I had DSL, and was promised “up to” 7,000 mbps. They definitely came through on the “up to.” I barely got 5,000, and, more often than not, got 3,500.
I don’t think it’s necessary to use the real names, so let’s just say that my DSL ISP’s name rhymed with “Qwest” and that now I have cable internet, and that company’s name rhymes with “Comcast.” They promise “up to” 12,000 mbps, and they don’t deliver that, either…nope…I get 25,000 mbps.
I can’t believe how long I put up with the DSL. A part of me was waiting for them to put fiber optic in my 'hood, but it just didn’t happen. Also, I didn’t think you could just get internet-only from a cable provider.
Took me three hours to sort through my old emails and go to web sites to change my email address information. But it’s all finished now…I finally made the call to cancel the DSL, and I only have the cable now.
The last thing I’ll add is that I’ve heard horror stories (and read them on the Dope) about both companies. I will say in fairness to the DSL provider that I never had bad customer service. It’s just that the DSL was slow at my house. They sent out technician after technician, and the short answer is that I’m at the end of the line and if I want to stream movies and other high-mb content, I have to have a different provider 'cause the DSL company couldn’t get the job done.
I had a similar experience with Comcast in that we got the cheapest internet package they offered, which boasted of speeds “up to” 5 or 7 Mbps. It would occasionally slow down to 5 or 7, but usually we cruised around at 15-20. You’ll hear horror stories about customer service from any company, we had some weird billing issues at one point but fortunately the housemate that dealt with our cable was a pretty militant WoW player, so she got it straightened out right away.
A few years ago I came home and my (technologically clueless) parents started raving about how happy I’d be with their internet. “It comes in through fiber optics!” I rolled my eyes and explained that there was no way they had a fiber optic connection, surely they meant cable internet and they just misunderstood the technician who installed it. Sure enough, they have Fios. It’s blazing fast, and they use it primarily to play Snood-style games online. They still pay $10/month to AOL for email…
AOL is now, and for the last 4 years or so, free unless you use their dialup service. But they have to call them and tell them they want to switch to paying nothing.
I think Verizon “solves” this issue by selling a range; for instance, the plan I’m on is 4-7 mbps. I’m not even getting that right at the moment; that said, you couldn’t pay me enough to use Time Warner for internet.
I have the Qwest 12 Mbps package, and I get 11.3 Mbps consistently. For the longest time they didn’t offer DSL at all in my neighborhood, but I must say when they finally did get it they did a pretty good job. Downside is the asymmetric service, I only get about 750 Kbps up.
That makes sense, I’m sure they haven’t called to cancel their dial-up service. When I discovered this I told them there was no way they could be paying for their email address, but they insisted that they were so I believed them. I tried explaining to them how ridiculous that is, that there are better email options available for FREE, but they wouldn’t hear of it. I explained why what they were doing was as backwards as renting a rotary phone from the phone company.
What’s most frustrating is that they’re only in their mid-50’s, they’ve used the internet just as long as I have, and they’ve managed to make the dial-up/dsl/Fios progression over the years, yet still have no understanding of how the whole internet/email thing works. It’s like they TRY to remain ignorant just to piss me off. Wait a minute… I think I just figured this one out…
Good luck to you. We switched from Comcast to DSL several years ago. Comcast usually had a fine connection speed - when we had a connection. Unfortunately there would be at least one or two days of every month, on average, when we had no internet at all. And if there was a bad storm, forget it, it would be down for days.
Our DSL is almost as fast and hasn’t been unavailable in the two years we’ve had it.
Obviously all of this depends on your local conditions and location along the network, so hopefully you will have a better experience. My hatred of Comcast blazes like the heat of a million suns.
Huh. I did the opposite. I had BellSouth DSL and it sucked syphlitic donkey balls. I never got the speed they promised and the connection would drop about once a week. So I switched to Comcast and haven’t had a problem since.
Now, I’m not saying Comcast is the greatest provider. But it seems to me that different providers are better in different geographical areas. For me on the barrier island, Comcast kicks ass. If I drive across the bridge and look at one of my friends on the mainland’s connection … Comcast is kind of weak. DSL sucks all over around here, though.
I was on the WildBlue beta and stuck with them for about 5 years. Then CableOne became available to me and I dropped WB like a hot potato. Twice the speed for a third the price. And ping times that didn’t need to be measured in seconds.
One problem I’ve noticed is that they deliberately confuse by mixing and matching references to “kbps” “Mbps” and “Megabit” so people don’t really know what they should be getting, nor what they actually are getting, because they don’t easily convert between each other.
All I know is I’m on cable in a small insignificant suburb, and am getting damned fine reliable speeds, so am not complaining. I’m not going to bother with comparing numbers, as I’ll just get lost.