OT - Alternatives to Verizon DSL

I was told that *if* you plan on using voip, like skype, don't use satellite, they 'bundle' their data into packets, which is ok for images and text, but plays havoc with streaming, real-time audio.

internet plus $10/month for optional phone. Or is it worth looking at one of the satellite services?

tinuous poor service. Lately I have been "demanding" refunds hoping that w ill get their attention and get the problem fixed. Now they are pushing FI OS at $45/month ($85 after all the fees & taxes), but I'm not willing to sp end the time switching over and then have to deal with more Verizon problem s.

I think you may be blaming the company when the technology may be the real problem. DSL works over old existing copper phone lines. The performance and reliability depend on how long the lines are, what condition they are i n, how many taps, wire gauge changes, etc. It's never had the bandwith or reliability you get from cable or FIOS, bandwith for example is 10x. To som e extent, you get what you pay for. Satellite isn't close to either of them either.

Hardly a problem in 10 years with Charter's cable service, but I assume it's not available in your area.

My wife has dealt with ComCast at work, and they are a pain in the neck.

I have no experience of Verizon's FiOS, but I have read that it is very good when it works but that the customer support is a disaster. But FiOS

-- even if it is available in your area -- may not be optical fiber all the way to the home: it *may* still use the existing copper part of the way, and that could be a problem.

IMO, DSL is old technology and probably won't be around much longer. Many countries see providing really high speed Internet service everywhere as a national priority, but that takes central planning, which is anathema to too many Americans. The USA is way down the list for average Internet speeds compared with many European and Asian countries.

Perce

None of that is true. It's fiber all the way to the home, AND, customer support for FIOS is first class.

I've had FIOS here for years and zero complaints.

As for DSL, not quite true. Here in western NC, when Verizon owned the telco, DSL was simply horrible. There was no bandwidth. And, in the evening when people and kids were on line, my speeds where slower than dial up. When I called and complained, the tech service in India told me crap like I need to have my modem powered directly from a wall outlet and not a power strip! The problem was, V knew they were selling and didn't want to put any money into the system. When the new company came in, Frontier, they had to do a whole lot to bring in more available bandwidth and even do relatively cheap things like new batteries in the remote sites. Prior to this, a short power failure would kill all the copper voice lines in just a few seconds. Ironically, the batteries in the DSLAMs that serve me, were still ok, so even though the phone quit, DSL still worked. As for bandwidth now, it's not bad. Even in the busy hours, I still get reasonably close to the advertised 3 meg. A wee bit slow for streaming HD video, but for most things, it's ok. They're supposed to be upgrading to 6 meg, but I haven't seen it yet.

All of the prices you quote seem very cheap. I'm guessing those are the introductory prices, which don't mean much.

In my experience DSL is fine *if you have good wire*. It needs a good connection. I have a brother with satellite, only because that's all he can get. He curses it on stormy days. :)

It also depends on what you do. I have cable Internet that's improved greatly over the past few years, but I can't say that I really care. I'm rarely downloading such big things that the speed matters. It's good now. It was fine before. I regard FIOS as overpriced fluff. But that's just because of how I use it. I don't stream. I don't have any interest in Hulu or other TV-over-Internet. On the other hand, if you want to stream 2 movies at once then something like FIOS might make a difference.

I've been sending Verizon hate emails everyday for a month because of continuous poor service. Lately I have been "demanding" refunds hoping that will get their attention and get the problem fixed. Now they are pushing FIOS at $45/month ($85 after all the fees & taxes), but I'm not willing to spend the time switching over and then have to deal with more Verizon problems.

Thanks.

Bob

I've had Verizon DSL for many years, never a problem. I just did a speed test, just a smidge over 4 Mbps (varies other times, up to about 6Mbps) The cost is under $35/month. I canned DirecTV in favor of Roku, have no trouble streaming to two different TVs and using a computer at the same time.

Neither of the prices you quote will last very long, will go up after you hook up. If satellite internet is anything like satellite TV, I would avoid it like the plague unless you enjoy losing the connection whenever it rains or snows.

If I could get FIOS I'd grab it.

Verizon replaced their copper lines to my house with FIOS. I had 2 phones connected then and copper was deteriorating badly. I had Comcast TV and internet but added triple play for one of the phones as a lower cost package. FIOS has been begging me to switch to their triple play service. Mailing today had it at $59 for 2 years. I had previously told them that I would take their service offered at $79 for life but we all know they don't do such things and full service with premium channels will be higher.

I've got a neighbor that rotates between Comcast and FIOS to continually get the cheapest rates.

for internet plus $10/month for optional phone. Or is it worth looking at one of the satellite services?

continuous poor service. Lately I have been "demanding" refunds hoping tha t will get their attention and get the problem fixed. Now they are pushing FIOS at $45/month ($85 after all the fees & taxes), but I'm not willing to spend the time switching over and then have to deal with more Verizon prob lems.

What part of what I said wasn't quite true? From what you posted it looks consistent with what I said. Even the 3Mb that you now have is a fraction of the typical speed with cable/FIOS.

Century Link is consistently over 3MB and it is more in the 4-5 range ... over copper. We don't have fiber here yet and Comcast is so unreliable I refuse to use them. Their customer service sucks too \My wife runs a country club in a gated neighborhood with 799 captive customers and several commercial products. Comcast still treats them like s*it.

