Review by Ron_Hermione 
UPDATED: 113 days ago
member for 2.2 years, 19 visits, last login: 92 days ago
 Pioneer,Campbell,TN
 $37 per month
 BellSouth
 "Rock Solid And Reliable ISP"
 "NONE"
 "Fantastic"
| Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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I did tech support for almost 3 years and order support for FastAccess for an additional year and a half, so I understand better than many what is required for a reliable DSL connection. Since I have better than average knowledge I am much less likely to have a problem that I cannot get resolved. BellSouth is not a perfect company but I can't complain about the service that they offer. As a former insider of sorts, I have to be fair and say that BellSouth is not the evil company that many would have us believe.
I dared to dream that one day I would finally get DSL and it has finally happened. I am in a rural area but not out in the sticks. As the crow flies, I am about 2 miles from interstate I-75, have city water and am about a mile off the main secondary road, and do not have to travel over gravel roads. But, I am about 65,000 feet from the C.O. in Jellico TN. I am about a mile from the remote terminal that I am connected to. Service was first available in Jellico about 3 years ago, and about a year or so ago, 3 remote terminals were installed in my area, so I knew that it was just a matter of time. I found out on Sunday, April 23 (at Sunday School, from my pastor, of all places and people to first find out about it finally being available.) DSL Lite and DSL Ultra are the current offerings and probably the only offerings that will be available for at least the forseeable future due to my distance from the C.O. So, first thing when I got home, I ordered 1.5 ultra online so that I did not have to deal with sales and also to get all possible rebates and incentives. I was given a due date of June 2.
5/16/2006 @ about 3:00PM
By pure chance, I passed by the remote terminal as the technician was provisioning my order and a few other orders. I talked with and watched the technician for the better part of an hour as he did his job. He was very friendly, polite, and professional, and was much more open with me than I expected. I was pleasantly surprised since I expected him to basically acknowledge me and stop what he was doing until I gave up and left, but that didn't happen. He didn't snub me and he didn't tell me any of BellSouth's deepest, darkest, most proprietary trade secrets: a good compromise IMO. (BellSouth management, if you read this: his last name was Kennedy, based in Lafollette I think, employed since 03/00, a pleasant young man that is an asset to the company). Anyway, I stood by as he provisioned my line, and when finished, I saw the footprint on his meter: full sync rate of 1.472 Mbps, noise margin of about 29dB, and bandwidth usage of about 39%, a 'plumb purty' footprint by any reasonable standard. (About 2 1/2 years ago, lightning knocked out my phone for a couple of days, and after the repair and replacing a fried 56K modem, I have since consistently hooked up at 44-48K, and previously had hooked up at around 28-33K. This tells me that I was put on a new pair)
5/16/2006 about 8:00pm:
I was made aware of a pots problem when I went to a friends house. I had called out after the DSL was provisioned, but my friend was unable to call me--ring but no answer. So I tried, same result. I get the repair service number at the website and call to report the problem about 10:00pm, and the tech confirmed trouble on the line. A repair order was processed, with completion by 6:00pm this evening.
5/17/2006, about 9:00am
Checked the caller ID , nothing on the caller ID for yesterday evening, further confirming a problem. About 9:15, a technician came out to repair. I do not know what the problem was but apparently it is fixed: his test equipment indicated this and when I dialed my own number I got a busy signal. So, as far as I know, all is well.
So, currently my due date is Friday, 2 weeks before the original due date. No wimpy, problematic USB installation of my modem, so I've just installed my network card, I'M READY. It's been a long wait, I repeat, I'M READY for DSL.
I do have a few jitters. I am somewhat concerned that a mismatched pair, bridge tap, or some other as yet undiscovered and unresolvable problem will disqualify me from service, which would be an unimaginably huge letdown and disappointment. I have had BellSouth dialup for a long time now, and it has always been rock solid, super reliable, and screaming fast (for dialup) 44-48K hookups, allowing me to download at the rate of about 5 megabytes per hour. I sooooo long to be able to do things on the net that simply aren't possible with a dialup connection. But DSL is a different animal and right now there are some unknowns, so that's why my bottom line is "Time Will Tell". I will update this review as necessary, hopefully with good news to share, although I will also post fairly on any problems that are encountered. Everyone, please cross your fingers and wish me luck!!
