anyone with TWCable broadband/wideband service in your area to try them out for a Month (no contract 30day money back on install), as you are definitely missing out on far better service often for less money than I was paying Verizion - who seems to have all but given up on the aDSL market.
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