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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 4.8 years ago
(review was emailed from domain mail.sprint.com)
 Columbus,Franklin,OH
 Business customer
 $783 per month (12 month contract)
 "available near Easton Mall area"
 "too slow"
 "they say slow because of "no spare copper facilities" whatever it means"
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I have XO Communications DSL service patched through my SBC phone number
in my office building in the 43219 zip code area. Near the intersection
of Easton Way and Stelzer Rd.
I am unable to upgrade the speed to anything higher than 144. I aim for
384 upload speeds for my tech needs. The customer service person at XO
Communications says that it is because there are "no spare copper
facilities" whatever that means.
XO Customer Service says they use the SBC DSL network.
Danny
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Review by Barbecue6 
UPDATED: 5.1 years ago
member for 9 years, 92 visits, last login: 4.9 years ago
Oakland,Alameda,CA
$69 per month (12 month contract)
 about 55 days
 SBC
CLEC party: Covad
"Reliable connection, high speeds, static IPs"
"Tech support"
"Not quick, but good once you get it"
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This whole thing went very smoothly for me, and I'm getting very high up/down speeds. This may be because I'm only 5500 feet from my CO, but whatever, it's great. I order 608/128 and I seem to be getting up to 1200/256. (This is via the DSLReports speed tests, so I assume it's accurate)
The order and install went very smoothly - they even gave me two months of free dial-up in case
there was any trouble. I did have problems with the dial-up, until I was told I couldn't dial up from a terminal; I had to use Windows dialup adapter. Since I don't have Windows (I was connecting with my former ISP using background dialing on a BSD box), this was problematic. I finally did connect from a Linux box, using kppp.
The services were problematic under dial-up also -- I found that I was getting a lot of stalls surfing the web and reading news. These problems seem to have disappeared with DSL.
Also, I received mail for each event -- when PacBell connected the DSL line, and when the Covad installer was schedule to show up. Some things, like ISP info, I had to request ahead of time. The installer brought that, but it was nice to have my network set up ahead of time. That way, I was able to plug the DSL modem into the router, and have my network up within seconds.
The Covad install was a breeze, too. The installer plugged a splitter/filter into my phone jack, and explained what each of the lights on the DSL modem meant. Then I plugged the cable from the modem into the router and everything was fine.
However, I did stay on top of things through the whole process. I wrote them at every stage and asked things like "What is my IP info?", "Where will I get the modem?", etc. This is probably stuff that would've taken care of itself, but I wanted to know so I could set up my network before the Covad installer turned up.
UPDATE: Four years later, there's more choices for DSL. So I'm trying to get my account terminated and my DSL disconnected. I call them and they say, no problem; they'll disconnect on Oct 1st. Not disconnected as of Oct. 6. I called them Oct 5th and they told me I was already disconnected. I told them I wasn't, they told me no problem, they'd get it done in a few hours.
This is frustrating. Maybe it's a Covad delay, but still, frustrating.
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 Review by ruscorp
UPDATED: 5.6 years ago
member for 7.2 years, 2306 visits, last login: a few hours ago
New York,New York,NY
Business customer
$134 per month (18 month contract)
Verizon
CLEC party: Covad
"Solid connection, rarely goes down."
"Tech support sucks, very pricey."
"It seems DSL prices continue to drop, however their's stays high"
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I wasn't employed with my company when XO/COVAD was selected to provide business SDSL to the office. However I can comment on there services since I was employed. When I got there the office had 192 SDSL and I upped it to 384 when I heard prices fallen.
I have rarely had to call XO up about problems. I can recall only 3 or 4 times in almost 4 years of my position I can remember an outage. The times I do call it's for changes to our public address scheme which support screwed up really badly on once before. It takes days for them to process things.
Their tech support is absolutely the most god awful support I've ever seen before. The time they screwed up that IP change and left the office without internet for a day left a sour taste in my mouth. When I call up customer service for a credit I had to kick and scream until I got one. Customer service is not one of their strong points either.
On 3/2/2004 I called to see if SDSL prices (thru COVAD) have dropped a bit. The lady on the phone informs me that they have actually raisen and that I am currently paying the lowest price. (bull)
- -- 3/24/2004 -- -
A couple of users reported a brief outage while I went to lunch today. I came back to my desk and saw my internet was down. However they reported in a couple of minutes it came back. Everything is in full swing again.
- -- 3/30/2004 -- -
I was informed again by some users that there was a brief outage again while I went to lunch today. However they reported in a couple of minutes it came back. Back to normal again.
- -- 4/08/2004 -- -
I saw the connection drop again for about 5 minutes and then came back up again.
