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Review by ossito16 
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 5.3 years, 1087 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Chicago,Cook,IL
 $45 per month
 about 3 days
 "fast and reliable for most part"
 "line quality resuliting in occasional packet loss issues"
 "good service, less intrusive as far as caps and packet injection"
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RCN for the most part has proved to be a good service. Been down only twice but had me back up and running by the next day. Service techs seem to know what they are doing as well. Prices a little to high for full speed service but I am happy with what I get for now.
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Review by wait4win7pa
Posted: 1.2 years ago
member for 1.2 years, 2 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
Easton,Northampton,PA
$120 per month
about 14 days
"Cost for bundled package is a value"
"Cable Modem outages are frequent"
"If you don't mind unannounced outages go with them"
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I've been with RCN for almost ten years. Loved their service for many years, however, lately, the past year or so, they have been really bad with outages. Customer service and technical support is very bad. They can check if your modem is offline, that's about it. Good look scheduling a "tech" to come to your house, and if they show up on time, your lucky. If your modem they provide dies on you, your best to purchase your own modem. They will not mail you a cable modem like every other provider I know does. So you have to wait for a tech to come to give you another one. I'm a network professional and from what I experienced you cannot rely on RCN for your business, only home, if that. The only reason I have their service is because of cost. Yes, they are the best value when it comes to bundled service. If RCN cared about their customers, they would implement some REDUNDANCY and FAULT-TOLERANCE in their networks. There is no reason for unannounced down time. Yes, when their servers go down, they have no backup. This would involve them spending some money, which the bean counters would have no part of. With that said, you can draw your own conclusions.
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 Review by tomj1225
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 7.9 years, 252 visits, last login: 11 days ago
Allentown,Lehigh,PA
$120 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Speed, reliable."
"Higher tier speeds aren't available unless bundled."
"A good buy."
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I just upgraded the service to 10,000 downstream/1,000 upstream. We upgraded from 5,000/368. When I called to upgrade, the girl on the phone was at first confused, and told me upload speed was the same as down and their was no difference. I insisted I needed a higher upload speed, and then she came back and told me about the 10/1. It comes pretty close to those speeds, usually 9500/750 when testing. I didn't even have to reboot the router to get the higher speeds. The price is reasonable, but it would be even sweeter if you could get this without being part of a bundle. Of course the speed is like heroin and now has me stroking my beard as I contemplate 20,000 down, the last upgrade in their offerings. We're paying around $120 for phone, internet, and cable tv. Not a bad deal, I'd say. If FIOS becomes available, I'd drop them in a heartbeat, though, because my loyalty ends at my wallet.
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Review by tadpole
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 6.4 years, 50 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
Framingham,Middlesex,MA
$140 per month (24 month contract)
"none for me"
"monthly bundled wire maintenance fee. lousy service"
"DO NOT take a contract with RCN. l advise users of RCN to avoid it."
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I considered waiting for verizon to put in FIOS where I live which verizon said would probably be available in mid 2008.
I decided to stay with RCN and order a cable/phone/Internet package which included the maximum download/upload speed (20 mbps down 2 mbps up) RCN offers. this was done with a two year contract.
All seemed OK until I got the bill/statement and saw a $5.25 monthly fee for "bundled wire maintenance." This is for inside wire maintenance which almost never happens in the real world and which I objected to.
RCN nicely said tough luck pal it’s part of the "package" and you HAVE to take it or cancel the package and pay the $149.00 early termiation fee. The BWM fee was never mentioned or available to see anywhere. I think it stinks.
After multiple problems and numerous visits to my home from RCN personnel who could "never find anything wrong on RCNs end" and a final visit by two senior level 2 techs one a supervisor and the other "Supposedly one of the very best" who finally DID find the problem (They claimed) with a misaligned satalite dish somewhere, and supposedly fixed it I canceled the service. The 'Fix" lasted about six hours and then went back to crappy picture, volume problems, tiling and black screens. Verizin FIOS is the way for me. My sister and her husband have it and they've loved it from day one till now 8/18/2008. AVOID RCN. It's my belief they'll be out of business soon.
Michael Trahar Framingham
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Review by jeffr3y
Posted: 1.3 years ago
member for 1.3 years, 4 visits, last login: 288 days ago
Washington,District Of Columbia,DC
$150 per month (12 month contract)
"none"
"2 outages a week for 6months stright"
"Go comcast, Rcn is terrible"
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I hate this isp..at least 2 so called "outages" a week.My connection has been spiking for 2 days now.I wish I never went with RcN.
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Review by ike
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 284 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Whitehall,Lehigh,PA
$182 per month
about 30 days
"Awesome speeds (7 megabit)"
"Hard to work with when changing package (non-broadband issue)"
"So far, so good... but slowly sliding down..."
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Origial review:
Bidirectional Cable (max 1.5m/700k [1.1m/500k actual])
$110/mo (no contract, no setup fees, part of TV, Phone, Internet package--est. $40/mo based on other service's fees)
Toshiba 2500 bi-directional cable modem w/USB and 10-Base-T
Dynamic IP address
Order taken by a "sales guy" for the complete package (details below). Internet, phone and cable were installed the same day by one technician. Took the guy about 5-hours to get everything setup, including running new R6 coax cable throughout the house and mount a "master" box outside.
