Computer World Ranks Broadband ISPs FiOS comes out on top again, Comcast hits bottom Computer World is the latest technology mag to ask their readers to rank the best broadband ISPs. Verizon executives are sure to get swelled heads on the news that FiOS, despite limited deployment so far, once again ranks number one in their report. The magazine only ranked five other ISPs (in order of quality): Cox, Time Warner Cable, AT&T and Verizon DSL and Comcast. Comcast takes a bit of a beating in the survey, though 68% rank the service "excellent" or "good": As you might expect, customer comments about the service were mostly negative. Said one: "Really expensive. Poor customer service." Another chimed in, "The bigger they got, the less the tech support knows -- I called to ask a question and their support didn't know how to find an IP address!" Quite a few people wrote to say that they came to Comcast not by choice, but because their previous broadband ISP was taken over by Comcast, or they have no other broadband alternative where they live. Charter catches a break from being the usual last place provider by not being ranked in this survey. The magazine notes that overall, customers are largely happy with their broadband connections, with 73% of respondents rating their broadband experience as either excellent or good (32% and 41% respectively).
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 RayWPremium
join:2001-09-01
Layton, UT
kudos:1 | I still like Xmission. Too bad I still have to use Qwest as the first link, that is where most of my outages occur.
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I am not lost, I find myself every time. | |
|  | Reviews:
 ·Comcast
 ·CenturyLink
 ·ViaTalk
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| Re: I still like Xmission. I went to Qwest from Speakeasy, cut my bill by two thirds, upped my speed and solidarity considerably, lowered latency dynamically, am getting much better customer service, and am mad that I didn't switch the day that their service was available. I never had a problem with the Qwest side of any hook up. It was always the Provider (mostly Covad) and ISP (Earthlink (horrible), Speakeasy (got bad towards the end), a couple others I forget their names (yeh, they were that good). And nothing but excuses from Speakeasy why they couldn't give me what Qwest offers as a middle of the road speed and charged me a fortune. And Qwest a third more speed at a third of the price of Speakeasy.
The only problem I ever had with Qwest is when they forced SprintION - 10MB SDSL, 4 Digital Phone Lines, Incredible Customer service and no problems for over two years for $150 a month, out of business. But they are, as much as current market practices allow, making up for it now. | |
| | | RayWPremium
join:2001-09-01
Layton, UT
kudos:1 | Re: I still like Xmission. Hope you are lucky enough to stay that way. Over the last year I have had a few outages of DSL lasting from less than an hour to an entire weekend (it is the pits when you go down at 9:30 PM on Friday). And that is when I am home, my logs show a loss of uploading more often than that, but I can't prove who is at fault. Compared to what some people here say about their cable I suppose I am well off.
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I am not lost, I find myself every time. | |
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 ColorBASIC8-bit FunPremium
join:2006-12-29
Corona, CA
1 edit | Then maybe I'm reading that pie chart wrong 'Cause according to the filename it's Comcast.jpg and 68% rated their overall satisfaction with Comcast as Good or Excellent with 8% saying it's Poor or Very Poor.
Doesn't look like a beating to me and IMO overall satisfaction is the most important rating as customers consider all aspects of their service to arrive at their opinion of the service.
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Macintosh Users Group Serving the Inland Empire | |
| |  Romney2012Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe inPremium
join:2002-03-03
USA
kudos:4
1 edit | Re: Then maybe I'm reading that pie chart wrong said by ColorBASIC:'Cause according to the filename it's Comcast.jpg and 68% rated their overall satisfaction with Comcast as Good or Excellent with 8% saying it's Poor or Very Poor. Doesn't look like a beating to me and IMO overall satisfaction is the most important rating as customers consider all aspects of their service to arrive at their opinion of the service. You are right. Here is the link from the story:
»www.computerworld.com/action/art···umber=11
Comcast falls down in 2 areas - customer/technical support and the cost of the service.
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| By Beating, I was referring to the three paragraphs of criticism in their write-up:
quote:
As you might expect, customer comments about the service were mostly negative. Said one: "Really expensive. Poor customer service." Another chimed in, "The bigger they got, the less the tech support knows -- I called to ask a question and their support didn't know how to find an IP address!"
Quite a few people wrote to say that they came to Comcast not by choice, but because their previous broadband ISP was taken over by Comcast, or they have no other broadband alternative where they live. As part of a complex deal in which Time Warner and Comcast gained customers from the bankrupt Adelphia, some existing Time Warner customers were switched to Comcast, and some Comcast customers were switched to Time Warner.
