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 Review by xcal78 
Posted: 83 days ago
member for 275 days, 202 visits, last login: 10 days ago
 Waltham,Middlesex,MA
 $42 per month (24 month contract)
 "95% of the time it's very good on speed and uptime"
 "There's no website to check for status of the network when it's down."
 "Overall it's a decent ISP. I wouldn't return to them because of some customer service issues tho."
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I didn't like being locked in for 2 years to get a good rate but it was the best option at the time. Now that I've had them for 18 months they've changed my service so I'm not happy. In the last few months they've had a few internet outages so it's become less reliable. The first year of service was fantastic but based on the last part of my service I'd never do business with them again.
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 Review by shadyman777
UPDATED: 84 days ago
member for 272 days, 381 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Easton,Northampton,PA
$104 per month
"Awesome Internet Service and Phone Service"
"None, Once crushed"
"Great Value, Great Service."
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Living in the lehigh valley market watched the other markets get "Analog Crushed" was heartbreaking. There was no promise, no insight, no future for our market to gain more HD and other channels. That, my friends, has changed. By the end of 2009, the lehigh valley will be "analog crushed" and we will reap the benefits of more HD and more choices!
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 Review by Winnie
UPDATED: 91 days ago
member for 9 years, 2227 visits, last login: a few hours ago
New York,New York,NY
$89 per month
 about 3 days
"Nice Speeds"
"RCA Modem they refuse to swap out. Works ok, but not great."
"Great when it does work. Outages can be a pain to fix."
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I used to be a Verizon DSL customer with the 640/90 line.
I saw RCN doing promotional stuff in my building and decided to give them a try. I tried them out for about a month and everything was great. Cancelled my DSL and went with them. It's been almost 2 months since I've been on RCN and I haven't had any major service interruptions. I had one interrruption but I was back up in about 10 mins.
The speeds on here blow my DSL away. I constantly get around 1300/800 while on verizon i got 500/80. Big difference as you can see. During peak usage times, I also get that speed, it seems to never slow down. I pay the same price as I did with Verizon. Since I already had cable TV it wasn't a hassle to switch over. All they had to do was split my line.
The technician came over on time like I was told. Was very curteous and completed everything in under and hour.
When I got the service I was told that it has a dynamic IP addressing system. But I seem to have kept the same IP address from day 1. My modem is a RCA modem It's not the best and it shows
But the only minor complaint I have is my email address for RCN gets a huge amount of spam. I checked my email on the day I got my RCN account and found dozens of emails that did not belong to me, I haven't even given the email address to anyone yet. Since then I haven't used or checked mail at that email address.
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 Review by rcbrcb
UPDATED: 98 days ago
member for 2.7 years, 957 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Chicago,Cook,IL
$135 per month
"Digital Offerings in Chicago"
"HORRIBLE Customer Service"
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Now that RCN has upgraded their plants in Chicago to be full Digital and increased their HD channels they are a pretty good choice. Their customer service is unexcusable, however! The 3rd party call center is USELESS. Without the RCN guys that monitor the BBR forum, I would have switched to DirecTV or Comcast long ago. I truely feel sorry those that dont know about this forum. The other thing thats bugs me is their treatment of CabelCards....Most CSR act as if they dont know what they are or say that it is an outdated technology.....I have been given SO much false info its amazing! GET OVER IT, not everyone wants to rent your crappy equipment!
7/30/08 - I dumped my $40 RCN Phone line and ported it over to the new $10 per month T-Mobile @Home Unlimited Service.
9/20/08 - RCN has added about 15 new HD channels this week to the Chicago Lineup....Well Done!
9/26/08 - The RCN Overseas Call Center has slipped to a point that is below horrible. It is almost impossible to get them to sucessfully complete a task like troubleshooting an issue or adding services to your account...
Followup comments:  
beltway
@rcn.com
| RCN and Cable Cards I couldn't agree with you more about RCN dissing people with CableCards. I don't want the box. There's not enough content on the HD channels to warrant it.
I've had a technician out twice because I'm missing 3 of the Basic HD channel lineup and 2 others are breaking up. He's checked everything. The lines, the pole, the connections..Refreshed the connection.
