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Review by rihtard 
member for 11.2 years, 9 visits, last login: 11.1 years ago
lodged 11.2 years ago
 Sugar Land,Fort Bend,TX
 $50 per month- (12 month contract)
 about 6 days AllTel "Mediocre ping times playing RPG's" "Bad tech support, Bad line speed" "MyLinuxISP.com sounds like a better choice for all of you peeps in Sugar Land"
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*Update* 3/16*
Since we signed a 1 year contract with Alltel there was no way to get out of it.. well i email MyLinuxISP.com and within 15 minutes later i received a responce from them saying that you CAN get out of it. I went to there site and saw, 1.5Mb Down/ 256Kb Up - $45.00, my dad pays 50 a month for HALF of that.
When AllSnail DSL first came to Sugar Land we signed on. Well we were promised UP TO 1.5 MBps but we only get max 650 KBps for $49.99 a month, and we'd only have to pay like $20.00 a month, not $50. For -good- speeds you have to stay up at like 3 am to get to 600 KBps which is pathetic. Avoid Alltel, go with MyLinuxISP.com . We had to buy a router since there were more than 1 computer being connected but we got a free Cisco modem.
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Review by seananewton
member for 11.4 years, 8 visits, last login: 10.7 years ago
updated 11.3 years ago
- Shepherdsville,Bullitt,KY
- $49 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 14 days
- AllTel
- CLEC party: AllTel
- "Service has yet to go completely down."
- "Service is nearly unusable, My dialup from IgLou.com was much faster. :("
- "Not worth my time or money."
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I ordered Alltel.net's DSL in June of 2001. I had my modem within 48 hours (They shipped it UPS Red) and I thought that was a good sign of things to come. My service turned up before the due date and it was pretty zippy.. Not exactly 768/128, but I knew better than to expect that. Over time though, the service has slowed down considerably. My ping times are so high that I can not play online games and I was downloading last night at 2.47kB/s solid.. Sometimes I get up to 25kB/s and I count my blessings when I'm that lucky. On most evenings I can surf the web, but it takes a long time for pages to come up and generally is frustrating.
Late in June, I sent an email asking about the slowness. I was told that they were working to add capcity to the network at the end of 3rd quarter 2001 and that if my slowness continued, to contact them.
So in December of 2001, I contacted them again. Very detailed e-mail with all the information they might need. I never got a response for this email. So two days ago, (1/13/02) I sent the same email again, saying that I never got a reply.
This time a got a form letter reply saying that slowness is probably related to certain sites on the internet and that there was no guarantee.
THE PROBLEM IS **NOT** WITH THE INTERNET. IT'S THAT YOUR CONNECTION TO THE INTERNET IS BEYOND IT'S CAPACITY
I weep for my contract to end. 
Speed Ordered: 768/128
No Static IP's, PPPoA using a Cisco 678 cpe modem/router
Updated: 2002.02.21
I would like to say that over the last month, my service has improved. I have seen in the upwards of 650k downloads (not bad on a 768 line) and ~100k uploads. I am much happier with my service now. I have not tried to play any online games, but overall my latency seems much lower.
Updated: 2002.07.30
Service remains to be solid. I have not had any real problems with the DSL lately.
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Review by Busie23
member for 11.4 years, 50 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
lodged 11.4 years ago
- Richfield,Summit,OH
- $49 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 20 days
- AllTel
- CLEC party: AllTel
- "Tech support is great, modem is easy to set up"
- "Coordination is terrible, connection reliability is terrible"
- "Would maybe be worth the money if I could 85% of the advertised speed all the time"
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I was very excited to be able to get broadband in my area but it has been a big headache thus far. When its working well its pretty cool but that has probably only been a few hours worth of surfing so far. Majority of the time has been slower than Dial up.
