| Is the megapath transition the final nail in the coffin? Hi,
I've been a customer of speakeasy off and on for at a decade now, currently setup with a bonded T-1 to a home office.
My reason for choosing speakeasy was that I couldn't stand the policies and poor customer support that is provided by standard telco's whose sole purpose in getting into internet access was to retain the profit margins they were losing to competitors...I wanted service from a company dedicated purely to providing business internet access and who actually cared about the quality of providing real customer service, especially at a business level.
Speakeasy was awesome originally, and has became more blah and sales focused since, but I could always count on their being a real engineer to speak to when I need it (even if I was put on hold for a half hour).
DSL was also good enough for a few years until it became popular, and then the reliability and occasional days of occasional downtime became too much. Switched to single t-1 and then over the last several years, bonded t-1 - and even though the bonded t-1 as speakeasy implemented it was not as reliable as what I've been able to setup on my own elsewhere, it's been good enough....
Now, in the last 3 months....
a) stopped receiving any invoices (speakeasy sent out an email saying they would be switching to a new invoicing system) but our accountant never received any further news or bills.
b) I kept making automated payments of the same amounts to ensure our account stayed in good standing.
c) Found out yesterday that there was a new invoice generated recently that I hadn't seen that was backdated and doublebilled me for 3-4 months....invoice showed charges for $3-4K with over $1,500 currently due.
d) Called in and had to wait almost an hour for a stressed out accountant, I assume, to figure out what was going on and then she said she couldn't do anything herself but to open up a ticket and that I would get a response within the next ....wait for it....month. Seriously? And, I would have to call back to figure out what they decide later? The account stated that even though their billing system was messed up and I showed an amount due, that my service would not be affected. I'm hoping thats true but I've learned not to count on hope.
e) Today I had a simple support request, update some reverse dns records. For my business support, I had to wait almost 24hrs for some level 1 tech to close the ticket without doing anything because the tech was confused between forward and reverse dns. Tech gave a one line answer and closed ticket, no way to re-open.
f) I opened up a new ticket, asking them to reopen, and pointing out that I had requested reverse dns changes that they've always done and which should be trivial. No response hours later.
I'd rather not take the time to get a lawyer and migrate internet services to a different isp....but are things truly so bad that I'm going to keep seeing a declining level of support and is speakeasy going to be just like those other telco internet access providers who only care about marketing/market share and refuse to provide any technical support beyond which a grandma just learning to use a computer might need?
We renewed out bonded t-1 for 3 years in February, just before the megapath stuff came onto the radar....so I'd prefer to stick with our contract if we can....but if speakeasy is going to fall apart, I'll have to switch out before the end of the 3yrs anyway....it would be better to do so while their ineptness could be clearly demonstrated by our lawyer.
Thanks. |
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| Speakeasy's coffin has been nailed shut in my eyes. With decreasing cooperation from the telcos and post-merger changes, I could clearly see it months ago. Service that went down several times within a 90 day period, once for nearly a week with the "They did it" blame game between MP and the telco and billing issues similar to yours made it clear the writing was on the wall. I was a long standing customer for almost 9 years and finally made the switch to Comcast business earlier this year. I now have 50/10 service with five static IPs for $189 that has been reliable and often exceeds, never drops below advertised speeds. I pay a little more but I get a LOT more. And on top of it all, their business support is better than anything else I can get here in the Atlanta area. Still, it's sad to see such a great company with such open values be absorbed into the corporate muck that the ISP business has turned into. I had a fantastic 9 year run with only the last 6 months of it being a poor experience. It was great while it lasted. |
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JonW
join:2002-08-13
Herndon, VA | reply to deploylinux
Great customer service, policies, and network performance were enough to separate SpeakEasy back in the day, but while they always cost more than other services, the price/performance simply gets worse and worse every year. It's a shame, but they simply can't keep up with DSL technology. Heck, they could sell bonded T1's for $100/month and they'd still be behind the competition.
The bottom line is that both home users and business users can get service many times faster for less money. |
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 CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | To get the same setup I have now - would cost me as much if not more currently. Even with cable since I do have a static IP would throw me to the business class. Even with DSL and dry loop - like I have now and like VERY much - will cost me the same and to get faster - cost me more.
