nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
 ·Cox HSI
 ·Speakeasy
| reply to JTRockville
Re: Interesting idea but....
said by JTRockville  :I don't think anyone buys internet service just so they can reach the head-end. ISP are responsible for the backbone too, even if it's a service they contract for. True, but, you can be certain that the average refund-seeker's only going to be worried about how fast they can load a page from "site X". What if "site X" is the bottleneck and not the ISP or any of the hops in between?
said by JTRockville :Maybe backbone providers should be rated separately, so ISPs can make an informed choice too. Probably. A good instrumentation program would provide the tester with local loop speed, CO/head end to PoP speed and PoP to network perimeter speed, all in one handy report.
-tom
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"Some people have morals, standards and ideals about quality, but I'm an American: I couldn't care less." --Tony Pierce (paraphrased) |
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JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs:
 ·LINGO
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·surpasshosting
 ·Verizon FIOS
| We can rid ourselves of "the average refund-seeker" issues by removing the notion of refunds altogether.
Sort of like the nutritional value labels. For example, there's no law against providing more fat than the daily requirement, as long as your label is accurate.
I think ISPs should be free to provide crappy speeds, as long as they don't say otherwise. |
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
·Cox HSI
·Speakeasy
| said by JTRockville :I think ISPs should be free to provide crappy speeds, as long as they don't say otherwise. Which is part of why my ISP sells theirs as "speeds up to" for any given speed tier. Though, they do tend to be good about reducing you to a lower payment tier if your line won't consistently support the speed of the tier you bought.
-tom
--
"Some people have morals, standards and ideals about quality, but I'm an American: I couldn't care less." --Tony Pierce (paraphrased) |
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JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs:
·LINGO
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·surpasshosting
·Verizon FIOS
| In my (limited-to-Comcast) experience, they're not good at lowering your payment if you don't get the "up to" speeds. The only offer I got from Comcast when I could only achieve half the "up to" speed was a faster package at a higher price.
I don't think refunds are appropriate. I just think the information should be provided. As it is now, an ISP can advertise "up to" speeds that no one has a chance of achieving. |
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pahuser
@comcast.net
| Accuse me of being overly literal, and comparing apples and oranges. But what if only 8 out of 10 of your cable channels came in at any given time. Sometimes 7 out of 10, 9 out of 10, 5 out of 10. You gonna keep paying for 10 out of 10 service. I guess there's no clause on the TV side of the house that says, you will get up to 100 channels, if you have, say cable internet. Oh, and for DSL users, on the voice side of the house, only 7 or 8 out of 10 of your calls will go through or stay connected, sometimes 5 or 6. But that's what you have to expect. You can't expect perfection here (hehehehe).
I find nothing wrong in holding these ISPs accountable for maintaining speeds at, or extremely close to what they advertise. Up to??? How much "up to" are you willing to give?? Y'all sound like a bunch of push overs. And, refunds are totally acceptable. I'm not going to pay for a service that doesn't meet my standard. |
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JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs: | I do believe that's the first time anyone's ever accused me of being a pushover when it comes to my expectations of residential broadband.
I may have to reconsider my position on refunds. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to pahuser
You don't buy cable tv with "up to 100 channels".. you DO, however, purchase speeds "up to X"... if you look at where it really matters, it's actually 256 or best effort.
DSL is actually a little better about this. They sell speeds at 256kbps UP TO 1.5 (Going on SBC here) and 1.5m UP TO 3M.
So once again, here we are.. we see what we want to see, right? On the 1.5 to 3MB tier, I suppose you are going to hold them to the 3mb because that's what you see, right? Ok, in the case of selling at least 80% of the advertised speeds, they would only have to deliver AT LEAST 80% of the 1.5 tier since they are selling you 1.5mb UP TO the 3.0. This has NEVER been a shocker people..
Come on.. wake up and get real for once would you? |
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