I first inquired in the beginning of November when I received a mailer about the DSL service now available. I called right away and was told that they needed to do a line check and that I would receive a call back in 2-3 days. That call never came after a week so I called again and was told that they never placed the line check in the system and that I would here something in a day or two. Again, nothing after a week so I called again and was told that they were busy since it was just rolled out in my area. I let a few more days go by and still heard nothing. By this time my Boss had already signed his contract and was waiting for DSL to get installed so he gave me the number of the lady who set up their account.
I contacted her and my line was checked within two days. Finally, someone who could get something done competently! She emialed the contract over and I had it signed and back to them on the 12th of December. It only took a month to get the contract signed?
I received a reply on the 17th stating that the DSL would be installed on the 20th and that I should receive the modem prior to that day. Well, I was going out of town on the night of the 20th so I figured I could at least get it set up before I left. Well no one showed up on the 20th, nor did the modem. Big surprise! I called home on the 21st and was told that an installer was out and said that the DSL was on and that he would check the modem, but we still didn't have the modem? He was as puzzled as my dad as to why the modem never showed.
Finally the modem decides to show up on the 24th, but no one at my house wanted to try the install so I would have to wait until I get back from my trip to get everything fired up.
I returned on the 29th and had the modem set up and ready to go but wasn't receiving any transmission. I figured out that the installer never converted our second line into our first so we could get rid of the second phone line. I was told that this would be no problem and that it would be taken care of when I signed the contract. At least they still left the second line on so we could use our pc and old dial up AOL junk in the meantime.
I ran a 50 ft cord through the house to our first line but still no DSL? Apparently, our username and password were never entered into the database and I would have to wait until a weekday to talk to someone who could update that info. Luckily, they were in the office on the 31st and my ino was updated. I had to wait an hour before I could try logging in but when I fired it up I had DSL running finally.
I called to get the lines swicthed around on the 3rd but no one could undestand what I wanted done? It was really a simple request: get rid of second line, make it the same as the first line so we can have DSL in our computer room, but no one in customer service could undertstand. A ticket was placed in the system and that went unanswered for sevral days. But our second line was turned off so we couldn't even dial up anymore? I had enough and went out to the box on the house and switched the lines myself, and finally had DSL in the computer and could get rid of the trip wire running through the house.
Initial speeds were about 400/108 for 768/128 advertised, but some help from the tweakers took care of that and got it upto 653/108, but that didn't last long. Only about one night and they went back to 400's for a few days and then I lost service on the night of the 10th. From 6pm on the 10th, Thursday, until the morning of Satuday I had no DSL. When it was finally back up I wsa doing about 20/20 for all of Saturday until late Sunday morning when the speeds went back up to the 653's. But Come Sunday afternoon I'm back down to 48/40? You would think they could fix a cut fiber cable quicker than that, but who knows? They better get some more bandwith laid quick or I'm swicthing to cable ASAP. At least I was told that they have plans for updating the whole area with fiber, but that will take months. I'm sure Adelphia will oversell the area just as bad but I will probably do better than 48/40? I would think that a town that only has about 60 people hooked up would be getting decent speeds but what do I know.
I called to cancel my ticket for the installer to swicth our lines around and what do you know he shows up anyways. My other ticket to check line speed went unanswered for 9 days. I wish they could actually provide service since I'm paying more money and getting speeds that are slower than dial up? Alltel need to get it in gear. Also, no static IP at the lower speeds.
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Review by wfox9
member for 11.8 years, 108 visits, last login: 2.9 years ago
updated 11.6 years ago
- Louisville,Jefferson,KY
- $49 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 14 days
- AllTel
- CLEC party: AllTel
- "Received router kit on the day my service started (14 days from order)"
- "Have never been able to achieve the 768/128 I contracted for"
- "Dependable, but slow line speeds :-("
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THIS REVIEW IS FOR ALLTEL
I contracted for 768/128 but the most I've been able to achieve is 524/108. Normally I get 324/96. My speeds have been as slow as 58/46. Download speed drops dramatically when uploading.
