US Telco Support > FairPoint > Switching to DSL

Switching to DSL

Ok good news. The 15/1 plan is avaiable only on the new Vantagepoint network. It is solid and not the old leftover Verizon stuff. I do know Fairpoint always does the promo stuff all the time so i would just give them a ring see what they say. Where I am at im on the old verizon stuff. Its ok but it isn't the Vantagepoint stuff. I would get the Direct TV package, I just don't want a dish on my house.

reply to Girl
Performance stability has more to due with local condition of Cable/Telco rather then the specific technology.

If FairPoint went to the trouble to install remote terminals pretty safe to assume they upgraded other infrastructure so speed should be OK.

Since money is tight have you though about using Over the Air (OTA) TV rather than paying for Cable or Sat? TV antennas come pretty cheap depending on where you are located.

./tom

reply to Girl
I'd also be leery of going to a dish at this point. I've been a Dish Network customer for over 10 years, and while initially the signal strength was great (could make it through the worst snow storm without a glitch), things have changed greatly. Over the years, they've changed/added satellites and are now combining 3-5 LNBs on a single dish. My signal strength is less than half of what it was years ago, and I now lose my signal every time it rains. My installer has told me that my strengths are as good as they get. I can't speak for DirectTV, but if they are doing the same thing, I'd stick with cable...

I very seldom loose DTV signals. Overall it has been excellant. They use different angles to the sky I heard.
I loose FariPoint DSL all the time due to thunder storms or whatever it seems. It's been going on now for a few years. Before that I never had problems.My phone line too get's out of wack too so often. If I could switch to cable for phone and for internet I would. Don't know about TV. I guess packaged pricing would come into play.

reply to Girl
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU EVEN CONSIDER FAIRPOINT DSL OVER RR CABLE IF RR IS AVAILABLE. Throw the bundle out the window since you will get screwed over anyways. Directv overcharges me every month and claims I didn't input my rebate. BS!!! Lucky I have ADD. Anyways GET Roadrunner for internet making sure you order it off the promotional site (just type in roadrunner promotions on google), and keep using Directv. Directv has a D- for a grade when it comes to service and it all comes down to billing. Don't try and bundle. In theory it sounds logical, practical, time & money saving but it is not. Fairpoint DSL is terrible and you will never even come remotely close to the advertised speeds. Everytime I had Roadrunner my speeds were under advertised. I've had Fairpoint 3 times due to moving and what not and NOT A SINGLE TIME did I every get even close to the advertised speed. I pay 40 for satellite with 2 boxes (should be 34.99 but they lie) and 44.95 for RR Turbo. So, roughly $85 dollars for my Directv (which I will admit is better than cable for TV) and RR Turbo which I get roughly 26-31Mbps/1Mbps. I'm pretty sure my cable blows 15/1 out of the water. Look at company assets. Fairpoint is about to go under while I don't see Timewarner doing that anytime soon. In fact they had a state wide DSL black out for 24 hours across the entire state of Maine last Friday. If you can get cable internet go with Directv and RR service. It might be slightly more if even that because the lowest bundle with Fairpoint was like $80/month I thought so $5 more for awesome internet and TV.

Also, I failed to see that you already have RR service. What service? How does it fluctuate? Can I get a speed test? Ping test? Loop test? Operating System (obviously Windows since it fluctuates)? Location? If you've already remedied these then complain. Seriously. Be an American and complain. Tell them you are not getting what you are paying for and they will fix it or credit. They always do for me. Also your bill is extraordinary. What, do you have the best of the best? Another way to save although can be time consuming is to cancel all your existing services that aren't under contract such as RR and renew them under a promotional deal. Just my 2 cents. Please just stay away from Fairpoint DSL it is truly awful.

I have RR and my speed fluctuates so badly that at night we cannot even watch YouTube videos. The installer last year told us that our node was crowded but so far as I know, nothing has been done to fix that.

I am switching to DSL this week.

Good luck with DSL.

reply to Girl
type fairpoint telecommunications into facebook. go to their wall then sort by most recent and just read a little bit before you ever consider getting failpoint. I havent been able to watch a low res vid on youtube for 2 years with their service and for 49.95 a month. most people post their speedtest results there and that doesnt even show the massive amounts of packet loss they are hiding. they restrict their bandwidth after business hours regardless of how much traffic is on their network.

reply to InMaine
dont get fairpoint whatever you do. they restrict bandwidth after business hours and I cant watch a youtube video on low res either and for that they want 49.95 a month dont do it. im in maine also fairpoint has been screwing its customers over for 2 years now. they actually went down completley after business hours for 3 months after they did the shady verizon deal. last 2 months its been locked up hard. go read their facebook page. fairpoint telecommunications go to there wall and then sort by most recent because they try and hide the shit storm of unsatisfied people. most of us post our down and up speeds daily or weekly. read that before you consider FAILPOINT.

reply to xQim
xQim: Extracting from your first paragraph:

"...and keep using Directv. Directv has a D- for a grade when it comes to service and it all comes down to billing. Don't try and bundle. In theory it sounds logical, practical, time & money saving but it is not."

Are you hinting that Direct TV will overcharge you whether you bundle or not? If so, how is bundling worse than not bundling?

kirby