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 Review by Tex Longhorn 
member for 12.3 years, 5588 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 1 days ago
 Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
 $29 per month Verizon "Decent speed. Good price" "Occasional drops" "Good price for the speed."
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1.5/256 $29.99/month. Ordered online. Received free wireless router (after rebate). Website said it wouldn't with Mac OS X, but it does. Had to make a few calls to get my rebate.
Had Cox 3.0/256 before this at $49.99. The cheaper price makes up for the loss in speed.
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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 4 days ago
- Curwensville,Clearfield,PA
- $84 per month
- Verizon
- "Service is reliable and speeds are as advertised."
- "A bit pricey for the speed."
- "Other than data capped satelite and LTE this is the only reasonable thing available."
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Bottom line service is dependable. But if you can get anything else like
cable I would get that. But where I live cable isn't available. My speed is
3Mbs down and 768kbs up. Now in town you can get the 7.1MBs service for the
same price. I have asked Verizon many times if the 7.1MBs is or would ever
be available and the answer was always we only offer the 3MBs service in
your area. Oh well. In a couple of months I'm moving to a town that has a
reliable 12Mbs thru windstream.
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Review by waycoolphil
member for 12.6 years, 600 visits, last login: 2 days ago
lodged 38 days ago
- Cathedral City,Riverside,CA
- $30 per month
 about 2 days- Verizon (ex GTE)
- "Extremely reliable and uncapped. Average 6.5Mbps. Fast enough for Netflix HD."
- "Would like more speed."
- "Excellent service if you live in an area with good copper and updated CO."
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A very good service that is trouble free. Self-install was easy. I switched from TWC 10Mbps Internet and digital voice. Their Internet service was flakey and the digital voice was ok but when the bundle expired after 12 months it was going to be $100 total monthly. Now I get a bundle from Verizon for DSL and POTS with no contract at $30/mo. plus taxes for each service. The phone includes unlimited calling to the US and Canada, Caller I.D. and all the custom calling features. It even includes voice mail which TWC charged an additional $4/mo. for. The DSL doesn't have the latency cable had and is uncapped. I highly recommend it if you are in an area with good copper and an updated CO. The downside is that we will probably never have FiOS here because all utilities are underground.
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 | | Eh As much as I hate twc and I left them i would never go with dsl. Their 10 mbps tier as you said was 10 mbps now its 15/1.
If you get slower speeds at night you can get docsis 3.0 modem. | |
| | | | Re: Eh DOCSIS3 is not available from TWC here in the Coachella Valley. | |
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Review by MikeRivers
member for 7.6 years, 220 visits, last login: 13 days ago
updated 65 days ago
- Falls Church,Fairfax,VA
- $16 per month
- (12 month contract)
- Verizon
- "Very inexpenisve"
- "Tech support knows too little"
- "Great bargain now that it works well"
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I initially signed up for the $29.95/month service in December of 2004 after being an AOL dial-up user for too many years. Since I am no longer traveling regularly, the benefit of AOL's dial-up access just about anywhere was no longer really important, and Verizon offered a "turn it on when you need it" dial-up extension for $8.95/month. I've not yet found that I needed it since these days most hotels have wireless or RJ45 Ethernet connections.
Anyway, things got up and running pretty quickly and I was pleased with the service for about six months. I was gettting throughput commensurate with 784 kbs service and that was fine for what I do on the net. They advertised "we doubled the speed and didn't raise the price" but I never saw a speed increase. Then my connection started dropping out several times a week, sometimes for just a few minutes, sometimes for several hours. Numerous calls to Verizon Tech Support and service, including three house calls and a replacement modem found nothing wrong. I was about to give up and try a different provider when my year was up.
Verizon Support's last suggestion was that I was close to the distance limit and that they drop the sending speed. That didn't help. Right about the time that I was due for renewal, Verizon started advertising the $14.95/month rate for the speed I was getting, so I asked if they could change me to that rate when I renewed since that was all the speed I was getting anyway. They cheerfully did so, and I continued to put up with the occasional drops in service. It might not be great, but it sure was cheap. My phone + service fee more than dropped in half from when I had AOL and a second phone line.