I signed a 2 year contract, but I guess I can't really complain much, because Alltel was the only ISP I could get Adsl service for in this area. I didn't need their tech support during setup, other than to complain about my speed. They blew me off with "There is normally an 80% drop due to line loss and network congestion."
I live in a close proximity of the phone companies switching station and had a really good connection on my old 56k modem account, so I think I can rule out the line loss deal. I've tweaked my Rwin and get good test results, just lousy speeds.
I have not been knocked offline since I did the install (3 days now and running) so I guess their service could be rated as dependable, but their speeds suck.
Update: I get close to 600/120 during weekdays, speed drops dramatically in the afternoons and nights to the 50-60/40-50 range. Seems like they just haven't allocated enough bandwidth for the customers that they have.
Update: After being online for 2 weeks, it seems like someone at Alltel finally got the message and added a little bandwidth. I seem to be getting 550-625/104-110 pretty consistantly now. Thanks, whoever was responsible for it.
Update 10/30/2001 I guess somebody read my last update.... The speed is beginning to suck again and I have to re-sync 2 or 3 times a day. It's a good thing you guys at Alltel don't do this for a living, you'd starve to death
If Bell-South was available in my area, or should we say, when Bell-South is available in my area, you will lose at least one customer.
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Review by octothorpe
member for 12.3 years, 80 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago
updated 11.7 years ago
- Murrysville,Westmoreland,PA
- $49 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 15 days
- AllTel
- CLEC party: AllTel
- "pretty close to none"
- "Moronic support staff, scary hick-redneck repair people, no follow up to problems"
- "Aaargh!"
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>>I've left my earlier comments in but if you want the current story read my newer comments at the bottom.
I've had a pretty positive experience with alltel's ADSL. I called to order it and after talking with a moderately intelegent sales person, I agreed to a year-long contract and they would sell me a CISCO 667 router for $100, a good deal, and ADSL for $49.00 a month. A couple of weeks later they shipped me a kit with the router, some phoneline filters, a couple of 100BaseT cables, and serial admin cable and a disk with a little setup application for the router. All I had to do was plug things together, run the little app in windows, and they call them to tell them to turn me on, which they did while I waited on line and it worked.
I like that there is not PPPoE drivers to install, I just use regular TCP/IP networking, and it works with Windows and Linux, and I'm sure it work with anything else with a TCP/IP stack as your local host does not even know about the DSL, it just knows that the router acts as the DHCP server. I'm a software developer and I know how to set things up so maybe other people would have a harder time with Alltel ADSL but I've been really happy with it.
***Follow up 3/30/01- I am in the process of buying a condo and wanted to find out if I could move my DSL service to my new place so I called Alltel thinking that they would know if it was available in the new area. Well either I'm dumb or they are but the answer I got was, "we think so." I allowed that I was hoping for a liitle more definitive answer so they said that they would talk to the "technical people" and call me back with a better answer. Well they called me back and said, "we're pretty sure." So I have no idea whether or not I will have DSL next month. wish me luck.
***More Follow up 6/21/2001 - Moved into my new place last month and have had no end of problems with the DSL connection: Slow speeds, high pings, down for days at time. I am very unhappy and ready to call Adelphia and see about Cable modems. The repair people are idiots, the support people do nothing, no one ever calls me back, it's truely the worst customer experience I've ever been through. They keep saying that they are going to try to fix my line but nothing ever gets better.
***Follow up 9/28/01 - Well after months of dropped connections, useless fixes, hours on hold, talks with friendly but clueless support people, my service started worked flawlessly! I haven't had as much as minute downtime in a month. Why did it just start working after months of problems? I don't know, and I'm sure that Alltel doesn't either. Oh, well I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope this is perminent.
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Review by sync9
member for 12 years, 29 visits, last login: 3.1 years ago
lodged 11.7 years ago
- Sugar Land,Fort Bend,TX
- Contract price not specified.
- (24 month contract)
- AllTel
- CLEC party: AllTel
- "None"
- "Inaccurate information, uninformed."
