Review by markinnyc 
UPDATED: 2.9 years ago
member for 3.8 years, 6 visits, last login: 1.6 years ago
 Long Island City,Queens,NY
 $69 per month
 about 8 days
 "Download speed is great. Nearly 8.0 Mb/sec"
 "Upload speed is sold at 768kb/s In truth it's about 1/2 that. (400's maybe)"
 "For this I'm paying MONEY??"
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(ratings below consensus)
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If you're past 40 (yes, I am and still alive!) in the old days everyone hated the "Telephone Company" because they were a monopoly. So we broke up the Bell System/AT&T and got the mess we have today. You can get telephone service from your local Baby Bell, your ISP, and the corner grocery store, too. They're all uniformly bad. The quality is always lousy - but the price differs among them. If your phones break you throw them away and buy new ones. Usually the new ones don't work either - so you go through another set or two until you finally find a few that work...for a while. All the time you pay nothing for Long Distance now - but your cost of a single residential line in NYC is up to over forty dollars with a few features and the ever-present voicemail. They call this progress? I don't agree!
Now on to Time Warner Cable: first off I can see now how TW put up that new building of theirs on Columbus Circle in Manhattan - you know the one where the residential apartments go for 2 - 3 million plus for a studio (and they don't have many of them) up to 20 million for a four bedroom residence with views across Central Park and onward for forever... The key to paying for that building is to provide mediocre service at premium prices. Oh, not lousy enough to get them sued for false advertising. Just bad enough to save a few pennies here and a few pennies there, and it all ads up to billions in their corporate coffers. Bother the fact that some of us need and pay for their premium service. I need it because I remotely run our computers company wide from my home. I use either PC Anywhere or Timbuktu Pro Remote and keep about 100 computers/servers/printers running in a multiple platform installation spread across four different states and two other countries. I'm on call 24/7 and need to be able to hop out of bed, log onto a system in LA or Paris and get it back online and running ASAP. This means serious speed. I tried a full T-1 at my previous home and that was marginally fast enough on the upload. T-1's are bidirectional data flow. In other words you can both send and receive at the same time at the full 1.544 megabits a second. I was trying to save the company some money by trying the TW Cable Premium Service. While the download is close to their stated 8.0 Mb/s, the upload speed is supposed to be 768kb/s and it's not even close. In reality it's about 400 kb/s uploading.
I'm paying about $59 or $69 dollar per month for this dubious service. That's after a discount applied because I'm also a cable TV Service customer, too. A full T-1 at home from a tier one vendor would cost me (with Telco termination charges included) about $550/month or a little less. So considering the only complaint I have is the upload speed - I suppose it's not too bad of a value. However, the thing that really bothers me is the fact that the upload speed is not even 2/3rds of the number they sell and commit to when you order it. TW cleverly covers their corporate tush by stating the speeds as "up to" 8.0 mb/sec and download at "up to" 768kb/s. That UP TO means "if we feel like it, if the network is vacant at the time, and if we happen to think you're lucky under a full moon on the third Thursday of a month not ending in the letter "R". The service speeds are NOT guaranteed. They're just stated as what you may get "up to" sometimes, maybe, if you're lucky...etc.
Because of my work, it happens that I do really need upload speeds that allow me this two-way visual communication with the screens I'm connecting to. Maybe there are some who would comment that I was being cheap. I work for a smallish company that is privately held and saving a little money when and where we can helps the annual bonus checks for all of us. That's why I fly coach on domestic flights even though I'm authorized to fly business or first. On the long hauls to Europe I'll buy the higher priced seats - but if I'm running to Phoenix for a day, I watch the costs. Of course I pick my hotels based on what kind of Internet services they have in the rooms and have been known to check out of a hotel because their data comm service was down in the rooms. (Marriott is usually pretty good - Holiday Inn Crown Plaza isn't bad, and the two chains I like best - Westin or Four Seasons - for some reason their data service is not acceptable at all, in most properties in the US! It's not even slow DSL quality if it exists at all!)
So Monday morning I consider this a failed experiment. Maybe I'll try Speakeasy's one link service or SDSL service. Or maybe I'll just go back to a full costly T-1 and bemoan the fact that it costs so much for what should be a residential type of ISP service available at a reasonable price. Thank you Time Warner for very little! This cute little RCA Cable Modem is going back to you as soon as I get a replacement installed. The only thing TW did offer that works well is my cable TV service and my DVR and HDTV are all beautiful. Maybe the secret is that TW should stick with the expertise and leave the data service for the real players??? Just a thought.