They ran out of time to complete the update of my Outlook accounts to use RCN's SMTP server for outbound email for my non-RCN accounts (my wife had to leave and they got booted). Only took a moment to do that my self.
Package Details: Resilink Gold ($110/mo)
- Bidirectional cable internet (one dynamice IP address, 4 POP email accounts, 10 MB personal webspace)
- Full Basic TV plus 1-digial converter with 15 HBO/Cinimax channels and 45 digital music channels
- Phone (one line, unlimited local and regional calling [610, 484, 215, 267, 302], "Ultra Feature Package" [voicemail, deluxe caller id, deluxe call-waiting caller id, call waiting, call forwarding, 3-way calling, unlimited *69 & *66], 9¢/min anytime long distance)
So far, so good. Took a bit to get my LinkSys router working with the Toshiba cable modem, but after some tweaking (aka--turning off the modem for an hour), all was fine.
Jan 2005 Update:
Cable Modem: Sevice has been awesome. Seven megabit right now, reliably (own my own Motorola SB5100--couldn't get above 5 with the Toshiba they loaned out).
TV: Took forever to get an HD-DVR from them (actually, wasn't until they came out of BK did it become available to me--must have been a pending credit issue with Motoroloa...). They are still behind the other local cable co. in regards to HD channel selections (still don't have UPN, TNT or Bravo after a year of "yea, we'll have them soon").
Phone: Since they provide a nice detailed "here's how much each part of your package is costing you" bill, I saw that for unlimited regional calling and 8-features, I was paying nealry $40/mo. Well, didn't take a rocket scientist to know that with 7-megabit (10 in a few weeks!), Vonage for $25/mo is a deal... Once RCN accepts my Local Number Portability (LNP) request to transfer my phone number to Vonage, I won't have the ResiLink package (dropping to Power CI)... That being said, it has been 6-weeks and a dozen calls now for something that should take no more than three weeks and zero calls (next call is to the state PUC to register a complaint....). This is may major complaint of late (that and their prices are going above the competition's, tempting me to leave completely)...
BTW--it took a notice to the PUC to get RCN's butt in gear. Been using Vonage ever since...
Jan 2008 update:
Getting a bit concerned with price and value... HD channels are coming slowly (TNT and Nat Geo added recently), but lag behind local competition (and very far behind Dish and DirecTV).
Power/CI plan is $153 after tax with two HD-DVRs. Breakdown of charges:
Internet:
- Mach-7: $37 ($40 less $3 for customer owned modem)
Cable:
- Limited Cable: $15
- Expanded Cable: $32
- New Digital Vision: $16.05
- PowerDigital: $10
- HD-DVRs: $12.95 each
- HD-Tier: $7.95
- Taxes: $8.43
Recent posting in RCN forum indicate "HD Tier" should now be free, but an email to RCN indicates current plan can't have that.
Aug 2008 update:
Getting quite angry about price and value... HD channels are starting to come in a bit faster now (naturally, noting I really want to watch--where's SciFi channel?!?).
Power/CI plan is now a whopping $182 after tax with two HD-DVRs. Breakdown of charges:
Internet:
- Mach-7: $37 ($40 less $3 for customer owned modem)
Cable:
- Limited Cable: $15
- Expanded Cable: $35.04 (up $3.04)
- New Digital Vision: $29.95 (up from $16.05)
- PowerDigital: $10
- HD-DVRs: $17.95 each (up from $12.95 each)
- HD-Tier: $7.95
- Taxes: $10.62 (up from $8.43)
Time to make another call... last time I called about the HD-Tier they basically said the HD-DVR savings was a wash... now, it is an extra $8 for nothing...
Might need to price modem-only and check out DirecTv...
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Review by bemis
Posted: 1.3 years ago
member for 1.3 years, 91 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Auburndale,Middlesex,MA
$45 per month
about 1 days
"Fast Install, Advertised Speed, No Lost Connections"
"Not Available Everywhere"
"If you CAN get it, DO get it"
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I'll preface this review of RCN by saying that I had Comcast's high tier service, 12Mb-dn and 2Mb-up, it was about $55 with cable TV service, it was reliable enough once installed but I had plenty of issues getting it installed (no show's and 2 week lead time), then issues w/ their billing methods after... I canceled for RCN...
RCN was able to offer an install date that I chose, they even had one for the NEXT day
The service is advertised as 10Mb/s down and 1Mb/s up and I consistently receive this speed, very rarely is it lower and in those cases I suspect it's the server providing the data.
I have never had the connection go down (approx. 10 months of service so far).
I'm extremely pleased w/ their service, and their offerings (many different tiers to fit your needs) and their low price ($45 COMPLETE, no bundled services required!)
The only bad part... they are not available at the location I will be moving to soon 
Followup comments:  internetphon
join:2008-07-29
Arlington, MA | RCN Broadband I agree completely | |
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dlconkey
join:2003-01-19
Chicago, IL
clubs:
| Chicago Same here guys! $45 including CM rental. Data only. CTV is bulk, basic extended supplied to the entire building (55 floors, 728 units!).