- "Avoid Alltel."
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********************
*** Update*** Today 9/13/2001 I received (get ready for this) a 900Mhz telephone! Even better this is the exact day that I was supposed to receive my DSL modem from Alltel. Even better, I was assured several times that all shipments have been canceled from Alltel and I should not receive my DSL modem since I canceled before the contract even began. Hmm I honestly do not recall ordering a phone since I already own three in my house and they are all perfectly suited for my use.
So hypothetically if I did keep my order I would have in fact received: One 900Mhz telephone instead of the DSL modem that was ordered for me... Now I have the headache of clearing up another Alltel mess...
********************
First of all it took over 3 weeks for Alltel to verify a loopback test. Each time I was
told to call back in a week and they would know more at that time. The third time I called (3rd week) they said I did qualify and that I should get a call saying when the service was availble. On fourth call I was connected directly to a DSL service rep who said that all I needed to do was place an order. After finding this out I realized that I probably would have saved 1.5 weeks if I was connected to the DSL sales department in the first place.
While I spoke with the DSL service rep, I learned about Alltel's DSL service and was going over the different plans available for bandwidth speed and access types. A previous review posted here correctly listed all the options and rates so I will not need to cover them here. After placing the order for a tier access I liked, I was told I would have to wait another 10 days before DSL would be available and Alltel will ship the modem to me. This is now totaling over 4 weeks of waiting.
What I do wish to have clearly covered on how I was told there were no penaltites for canceling the contract. On _three_ seperate occasions I clearly asked that there were no penaltities for the contract the service rep spoke about. I even further illistrated the point by drawing out that if I go with a 2 year contract they would wave the DSL modem cost and that again there would be no penality fees. I was again assured that there will be no penality fees.
I felt fairly satisfied that I had covered all the bases but I still had a nagging feeling about how the service rep kept stressing "contract". I have been with other dial up and broad band service providers before and usually when the word "contract" appears then there will be penaltites.
After thinking further about on the following day (Sunday) I decided to call and speak with another service rep to make sure that I was not off base about the services offered by Alltel. I decided to call the number listed on the website under Alltel's DSL section and this is what happened:
I called the 1888 9alltel number that was listed as the number to call for DSL access and I was told that highspeed Internet access was no longer available. After further checking and explaining to the service rep how suddenly broadband acess was suddenly not available, the Service Rep was able to redirect me with 800 899 0449 number that was supposed to be a direct dial. I then was connected to another Service Rep and he then explained to me that this is NOT the number for DSL access. Also the same Service Rep could not even verify the number I called to reach him to see if I was misdirected to the wrong number. He then offered another number 1 800 888 8523. After dialing this number I received a fast busy tone.
To say the least I was shocked at the lack of organization that Alltel has displayed. Based upon the experience I received, I must decline from subscribing to Alltel Internet service or even recommending it to another customer on this single day experince alone.
The following day (Monday) I called the number that was given during my order and promptly canceled my order placed with Alltel. Even further, I received the "contract" in the mail from Alltel and in a full bold paragraph at the bottom on the first page, it clearly stated the penlaity fees associated with a one or two year contract. In short the two year contract that I opted for, if I canceled with only a few months use, I would be fined $200 plus be required to ship back the DSL modem or incur another $99 fee. Even if I had less than one year I would still owe a $100 penality fee and $99 for the DSL modem, again unless I shipped the modem back to them.
To say the least I felt very angry that such information with _not_ given to me during my orginal order. Even further I felt this was borderline deceptive. I have been in the computer industry for over 15 years and have used many ISP's over the years. If it was not for my nagging feeling about why Alltel kept using the term contract vs subscription - I would be a very angry new Alltel customer at this moment.
Before subscribing to any ISP check around as much as possible and see what other customers think about the service. I did and even then I was almost boxed into Alltels "contract".