Several Adelphia and Time Warner customers were especially unhappy with the changeover. Said one: "Since they took over from Adelphia, downloads and page loading [are] considerably slower. E-mail connections take at least two attempts to get into the server." Another added, "Recent changeover from Time Warner to Comcast has been a nightmare. Now we are getting a $10 per month increase to $49 for slower service than with Time Warner."
I've added that 68% thought it was "excellent" or "good". | |
| | | ColorBASIC8-bit FunPremium
join:2006-12-29
Corona, CA
1 edit | Re: Then maybe I'm reading that pie chart wrong Every provider has subs who have had a horrible experience. I would be one on that Comcast list as they were HORRID in my experience. Meanwhile I have a few neighbors who would be on the FiOS list of horrible experiences.
The scoreboard tells the story though, the vast majority of subs are very content with Comcast despite the received customer comments.
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| Re: Then maybe I'm reading that pie chart wrong These surveys are kind of useless in the fact that service from the same provider varies drastically by geographical region.
I've had Time Warner Cable in four locations. One was a miserable experience because a local car service was interfering with poorly shielded cable. Another location stunk because the line running to the house needed replacing.
The third and fourth locations saw rock-solid service, and the current location hasn't had a single outage in a year of service.
These survey responses also vary based on the technical understanding of the customer (re: gamers who need low latency vs. people who just browse and watch YouTube videos).... | |
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| |  Titus PulloI came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26
kudos:1 | You're rowing against the tide inside a hologram! (: Bail out and head for dry land ... | |
| | |  BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | said by Karl Bode:I've added that 68% thought it was "excellent" or "good". So that means that 1 out 3 Comcast cutomers think that it's less than good. | |
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| bi0tech
join:2003-06-19
Cockeysville, MD Reviews:
·Comcast
 ·Verizon FiOS
1 edit | Beating seems about right to me.
Overall rating:
Comcast - 27E, 41G, 23A, 6P, 2VP
3.82 = 1.35 + 1.64 + .69 + .12 + .02
FIOS - 69E, 25G, 4A, 0P, 2VP
4.59 = 3.45 + 1 + .12 + 0 + .02
On a weighted scale of 5 thats a lead of 15.4%, with a similar lead of 16% in the top 2 satisfaction levels, and a dominant lead of 42% for an excellent rating. | |
| | | ColorBASIC8-bit FunPremium
join:2006-12-29
Corona, CA | Re: Then maybe I'm reading that pie chart wrong That's not a beating. That's Comcast being a bit less excellent than FiOS. | |
| | | | bi0tech
join:2003-06-19
Cockeysville, MD | Re: Then maybe I'm reading that pie chart wrong 42% less excellent to be exact =P
Sorry I forgot semantics have only one interpretation. | |
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| | Comcast Comcast has severe signal issues in certain places, mine being one of them. And yes, there is where Comcasts customer service sucks the most.You would think that after six months of problems, you'd be elevated to some kind of supervisory type tier. You're not. This is where you have to be creative and call comcast corporate executive complaint dept.. This should be done automatically. If there was an option besides ATT or Comcast in chicago, I'd be very happy!
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Burn a tire, but make sure you buy that carbon offset! | |
| | | Does not matter because cablevision not listed This does not mean anything. Cablevision was not listed because it got too few responses to be able to get a score.
Wasnt cablevision the highest rated before fios? Now they dont even list its score because they got too few responses?
This survey is garbage. | |
| | | | Re: Does not matter because cablevision not listed said by majortom1029:This does not mean anything. Cablevision was not listed because it got too few responses to be able to get a score. Wasnt cablevision the highest rated before fios? Now they dont even list its score because they got too few responses? This survey is garbage. I second this! | |
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| | Only 6 ISP's in the country? Hmm, what does that say about the state of broadband in the U.S? | |
| |  viperpa33sWhy Me?Premium
join:2002-12-20
Bradenton, FL | Re: Only 6 ISP's in the country? said by T1 Rocky :
Hmm, what does that say about the state of broadband in the U.S? It don't state anything cause PC World only rated the most popular ISP's which don't give an accurate picture. We obviously know there are more ISP's than just 6. | |
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Titus PulloI came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26
kudos:1 Reviews:
·Embarq Now Centu..
| Cherry picking a bit here, eh? I love reading through the fish wrap from the resident corporate fly boys.