However, I had been paying the same for MACH 7, which was an interim tier and is no longer sold but I was grandfathered in.
I let my account go dormant, and they said they could not offer M7 as the "code for it was no longer in the system" even though I knew that tech support can provision you for anything they want.
After finagling, they gave me a small credit, lowered the price $3/mo, and bumped me to M10- 10000/800 service. But, they claim it's only a promotional rate but good for a year! I figure go for it as in a year, things will be different and likely cheaper.
So for now, all is good.
--
Dave, Chicago - Edgewater/Uptown, @ the lakefront | |
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 Review by hulber
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 184 visits, last login: 33 days ago
New York,New York,NY
 Business customer
$123 per month
about 4 days
"High speed up/down; Good value; Reliable; solid upload speed"
"Poor pre-sales; variable C/S resolution time"
"Good now that I have it. Solid upload speed."
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It took me a couple years to finally decide to go with RCN for a few reasons. First, depending on when I called the agents could not tell for sure if RCN was available in my building. Their internal systems for retrieving data like this must not be up to par. Then when I did get a business sales agent I found that they would only support a single static IP address in my location. I would call back every several months to see if things had changed. On some occasions I would get a callback and on others I wouldn't as it is often difficult to get a business salesperson directly. Recently I was forwarded to a good sales rep after being told by an agent they couldn't find that my building was available for service. The rep determined that I could get a block of IPs. Now, the next trick is to negotiate the price for everything since their "rack" rates are much more expensive than the promotional rates.
In the interim I would have signed up for TWC Business class but the rates have been much too high. For several years I have been using ADSL and most recently ADSL2+ but I have been looking for better upload speeds to support several services that I am running.
The time to get an appointment scheduled was very fast, in fact, I pushed it out a few days because of my availability. I was told that the appointments were for all day but that the agent put in a preference for the morning. The installer did not arrive in the morning and I did not receive a call prior to the installer arriving as I was told I would. On the positive side, the installer did arrive and was pleasant and professional. The installer did not have the static IPs with him so it took some calls between the sales rep and tech support to get that information. Everyone was responsive but it would have been much simpler if I had been given this information in advance or with the installer.
As a business customer, I was told that I don't have access to "My RCN" functionality so I don't have a way to view and interact with my account online. As others have mentioned, the options for making payments to the account are limited and cumbersome. They only accept Visa/Mastercard as credit card options and I have to do this over the phone.
I was able to sign up for rDNS but it took a few iterations of calling and emailing to get that order complete. I think it took about just over a week instead of the "up to 72 hours" they tell you it's supposed to take. It seems initial emails need to be screened before they go to a technician and this process seems to have some kinks where emails can get held up in their queue. I'm speculating but something like this is going on. I suggest that for best service that you call the customer service and talk to a service agent to get the process going.
So far the service has been reliable although as with most ISPs I see some moments of instability throughout the night for periods of a few seconds up to a few minutes. I assume ISPs are doing maintenance and things which can cause network interruptions.
I have 20/2 service. My download speeds seem to be fairly variable from close to 20 to as low as 5 but the uploads speeds seem to be relatively solid at around 1.9 which is more important to me.
I received the Toshiba PCX 2600 cable modem. The cost of this ($5/mo) is included in the monthly fee of 109.95 and then the rest of the $123 monthly fee is for a block of 16 ips (13 usable).
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Review by giantsquid
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 5.5 years, 29 visits, last login: 129 days ago
Forest Hills,Queens,NY
Contract price not specified.
"None"
"Slower connection than advertised."
"Stay away."
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I had Time Warner Cable and recently moved to a new apartment that offered RCN internet service. I work from home and send files to clients so I need as fast a connection as I can get. I ordered RCN's 20 MBPS service bad have yet to reach anywhere near that speed after 5 days. Time Warner Cable which has a slower advertised speed was normally at 15 MBPS. I'm going back to Time Warner Cable.
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Review by jmounce
UPDATED: 1.4 years ago
member for 1.4 years, 3 visits, last login: 1.4 years ago
Chicago,Cook,IL
$175 per month
about 45 days
"Very fast when not at peak times. Has static IPs for residential. Doesn't block ports."
"Billing, Tech Support, and Customer Service are horrible. Service crawls at peak times. (.1 mbps)"
"If they just improved their service, they'd be fine."
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Considered Comcast and DSL providers. RCN offered a static IP and fast internet. Cable was HD and VOIP was fine. Got 20mbps inet and cable/phone.
Ordering process and install process was horrible. They messed up my regular phone line on purpose so I'd order more VOIP. Sent them to the BBB after install.
Every time I call tech support about slow speeds, I get the run-around. Billing won't take responsibility even if it is their fault. Reps don't record your calls. Rolling a truck is useless because they don't come when the problems are occurring (at peak times).
If you never have to talk to them (if you service stays nominal), they are fine. When you have to deal with them, you will have a bad day.
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