One other thing - TW installers are not the brightest bulbs on the tree, apparently. My partner was home when the installation was done. He handed the guy an AMEX card of mine for the prepayment required (they want the first months service and all installation charges paid in advance! I guess they figure they can't get you in the billing system fast enough to generate their needed revenue any other way) and the idiot installer had never seen an AMEX NYC card (they're black with the AMEX logo on them - and they're specially marketed to people who live and/or work in NYC - they give you benefits like theatre tickets deeply discounted and other goodies that a New Yorker might enjoy but mom in Scottsdale wouldn't give a fig about.) Anyway the installer had to call me at work, and then ask me for another card because he was sure the company didn't take this "funny black card with the IN NYC on the front.” I told him it was in fact an AMEX card and to just call it in like he would any other credit card - get his authorization code and go about his bossiness. He finally did so, but only after two more calls to my office for reassurance, apparently. I'm telling you - that movie "The Cable Guy" wasn't too far off the mark, except most of them aren't apparently that bright!
I should sign this accurately, really disappointed in NYC...
UPDATE as of 12/20/2006
SpeakEasy installed their onelink service a few months ago. This give you a ‘dry’ copper pair between you and the Central Office. Dry means it has no dial tone on it and is not used for anything other than your data connection. The circuit is not supposed to have other crap hitchhiking on it – but it often does.
SpeakEasy charges about 100/mo for between 3mg and 6mb/sec download and the upload is supposed to be about 1mb/sec. Hardly. It tested high at first. Now I’m lucky to be getting about ¼ the stated maximum both up and down.
I do have SpeakEasy VOIP lines on the same circuit. This service, oddly enough, is pretty good. The lines raise the whole bill up to about $160/mo plus tax. Includes the usual LD and includes most of Northern Europe in the free calling area. France, the UK, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and all the way to Greece are included. The areas in Euroland that are not included are cheap enough that you won’t think about dialing them, either. Hungary and the former USSR are two areas I’ve phoned and they’re not outrageously costly compared to most other carriers.
Chief complaints are the friggin’ data services and their VOIP web portal is not Mac Friendly. It’s based on Microsoft’s Active X controls, an outdated technology that only MS would try to foist off on the world. I’m a Mac user and have been for >20 years. Not gonna switch now come hell or high water. I can write code in UNIX if I must, and hate the Windows weirdness.
To be forced to use their MS active X voice portal is obscene. They bought this abortion from BroadSoft and you would expect better from both companies.
I cannot honestly recommend SpeakEasy for data. They’re not cheap. Their target is a power user and they charge premium prices for their service. Fine (or it would be fine) if they delivered what they sold.
I’m getting sick of this “promise them anything” crap that most isp’s particpate in. Isn’t there a truth in advertising law that could get them forced to advertise their true speeds and costs? Time Warner is a rip off. Speak Easy is a bit better, but not much. Who else do I go to? Waiting for Verizon Fios service in my area but it’s not here yet. The cables were put into the ground a few months ago. How long must we wait for telephone and FIOS services from the time the fiber goes into the ground? Don’t ask Verizon. They won’t or cannot tell you.
IS SIMPLE HIGH SPEED, RELIABLE, INTERNET SERVICE TO A HOME OFFICE TOO MUCH TO HOPE FOR? WHEN ARE WE GOING TO SEE SOME NEW TECH GIVE US BREAKTHROUGH SPEEDS AT A PRICE A MERE MORTAL CAN AFFORD? MAYBE I’LL WIRE THE NEIGHBORHOOD MYSELF AND SEE IF I CAN GET A DEAL ON OC 10 OR BETTER FROM SOME VENDOR TO BACK IT UP. AT 1000 SUBSCRIBERS AND BANDWIDTH OF ABOUT ETHERNET (STANDARD 10MEG/SEC) TO EACH USER, IT SHOULD BE POSSIBLE TO FORM MY OWN WISP IN THE AREA AND BLANKET IT WITH SIGNAL STRONG ENOUGH TO GIVE EVERYONE DECENT SERVICE. IF YOU CAN’T BUY IT, MAYBE IT’S TIME TO INVENT IT!!
I should sign this accurately, really disappointed in NYC...
but for now - Mark In NYC.
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