Update added 5/19
5/18/2006 @ about 1:15pm:
UPS delivers modem. I am out of town. No action taken.
5/19/2006 @ about 8:30:
I install filters and plug modem up to NID outside. Modem syncs in a couple of seconds. Good!! No problems yet.
Connect modem, boot up computer. Computer has a hiccup. Netstack is not seeing NIC. Uninstall/reinstall drivers, problem resolved.
Connect modem to computer, surf into modem, enter username and password. Did not install using Installation Wizard CD and don't plan to--I simply do not need it.
Surf around, seems a little sluggish. Downloaded and ran DrTCP, made suggested changes, rebooted. Speed tested at broadband reports. currently hooked up at 1194/203 [149.2 KB/sec. and 25.4 KB/sec., respectively.] Downstream-"That is 54.6% worse than an average user on bellsouth.net". Upstream--"That is 31.4% worse than an average user on bellsouth.net". Trust me, that speed suits me just fine! Do I want even faster speed? Of course!! Do I ever expect to get 3M or 6M down? No, not unless major major major phone line upgrades are made, which won't happen anytime soon, if ever. Then again if, ten years ago, someone had told me I would have city water I would likely have thought them to be off their rocker. So, never say never I suppose.
All is well, so far. Many of my fears are allayed. I will probably still need to make a few tweaks here and there. Good job Bellsouth for finally providing me with something that I had about given up on ever having.
Update added 06/02/06:
No serious problems to report. Connection is rock solid and fast with no loss of sync while being used, although it does OCCASIONALLY get sluggish, which is no problem and is not necessarily the fault of BellSouth. I have not yet had to contact tech support and won't have to unless I have no sync at NID or other no surf issues not due to problems with my computer or phone equi[pment. I am still in the process of rediscovering the internet and sites like IFILM and viral videos that just ain't happening on a dialup connection--I have been on the internet for almost 8 years and only now am I able to take full advantage of everything it offers.
Recent speeds:
5/24 1.168mbps/206kbps [146KB per sec/25.8KB per second]
5/25 1.201mbps/204kbps [150.1KB per sec/25.5KB per second]
6/2 1.175mbps/206kbps [146.9KB per sec/25.5KB per second]
So, with this in mind, I am changing the bottom line from "time will tell" to "so far, so good". I wish to keep going in a positive direction, so hopefully, I will have no major problems.
Updates added 6/19
Speed tests:
6/07 1181/203kbps
6/11 1175/191kbps
6/19 1186/206kbps
It would be nice to get 1500 down, but the speeds I have are consistent and I haven't had any major problems, aside from occasional high latency during peak network usage. Where I'm at, I'm happy to have what I'm getting. But brief periods of excessive latency are to be expected, so no biggie. Maybe at some point I will call tech support and see if anything can be done to tweak my speeds closer to advertised speeds, but that is not a priority right now. Service is still rock solid and stable, bottom line is still "so far, so good"
01/30/2007
It has been a while since I have updated my review, which in this case is a good thing. I did a speed test just a few minutes ago and speed was 1221/216kbps, which is consistent with results of speed tests not posted, as well as those posted.
What can I say? I live in a very rural area and have DSL. I am blessed indeed. I am in trouble if I should ever need to go back to a dial up connection. A few unfortunate friends have no options but dialup, and I absolutely cannot now tolerate it. If I had to use a dialup connection for my net access, I would literally, without a doubt, pull my hair out.
