Verison DSL = Bait and Switch
July 12, 2005(Update: DSL seems fine now. Not sure why. I called support and they didn’t know why either.)
Version DSL is bullshit. I just got it and for 30 days it worked flawlessly, then all of a sudden, the upload speed drops to near unusable speeds. I can no longer video chat using iChat. When I’m video chatting, it’s fast for exactly 20 seconds, then version’s bandwidth limiter kicks in an I get about 1 fps.
I figure that 20 seconds is just enough time to fool the speed test web sites. Everyone will test it and it will appear fast, but under sustained load, Verision decides your must be having way too much fun and limits your speed.
There’s a 30 day money back guarantee, so it seems they only limit your bandwidth after 30 day trial has expired. Any lawyers out there who want to start a class-action? This is a clear case of Bait and switch. Verison describes their DSL as “Super High Speed” Give me a break. I think I can pay $10 a month and get the speed bumped. I’ll do it and report back.
The USA is falling further behind the rest of the world when it comes to affordable true broadband. SBC, Verison and Adelphia need to be broken up. There’s not enough competition in the industry. Broadband speeds still need to be about 20x faster to become usable without frustration.
If Bush had a clue, he would be more worried about broadband than Terri Shiavo!! We need an geek in the White House!
Posted by sgehrman at July 12, 2005 5:54 PMComments
use speakeasy.net, they are the best, and competent tech support to boot... If you have questions on why I like their service, send me an e-mail...
If you switch to them, we might even each get some service credit for the referral, but that's really not what I'm after. They are great, don't block ports, allow, even encourage servers and connection sharing, etc.
If you have a technical problem, they don't treat you like an idiot, and you're not connected to some call center overseas either where some trained monkeys read a script they are given without knowing what it's all about.
Simply the best in this business that I have experienced.
I'm not denying your claims, however, you are aware of the MAJOR problems in iChat which has made it pretty video chat basically unusable, right?
Do you mean Verizon DSL? If you do, then I'm sorry to say that I'm not having the same results. I know a lot of people who have had problems with Verizon DSL, but I'm not one of them. The only problem I've ever had was with my router. Running 3 years without more than 2 major service interruptions (for 2 hours each in the late night).
Count your blessings, dude!
I live in a certain blighted area of So Cal (s/w LA county) that's in Verizon's jurisdiction, yet they can't offer DSL to me because the lines going to where I am are "too old", i.e., the effective line length exceeds the maximum for the signal. They have no plans to remedy the situation. Ever. I called 'em, and that's what they told me, in so many words.
SBC doesn't offer its services to my area at all.
And, until just recently, Adelphia didn't offer cable internet for my area either. Now they do, for $60/month. Why $60? Because they can get away with it -- they're effectively a local monopoly. And yes, even though Adelphia crawls at less than 56k speeds in the evening hours (I'm used to it), at least I get full-speed broadband during the day. Not so good for relaxing in the evening, playing multiplayer games when you're running 999 ping, and getting dropped before you can even respawn, but what the hey.
If it's the best that can be had, it's the best that can be had.
If it really pissed me off, I'd move.
i have Verizon in Venice. Reliable for the last three years but never fast. DSLreports.com measures my connection at 706 down / 131 up. Not great. In practice, ftp upload speeds are way less 16 k/s. So not very broadband. I do only pay $14.95 a month by choosing to get "limited" residential service at a one-year contract. Better than dial-up. OS X 10.4.4. my ichat usually works fine. Occasionally a glitch requires a restart of the app.
Be sure to get the bump up for DSL. There are two levels (at least for residential.)