DSL Strikes Back

said by honeybl:

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If you "renew", you will pay the $50+ "already a member" rate, not the new pricing rate. That's why I got rid of SBC DSL at home. Once my contract was up, it was $50/month. If I renewed, it was still $50/month. Now I'm with Adelphia, pay $29/month with no contract, get between 2 - 3 Mbps download speeds, and so far haven't hit any caps. But we'll see if that happens this summer when I start listening to baseball games on streaming audio Other things that bugged me about SBC: 1)I was dropped every night at 10:45, like clockwork. SBC couldn't give me a reason, just "oh well, it happens." 2) I was 1000 FT (yes you read that correctly!) from the CO, but getting someone out to fix a problem (and there were lots of them!) took over a week.. or longer.. I think I'll just stick with Adelphia.. for now..

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I'm not sure why you couldn't upgrade to a promotional rate. Generally speaking, current customers qualify for promotions. You just have to re-up your contract for a year. As to the 10:45 dropout, this is almost certainly a disturber at your premises. A dimmer switch, a neighbor's motion-sensing light...something along those lines.

I wish Bellsouth would offer something like this

said by Seven1:

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I think I'd prefer if broadband providing companies would fix their problems before they start trying to offer higher speeds. I've had both DSL and cable. They both have many problems which the companies seem to just dismiss, and in fact make excuses for on their webpages.

I prefer stability over speed. Neither of the services I had were stable. Unfortunately though, Americans seem to be drawn to speed when it comes to just about everything. When it really shouldn't be as high in the list as plain old stability. The broadband companies know this love for speed, so they are playing people with this bogus 6mbps crap that they probably can't even sustain.

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I'm not sure what problems you would have had with SBC in Kentucky. Did you live somewhere else previously?

Verizon insists on having the highest price for local, long distance, and DSL of any local phone company in California. They get away with it because they refuse to open up the local loop to MCI and AT&T etc.

I just wish They'd get off their butts and let their customers enjoy 6MB speed for under $60/month...

"I prefer stability over speed".Couldn't agree with you more seven001.I have had plenty of speed and crappy performance to go with it.I recently signed up DSL at 768/128 and it loads pages as well as the 3000/256 I have with cable.Cost savings will be $40 a month when I drop the cable,overall I think I found a good deal.

said by PacCoast:

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I'm happy with my 1.7 down 137 up with SBC for now. But I read somewhere DSL has advantages over cable in latency and consistency? Do most of the non-speed advantages belong to DSL or Cable? Why don't the Telcos advertise those advantages instead of just going on speed and price?

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That's generally true, but as always, either DSL or cable can be lousy or excellent, depending on the provider. Why don't they advertise it? Most people don't grasp the difference between latency and bandwidth. They want to know how fast their Kazaa (spyware edition) downloads will come in. Even among more intelligent users, you see gamers comparing bandwidth rather than latency. I can't tell you how many times I've seen users in the forums asking how much their ping will decrease if they upgrade to a faster (higher bandwidth) package.

said by oldframe:

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the cable companies will soon all have speeds like OOL. . I think we have seen a lot of progress in the US Broadband market in the past 6 months. Maybe in 5 years we will have reached the QoS that Japan has now.

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No doubt, OOL has got the speed, but many users have complained of getting capped when actually trying to use their connection.

I wasn't refering to SBC, but to the industry in general. I know many many people online with Cable and DSL all over the U.S. and I can't think of a single one that doesn't have stability problems with their provider. It's also pretty sad that seemingly every broadband provider's tech support has the same solutions: restart the modem, reboot the computer, and if you have a router it is automatically to blame.

Just for the record though, I had BellSouth DSL (sensitive and highly unstable) and now I have Adelphia PowerLink (highly unstable).

All I hope for, is that the new offerings have a decent upload speed!

I have 2000down/256up with Charter in Madison, WI for $40/month and I would jump at the chance for anything with a 512 or higher upload speed. I used to go with TDS at 768/768 in Madison, which was a ***DREAM*** but when I moved across town, I was out of range from their central office. I am about a block away from an SBC central office, though.

Please!!!! Offer a 6mbps/1mbps deal!!!!

said by Omega:

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how come I am paying $29.95 and getting 768/128 speeds from SBC.

I want 1.5mbps!

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how come I am paying $29.95 and getting 384/256 speeds from SBC

I want 1.5mbps!

