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Review by kochin 
UPDATED: 30 days ago
member for 8 years, 83 visits, last login: 28 days ago
 Englewood Cliffs,Bergen,NJ
 $60 per month (12 month contract)
 about 16 days
 Verizon
 "Fixed IP; once had been reliable"
 "Reliability is gettting worse these days; tech support not helpful"
 "Ready to switch"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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I have stayed with Covad for more than 6 1/2 years. Their DSL service was very reliable during the first 5 years. Then something happened about 2 years ago, and I started experiencing increasing number of disruptions. Recently I have to at least reset the DSL modem twice almost every day.
When I called Covad tech support, they told me there was a equipment change about 2 years ago. The connection problem I am having probably due to either my DSL modem not fully compatible with the new equipment or modem failing. I asked for a free modem replacement, but Covad refused even though it may be their device causing the problem. It seems Covad doesn't at all care about their existing customers. (Or, maybe they just want to get rid of old customers.)
With Covad unwilling to resolve my connection problem, I am definitely looking around to switch. Now I just wish FiOS was avaliable in my area.
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As I mentioned in my own response to this review, finally my Covad DSL modem arrived on 1/22/2003. The whole transistion lasted 16 days since I placed the order. During the transition, I lost my DSL connection for about 5 days while waiting for Covad's DSL modem.
Once the modem arrived, I simply plugged it into my phone jack, then properly configured the modem and my router. In no time I started surfing Internet again with faster speed I got from DirecTV.
To be fair with Covad, I must say that the whole transition was mostly smooth except for not receiving the modem before they switched the wires.
For now I am still taking a wait-and-see position. I will use line monitor on dslreports to see how stable the connection is. I have done the speed test several times. The results range from 1025~1247/326.
One thing I don't like about Covad's TeleSoho service is that their static IP is not a reall static IP in a sense that it uses PPPoE for connection. It just alwyas got assigned to the same IP address.
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I was a DirecTV DSL customer. As every other DTV DSL users, I was scrambling to get a replacement. After much consideration and help of dslreports, I ordered Covad TeleSoho service on 1/6/2003, and was told that I may have only 1 or 2 days outage during the transition.
On 1/18/2003 my connection was switched to Covad, and I got disconnected from Internet. The problem is that Covad did not send me their DSL modem ahead of time. Therefore, even though I am already receiving connection from them, I can't get onto Internet because I don't have their DSL device.
For some reasons, Covad doesn't want to send out DSL modem until telco tells them the connection has been switched or installed. I would understand that if I were a first time DSL customer. They have to be sure the connection is possible before they send out the device.
However, I ordered Covad service from their DirecTV user switching page on their site, they should be aware that I already have connection installed. They could make the whole transition smooth by sending out the DSL modem before telco switched the wires.
Now I am told it may takes 5 to 7 days for the delivery. That means I am not going to have DSL for about a week. It really sucks.
For other DirecTV users thinking about switching to Covad, my suggestion is to ask them to send you the DSL modem before the switching over takes place.
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 Review by cowboy
UPDATED: 142 days ago
member for 9.6 years, 3049 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Morgan Hill,Santa Clara,CA
$129 per month (24 month contract)
Verizon (ex GTE)
| Pre Sales information:
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2009-07-2
The install date changed a few times, but within a week of the original date.
The Verizon installer was professional, courteous, and good company 
The only issue was botched CO cabling, and dealing with COVAD support in India.
In one week, I'll see how the local COVAD folk are
2009-06-23
For my needs, the list of available ISPs quickly dwindled to COVAD resellers (and Speak Easy, who isn't just a reseller, but is dependent upon COVAD) and COVAD itself.
After too many long hours perusing the reviews and forum entries (and my prior experience), it became pretty clear that the worst part of the deal would be the initial setup and shake out of the new dry-run. I opted to have the fewest players involved - and will pay for that choice for the next two years, at which point I'll re-evaluate the options.
Things, thus far, are progressing well - ordered via phone (the only snafu was that the price wasn't quoted as being 2yr commitment). Within an hour I have confirmation that Verizon will show up in exactly one week (fingers crossed)
2009-06-19
My prior ISP (DSL Extreme) removed support for static IPs  So the search began again.
+ I need to run services (dns,krb4,smtp,imap,web) for my hobby domain
+ I need static IPs to do that (DYDNS is ok for some things, but...)
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Review by slimjim8094
Posted: 199 days ago
member for 1.7 years, 5 visits, last login: 83 days ago
Glen Ridge,Essex,NJ
$35 per month
about 3 days
Verizon
"Reasonable price, speed, no caps, no port 80 blocking"
"Goes out too frequently, good if it was faster"
"Good value"
| Pre Sales information:
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We switched from Verizon DSL because they sucked - blocked outgoing port 80 and 25 and was mind-numbingly slow (768kbps download and 96kbps upload)
We had a pre-existing AT&T email address we couldn't lose (from our dialup days) so we were paying for both services - AT&T Dialup and Verizon DSL.