I am past my initial jitters now. That is, fear that DSL would not work out for me, despite being only about a mile from the remote terminal, and I would have to cancel service due to technical issues. Wireless internet through cell service is available, but too expensive, though so far as I know, fairly reliable. DirectPC or HughesNet, or whatever they have currently renamed themselves in an effort to avoid lawsuits and FCC sanctions due to being the overpriced ripoff and consumer unfriendly service that they are????????? ARRRGGGHH!!! NOT EVER, NEVER EVER NEVER EVER GONNA GO THERE, even if it would mean getting stuck with dialup. Anyway, thinking about the God awful reviews of satellite service and the poor people on this site and the people who have been conned and suckered by it is getting my blood pressure up and I digress.
Service has been rock solid since day 1 with NO OUTAGES AT ALL that I am aware of. No connection issues in either my XP or 98SE partition. But then my modem and computer is not on 24/7. And I do not have any of the BellSouth software loaded, software which is notorious for causing problems and conflicts. I set up the connection as ethernet, I surfed into the modem, set up my un and pw, and connected. No unnecessary software overhead slowing things down, no DUN connections to be bothered with, no USB conflicts with devices not playing nice together. Just what is needed, nothing more, nothing less.
Anyway, I have replaced one set of jitters with another. What with the recent BellSouth and A T & T Merger, I am concerned that my service will be messed up or quality and reliability will go into the toilet. Thinking of the Cingular and A T & T Wireless fiasco really makes me nervous. I beg you A T & T, please don't take me for granted ,or otherwise mess me over because I am in a rural area and corporate bigwigs may think the cost of maintaining reliable DSL service for me is not worth the effort. Am I jittery for nothing? I hope so, but we'll see.
12/20/2007
This is an update and no news is good news as they say. My connection is still rock solid, stable, and quick. Speeds are still in the range of 1220 to 1250 down and 210 to 220 up. My computer is not booted up 24/7 and will sometimes go for several days without being turned on. My modem is turned off when the computer is turned off, as I spliced a power switch out of a dead computer power supply into the power connector for my modem, so my modem is not constantly connected to the internet either. Anyway, the point that I am trying to make is that I am only aware of one brief outage since my last update. No problems with email, no problems with anything. What with my location, I feel very fortunate to have 1.5M down DSL and am satisfied with it, though 3 Meg service would be awfully nice. I would absolutely end up smashing my computer off the nearest wall if I should ever have to go back to dial-up any length of time, cause I am not a patient person and would lose it.
Kudos to Bellsouth/A T & T for providing DSL in my low income, rural area 12 miles from the CO.
I plan to post my next update on or around my 2 year anniversary.
04/29/2008, 1:15 a.m.
Well, here is my promised update. All I can think of to say right now is WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW. I was just made aware by a friend that 3 MByte down / 384 KByte up service was available in my area on 4/28 at about 9:00 p.m. About 10:00 p.m., I checked and sure enough both 3 and 6 MB service was available. I will likely order 6 MB down service at some future point. Anyway, for now, I ordered 3 MB service at the AT & T online order gateway as I did not want some ignorant sales Neanderthal monkeying around with by account and screwing something up and causing me to lose my service or submitting an order for something I did not authorize to maximize their commission. Sorry sales, but even though its been 3 1/2 years since I've done tech or order support for DSL, I still haven't forgot the headaches you often cause, so I will never call you for assistance if I can possibly avoid it. Anyway, I am really quite amazed and consider myself fortunate to have internet connection speed that is only a dream for many. Lord help me if I ever have to seriously consider going back to dial-up, cause I think I would pull my hair out. Yep, I guess I am officially spoiled by DSL. They say DSL was not invented for patient people and patience is certainly not one of my virtues. Anyway, about 3 hours later, the order is complete and I am surfing at an average speed of 2913/322. Again, WOW, is all I can think of to say. As I near the 2 year mark with DSL, there have been ZERO problems and only one minor outage that I am aware of. Even endemic copper theft committed by our local meth monkeys and other assorted druggies has not affected my service that I am aware of, so apparently most or all of my service loop is underground or otherwise inaccessible all the way to the c.o. Keep up the great work BellSouth, er, AT &T. The best only get better. The bang for the buck for this service can't be beat.