Or the RT majority of customers meet this crit. However I do not

I've asked many customers to bypass their routers, but I wouldn't necessarily consider that assessing blame. When troubleshooting, its always wise to start with the simplest configuration and work up from there. Furthermore, when connected directly, there are a plethora of error messages that one might receive. Invalid password, timeout, "remote destination is not reachable" (which really just means that the person's NIC is disabled), and etc. A router provides only one error message...Page cannot be displayed. The reason for rebooting equipment is that it solves approximately 90% of problems, in my experience. Generally, this is system resource problems. Since the advent of spyware, many people have very low system resources, particularly on non-2000/XP/NT machines. A reboot of the computer restores available memory to acceptable levels and connectivity is restored. Of course, its not always the computer. Occasionally the modem hangs and needs to be rebooted.

Of course, with any residential broadband provider, there will be outages. Trees fall on lines, routers fail, and there will be periods of maintenance some nights. Hardcore reliability is costly to provide, and the price of dedicated lines like T1's indicate that. A T1 is a mere 1.5 megabit up and down, so the majority of the cost is in the service contract and guaranteed uptime.

Generally speaking, though, I'd say uptime for SBC customers is pretty good. Even better is the fact that SBC has seen fit to put official techs on DSL Reports, and they sure jump on problems fast.

Even if they're the highest, $29.95-$34.95 for DSL is not unreasonable. SBC is cheap, just damn cheap, but compared to cable...at least Comcrap...Verizon is way cheaper.

I have been with SBC for a few months now and have had no problems what so ever with stability of there service. The only time it was down was for network maintenance so they could give me more download speed and this was publicized well in advance and done between 12am -6am.Besides their confusing and sometimes messed up billing I've had no trouble with the service at all.

I have asked SBC to install RT's in my neighborhood for 2 years now. They promise and promise, but nothing shows up. Even if they lower their prices to $0, the cable companies will still not flinch...much...as cable still has the best penetration in the broadband connection services, IMO. So SBC...when will you hook us up?

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I'm not sure why you couldn't upgrade to a promotional rate. Generally speaking, current customers qualify for promotions. You just have to re-up your contract for a year.

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This was in 2002. I was told, in no uncertain terms by the SBC reps that I called, that "previous customers did not qualify for 'new customer' rates." So, I upgraded to cable, and I love it. I was reading in the local LA area paper they are adding another fiber-optic backbone in my area. ooOOOOOoohhh could that mean even higher speeds for me?? I certainly hope so! *dreams of the day of terabyte downloads...*

said by waynemr:

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Please!!!! Offer a 6mbps/1mbps deal!!!!

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ADSL upload spec is limited to 640kbs (not too shabby for most of us)

said by Seven1:

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Just for the record though, I had BellSouth DSL (sensitive and highly unstable) and now I have Adelphia PowerLink (highly unstable).

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Strange. I have Adelphia Powerlink, and it's very stable. Could be you have older lines in your area? Or (as my networking teacher in college once said), "Ever wonder why connection speeds in the South are so slow? Because everything down here is deep-fried, including the phone lines!" (I can say this because I grew up in the South...:p)

Wow thas some mighty good speeds, I just hope I get the email I want because I know alot of peeps are going to order it.
With those speeds I dont mind my other three brothers with their pcs takin up the bandwith.

Charter should be forced to increase their speeds and decrease prices. Their service, from what I've heard and seen, is a joke.

384/128 for $30? Yeah right!

Still the underlying problem with DSL is the frickin' distance, what could I get at 12,000 feet from the CO with the new tier? Probably a 1mbps max rate while with my Comcast I could be seeing 3mbps soon, but we'll see if that ever happens.

Many thanks for actually being around to read and respond to people's problems and concerns.

I wish all ISPs were like that.

You're overlooking the fact that the majority of SBC's customers or potential customers are within range of their many RTs, much more so than COs. So there is huge room for growth.

I just got re-hooked up with qwest after hearing they were upping their speeds to 1.5Mbps/1Mbps on february 7th for the same $28/month line charge + 6.99 qwest.net broadband basic isp charge. Hells yeah. Formerly 640/256 for close to $50 a month. Now only $34.99 a month. 1 mb upload is crazy for that price.

These are up-to speeds, like up to 1.5mbps and up to 1 mbps. If your line can pull-it you will see the speeds.

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Of course, with any residential broadband provider, there will be outages. Trees fall on lines, routers fail, and there will be periods of maintenance some nights. ...

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Please spare me. I mean no offense, but if you had to deal with the ISPs I've had to deal with you wouldn't be so pleasant about it and you certainly wouldn't be making such lame excuses for them. The downtime and connection problems I suffer are simply unexcusable. Especially when I get 3 different answers about why in the same week.

