 Review by Drex 
member for 11.9 years, 5430 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 3.8 years ago
 La Place,St John The Baptist,LA
 $51 per month about 18 days BellSouth "Great speeds..." "None really." "Fast, Reliable, Excellent."
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
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Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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After almost a year of patiently waiting, my phone line finally became
"prequalified" for BellSouth's Fastaccess ADSL. I placed the order on
August 2 and initially requested the Speedstream USB modem. Then after
reading some of the posts on DSLReports, I called back the following day
and had it changed to the PCI modem. They also told me a tentative date
of Aug. 17 to be up and running with ADSL.
On Aug. 17 a BS Tech came out and checked out my line. He said I was
good to go. Don't know the distance as I wasn't home to ask him any
questions. I then called BellSouth to find out what was next and they
told me a new date of Aug. 22. So, I just waited some more and low and
behold on the 22nd I got my modem.
Install was fairly easy. My registration number was wrong, but I just
hacked at it and figured it out. I was up and running in about 2 hours.
Initial speed test showed me at approximately 600Kb down and 220Kb up.
I applied the tweaks and jumped up to 1200Kb down and 220Kb up. Very
nice...
I've been up and running for approximately 2 weeks. This past weekend
there was an outage that lasted almost the entire weekend. It started
Friday around 4:00 in the evening. I called Fastaccess, was on hold
for almost 3 hours, and NEVER TALKED TO A LIVING PERSON. I hung up.
Next morning it was still down so I called again. Hold time was no more
than 15 minutes. After trying all the normal things they have you do, I
still could not get sync. They put me in the line test queue. Took
about 30 minutes to get this test run and turns out they were having
problems with the server in my area. No estimated time it would be
fixed. Great! My DSL was up and down the whole weekend (mostly down).
For the most part, I'm happy with BellSouth's Fastaccess. I can't
complain about the pings I get to some of my favorite CounterStrike
servers. I think there is definitely room for improvement (especially
with their newsgroups, email, and tech support). As with everything,
when it's working it's great. If this is your only option for
broadband, take it. It's definitely worth the money.
Drex
Update---1/26/01
It's been almost 6 months since I got Fastaccess. During this time I've had a total of 3 outages. One lasted an entire weekend and the others were insignificant (back up in a few hours or overnight). This service has been excellent. I'm getting consistant 1200 down and 220 up. The NG's still aren't anywhere close to other ISP's, but that's nothing a public NG couldn't take care of. Also I've had problems when trying to check my mail. Sometimes I won't be able to connect to the mail server.
I've recommended this service to a few of my friends and they enjoy it very much as well. I haven't had to use tech support very much, so I can't really comment on that.
Drex:
Update---11/14/01
I have had maybe 1 outage in the past year. Excellent service, great speeds, and web email. I love my Fastaccess connection and couldn't do without it. They have gotten better and better as time goes on.
Drex:
Update--08/02/02
Service has been flawless. I can't remember the last time I had an outage or a problem. Speeds are still rock solid at 1200+/220+. I couldn't be happier with BellSouth.
Update--01/02/04
New Year...New Update.
BellSouth DSL has been awesome. I could switch to a faster cable connection, but with the stability I have had with BS DSL, there's no reason for me to switch. Plus I like my email address. Rumors are flying around about BS offering higher speeds in 2004. I hope those higher speeds don't come with higher price tags. Most people look for most bang for their buck. It would not be a smart thing to have higher prices for the same bandwidth as other companies out here. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Update--01/03/05
My yearly update.
Bellsouth rolled out their upgraded package this past year. New speeds are 3.0Mb down and 384Kb up. As soon as it became available to me, I upgraded. Of course this upgrade came with a cost which I was not too happy about. I see other cable companies upping their speeds without a cost increase to the customer.
Another thorn in Bellsouth's side is this "Cost Recovery Fee" they started to implement. It's not a "tax", but they feel they need to impose it anyway. This ticked me off to the point where I was ready to switch ISPs. However, after having cable Internet installed in my home and not being able to even surf, I fell back to Bellsouth. Not happy about the extra charge, but want a reliable and stable Internet connection.
When doing speed tests, I get between 2100kb/s and 2300kb/s. However when doing a file download, IE reports the full 3Mb/s speeds.
During '04 I can't recall one single outage. Most of my connectivity problems have been with my router.
I'm content with BellSouth as I have tried other local ISPs with not so good results. I'm knocking the "Value for Money" down a notch because of this "Cost Recovery Fee". I'm tired of paying these "fees" just because they can charge me.
Update 09/22/2007
Finally BellSouth (now AT&T) got rid of their "Cost Recovery Fee". Thanks for removing something that never should have been there.
The only complaint I have is the speeds. AT&T has a 6.0MB tier, but has yet to roll it out to my neighborhood. It is available in my town, just not in my section of town. Since I'm served by a remote DSLAM only two streets over, I don't see why I they can't offer it to me. Meanwhile our local cable company is offering speeds over 6.0MB for roughly the same price.
I do have to give them kudos as my DSL was up and running two days after Katrina. I was lucky enough to have power very quickly after Katrina and my DSL was working without a problem. Great job on that.
Update 04/16/08
AT&T's 6.0Mb service finally became available to me, so I signed up. I get near 6Mb service and sometimes beyond that...it really just depends on where I'm downloading from. Reliability has been very stable for the most part. I have had an issue with my phone service which has caused my DSL service to be interrupted. It was intermittent and very difficult to diagnose, but I think the issue has been resolved. I've been very happy with my DSL from BellSouth (AT&T). I haven't seen any major issues (Long outages) in well over a year, maybe longer.
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