We finally outgrew the speed and got 1.5Mbit/256Kbit through AT&T, who was reselling Covad's DSL (at least in our area) and gave us a plan that would bundle the dialup/email and the dsl for much less money. We have since upgraded to 3MBit/384kbit.
The install kit went unused - we just re-used our Verizon modem (a Westell) which is actually slightly faster (a few kbps)
I have filled the connection, both ways, for a full month (literally) and heard nothing about it. No throttling, speed is consistent and almost as advertised (we're a bit away from the DSLAM). We'd appreciate if it was faster, and it goes out about once every other month.
All in all, very pleased.
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Review by scallywagsf
UPDATED: 201 days ago
member for 3.2 years, 13 visits, last login: 190 days ago
San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 24 days
Covad
"nothing"
"reliability, connectivity, customer service, billing, speed"
"SUX!"
| Pre Sales information:
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Just don't go there.....
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Review by dcdeadbeat
Posted: 220 days ago
member for 1.1 years, 127 visits, last login: 46 days ago
Washington,District Of Columbia,DC
Contract price not specified.
Verizon
"they tend to work well for small companies that other telcos don't want to work with"
"it once took a week to repair a bonded T1 connection"
"good overall"
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My company currently has two T1s from Covad under a program called T1 bonded service. It is extremely reliable most of the time. The only downtime we have ever had was with a bad flash card on the Cisco router they provide. Since the tech they sent was not Cisco certified, it took him almost a week to figure it out. But since then it has been working flawlessly for over a year.
Before the bonded T1s we had a single T1 form Covad and it never went down. Bonded T1s are just more complex and so they require more sophisticated hardware and .
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 Review by dbennett1106
UPDATED: 227 days ago
member for 9.4 years, 3787 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Menlo Park,San Mateo,CA
$40 per month
AT&T
"Pretty fast"
"None that I can thing of"
"go with Covad"
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They finally updated my DSL, after almost 8 years. I waas getting 328 kbps and now I get 1.2 Mbps. That is very nice after having just barely DSL.
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Review by hrickpa
UPDATED: 246 days ago
member for 8.4 years, 1037 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Reading,Berks,PA
$39 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
Verizon
"quick setup"
"the modem they supplyed"
"excllent service"
| Pre Sales information:
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i have 3.0 /384 @ $ 39.95
dynamic ip and use PPoE
i orderd from »highspeed.aol.com
they sent Broadxent 8012-v
problem with the modem (loose sync alot during the day)
suppost to get a broadxent 4 port router instead of the broadxent bridge 8012-v
according to the info when i orderd
i ended up using my own modem (broadxent 8012U)
no dissconnects running 13 days with no sync loss
it was only down twice in 5 months
Update 1
they sent me a replacement modem Broadxent 8120
the broadxent 8012-v went bad
Update 2
the past month there was a major outtage that lasted 11 hours, and there were outtages that lasted for at least 30 minutes that happens twice a week in early morning hours. On sunday april 4th there was an outtage between 1 am to 4 am
worked intermittently (couldn't access some sites none of the search engines worked ).It took atleast 30 minutes to get techsupport. by that time it was working again.
Update 3
beginning of july i was without service for a week the 9th to the 13th
i had no sync that time
Update 4
good comany to go with but expensive
No longer have service from this comany
i went with verizon dsl's 7.1/768 at $37.95
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Review by cycoffee
Posted: 272 days ago
member for 272 days, 1 visits, last login: 36 days ago
Grants Pass,Josephine,OR
Contract price not specified.
"er?"
"Covad's overall service would probabley be great if not for all the downtime."
"For the price of idsl to a rural area, their commitment was very low as evident in their choice of contract repair companies"
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As a matter of fact, Covad billing, just this morning debited my bank account for 374.05, which is the amount when added with the refund i was promised equals the early termination fee of 500.00 The problem is that they were supposed to credit my account 126.95 because of "circuit not viable" which voided their contract according to their own phone sessions between me and billing. So now I have a negative balance in my account just when I'm applying to move to a new location rental. LOL I know things are bad in the economy but Geez.
Anyway their service, when working, at 144kbps was great, till the service started acting up. They dropped my line speed to 128kbps. Then more repairs, through a couple of contract companies; New Edge and Cascade Communications. This over a 1 1/2 period, in which the service was down about 1/5 the time. Also i went through the whole holiday season without their service. And in the end they deemed the circuit not viable because it was too far away from the main hub, more than 22k feet or so I think. Gah"
Ok well I can't knock them for trying, but I could've gone with a GSM air card through a cell company for faster and more reliable service and overall more cost effective in the long run. Someone in that chain of companies and contractors knew the circuit wasn't feasible from the beginning or at least after the first repair.
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Review by JesNoFear
Posted: 303 days ago
member for 6.7 years, 59 visits, last login: 171 days ago
Olney,Montgomery,MD
Contract price not specified.