Only way I can get cheaper\faster is if I do not get what I have currently. Slower speed, no dry loop, and no static. I would eventually like to do a FTP server for family and the ease of static IP is nice right now.
In reading the posts over the last few years - since the merger the T1 business has had far more issues with reliability and support issues. Obvious they want to do business VOIP above all but if they can't do T1 lines and bonded T1 lines well - then they are going to be hurting.
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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JonW
join:2002-08-13
Herndon, VA | I could get business class FIOS for what I'm paying now, but I'm going to try out the residential service and give up my static IP to save $$$ in addition to increasing my speed.
I think I'll be able to do what I have to do with dynamic DNS services.
Sure, your mileage will vary with what you need and what's available to you; but how long has it been since SpeakEasy has changed their megabit per $$$ pricing structure? |
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CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | Don't know about the business side but not changing the residential side (to something less than the competition from comparing oranges to oranges DSL service from other companies) but it also fits in with not wanting residential service customers. They will let those drop without complaint and will not actively solicit residential service.
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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JonW
join:2002-08-13
Herndon, VA
1 edit | Yeah, it was made abundantly clear years ago that they didn't care about growing the residential side of their business; but for instance my employer uses SpeakEasy for their business service and I'm told they're going to be able to jump up about 50X in performance for around what they're paying now.
Why bother merging MegaPath, SpeakEasy, and Covad if they're not going to leverage it in to something that can actually compete with fiber and cable?
Here's an example:
SpeakEasy offers 20/20 Mbps Business Ethernet for $1429 per month or about $71 per megabit.
Verizon offers 150/35 Mbps Business Class FIOS with static IP for $210 per month. Some say the upload speed actually approaches 75 Mbps, but even using the 35 Mbps number we're talking $6 per megabit or $1.40 per megabit if you just look at the download speed. |
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CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | Because VOIP does not rely on the absolute fastest connection. DSL has no real answer for fiber and cable - people on DSL either have no choice or, in my case, the other choice is crap (Time Warner).
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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JonW
join:2002-08-13
Herndon, VA | Which is why SpeakEasy needs to move on from DSL to newer variants that offer higher rates or other technologies altogether.
AT&T and QWEST have done exactly that.
Slower & cheaper could work too.
But slower and more expensive?
That's a death sentence just waiting to be executed. |
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CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | I don't think cable companies are going to allow SE to sell cable internet and I know Verizon will NOT allow them to resell FIOS. Only choice then is to build out their own FIOS and they don't have the cash for that. Verizon spent more than $23 billion for what little they built out.
This would be the main reason - I think - they are going after business rather than residential. I don;t see anything - other than ADSL2 that they can really offer that is anything close to what would be needed. Don't think there are other alternatives to DSL they could offer - especially now that ILECs do not have to share their wire.
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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JonW
join:2002-08-13
Herndon, VA | AT&T figured out how to get Fiber run to their distribution points where they could use VDSL to get the signal the rest of the way.
I don't really care what they come up with, but they'd better come up with something because slower & more expensive is a death sentence. |
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CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | ILECs have a bit more money from several other sources in which they make a lot of cash. No CLEC will have enough to run their own lines to a RT\CO or to a house. That is why other companies are hoping LTE will work well.
That is again - why they are going for business and VOIP that does not rely in 20meg down and 5 meg up.
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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JonW
join:2002-08-13
Herndon, VA | For residential use like U-Verse, VDSL is run over copper, so there's no need to run wire to each home.
The cost to run fiber is about $8000/mile. When you consider that SpeakEasy is charging $1529/month for 20x20 business grade service, an initial setup fee to run a fiber line is a non-factor for anything up to a few miles.
No, they still wouldn't be able to compete with Verizon, but not every business can get Verizon. |
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CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | said by JonW:For residential use like U-Verse, VDSL is run over copper, so there's no need to run wire to each home.
The cost to run fiber is about $8000/mile. When you consider that SpeakEasy is charging $1529/month for 20x20 business grade service, an initial setup fee to run a fiber line is a non-factor for anything up to a few miles.
No, they still wouldn't be able to compete with Verizon, but not every business can get Verizon.
Sorry - AT&T is not going to share U-Verse with anyone else - they are no longer obligated to share their lines and SE\Covad does not have the money to create their own ADSL2 network - they would not be able to get into the COs anyhow. AT&T will never allow then to piggyback unless forced by law.