Followup comments:  
Hayward
K A R - 1 2 0 C
Premium
join:2000-07-13
Key West, FL
edit:
May 20th, @06:31AM
| Glad things have worke out relatively well If it is any consolation, still can't get 6mbs, and 3mbs gets a little flaky now and then, but still always well above 1.5.... maybe dropping to 2.0 on occasion, though upstream always seems to stay above 320.
Then again because I haven't gotten to do rewiring yet... I am still operating off a 2nd stop extension cord from the NID since Wilma, if it hadn't been so bad for the rest of the house/insurance/possessions, probably would have fixed it by now... and almost season again 
--
»haywardm.com (Hayward's Key West)
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|  | Ron_Hermione
join:2006-05-11
Pioneer, TN
 ·AT&T Southeast
| Re: Glad things have worke dout relatively well 3 Meg service would be great, but what I have now is about 50 times faster than what I have been used to, so it's all good. After what folks in your neck of the woods have been through, well, hopefully it won't be bad this year so that you can get a breather. | |
| 
blahdeblah
@adelphia.net
| Glad t hear from another satisfied customer. As a bellsouth employee, I would like to thank you for choosing bellsouth. I won't mention My name or where I work but I am a ADSL Tech. Maybe some day I will have ADSL at my house, but right now I have a cable modem. The only difference that I can see is price (employee discount  ). My connection is 6m from what my cable company tells me but using various speed tests, the fastest
I have tested is about 2900k. Anyway, thats not why I am posting. Its seems that unions have a bad name these days. Not sure why. I know alot of companies blame all their problems on unions. BellSouth is guilty of this. They portray union members as lazy. I would venture to guess that the percentage of union members that could be considered lazy is about the same as those in management or non-union companies. The truth of the matter is that, in my case, If it were not for the union, workers would be Lucky to get paid more than minimum wage to do one of the most dangerous jobs in the country( check the statistics). You may be wondering what is so dangerous about installing ADSL. I can only speak for my area, which includes Jellico TN, but DSL installation is not the only thing I do on a daily basis. I work on and install regular phone lines to. That include climbing poles and hanging wire and clearing cable pairs all in very close proximity to high voltage power lines. Even though OSHA does do minimal policing of telephone companies, it is the union (employees) that keep the job safe. Who better to deem a rope bridge safe than the man about to walk across it. I know I am rambling, but I say all this to get to this point. The problem in bellsouth is not "lazy" union employees. From my vantage point, the problem is mainly in our engineering department (management). Basically we have a bunch of people with a certificate on the wall and no knowledge of how telephone lines work making the important decisions. They may know what a cable pair looks like on paper but that is about as far as their knowledge can take them. Bellsouth has adopted a policy of hiring management employs out of college. No longer are people with experience in the telecommunications industry promoted to positions within management. As long as one has a degree (does not matter what kind i.e. business management, home decorating, dog grooming) and is fresh out of college, they are a prime candidate for employment in bellsouth management. This leads to another minor problem that I see from my vantage point. Since ADSL was first deployed, remote sites have been placed according to where the money resides. Demand for DSL service has never been taken into account. Remote sites have most commonly been placed to feed high dollar sub-divisions. Typically, people who live in these areas are of retirement age and have no use for the service. The demand for ADSL is in the working class communities. These are mostly younger people who have grown up with or been around computers for some time. I have saw this happen more than you would like to know. And when the company does place a remote site in a lower class community by mistake, they cannot understand why the service sells so quickly that all ports are in use before another self can be added to the site. One of the state planner's (Over paid engineer) actually said to me, "How can these people afford ADSL? There is not a car there thats less than 5 years old?" Many times I have tried to explain this, and many times it has fallen on deaf ears.