I persisted with the service calls whenever I had an interruption if for no other reason than to put them on record. When someone said "You've called about this more than thirty times. We haven't fixed it yet?" they sent out another technician who made the same measurements in my house as the others who had been here before, but this gentleman recognized that there really was a problem and started working his way back from the house.
He found a stray piece of cable attached to my feed and disconnected it. (I'm a real engineer and I understood why this was a problem when he explained what he found and what his measurements showed) The "margin" and signal strength immediately went up and I haven't lost service once since December, so I'm a happy boy.
So the service, at least at "low speed" is solid, and as long as I don't need support, I'm satisfied. I suppose that my tech support experience is pretty typical of everyone's when they have a problem that isn't a simple in-house connection or setup issue. You just gotta keep at 'em.
March 2013
Wow! It's been a long time. Service went from good to bad to good again several times over the years. This past summer was particularly bad, and after about 2 months of very low speeds or failure to connect to the DSL host at all (which they didn't charge me for) they finally figured out that the problems were on their end, and after switching me to a succession of different ports, the last one being in a different building, it was finally working as well as ever.
During this period when technicians were coming to my house weekly and not finding any problems at this end, I was told by a couple of them that the copper in this area was in very bad shape and that the company refused to update it, hoping to get everyone on fiber. I apparently was one of a few holdouts. They said they were making deals with legacy customers, which I asked about and they best they could come up with was a $10 discount off the $60/month Internet + voice service. I told them where they could put it.
However, the rate, which was $15/month for several years crept up to $20 and they were about to raise it to $25. I complained that my income (I'm a retired bum) hasn't gone up 20% this year. They offered me the same "deal" and I told them again where to put it. Eventually, the guy from customer service came up with a $40/month discount off the 1.3 mbps Internet and 5 cents per minute anywhere in US and Canada voice service. The total, allowing for about 2 hours of phone per month (I really don't use the phone very much) was actually about $5 less than what I was currently paying for the DSL + message unit phone (a dime for a local call plus long distance rates outside the local area). So I took the plunge.
FiOS has been here for a week now. Download speed is measurably faster, about double what I had before but not noticeably faster for what I do. Upload speed is about 4x what I had, and that's enough to notice. The phone sounds good, and everything's been stable so far.
Like most FiOS users, I'm concerned about extended power outages since it's powered by AC with a backup battery good for up to 8 hours. At the moment, I'm trying to find out (so I can get the right part the first time) the actual size of the coaxial power connector for an external battery that's on the power supply. Verizon doesn't know. CyberPower who made the power unit says "we made that for Verizon and they support it, not us." - in other words, they know, but they won't tell me due to their contract with Verizon.
I've had similar responses trying to get more in depth information about the routers that they've sent me over the years for DSL.
But what can I say? It's cheap. I've updated the worst/best ratings at the top of the page based on the switch to FiOS. It's too new to assess reliability yet.
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Review by iansltx
member for 6.2 years, 2662 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 73 days ago
- Fredericksburg,Gillespie,TX
- $37 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 30 days
- "Rock-solid connection compared to the competition, cheap, awesome backbone"
- "Speed tops out at ~1.8/620, low SNR means the connection is fragile if not treated correctly"
- "A great upgrade from what we were using, but would get TWC over DSL if it wasn't $9k to install"
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3-11-13
The service has jumped from $30 per month to $32, and now $37, as Verizon tries to either monetize or get rid of its non-fiber, non-wireless base. But we're hanging on, since there's still nothing better (note that the $5 per month pricing prior to this update was a mistake).