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Review by lfd2311
member for 11.8 years, 31 visits, last login: 10.5 years ago
lodged 11.8 years ago
- Lewisville,Forsyth,NC
- $49 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 10 days
- "NONE"
- "Alltel is the only DSL/ISP combo I can use here-no choice DOWN ALOT!!!!!"
- "STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go with Road runner"
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When I decided to get high speed I had 2 choices Alltell DSL and Road Runner Cable. In order to connect mutiple comupters with cable I would need an IP address for each machine, and each IP cost $10 a mo. Cable is faster around here but at some point in time I think the shared bandwidth will bite them. I chose DSL because I can hook multiple computers through a hub and have 1 IP adress. I called Alltel to set up the order and the sales guy was very nice but was not a wealth of info (an order taker). He told me the service would be instaled on a friday and the router would be delivered before this. On Thursday (the day before I was told the service would start) I called tech support to find out where the router was. I was told that I was not sceduled to be hooked up utill Monday (3 days later than I was promised) when I protested I was informed they were to busy to get it hooked up untill monday and I would recive the router then. When that monday arrived I hooked up the router and was online in no time ( the router came ready to go with all the info in). One thing I really hate is I HAVE TO USE Alltel as my ISP. But DSL beats the daylights out of dial up and the service has been very good since it got hooked up. I have called Tec suppert a couple of times and they are great!
UPDATE 8-29-01
ALLTEL IS DOWN FOR THE 4TH TIME IN 9 DAYS. I CALLED TEC SUPPORT AND THEY SAID NC & SC WERE DOWN SO I CANCELED THE SERVICE TODAY. I ALSO CALED ROAD RUNNER AND SIGNED UP. I WILL REVIEW THEM WHEN THE TIME COMES.
IF YOU WANT HIGH SPEED INTERNET THAT WORKS STAY AWAY FROM ALLTELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Review by lordxero
member for 12.3 years, 570 visits, last login: 4.7 years ago
updated 11.8 years ago
- Live Oak,Suwannee,FL
- $50 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 100 days
- "Nice speed"
- "packet loss"
- "they're alright"
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before ive had some major problems, but now they are smoothed out, I suppose
just get major packet loss
I hope this gets fixed!
Leonard
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Review by splash4500
member for 11.4 years, 2 visits, last login: 11.4 years ago
lodged 11.8 years ago
- Lincoln,Lancaster,NE
- $65 per month
- (24 month contract)
- AllTel
- CLEC party: AllTel
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This company was purchased by Alltel. You don't get anywhere near the
bandwidth you should get for a $65.00 a month DSL connection. The
contract is for two years, I purchased the Cisco 675 router and can't
even access it to fine tune. The tech support is absolutely worthless
and the bandwidth continues to get worse. Unfortunately, our options
in Lincoln are kinda limited. Will be looking into RoadRunner
(Time Warner cable), as a possible alternative.
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Review by woodman88
member for 11.8 years, 17 visits, last login: 11.8 years ago
lodged 11.8 years ago
- Mount Washington,Bullitt,KY
- $50 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 14 days
- AllTel
- CLEC party: AllTel
- "They act like they care????"
- "Their service sucks"
- "SLOW, SLOW, SLOW"
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I have been using Alltell ADSL services for 4 months now and it has been nothing but TROUBLE! Slow from the get go. I called and they said will give us a month were doing this and were doing that and your connection should speed up? Will its gotten worse. I kept a log of my connections today here they are:
12:00 pm- 663(down) 111(up) this aint bad, my hopes were so HIGH
4:00pm-405/67
8:00 pm-295/98
10:00 pm-45/73
I'm pinging 700(high) 400(low)
Got same thing today when dude came out. Well were doing this and by the end of week it will all be better. Yeah right, there signing all these new ppl up with out the proper resourses and are screwing everyone.
They sucker you in to signing a 2 year contract then give you crappy service because they know you wont pay the $300 bucks to get out of it.
STAY AWAY FROM ALLTEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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