Once the law was dropped for the ILECs to share their lines - CLECs and ISPs that cater to CLECs, had to find a new business to get into as a large portion of their business was going bye-bye.
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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cramer
join:2007-04-10
Raleigh, NC
kudos:7 | Sorry - AT&T is not going to share U-Verse with anyone else - they are no longer obligated to share their lines and SE\Covad does not have the money to create their own ADSL2 network - they would not be able to get into the COs anyhow. AT&T will never allow then to piggyback unless forced by law.
However, they are still required to share access to the lines (read: copper pair from the CO.) COVAD already has a large DSL network using their own equipment in thousands of COs across the country. And yes, telcos are required by law to allow access to COs. (they still make it an expensive pain in the ass.)
I don't know where you've gotten the impression the centuries old copper infrastructure is no longer open-access. Next-gen infrastructure (read: fiber) is not open, but copper still is. This is rumored to be one of the reasons Verizon removed the copper lines where FiOS was deployed. (also because copper is rather valuable.) |
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| In at least some areas, access to the copper infrastructure is not being granted and the reason AT&T uses is that the infrastructure has been "retired". My neighbor's Speakeasy line was disconnected by AT&T and they were told the pair was no longer available, that the only service available to their house is now u-verse. |
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CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | reply to cramer
»electronics.howstuffworks.com/ilec3.htm
quote:
Over the years, various appeals court rulings have challenged the constitutionality of the unbundled network elements (UNE) provision of the act. The result is that ILECs are now only compelled to share their equipment with CLECs in cases where there is "no other viable way to compete" [source: Network World]. To stay in business, CLECs have increasingly had to buy and operate their own hardware in separate facilities. According to June 2007 numbers from the FCC, CLECs now use their own equipment for 38 percent of their end-user phone lines.
Looking ahead, there might be even more trouble brewing for CLECs. More and more ILECs are laying fiber-optic cable as a last-mile connection to residential and business phone subscribers. Fiber offers significantly faster data transfer rates and is ideal for the recent trend of bundling voice, Internet and TV service under one digital provider. The problem is that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 only requires ILECs to share traditional copper phone lines. If ILECs make a full transition to fiber, then there won't be any more equipment to share.
CLEC access to ILEC lines are getting numbered with fiber. They have been limited already when ILECS are only compelled to share when there is no viable way to compete. This is why there are few if any CLECs that have started up in the last 10 years. ILECs will gladly share the copper you and I paid for (as well as our relatives) since it is paid for and they can collect a fee for access.
They don't have to do that with fiber..... ILECs WANT CLECs on the slower technology - it only makes the ILEC more attractive to get high speed internet and the CLEcs unattractive. Meanwhile some ILECs will try and get the most of copper - ADSL2+ but they do not have to do anything about letting CLECs offer the same service on the ILEC lines - that just erodes the ILECs power. Copper is only open for older technology - we are talking about wanting NEWER technology - not older.
This is why still successful CLECs turn to govt and business applications - sound familiar? Sounds JUST like Covad\Megapath\SE path for the last 4+ years.
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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cramer
join:2007-04-10
Raleigh, NC
kudos:7 | reply to NgtFlyer
Sounds like someone should be writing a letter to their PUC. (and maybe the FCC.) Disconnecting a UNE is a very big no-no. (refusing to sell one is a different cat to skin.) |
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| reply to JonW
said by JonW:I could get business class FIOS for what I'm paying now, but I'm going to try out the residential service and give up my static IP to save $$$ in addition to increasing my speed.
I think I'll be able to do what I have to do with dynamic DNS services.
JonW; I'm going this exact same route (Verizon residential), including using dynamic DNS services, and I guess I'll move my email hosting to google or something.
How has your experience been? |
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JonW
join:2002-08-13
Herndon, VA | Pretty good. I'm not fond of having to use my router in "double NAT" in order to support Verizon's TV services, but fortunately it's working - and I had confidence it would because I tried a test-run before switching.
SpeakEasy is keeping my email alive for a fee, so that's nice.
The tricky part is really taking advantage of all the speed. It appears a lot of sites throttle their download speed, or are just swamped to the point they can't keep 45 Mbps flowing.
My work is upgrading soon, so my VPN will hopefully see a big improvement in responsiveness, but IPSEC will probably be a bottleneck. |
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