On the plus side, Verizon has now uncapped our line speed-wise. The line will sync up as fast as it can, provided upstream SNR is 9 dB or higher, and downstream SNR is 6 dB or higher. On the minus side, that only nets us a few hundred kbps of breathing room on the download side (so we're talking about 1.75 Mbps on speed tests instead of 1.5). Going back to pluses, upload speeds are significantly increased...to a little north of 600 kbps. Far from ideal (Sprint LTE at the same location can hit 5+ Mbps, and Time Warner Cable in town can hit 50/5 Mbps down/up) but for an uncapped connection with dcent latency and reliability we'll take what we can get.
6-3-12 speedtest/pingtest
NOTE: Ignore latency readings on both of these. Latency to Softlayer-Dallas is 40-41ms. Latency to 4.2.2.4 (anycasted from Dallas) is 38ms.
»speedtest.net/result/1988193514.png
The speedtest is rock-solid (takes a second or two to hit top speed, then stays there for the remainder of the test). I could test any time of day and get the same result, as long as the modem is sync'ing at full speed (which it does most of the time).
»www.pingtest.net/result/63934458.png
6-3-12
The service has chugged along with pretty much no change for the last two years. Sometimes the modem needs to be rebooted to lock in 1.5 Mbps speeds, but they'll always come back, despite the low SNR they bring (on the downstream side anyway; I'd have no issues with dropouts if VZ pushed my upload sync speed up to where I was getting 512 kbps on speed tests instead of 384 kbps).
About a year ago I got a second DSL line installed, opting for the lower package since I thought that, since line quality was fine, Verizon would provide me with a 1 Mbps down, 384 kbps up line that I could bond (via Sharedband or the like) for a whopping 2.5 Mbps down, 768 kbps up of throughput (smokin', I know). Installation was successful, but VZ stubbornly refused to provision the line above rates that, after overhead, gave me 768 kbps down, 128 kbps up. A few months later, I discontinued service on that line, having used it practically none in the interim.
It's sad that, due to my parents' location, their 'net access is for all intents and purposes frozen in time, or at least it seems that way. Time Warner Cable now offers DOCSIS 3 where their lines extend, with 50/5 (Mbps of course) speeds available. Verizon appears to offer 7 Mbps DSL in town; I think that two years ago speeds topped out at 3 Mbps. But this far out, 1.5 Mbps is the best they can do (on a single line anyway, and they don't do bonded DSL). The local WISP hasn't upgraded their package speeds in this area in at least three years, and 3G is getting slower, not faster, as companies focus on 4G buildouts elsewhere (Sprint will probably be the first one with 4G here). Sure, ViaSat exede is available, but my guess is that my parents' Internet usage would place them at least at the 15GB tier ($75 here), if not higher. Plus, latency on satellite is bad for the gaming that my brothers and I occasionally use the connection for.
But hey, things could be a lot worse. Latency to websites in Dallas sits around 38ms (24ms of which is interleave delay, possibly combined with latency to San Antonio), and those pings are actually more consistent (albeit usually higher) than what I get at my apartment in Colorado. One thing's for sure: I'm glad I'm not limited to 3G or satellite, both of which have higher-latency, jitterier service than what's available through Verizon.
ORIGINAL REVIEW (early 2010)
It all started around Thanksgiving; Verizon FINALLY installed a DSLAM in my area and started serving customers off of it. Which is great because until then most lines in town were unsuitable for DSL (bridged taps etc.) so the CLEC (now Windstream) had pretty much abandoned DSL due to low uptake. Once Verizon put in their own DSLAM (probably to pump the town's system value up for a sale) lines started getting groomed...
After pestering a local tech off and on, my line, at 20,610 feet from the CO, started getting groomed. In early January the call came: your line is ready to go for DSL. My parents have VZ landline service (just the basic $20-including-tax local service with nothing added, not even caller ID) so we got a really nice deal on DSL: 6 months free, then $30 (plus taxes and fees) per month. It looks like the taxes and fees will be a little less than $5, so even after the free period (where taxes are still apparently assessed...weird but not big enough to gripe about) we'll be paying less for access than we were to our previous ISP.