- -- 4/09/2004 -- -
Same crap again today. Went down for around 5 minutes. I finally called tech support because this is getting to be way to often. The tech told me it's synced but not passing traffic. The tech put me on hold to open a TT and the line dropped. Let's see if he calls back. After we were disconnected I power cycled. Two minutes later names are getting resolved again and traffic starts passing once again. Thanks for nothing XO.
- -- 5/23/2004 -- -
My boss is interested in RR Biz Edition so we will no longer need the services of XO.
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Review by plundis
Posted: 5.8 years ago
member for 6.4 years, 6 visits, last login: 3.8 years ago
Carnegie,Allegheny,PA
Business customer
$299 per month (12 month contract)
"None in today's market"
"Unannounced multi-hour outtages"
"Go somewhere else"
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I have been an XO customer for 18 months.. I managed to outlive the 1 year agreement we signed up for... Something like $249 for 1.0/1.0 Business Class + $50 for 16 IPs...
Let's start at the installation.. A newer Covad guy did the install.. He knew very little about anything technical and I had to rescue the installation and do the setup on the PC... The wiring coming into the house was wired in free standing air, not mounted and prevents the window from closing properly.
I had the same installer for another line (Covad) about 9 months later and it was a hack job too...
XO claims to deliver business class service... that's why I pay $249 for not even a comparable standard 1.00mb line... I am located about 5400 ft from a well equipped CO and provisioned via Covad ports at the CO - where Covad is selling me a 1.544, but XO cannnot or will not... It makes litte sense.. But that's Covad...
The line underperforms on speed testing and in real world downloading and usage... we are getting more like 768k at best.
In the 18 months I have had the service I have had outtage at minimum once per week for a solid period of time (multiple hours everytime).. As I type this, my connection has been offline for over one hour...It came back up for a minute somewhere in between, while someone in their cage in some facility in either Detroit or Chicago was restarting and monkeying with their router...
It's alleged that XO uses horrible Redback routers and has mega problems with them and every time they need to provision new customers its an outtage...
I've had outtages last as long as 6 hours and as recently as 2 weeks ago I had a mid day outtage from 2pm until about 4pm...
XO today denies ever having an SLA or any agreement about performance... In today's world and at such cost, there should be a flogging committee for the suits and ties that think you can provide poor service and not be penalized...
Next point, paying them... I made the mistake of setting up a direct withdraw from my checking account... For over 2 months I haven't been able to get them to stop taking money out of the account even though the account now is inacctive and I get spanked with banking fees... Another company that lets you give them the information but makes it very difficult to get them to stop...
On the customer service front, I have a woman rep who late nights knows me by first name and says she'd be pissed and want out too... Why does she know me? well, for about a month I had outtages due to their Redhack router mishaps about 3 times a week.. You do the math...
I got to talk to another rep recently who said they had 3 customer reps on the phones overnight and a massive waiting call log... He pointed at the crappy Redback routers, their configuration episodes and repeated fumbling. 3 customer reps to handle how many customers? Whoever is in charge of the staffing should be fired along with the customer service head person.
So how would you feel about a company that has too few and too disgruntal service reps, has weekly outtages without any explanation...- It would be like your city turning off the power ever time someone wanted to install a lightbulb..
How about weekly mutli hour outtages? Advertise that XO. The company alleges to be More Than Talk, however, for this company in this time in history, it is a bunch of talk.
How would you feel if they kept debiting your account??...
How would you feel if your support center messages went always without any answers...
This is XO - a subpar D+ company I wouldn't spend a nickle with if I were you.
Like a bad marriage, it's time for me to get out of the relationship.
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 Review by oldcyberdude
UPDATED: 6.1 years ago
member for 9.3 years, 2337 visits, last login: 4 days ago
Exton,Chester,PA
$89 per month (12 month contract)
Verizon
CLEC party: Covad
"None"
"Tier 1 support has improved but link speeds are even worst"
"Residential users can go to hell"
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This is a quote form XO after a complaint on the drop in my data rate of almost 50% from 1.2M to 700kbps. Thus, unless your 1.5M rate drops to 128kbps they do nothng
An update as of 09/2003
Dumb or otherwise I have continued with XO/ Covad ADSL. Current speeds are under 600Kbps even with provisioning in safe mode. Noise margins on my dedicated pair are between 5.5 and 6.5 download. At Covad tech suggestion I checked on ADSL for my voice line (perhaps NM are better). I am NOT qualified for ADSL!! Currently, seriously considering Comcast cable in place of XO/ Covad ADSL
---- dslmis@xo.com wrote:
Hello,
I have looked over this issue and it appears that your speed has
dropped as you have said. We are however unable to open a ticket regarding
this issue because of the type of service that you have. Unfortunately our
repair team will not even look at an ADSL speed issue unless it is below
128K. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Ryan - Web Care
XO Communications
Final update on XO/ Covad. As of early Oct 2003 speeds dropped to a provsioned level of 384 kbps download to keep the modem operating sucessfully. Postings with Covad techs suggested that dedicated copper lines degrade over time and my Speedstream 5260 also has some history of gradual failure! Only solutions replace modem ($200 cost) and no solution on the line. On Oct 10 I canceled my DSL service and had Comcast HSI installed (see my Comcast review). 2 weeks later an d everything is going just fine. Better data rate, same latency, stable service and much lower combined cost (TV & data). DSL and satellite were the right decision in 2000 but for my location cable has caught up and is now the preferred solution.