Pie charts and cry charts; Comcast is last in overall rank and next to last in overall customer satisfaction. You can spin like a top, trash the survey and kick the dog next door, it doesn't change _those_ numbers.
People I talk to who still have Comcast in this area (after the Adelphia takeover) like it until it goes down, then they bitch and moan, then they like it again. Most think the switch over to DSL is too big of a pain in the ass so they don't. That's fine with me; keep going up and down like Amber Lynn on steroids and I'll enjoy sub 20ms pings and at-cap speeds on my DSL line (which has gone down once in six months for two hours). I pay a little less for half the speed of Comcast but with none of the headaches. That's worth twice the price in my opinion.
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The woman from 1984 put down her hammer for an iMac®, iPod® & iPhone® | |
| |  kyler13Is your fiber grounded?
join:2006-12-12
Arnold, MD | Re: Cherry picking I'd say that the only reason Comcast still gets a large number of Good or Excellent ratings is because often there is nothing to compare it to, except maybe dial-up, for alot of customers. Comparable DSL service is still too spotty because of the whole distance issue. For me, FIOS was the only real option from Verizon, and that just got installed about a year ago. I'm in a highly populated suburban area and still I'm 20,000+ wire feet from my CO. | |
| | | | | Re: Cherry picking They also left out cablevision wich is verizons only real competition. Wich is wierd because cablevision jsut raised its speed again even though it was a slight speed increase to 16.5/2 .
Cablevision used to be #1 before verizon fios came in but now the left it out of the results. | |
| | | |  Homebrew1994Betzwood Basement Brewery
join:2001-11-15
King Of Prussia, PA | Re: Cherry picking said by majortom1029:They also left out cablevision wich is verizons only real competition. Wich is wierd because cablevision jsut raised its speed again even though it was a slight speed increase to 16.5/2 . Cablevision used to be #1 before verizon fios came in but now the left it out of the results. They say it did not get enough responses to be included.
I think this says a lot about the audience of Computer World magazine and casts some doubt on the real validity of the survey.
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| Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA | In the last 3 years my Comcast service has never gone done. I guess my ancedotal evidence is better than yours.. nyah nyah..
No one cares about your personal service quality for comparing national broadband plans.. sorry. If you'd like to put it into a survey with a few 1,000 other responses, you're free to add to the discussion. | |
| | | Titus PulloI came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26
kudos:1 Reviews:
·Embarq Now Centu..
| Re: Cherry picking said by Ahrenl:In the last 3 years my Comcast service has never gone done. I guess my ancedotal evidence is better than yours.. nyah nyah.. No one cares about your personal service quality for comparing national broadband plans.. sorry. If you'd like to put it into a survey with a few 1,000 other responses, you're free to add to the discussion. My Adelphia service of over six years (before Comcast took over) was fairly good, but it went down with every bad storm. There's my "ancedotal [sic]" evidence. nyah nyah? Oy vey ...
You cared enough to reply.
Clue: I'm free to add to the discussion without your blessing 
Sod off
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The woman from 1984 put down her hammer for an iMac®, iPod® & iPhone® | |
| | | | Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA | Re: Cherry picking said by Titus Pullo:said by Ahrenl:In the last 3 years my Comcast service has never gone done. I guess my ancedotal evidence is better than yours.. nyah nyah.. No one cares about your personal service quality for comparing national broadband plans.. sorry. If you'd like to put it into a survey with a few 1,000 other responses, you're free to add to the discussion. My Adelphia service of over six years (before Comcast took over) was fairly good, but it went down with every bad storm. There's my "ancedotal [sic]" evidence. nyah nyah? Oy vey ... You cared enough to reply. Clue: I'm free to add to the discussion without your blessing Sod off . By "add" I meant in a constructive way. Feel free to continue to offer ancedotal evidence in defense of your view points, now with the full knowledge that it's meaningless. | |
| | | | | Titus PulloI came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26
kudos:1 Reviews:
·Embarq Now Centu..
| Re: Cherry picking said by Ahrenl:said by Titus Pullo:said by Ahrenl:In the last 3 years my Comcast service has never gone done. I guess my ancedotal evidence is better than yours.. nyah nyah.. No one cares about your personal service quality for comparing national broadband plans.. sorry. If you'd like to put it into a survey with a few 1,000 other responses, you're free to add to the discussion. My Adelphia service of over six years (before Comcast took over) was fairly good, but it went down with every bad storm. There's my "ancedotal [sic]" evidence. nyah nyah? Oy vey ... You cared enough to reply. Clue: I'm free to add to the discussion without your blessing Sod off . By "add" I meant in a constructive way. Feel free to continue to offer ancedotal evidence in defense of your view points, now with the full knowledge that it's meaningless. Let me see if I have this straight: your experiences and evidence is golden but no one else carries the same weight either with or without sarcasm? Oh, me ... PT Barnum only had it half right.