Covad
"Dedicated Circuit, Great Speeds, 24 hour SLA"
"Price is a little high"
"Awesome Company"
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I have had covad service off and on for many years, First run was 4 years long and the only reason i changed was because i was working a business deal at work and got them to throw a circuit in my house for real cheap. I am going into my second year on this go round with them and I am still happy. They provided me a circuit for the service as well, which made me happy. Having one person to talk to when my "Service" goes down weather its because the line was cut or because of an outage... though neither have occurred. Currently at the 10 meg service and is everything you would expect.
With the combound 5 years i have had service with this company I have only ever had 1 outage, and it was due to old equipment, So really it wasn't even fault of there own.
But the techs are excellent, customer service is still good. And about the only time i ever half to talk to them is when i want to up my speed.
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Review by jetpowercom
UPDATED: 315 days ago
member for 8.3 years, 79 visits, last login: 26 days ago
Venice,Los Angeles,CA
Contract price not specified.
about 18 days
Verizon (ex GTE)
"Great tech!"
"Could have provided better truck roll notice"
"Covad throttles bandwidth!?!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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This updates my review below, from late 2007. The new ISP continued the chain of unresponsiveness; I'm glad I finally took the time to make the change. One pertinent fact is that the old provider - probably Covad itself - throttled a line that had been running at 1500/384 to 928/300. I liked Covad, but not when they constrained bandwidth with no notice. The internet is all about communication and transparency - those who fail to provide it will be phased out by those who do.
====2007 review:
After my ISP (whose nationwide name I shall not mention here) notified me of a pending service change, then failed to follow up on my repeated email and voicemail responses and queries for more information, I was left with NO CONNECTION on Nov. 9. Today (two weeks later), after much anguish, many calls back and forth to their tech support (and with Linkline, who gets a double thumbs-up here for their help and advice), my line is again connected (albeit via PPOE), mostly due to the smarts of the Covad tech who volunteered to work the day after Thanksgiving.
With minimal information from the ISP, the Covad tech was unable to log into the existing Speedstream modem, so he tried a second one, finally settling on a Netopia, with which he was able to get and configure a good connection. And (woohoo!) it's a simple firewall, too.
Lastly: This isn't over. My ISP has to come clean, with a credit and a plan going forward. Without something acceptable, my ISP will become my former ISP, in which case my Verizon/Covad line will be served by Linkline.
Followup comments:  
DC DSL
Stays crunchy even in milk
Premium
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
 ·Covad Communications
·Verizon Online DSL
| I doubt it's Covad Covad doesn't throttle. The speeds you're reporting are more likely the result of a line condition. You should head over to »Covad / covad.net and see if others can help figure out what's affecting your speed.
I've got Covad in a bunch of my clients for over 5 years and none of them have problems...they're small businesses, so I'd certainly be hearing about it if they weren't getting their speed.
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There is no giant fur-bearing trout. | |
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jimbo48
join:2000-11-17
Hayward, CA
·AT&T DSL Service
·EarthLink
| Re: I doubt it's Covad But do you know that they don't? I was told I could get 6.0/768, then it was no we can't supply that we can supply 3.0/512, then after continued repeated issues. Also business services are differen than residential services. You have minimum SLAs to meet with business services (or you should). I got a no we can't even give you 3.0/512. Best we can do is 1.5/400. It may not be the fault of Covad as they are at the mercy of the CO but....
This hasn't stopped my ISP who provisions through Covad from charging me the higher price that was provisioned and they offer no apologies -citing the ever-present "best effort" disclaimer found in fine print. Words to ponder-Nothing that a Telco or ISP says is to be believed. They will tell you anything to get you to sign on the dotted line, then they're off to sign up another mark | |
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DC DSL
Stays crunchy even in milk
Premium
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
·Covad Communications
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: I doubt it's Covad Well, then the problem is with your reseller ISP. It's inappropriate to blame Covad, since your relationship technically is not with them. If your ISP sucks, then dump them and go direct to Covad.
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There is no giant fur-bearing trout. | |
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DC DSL
Stays crunchy even in milk
Premium
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC | Re: I doubt it's Covad Well, as I said, it is inappropriate and misleading for you to post your review as being of Covad. Have it removed and then post one about the company you're doing business with.
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There is no giant fur-bearing trout. | |
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| Forums » comments on review of Covad Communications |
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(11)
Can't wait until our Covad contract is up..
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Covad has no relationship with me legally so can tell me to pound sand if they want. Its my ISP that is buying services from COVAD thus should address ANYTHING related to internet services they "Supposedly" offer/provide me. COVAD can do whatever they want and my ISP is stuck because they don't do the provisioning, don't control crap so they just roll over and tell me "Oh well thats our "best effort" and their TOS agreement protects them. This is the crap that an unregulated industry dishes up. Oh well, I am resigned to crap service/performance from any DSL provider. Someday there will be an alternative!!