You are lucky. I was under contract it was a nightmare:(

The FIOS phone was not reliable, it echoed and over time developed a buzzin g noise on every 12th call. I called for 3 months and finally every day for 3 WEEKS. They tried to blame my interior wiring, even though all 3 tech vi sits noted the problem was there with my interior wiring totally disconnect ed..

they said if I cancelled I would be charged hundreds of dollars in cancelat ion fees for a service that didnt work:( their company policy:(

the internet worked ok, I never had tv, they hadnt rolled it out in my neig hborhood.

Incidently they finally traced my problem back to a bad router at their cen tral office.

as soon as my contract ended I moved that number on to my remaining copper line, and verizon sucky service got me again:(

I cancelled the internet part and went to comcast for internet and tv...... ..

I sent and told verizon to quit solicitating me for anything!

things ere quiet for awhile and then 5 different sales people showed up at my door at dinner time, trying to sell me more verizon services. I had my b usiness line outgoing call package at 35 bucks a month. so I cancelled that package since I never called out prefering my unlimited cell phone at 50 b ucks a month.

verizon cancelled my business line, I caught that immediately and it was fi xed in a hour. a few days later the system burped and cancelled my business line again. no one at verizon cared my line was out of service for days... .

when they finally fixed it I looked for a new phone provider, once that cha nge was complete I insisted verizon remove everything both copper and fios from my home. at first they refused so I said I was going to put up a banne r across my yard FIOS SUCKS.....

they rempved everything:) needless to say I will never have verizon again.

they are useless!!!

Or a cow moos. A dog barks. A car drives by. Satellite Internet is a nightmare!

That's swell, but I'm not sure if you're replying to the part about something I said not being quite true? I didn't say what speed DSL was, only that cable/FIOS is typically 10X. Cable is in the 15 to 100Mbit range, at least here. And unlike DSL, it's not dependent on the condition, and length of the wire runs. DSL that's 4Mbits at 1/2 mile may be 1Mbit at 2 miles and may not work at all at 3+ miles.

for internet plus $10/month for optional phone. Or is it worth looking at one of the satellite services?

continuous poor service. Lately I have been "demanding" refunds hoping tha t will get their attention and get the problem fixed. Now they are pushing FIOS at $45/month ($85 after all the fees & taxes), but I'm not willing to spend the time switching over and then have to deal with more Verizon prob lems.

Yeah, sure. But the small print adds in box rental, taxes, and a bunch of other fees The offer at $79 added up to ~ $237. I used them for TV for to o damn many years. TERRIBLE tech/customer service. Finally it occurred to me that I was paying big bux for the 9-10 channels I watch out of their 500 or so. So I got a dirt-cheap Costco antenna, hung it in the window, and boom -- I had the PBS channels I wanted, plus one or two others slightly watchable. The rest were a sea of Asian channels, shop ping channels, and religious nuts. Only downside is not being able to reco rd. I can live w/that.

I had previously told them that I would take their service offered at $79 f or life but we all know they don't do such things and full service with pre mium

HB

h for internet plus $10/month for optional phone. Or is it worth looking a t one of the satellite services?

f continuous poor service. Lately I have been "demanding" refunds hoping t hat will get their attention and get the problem fixed. Now they are pushi ng FIOS at $45/month ($85 after all the fees & taxes), but I'm not willing to spend the time switching over and then have to deal with more Verizon pr oblems.

f other fees The offer at $79 added up to ~ $237. I used them for TV for too damn many years. TERRIBLE tech/customer service.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that finds it hard to believe that a monthly cable offer of $79 turns out to be $237 because of box rental, taxes and other fees. Not unless you're adding a lot of unusual high priced services of some kind and DVRs in every room. Typically the catch is that price is only good for a year and after that it becomes more like $140.

$15/month

You're doing good! How are you getting DLS for $35/mon from Verizon and that fast speed? I assume that's' before taxes & fees. Here, the 1 year special is $45-69/month depending on what flyer they're mailing out at the time.

$15/month for internet plus $10/month for optional phone. Or is it worth looking at one of the satellite services?

of continuous poor service. Lately I have been "demanding" refunds hoping that will get their attention and get the problem fixed. Now they are pushing FIOS at $45/month ($85 after all the fees & taxes), but I'm not willing to spend the time switching over and then have to deal with more Verizon problems.

Yeah, sure. But the small print adds in box rental, taxes, and a bunch of other fees The offer at $79 added up to ~ $237. I used them for TV for too damn many years. TERRIBLE tech/customer service. Finally it occurred to me that I was paying big bux for the 9-10 channels I watch out of their 500 or so. So I got a dirt-cheap Costco antenna, hung it in the window, and boom -- I had the PBS channels I wanted, plus one or two others slightly watchable. The rest were a sea of Asian channels, shopping channels, and religious nuts. Only downside is not being able to record. I can live w/that.

I had previously told them that I would take their service offered at $79 for life but we all know they don't do such things and full service with premium

I've had Time Warner 3 years. It has been out a handful of times for an hour or so, and they've consistently given me 16 Mbps down and 1Mbps up.

It bothered me that they would tell me only their introductory price: $30. In the last 2 years it has gone to $65.

Lately, I learned that they introduced Everyday Low Price late last year: $15 for 2 Mbps up and 1 Mbps down. I keep a traffic meter on my menu bar. 2 Mbps would cover everything but large files. Download time has been 8 minutes, 20 seconds per GB. Now it should be 66 minutes, 40 seconds per GB.

Just over 10 years ago, when we started with Charter, the best we could get was 2Mbps down (forget how much up). It's gradually gone up over the years, and now we're promised 18Mbps down and 4Mbps up, but I've often seen the download speed as high as 40+Mbps during the day, and the upload speed is always just a hair above the 4Mbps. Even that download speed is slow by "technologically advanced nation" standards.

Perce