What are the vast majority of the posts on this website if not meaningless by that criteria? Why post at all? I pay Comcast $54 a month for TV service -- the same TV service I had with Adelphia. I dropped the HSI because it was unreliable and TS -- in my most humble experience -- didn't know their head from their arse. The name has changed but from what I read and am told by my local MUG the service is not better; still goes down regularly and TS is horrid.
You must have missed it the first time: sod off. You don't enjoy reading my opinions? Don't read them; put me in your ignore list, whatever. Don't go away mad just go the F away. You bore me with tiresome drivel
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| | | | | | Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA | Re: Cherry picking said by Titus Pullo:Let me see if I have this straight: your experiences and evidence is golden but no one else carries the same weight either with or without sarcasm? Oh, me ... PT Barnum only had it half right. The point of my equally meaningless anecdotal "evidence" was to show you how meaningless it all is.. obviously over your head.
said by Titus Pullo:What are the vast majority of the posts on this website if not meaningless by that criteria? Why post at all? I pay Comcast $54 a month for TV service -- the same TV service I had with Adelphia. I dropped the HSI because it was unreliable and TS -- in my most humble experience -- didn't know their head from their arse. The name has changed but from what I read and am told by my local MUG the service is not better; still goes down regularly and TS is horrid. When you try to invalidate a survey with your selected singular response you can expect this type of response. I don't care at all about your experience as it relates to the conclusions of this survey. They are meaningless.
said by Titus Pullo:You must have missed it the first time: sod off. You don't enjoy reading my opinions? Don't read them; put me in your ignore list, whatever. Don't go away mad just go the F away. You bore me with tiresome drivel . Laugh, mad.. I'll read what I please and call you the fool that you are, thank you.. | |
| | | | | | | Titus PulloI came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26
kudos:1 Reviews:
·Embarq Now Centu..
| Re: Cherry picking You do realize the more you drone on it's become tantamount to the monkey climbing the tree higher and higher so all below can see his ass, don't you?
Perhaps three is the charm: sod off
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| | | | | | | | Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA | Re: Cherry picking »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sod
Sod is turf and the part of the soil beneath it held together by the roots, or a piece of this material. Sod is grown on sod or turf farms. Most sod is grown locally to avoid long transport and drying out of the product. It is sold to landscapers or home owners who use it to establish a lawn quickly and avoid soil erosion.  | |
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| | Monopoly Rankings.... None of those companies are considered non monopolistic company... Take a look at cox, where someone gets cox cable cannot get comcast or time warner so this being said how's one cable companies better internet service due for others? Nothing...
Aside from having those few who can have DSL/Cable/FiOS everyone else is screwed... hehe... | |
| rayePremium
join:2000-08-14
Orange, CA | where's the T-1000 of corporations? did not see at&t in the ratings. did they suck so bad that Computer world could not post the results?
Would be nice to find out... | |
|  Rob AJets AFC ChampionshipPremium
join:2005-01-17
Pompton Plains, NJ | Fios #1 Now bring me fiber! | |
|  tc1uscg
join:2005-03-09
Saint Clair Shores, MI | Where is FIOS deployed Ok, I'm always seeing people talk about FiOS and have to wonder. Please provide 10 LARGE metro areas where it's deployed. Lets say, with a populace of 3 million or more in the metro area.
I didn't read the report so not sure how they "picked" who's who. In my city, there is Comcast, Wideopen west (who got top honors in JD Power, not that it means anything) and AT&T's uVerse. But there is also Cox in the area, Timewarner too. But Verizon? Ask around the Detroit metro area and the only VZ around here are wireless users. It's as if, which I'm sure is the case, VZ is too afraid of failure if they tried to deploy it here. It's just not worth it and too many cooks in the kitchen. So, who's cherry picking now?  | |
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