 Review by Fox McCloud 
UPDATED: 142 days ago
member for 3.3 years, 1449 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 undisclosed location
 $55 per month (12 month contract)
 about 2 days
 "Solid speed, great latency, awesome tech support, and quick installation time"
 "Embarq needs to cut their prices across the board for DSL by $5, at least , in my opinion"
 "Awesome service, would definitely recommend to anyone who had access to Embarq DSL"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Well, I was certainly excited to finally get DSL, that's for sure! For nearly a decade, all I had was dial-up...then Sprint saved the day with EVDO service...sadly, it started going haywire after only 10 months, and it never was decent from that time on...so, while it was a step up from dial-up, it still wasn't something that I drooled over. Embarq? That's a different story.
Either way, I found out DSL was available on Wednesday; was busy Thursday, thus, I ordered Friday. Only 2 business days later (Tuesday), the installer came, spliced some copper pairs together in their box and replaced my old lightning-protector-only box (tiny square box) with the newer customer interface device. Later, that day, I got my modem pack via UPS.
All was well, but I was informed there were some programming errors at the switch that would prevent me from being able to get DSL, until some time the next day. Thanks to an immense amount of help from an Embarq employee, my switch was programmed, and, better yet, I was on fastpath! I noticed when he first got my connection going, that latency was around 70ms to Google...after fastpath was enabled, it dropped down to 34ms, and later, on down to 21ms.
All in all, the connection has been solid, speed wise--here's a test:
»www.speedtest.net/result/340087234.png
My connection went down this morning, but I'm not going to take off for that; my switch was just recently "lit" with DSL, and I was probably the first to sign up for DSL in my area, so I expect a few bumps in the road for the first couple of weeks...at least, until they get the kinks worked out.
My only complaint about Embarq is their pricing structure; it's a little high, in comparison with other DSL providers...I think that prices should be cut, across the board about $5...that said, pricing still really isn't that bad, and if my good tech support, speeds, and latency keep up, I'm more than happy to pay a little more for stable, reliable service. Also, if I were them, I'd bump the 5 megabit package to 6 megabits...but that's just me...again, no big deal, at all.
in the future, I may consider going DSL only and using, instead, VoIP service; I did several VoIP tests, and all of them came out, literally, perfect, or very near to it.
Internet browsing is a lot snappier, thanks to my higher speed, and, just as importantly, my ultra-low latency. Also, I can finally stream "&fmt=18"/High quality YouTube videos without it having to buffer or anything like that; yay!
All in all, I'm very very happy with Embarq, and hope to remain a customer with them as long as I live at my current location.
minor update:
I've now since dropped Embarq's phone service (wasn't using it) and have went with their "Direct DSL" AKA "naked DSL" or "DSL only". All in all, I've been very very happy with it....since the writing of this review I've had one outage that lasted approximately 5-10 hours, but I'm not going to take off for that now, as I expect at least 1-2 outages in a year. Overall, it's still rock-solid.
update: 1/27/09
Well, with the recent change in Embarq's pricing structure, I've decided to upgrade my service to 10 meg; overall very very impressed with it; when downloading Ubuntu I get 1.2 MB/s down with FireFox and 1.17 MB/s down with IE. Because of the price drop of 10 meg, I'm going to up Embarq's rating for "value for money". While I still think that the 10 meg should be $50, the $55 is still way more than worth it, IMHO, and I shouldn't be complaining in the least bit.
10 meg speedtest: »www.speedtest.net/result/398868547.png
Hope Embarq's service remains this rock solid for years to come....and let us all hope they eventually release a bonded ADSL2+ package...or start rolling out VDSL2 :P
Followup comments:  
Hazy Arc
join:2006-04-10
Greenwood, SC | Welcome Aboard! I know how exciting it can be to live without broadband for so long and then be given the "golden ticket" from Embarq as I was in your same position a year or so ago. Enjoy! | |
| voiptop
join:2009-02-06 | Not perfect A friend of mine has Embarq and sometime he has trobles with speed. Sometimes he solve that be reconecting, but some times he have to reset modem.
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My site »voip-top.com | |
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