# Recommendations for DSL/phone providers **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 14, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543 "2005-03-14T23:37:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/1 "2005-03-14T23:37:55Z")
Right now Verizon is having a deal where you get a DSL line and free unlimited long-distance calling (over a broadband service) for $60/month for the whole shebang. That sounds pretty good to me, and we’d love to upgrade from dial-up. We figured, “Hey, we can get rid of our current phone plan, that’s 50 bucks a month, as well as our dial-up ISP, that’s 15 bucks a month… it all evens out, plus we’ll have DSL _and_ unlimited long distance!” But at [Epinions](http://www.epinions.com) there’s page after page after _page_ of negative reviews about this service! So obviously now we’re a little hesitant. So my question is: Is there anything similar out there for about the same price that has a _good_ reputation? Or are we pretty much out of luck? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/2 "2005-03-15T06:38:28Z")
> [@](#): > > free unlimited long-distance calling (over a broadband service) Sounds like they’re bundling a Vonage-sort of service in the deal. You can get Vonage VoIP (Voice over IP) service for as little as $15/month. Is the Verizon plan DSL or cable? Just wondering as using VoIP on a cable modem line is starting to get fairly popular and lets you lose the phone line entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/3 "2005-03-15T07:14:05Z")
I used Verizon DSL for almost three years with perhaps only one hour of downtime the entire time. Speed was pretty good (about 1000 down, 256 up) but the best part - it was consistant. I never ran into slow times. I just moved and I’m now on Qwest DSL. The speed is better but it seems less stable. Some days it works better then others. My only complaint with Version is the lease time. It was 6 hours. Kind of a pain to have to renew the service everytime you want to use it. But, really that isn’t a big hassle. Qwest has their leases at 24 hours. ---
**Author:** ![PinkMarabou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@PinkMarabou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PinkMarabou)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/4 "2005-03-15T13:27:52Z")
I personally don’t like DSL, I used to do tech support for Verizon DSL and there were so many problems and little things that could mess up the service. I wouldn’t recommend DSL at all, ever. That said, check who your cable providers are. Our local cable company offers digital phone service. But . . . we just signed up for Vonage phone. It’s half the price (we were with Sprint) and the quality is wonderful. It all goes through the cable lines which is great for us, we’ve had numerous issues with the phone wires since we moved in here. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/5 "2005-03-15T13:37:46Z")
If Qwest is your provider, I would run away screaming. But I have no experience with Verizon. Qwest was so pathetic with my DSL that I dumped them all together, and now my phone and modem are cable. Cable is _much_ faster and far more stable then DSL, in my experience, for a similar price. ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/6 "2005-03-15T15:20:43Z")
I use Speakeasy DSL because I have a mobile phone and didn’t want to pay extra for a landline I don’t need (like SBC would do.) In general, I prefer cable, but I can’t get cable at my apartment, so DSL was pretty much my only affordable option. Speakeasy also offers the telephone-over-the-internet service. I had a lot of problems when I initially got my service activated because the phone lines in my building are old and probably corroded, but I have to say their tech support during the whole thing was very good and they’ve always credited me for any resulting downtime or interruptions in service. As a matter of fact, I think I had the service for three or four months before I actually had to pay a bill. Their phone support people also don’t talk to you like you’re a moron who doesn’t know where the on button on a computer is, so that’s a plus. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/7 "2005-03-15T17:29:44Z")
I would run as far and fast away from SBC/Yahoo DSL as fast as possible. Their customer service is atrocious, their linespeeds are crap and unreliable. I’d go into more detail, but this isn’t the pit. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/8 "2005-03-15T23:24:20Z")
Thanks for the responses so far. The Verizon plan is DSL; we live in a brownstone and it doesn’t have a cable connection, plus we rent. So we thought we’d go for DSL now, maybe cable in the future. I checked out Vonage; that seems to be the phone line only. Do you have to arrange the actual broadband connection through someone else? Speakeasy seems pretty cool. It says you can get “Shared Line Broadband” for $39.95/month. Excuse my ignorance, but is that for the whole thing? Like, the broadband internet connection _and_ for the phone line? I’ll have to do some more research… ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/9 "2005-03-15T23:32:20Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > I would run as far and fast away from SBC/Yahoo DSL as fast as possible. > > Their customer service is atrocious, their linespeeds are crap and unreliable. I’d go into more detail, but this isn’t the pit. I strongly, strongly agree with this. We finally switched from SBC to cable and it’s been wonderful. The final straw was calling SBC’s customer service to find out why our DSL was out – all I wanted to know was if there was a known outage in our area, as there was a slim chance I had mucked up our phone lines while doing something else. Instead, I got transferred to a rude dullard who insisted on making me answer irrelevant questions from his script and chiding me when I told him that things like my Windows version didn’t matter. While setting up Comcast, I called their customer service twice and both times got the best, smartest technical support I’ve ever had. I wouldn’t go back to SBC if it was free. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/10 "2005-03-16T00:42:27Z")
One thing you have to be aware of; if you have someone other than SBC DSL in an SBC controlled area, guess what? You have SBC DSL. SBC has simply agreed to let other ISPs act as their agents and sell DSL service. So when you call “Mom and POP DSL” and report a problem, know what they do? Log a trouble ticket with SBC. You haven’t escaped; you’ve just added another level of burroracy. Who do you think owns all the phone lines? ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/11 "2005-03-16T00:52:49Z")
I’ve had SBC/Yahoo! DSL for two years now without any real complaints. There’s some occassional brief outages, but nothing horrible IMO. And customer service has always been competent, friendly, and 24/7, which is more than I could say for my previous DSL provider (DSLExtreme). ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/12 "2005-03-16T01:04:20Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > One thing you have to be aware of; if you have someone other than SBC DSL in an SBC controlled area, guess what? > > You have SBC DSL. > > SBC has simply agreed to let other ISPs act as their agents and sell DSL service. So when you call “Mom and POP DSL” and report a problem, know what they do? Log a trouble ticket with SBC. You haven’t escaped; you’ve just added another level of _ **burroracy** _. > > Who do you think owns all the phone lines? BTW if anyone can tell me what the hell “burroracy” is, I’d be grateful :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/13 "2005-03-16T03:23:10Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > BTW if anyone can tell me what the hell “burroracy” is, I’d be grateful :rolleyes: It’s a political system run by mules. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-dsl-phone-providers/294543/14 "2005-03-16T03:41:23Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > It’s a political system run by mules. Or jackasses.