It's clear to me that RCN hdqtrs is blocking some of the basic HD channels for which i am paying. I've called a supervisor and left messages 3 times and had no return call. There's no way to get to a real person locally (DC)(and who's not in the Phillipines) who can unlock HD channels that I should be getting.
I've wasted enormous amounts of time calling and e-mailing about what should be a simple issue of unblocking a few channels. | |
| | tvdrew
join:2008-08-20
Washington, DC | Re: RCN and Cable Cards Which ones are you missing? I've been missing 3 of them as well--NFL Net, Versus, and one other. They can't seem to figure out why I'm not getting them (told me I should), but can't come up with a fix. | |
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Review by kidd santi
Posted: 106 days ago
member for 138 days, 81 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Allentown,Lehigh,PA
$88 per month (12 month contract)
"reliable , great price, great service"
"none"
"great service for the money"
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100% satisfied
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Review by Flyersfan72
Posted: 110 days ago
member for 3.3 years, 38 visits, last login: 4 days ago
Coplay,Lehigh,PA
$130 per month
"reliable"
"still one way cable, price"
"I'd be such a HUGE fan IF I could just get two way cable"
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I've been an RCN customer for over 10 years. I've had cable modem access the entire time. Back when I first got it in the house, one-way cable was not necessarily cutting edge but not many people had cable modems. As time went on, more and more of my friends were getting cable modems AND they were two way. Along with two way came many other features including the ability to order pay per view events and video on demand. Today, I'm paying so much for a fraction of the services others have available. I'm so frustrated with RCN and the fact that I have not been upgraded and quite possibly never will be. A few weeks ago there was a Service Electric truck at the pole outside my house. According to him, Service Electric was going to be running lines down my road and would be providing two way cable services by the end of summer.
To this day no word from RCN....no word from SECTV. Come on guys ..... who wants my money???
Followup comments: 
bender
Bite my shiny metal ass
Premium
join:2005-03-19
Evanston, IL
clubs: | . what do you mean one way cable? | |
| |
CBL B0X
@rcn.com
| Re: . said by bender :what do you mean one way cable? One way cable means that the cable modem receives information over the cable line, but sends out through a telephone line. The fastest speed you can get with one way is 1500k/56k. Also with one way you don't get things like VOD. | |
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bender
Bite my shiny metal ass
Premium
join:2005-03-19
Evanston, IL
clubs: | Re: . wow. just wow. i would take that modem and shove it up their ass. | |
| | Flyersfan72
join:2006-07-11
Coplay, PA
 ·RCN CABLE
| said by bender :what do you mean one way cable? That's pretty funny. It's like me telling my boys I have a rotary phone up in the attic I guess.
said by rcnman :Please PM me your account # or address and I'll see where we stand with regards to upgrade of your plant. Thanks, Jason thanks Jason - I look forward to some good news! | |
| 
rcnman
Jason Nealis
Premium,VIP
join:2003-05-02
Herndon, VA | RCN LHV Please PM me your account # or address and I'll see where we stand with regards to upgrade of your plant.
Thanks,
Jason
--
Jason Nealis,
Sr. Director, Video Product and Video Operations | |
| | Flyersfan72
join:2006-07-11
Coplay, PA | Re: RCN LHV Hi again Jason. Any updates? I have not heard from RCN. | |
| 
fatness
subtle
Janitor
join:2000-11-17
fishing |  (topic move) update - one way/crush in Lehigh Valley
Moderator Action
This topic was moved to the forum RCN
stated reason was: This was intended as a post in the public RCN forum. | |
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Review by charlestek
Posted: 117 days ago
member for 4.9 years, 61 visits, last login: 106 days ago
Watertown,Middlesex,MA
$93 per month (12 month contract)
"Service is dependable, rarely out"
"Have 5 MB service download is fine, but upload at 360 kbs is awful"
"Good carrier, but need to spend more for higher upload speed"
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Other options are Comcast, maybe I can get a 10Mbs package instead of my 5Mbs at a comparable price. Have had service since 2000. Am using my own linksys cable modem.
Have not had an outage in a very long while.
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Review by vanheve2
UPDATED: 123 days ago
member for 3.9 years, 252 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
Chicago,Cook,IL
$35 per month
"Cheap...for now"
"Prices going up! Everyone on the phone is an idiot."