The equipment mailed to us was a Westell 6100 series modem, which includes built-in routing capability. This is proving to be a bit troublesome since I'm used to using bridged modems (like my Comcast cable modem in Colorado) but the modem UI is easy enough on port forwarding that I haven't taken the time to put the modem into pure bridge mode, which is a bit more of a chore. The only other equipment Verizon gave were some filters and a splitter, which is fine because that's all that was needed to get the internet up and running. No tech had to come to our house for the install, though we're working on running a Cat5 home run to the modem...we need all the SNR we can get.
Speaking of SNR, as long as the phone line isn't running right near the DC cord for the Westell modem we're in the 6.5-8.5 range, with 57.5 db (!) of attenuation. Yes, we're a ways from the CO. Yet the connection is running at a solid 1758/447 sync rate, giving us the 1.5 Mbps down and 384 kbps up that we were promised after overhead, something that Qwest in Colorado doesn't do to my great chagrin.
It would be nice if the upload was provisioned another few hundred kbps higher, but we'll take what we can get. A solid, uncapped, jitter-free 1.5/384 connection is preferable to 2 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up AT&T 3G with a 5GB cap, 2 Mbps down, 650 kbps up Verizon 3G with a 10GB cap, 1.2 Mbps down, 600 kbps up Sprint for $70 per month, satellite or the overloaded local WISP, which are our alternatives in the area. CricKet is also available, but signal sucks indoors. Verizon apparently doesn't offer more than 3/768 in the area and from what I hear doesn't have internet-lit fiber to the CO (so they're running their DSL system off of a T3 or two) but I'm happy to report that speeds are consistent (and Verizon's backbone routing is awesome) no matter what time it is.
Verizon beats everyone except the WISP on latency, and the WISP only beats Verizon on the first hop when the system isn't overloaded (too much of the time). Latency on the first hop is in the 24-27ms range (I need to measure the connection at some point directly connected to the DSL modem, without a powerline networking kit and a wireless router spreading the signal around) which is perfectly fine considering the rock-solid nature of the connection and the fact that we're working on a low-SNR interleaved DSL connection, which incidentally is using the ADSL2+ profile to pump the bits to us.
Is a 1.5/384 connection that great? Nope. However the only way to get more highly reliable bandwidth would be to shell out $35 or $45 for a 1/384 or 1.5/384 dry-line connection on our other copper pair, wait for Verizon to make sure that pair is conditioned, then figure out a way to bond two DSL modems to create a single connection. The upload speed is what's lacking anyway, and the places I upload to are single-stream, so the additional line wouldn't work well anyway without a service like SharedBand, which costs even more money. The bottom line: the connection is my parents' and they're willing to pay $45-$55 per month for an internet connection, no more. Right now they're paying a LOT less than that, which is fine too. The biggest draw though is that they now have a rock-solid internet connection that can pull down data at nearly 200 KB per second, streams YouTube without hiccups and has a public IP address so I can remotely fix computer issues without a problem. Verizon may be giving up on their DSL footprint across the US, but this is one success story that should be known to all.
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 Review by aefstoggaflm
member for 11.2 years, 2771 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 76 days ago
- Bethlehem,Northampton,PA
- Contract price not specified.
- Verizon
- "Better than one way cable."
- "Took a while to get. They had the wrong phone number. Sometimes tech support is dumb."
- "Other then tech support, the service is good."
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I ordered 3/768 at the month to month rate. I had a PPPoE connection.
Better than one way cable. But the bad news took a while to get. They had the wrong address or phone number.
--
Sometimes tech support is just plain straight dumb. As addressed in »[Rant] Rant about Verizon techs. (Warning: Long)
I made sure that all of my devices behind a NAT router (ex: WRT54G v6) could release and renew their IP address.
We (my parents and I) then switched from behind a NAT device to a direct connection to the modem.
Then when Verizon techs tried to trouble shoot the issue. One of the things is that they told us to do was to uninstall and reinstall the NIC of a computer, is like 
** Update 12/09/09 **
Now on Business DSL with a public Static IP.