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Review by cquacken
Posted: 6.1 years ago
member for 6.1 years, 34 visits, last login: 3 years ago
Daly City,San Mateo,CA
$199 per month
SBC
CLEC party: Covad
"When the connection is good, it's rock solid"
"HORRENDOUS support from Covad and PacBell when the line has trouble"
"If you have good wiring, live close to a CO and want a rock solid connection, XO is a good option"
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I've loved XO (started with them back in the early Concentric days) and in general have had a great response from their technicians and employees. The real let down is Covad's stranglehold on connectivity in our area. A down line on Thursday has resulted in 5+ days of no connectivity because of Covad's update process (4 hours) and not schdeuling less than two days out (not to mention no crew worth mentioning on the weekends). If I lived in a newer building with better inside wiring I would not have a single complaint about the service. It's just the tech support that I dread.
Bottom line: DSL needs good phone wiring and close proximity to a CO, if you don't have that, be prepared for hassle.
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Review by bloodnok
UPDATED: 6.3 years ago
member for 9.8 years, 174 visits, last login: 9 days ago
San Mateo,San Mateo,CA
$110 per month (12 month contract)
about 20 days
SBC
CLEC party: Covad
"still there"
"kinda pricy"
"wouldn't give up my broadband for the world!"
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having moved and in the process offered the chance to pay xo communications $500 to remain their customer, i switched to speakeasy/covad. not too bad. a couple screw-ups, like speakeasy telling covad the wrong address to ship my modem and att provisioning my new phone at my old address - that was especially clever, but has nothing much to do with dsl. att joined xo and rcn as ex-providers for me. unfortunately, i'm with the monopoly pots company. can't win.
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Review by Inetmonkey9
Posted: 6.3 years ago
member for 6.3 years, 0 visits, last login: 6.3 years ago
San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
Business customer
$230 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
SBC
CLEC party: Covad
"Reliable service, seldom needed support"
"Horrifying experiences with billing; when support was needed, got major run-around"
"Probably okay for individuals, but I couldn't recommend for a business-class user"
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I used this 384K SDSL service for almost 3 years. The reliability was outstanding, which made it difficult to cancel. The main problems were with the various aspects of support under XO. Previously under Concentric, support was timely, courteous, and helpful. Not so under XO.
My problems were mostly with billing and support (although luckily I rarely needed support). Billing was a hassle every quarter where by invoices would reflect an underpayment or missed payment, but I was paying automatically through my bank. The situation always came down to "prove to us that we were paid".
If you pay your bill automatically with a credit card, I imagine things would be fine, but any kind of invoicing necessary for a small business or expense account is problematic.
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Review by wmena
UPDATED: 6.4 years ago
member for 10.2 years, 95 visits, last login: 2.6 years ago
Novi,Oakland,MI
Contract price not specified.
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Update... out of business (for home users anyway)
Willy Mena
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 Review by jDyno
UPDATED: 6.7 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 2718 visits, last login: 82 days ago
Reston,Fairfax,VA
$306 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
Verizon
CLEC party: Covad
"Blazing install. Great support. Great sales response."
"None so far."
"Go for it!"
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After looking into quite a few providers and months of being dissatisfied with Verio, I setteled on XO. 2 weeks after making my first call, I was surfing like a wild man. That's right, 2 weeks! Unheard of in this area. I ordered 1.1mbps, even though I could have gotten the max speed. Cost the only consideration there. I also ordered 16 extra IPs at $7/month. The XO rep would email or call me back within minutes of a request for info, pre-install. Email updates pre and post install had great info.The Covad tech showed up on time, knew what he was doing, asked more than once whether there was anything else he could do for me. Now that I am up, my speeds are usually at or even above 1.1mbps at times. I love it. Any questions?
---
We are no longer with XO. We decided to switch to a more "reliable" host, Sprint, due to XO's financial troubles at the time - about a year ago, I guess. Obviously, not a good choice. We became one of thousands of Sprint Customers to be turned off all of a sudden one day. We were without access for a month. We managed to stay afloat (being a web design/dev firm!) by borrowing some bandwidth from another office.
---
We are back with XO, sort of by default, since they bought Allegiance Telecom. I've seen no change whatsoever in service, reliability, etc. since the purchase.
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XO COMMUNICATIONS