"They are my only cable option, and it has been decent"
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I live in a condo that is contracted with RCN. We get basic cable included. I upgraded to Premiere Digital Cable, 1 DVR and have 5Mb Internet. I have a promo on the DVR and Internet. With all taxes, its $59.85. But I just got a postcard saying its going up to $65.90. Not awful, but that still under promo, and I am paying my basic cable (listed at $61.44) in my rent.
The internet usually works fine, but sometimes at night it slows down. I am not sure what I will do when the promo runs out and it reverts to $50 a month. I may look back into ATT DSL Direct at that point.
I thankfully have never had to contact support in the 6 months I have had RCN. So, I guess you could say the service is pretty reliable, but again, I live in a 700 unit building, and they run fiber right into the building, so it should be pretty reliable since I'm a few hundred fee from the node and there's no outside wiring.
**UPDATE 7/28/09**
So, they disconnected my internet today. Said I called in to do it. What actually happened was I sent in my rented Modem because I was using my own. The person who got it put in a disconnect order. Took them 45 minutes to get internet back on my account, but then told me they "lost" the MAC address. So, I have to go home and call them back, which I am dreading.
**Update 7/29/09**
So, they actually got my BYOM Modem working again in about an 1/2 hour. However, before that I checked with AT&T DSL and signed up. My RCN promo is over, and RCN is going to charge me $53 a month for 3 Mbps. I signed up for ATT and got a landline, 6Mbps DSL, (and free WiFi at all AT&T hotspots) for $45 a month. Cheaper and twice the speed, plus an emergency landline. I expect after the taxes it to come out to be about the same price, but still twice the speed. AND I got $250 Cash Back and a free wireless modem.
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Review by tvdrew
UPDATED: 131 days ago
member for 1.2 years, 342 visits, last login: 4 days ago
Washington,District Of Columbia,DC
$95 per month
about 3 days
"Reliable internet (few outages in 8 years); good channel selection"
"Tech support a total mixed bag; site visits a pain; billing a crapshoot."
"Better than the alternatives"
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I've had RCN since it was Starpower (approx. 8 years). During that time I've had extremely few service outages, typically weather related. Internet speeds are close to advertised, but not quite. Television service is pretty good, although they've been moving channels to higher-priced tier and will be requiring a cable box.
Installation was extremely quick, but not completed. Fortunately it didn't matter, since the house was still under construction. Subsequent cable card installation was also quick, although it didn't work until several calls to tech support.
Tech support is their weakest link. They seem (judging by accents) to have outsourced to folks overseas who really don't know what they're doing. They're nice, but don't solve the problem In fact, they rarely can even identify the problem. It took ten calls for them to tell me that the reason I was not receiving a certain channel was because it was not in my package, despite what the channel guide showed.
And that misleading information carried over to price. They offered a promotional price that was quite good. What they didn't say was that there were two promotions. One for a low price, a second for a 6-month discount that expired.
Update: Billing may be their weakest link, or at least where I've had the most trouble. A combination of expiring promotions, new promotions, and unrelated rate hikes has led to some eye-popping recent bills that seem to take multiple calls to straighten out. Service remains reliable, and the HD upgrade has been a great benefit with lots more HD channels.
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Review by massman
Posted: 149 days ago
member for 149 days, 2 visits, last login: 50 days ago
Somerville,Middlesex,MA
$132 per month
"generally friendly and timely customer service, solid value for internet"
"lack of secure socket email"
"Alternatives to Comcast/Warner/etc need to continue, this is good for me"
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Generally competent. Upload and download speeds are by Speedtest/other programs as advertised (5 Meg download/375k upload) for my particular plan, which includes unlimited landline long-distance, 184 channel cable TV and some amount of streaming video with taxes. Installed years ago, so experience is no longer relevant. Email server is a bit backward (security, storage).
I bring my own modem (Motorola SB5100, not DOCSIS3), so can't comment on their equipment. Backup to Mozy took forever (80 gig of music/other documents was done over about 2-3 weeks). No apparent throttling of bandwidth as tested this and by a kid who has watched too much streaming video last month. However, most of our internet use is email/static web pages.
We don't watch much cable TV, so no comment concerning that service.
Technical support staff are variable but eventually solve problems effectively. Response (24 hours) to an outside the house cable problem was astonishingly good.
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