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Review by philpense
member for 82 days, 3 visits, last login: 80 days ago
lodged 81 days ago
- Washington,District Of Columbia,DC
- $24 per month
- (month by month)
- about 5 days
- Verizon
- "Low Downtime"
- "Bandwidth"
- "Generally Decent"
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Have had the service for several years and am generally disappointed in the times when support is necessary. In one particular instance support was called when an independent app showed the bandwidth. Support tech went through a series of scripted questions having nothing to do with the issue. Case was ultimately escalated twice. Apparently, managers are routinely in meetings during the work day. Ten days of constant complaining who actually told me that" the high speed switch was off" This has not happened often but once was more than enough
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 Review by johnnylakis
member for 10.5 years, 159 visits, last login: 37 days ago
updated 126 days ago
- Brooklyn,Kings,NY
- $29 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 20 days
- Verizon
- "Cheaper than cable"
- "Speed at night can be a problem; customer service"
- "Cable is faster but costs alot more"
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Update 1/17/13 - I got FIOS! Check out my review there!
Update 3/3/08- Here it is over 5 years later and I am happy with Verizon Online DSL. For a while I was getting night speeds less than 400kbps. I used the Verizon Direct forum here at dslreports. A tech came to my house and Verizon switched my router at the CO. Verizon DSL is still $29.95/mo if you commit to one year, but as soon as that one year is up they jack the price to $37.95.
Update 1/21/07- Here it is over 4 years later and I am happier with Verizon Online. I just called to upgrade from 1.5Mbps to 3.0Mbps. I wasn't able to before because there was no capacity at the CO. My neighbors still can't get Verizon DSL because of lack of capacity at the CO, but at least now they will put you on a wait list. Verizon DSL is still $29.95/mo because of my local telephone package, and there are no hidden fees anymore. I never need to call tech support because of connectivity issues.
Update 1/21/05- Here it is over 2 years later and I am disgusted with Verizon Online. On May 2003, I could download at 1.5Mbps. Now during peak hours I get 500 kbps down if I am lucky. Verizon DSL is now $29.95/mo when you subscribe to any local telephone package + 5.60 in hidden fees. I now call tech support once per week because of connectivity issues.
Original posting - Modem came after 3 days (self install - very easy). I was told 10 days to live, but it turned out to be 20. Signal was live on day 11, but Verizon said that it would be wise to wait until I receive confirmation as signal may go out after a day or so (and it did). According to tech support, there originally was a problem getting the DSL signal to my house. Looks like they are backlogged. I live 10,700 feet from CO. I ordered 768/128 for free first month, $29.95 for 2nd and 3rd month, $49.95 after that on a month to month subscription. The price drops to $39.95 per month with a one year commitment. I am getting speeds as fast as 730/100 late at night. I did have speeds of 200/90 at the beginning but I got Windows XP and that fixed that. Not static IP, so you are safer against hackers.
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Review by hrickpa
member for 11.9 years, 1742 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 127 days ago
- Reading,Berks,PA
- $37 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 5 days
- Verizon
- "speed and price"
- "Modem/router does not last long (sensitive to noisey computer power supplys)"
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have 7.1/786
Every time I have have sync problems they slow my speed down i am now currently at 4.5 meg speed. either they fix the problem that is causing the problem or roll out FIOS in my area
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 xdeadhead220, 221, Whatever It Takes.Premium
join:2000-11-08
Mechanicsburg, PA | dream on aint no fios coming to reading, now or in the future. | |
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Review by chans
member for 9.9 years, 1909 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 130 days ago
- Philadelphia,Philadelphia,PA
- $29 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 3 days
- Verizon
- "Speed is close to what was advertised 7mb d/l"
- "none yet"
- "for my needs it is a good deal"
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Well after many years I finally bid Comcast goodbye and went with a dsl line.Installed it today and it went very well .So far speeds are as advertised {3mb d/l) Ordered on the 21st received router and email on the 24 th of april.Received a Westell 7500 wireless 4 port router and it's setup was very simple.Will repost in a few weeks and let you know if it is still a good deal
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