I didn't realize I had this much to say. Please forgive me.One more thing, I miss the days of Client Logic, at least you guys could speak english. | |
| | Ron_Hermione
join:2006-05-11
Pioneer, TN
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: Glad t hear from another satisfied customer. You sure gave several points to ponder and I concede the point that perhaps I was overly harsh about some points. I think that one reason unions have a bad rap is because of union executives abusing the system and living "high on the hog" at the expense of dues paying members. Another reason, from personal experience: management too often controls the unions. A few years back I worked at Kroger and when management said jump, the union was ready to ask how high. I was the victim of "dirty pool" by a vindictive manager who had a vendetta against me for reasons that were unknown to me then and still are ten years later. As a result, I was demoted from cashier to courtesy clerk and the union did NOTHING to help me, so as a result of the bad taste that experience left in my mouth, I don't have much use for unions. The employees I was mainly referring to were billing, which were about the most useless bunch of idiots I have ever had the misfortune of having to work with. As far as employees being dedicated to their jobs and doing the best jobs they know how, you are right: the majority of you are, but a few bad apples spoil the whole barrel, unfortunately. What about all the installer appointments cancelled for no discernible reason? There were lots and lots of them, and almost all of them were correctly scheduled using published company policy, yet there were a lot of cancellations: I know because I worked the project for several months that tracked appointment cancellations and hopefully the installers improperly cancelling appointments were pinpointed and dealt with. Your right about most management types: they don't have a clue about the jobs that they are supposed to be managing, which is why a top-down management philosophy is bad for all concerned. The competent employees capable of management work their way up: the cream always rises to the top. You are certainly correct about the discriminatory nature of ADSL rollout, which is why I never held much hope that I would ever have it. As for Client Logic: I miss the people I worked with, but I'll never miss Client Logic. Client Logic seems to have fallen on hard times and I guess I really shouldn't say more. | |
| anthony9820
join:2001-02-15
Pensacola, FL | merger! remember belfore we start bad mouthing AT&T, it is not the same AT&T we are all used to. SBC has bought out AT&T and then took the AT&T name. So we are really talking about SBC not the old AT&T. | |
| | Ron_Hermione
join:2006-05-11
Pioneer, TN
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: merger! Good point, but which managers will be retained during the merger downsizing? And what is their business philosophy and attitude towards customers. These are key points that will determine quality of service in the coming months and years, and since DSL is an unregulated service, we are limited in the recourse that we have when there are problems. Smart executives know which side their bread is buttered on and will do whatever it takes within reason to take care of their customers, keep them happy, and grow their business. Word of mouth is the best advertising a company gets, and it is free advertising. When a company doesn't value it's customer's, unregulated service is a license for robbery. Another reason that I am jittery about the merger is that less competition means less incentive to care about quality of service. I don't mean to bad mouth A T & T for no reason, and hopefully I have no reason to be concerned. Some people are too quick to use the poison pen (cursor, in this instance) without doing all they can to resolve any problems. A lot of the problems prompting unfair reviews in this forum seem to be caused by correctable problems, such as a phone or other device on the line shorting out or improperly connected. I know from my years of technical support, that if there is a flaky or improperly connected analog device on the line, including (but not limited to) too many phones and filters, or an improperly isolated or configured alarm system, there will be no end to problems and DSL will not work reliability. And, to be fair, some customers would not be satisfied if an A T & T employee came to their house every morning and booted up their computers, made them coffee, served them breakfast in bed, and ran their bath. For that small minority, the grass is always greener elsewhere, and they live to cause trouble every chance they get. I guess one reason my service has been trouble free--I understand the nature of the DSL beast better than most and what is required to make it work as intended, and also how to troubleshoot problems that do arise. I am not hard to please. Just give me what I pay for and value for my money and I am satisfied. As I said in my previous post, we'll see. Anyway, I ramble a bit, but I made my point. I think... | |
| kcir60
Premium
join:2007-02-02
Fort Lauderdale, FL
|  AT&T's not so great service!!!
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