Review by Bob61571 
UPDATED: 132 days ago
member for 1.6 years, 689 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Washington,Tazewell,IL
 $34 per month (12 month contract)
 Verizon (ex GTE)
 "Fixed big 327W problems thru DSLR"
 "Bad online support documentation, third world support. Midwest waiting years for FiOS (only 240 miles away)"
 "Fairly reliable 3Mbps/768 connection for $34/month, better than Dial up"
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Have 3Mbps/768 DSL from Verizon DSL. Part of a hard wire POTS bundle. All done online, never had a truck roll here.
Speed tests usually around 2.8Mbps down, and 600 kbps up.
Live in a metro area, 10 minutes from world headquarters for a Fortune 50 multinational corporation. No fiber choices available(though in 2000, the old Williams Communications installed a major cross country dark fiber line within 1/4 mile). Local options are 3/768 Verizon DSL, or Comcast. No 7.1 Verizon available here. Wow, what a choice!
Aug 2008-Had major problems w/Westell 327W gateway. Found that Verizon kept updating firmware to 4.4.3 every day. That firmware caused 327W to continually reboot every 20 seconds. I kept rolling it back to previous copy of firmware. Finally, could not roll it back any more. After weeks of trying to solve problem w/third world Verizon support , I discovered "Verizon Direct" here on DSLReports. "Verizon Direct" replaced 327W with a Westell 7500. Works fine now.
Major gripe: Entire Central Illinois area(Peoria, Bloomington/Normal, Champaign/Urbana, Decatur, etc.) is being ignored by Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse. The only Midwest Verizon FiOS is in Ft. Wayne(and 2 suburbs), Indiana. That's 240 miles away. Central Illinois used to be a major part of GTE, with a regional HQ. Now, we're the forgotten stepchildren. No AT&T U-Verse in Illinois yet(as of March 2009) either, outside of Chicago area.
Comcast took over area from Insight Communications in Jan. 2008, during swap of Central/Northern Illinois 50/50 partnership. Comcast has quickly earned a bad reputation, throughout this new territory.
Verizon rarely advertises their DSL here, and has poor customer communications. Poor/outdated online support. Website frequently does not have correct local information. Bundles not always available here. Have to read DSLR to find any Verizon news/info.
Thought that Verizon execs had stated in 2008, that they had ignored DSL customers, over FiOS. And, that they would devote more resources to their DSL. If so, have not seen it yet.
November 2009 update - -
1) As of June/July 2009, AT&T U-Verse has officially launched in SOME parts of these Central Illinois towns: Champaign-Urbana, Danville, Decatur, and Springfield.
2)June/July 2009 - Verizon caused 7 week delay in street construction in Washington, IL. They failed to promptly relocate their underground phone lines to allow for expanded street/storm sewer work. They also caused an 8 week street construction delay in nearby Morton, IL, by failing to relocate underground phone lines there.
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