As for the tech support thing, I understand those are the most basic things to check first, but for those of us that are technically inclined and KNOW its on the ISP's end, we shouldn't have to endure the 'techs' that don't know anything about what they are supporting beyond what they read off to us from a computer monitor.

All I'm saying is that the industry needs to improve what it already has before it starts moving on. Half or more of broadband companies must be bad quality or else there wouldn't be a need for such a site as this one. Think about it. SBC might not be troubled, but this thing they and a few other providers are doing with speeds are just going to spur on the rest of the industry. So the crappy ISP I have to live with is probably going to be focusing on offering higher speed accounts instead of improving their very troubled network. In the end, it affects us all.

If SBC can offer these speeds without any additional costs for them then why not, just more loot for them. Of course SBC MUST make sure that customers meet the REQUIREMENTS. As painful as it is if you dont have a clean line or live within the required distance SBC wont even discuss this package with you. This is what will keep the price down for the rest of us:) Just imagine all the over head it would cost SBC to support a resident with a unstable line or at 10,000+ feet. Such a customer would request a truck roll every week in an effort to get to 3Megs+.

Fortunately for me I qualify:) I had this package when it was $99 and only 384kbs upload, I really couldnt justify the cost when SBC had such sweet 1.5 deals. For $50ish this will be a no-brainer for me and the extra upload will be icing. I love ice-cream and cake:)

said by Seven1:

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Of course, with any residential broadband provider, there will be outages. Trees fall on lines, routers fail, and there will be periods of maintenance some nights. ...

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Please spare me. I mean no offense, but if you had to deal with the ISPs I've had to deal with you wouldn't be so pleasant about it and you certainly wouldn't be making such lame excuses for them. The downtime and connection problems I suffer are simply unexcusable. Especially when I get 3 different answers about why in the same week.

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Lame excuses for who? I speak only in reference to SBC, an ISP which you have no experience with. I would not presume to know anything about any of the providers you've used.

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As for the tech support thing, I understand those are the most basic things to check first, but for those of us that are technically inclined and KNOW its on the ISP's end, we shouldn't have to endure the 'techs' that don't know anything about what they are supporting beyond what they read off to us from a computer monitor.

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I understand this sentiment and I share it when calling my own provider about an outage, but it is remarkable how often people who are certain it is on the ISP end are incorrect. If a customer does not care to troubleshoot, I create a maintenance ticket. That department then locates the problem. If its determined to be a problem at the residence that could have been fixed with troubleshooting on the phone, the customer will probably get charged for the visit. Those who are certain that its not on their end are free to just get a trouble ticket, but they probably will be charged if they are wrong.

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All I'm saying is that the industry needs to improve what it already has before it starts moving on. Half or more of broadband companies must be bad quality or else there wouldn't be a need for such a site as this one. Think about it. SBC might not be troubled, but this thing they and a few other providers are doing with speeds are just going to spur on the rest of the industry. So the crappy ISP I have to live with is probably going to be focusing on offering higher speed accounts instead of improving their very troubled network. In the end, it affects us all.

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SBC, as an independent company, has the right to set their prices and speed caps wherever they like. The fact that other providers, particularly providers who are not even in the same region, are providing crappy service should do nothing to keep SBC from its plans. Every company should excel to provide a balance of quality service and low prices to the consumer if it wishes to survive. Any company which does otherwise is acting against its own self-interest. I think it would be rather absurd if an SBC executive were to say "Well, it seems like a good plan, but people in Kentucky and other places are getting bad service from their providers right now, and if we do this it will only make the market more competitive. Is it really fair of us to implement this plan?"

I resubscribe via Yahoo DSL and they only display the basic DSL package which has a max speed rate of 384Kbps. If I were go to SBC DSL page, I could have select DSL Basic plus which allow me to go to 1.5Mbps for $26.95. I called in trying to fix the order (my line does handle up to 768Kbps just fine) but they want another $3. There is no way to cancel a DSL order if you make a mistake!!

50 bucks a month for 6 megs down?? WOW! I support users that work for our company who are in France, Australia, Germany, and Malaysia. They would KILL to get 1 megabit, let alone 6. They pay about 2x as much as we do in the states, and most of them are lucky to get 512kbps.

Needless to say, I went ahead and ordered the 6/608 package from DSL Extreme. I can't wait to see if it ACTUALLY works. I'm only 6000 feet from my CO and I was only pulling about 800kbps download speed with the MCI DSL, but for that I blame MCI, let's hope SBC can make it right.

In the meantime, I'm on my lovely Cox connection, 3000/256, and it's humming along quite nicely for 3 months.