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 Review by ronpin 
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 6.9 years, 3068 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Keller,Tarrant,TX
 $45 per month (12 month contract)
 about 7 days
 Southwestern Bell
 "AT&T exposes the American Oligarchy -- at a really good rate!"
 "Great service -- if your OK with SBC's open line to the NSA"
 "I'm [forced] *BACK* -- Temp housing has exclusive deal with AT&T"
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(ratings match consensus)
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I had tried SBC DSL once before -- in the wake of the @Home fiasco in late 2001. Somehow SBC's 768kbs (on a 1.5mbs connection) seemed feeble -- I aborted SBC and suffered through the conversion from @Home to Charter's cable modem service.
Charter kept charging more for less service til finally, in September of 2003, I checked out SBC's new offerings. The 1.5-6mbs Expert Plus offering (PPPOE, DHCP) looked like a perfect upgrade from Charter's faltering "Gold" service.
It took only 5 days to get the service going and promptly see 5mbs download speeds. Those speeds went away within a week -- it took 90 days -- nearly the entire Fall of 2003 for me to recapture the 5mbs speeds. I did find some overlooked phone connections that were left unfiltered so I could take the blame -- but I'm at a loss to explain how I saw the slower speeds even when I bypassed my entire home from the outside NID. How did I initially see the 5mbs speeds if it was my wiring at fault?
SBC has a great DSLR forum support team ('best I've seen anywhere). When I finally decided that I had done all I could to get my speeds back up -- I spelled it all out on the support forum. Magically, a few days later -- my speeds were back up their original levels -- and rock solid.
The service is even better than the original @Home service. The $100/mo price is just "where we are" as a nation with broadband. Currently Japan offers 26mbs for $30. We'll get there. For now, I plan to stick with SBC. I want to keep this speed level -- but I'll be shopping for price...
UPDATE: May 2004 -- It just get's better -- how rare is that? In Feb. SBC dropped the price by 50% !!! -- to $44.95 -- for the 6mbs pkg. (I'm getting "above 4.6mbs" consistently. I waited these several months to update this review -- 'cause it seemed too good to be true. But the billing has gone down and the speed has stayed where it was. Now I hear that SBC has closed-off the 6mbs pkg. -- but we're grandfathered-in. This is great!
July 2005 -- Still happy. Since I ran a cat6 "homerun" from my outside NID -- I've enjoyed a rock-solid 5mbs connection. I do bitch a lot about SBC's plans for FTTN -- but mainly because I know FTTP would be "Da Bomb". I still think the SBC DSL that we currently have is a good deal (especially if your granfathered-in at 6mbs)
May 2006 -- Price drops again! $30/mo for 12 mo. -- BUT A sinister shadow of "BIG BROTHER" has overtaken the Internet in-general and SBC/AT&T specifically. Our facist/Repug Bush regime has an open line to AT&T's switches and routers -- as of 2006 -- and is arrogantly and defiantly promising to continue monitoring anything and everything they damn well please. Our Govmt. no longer belongs to the People -- it belongs to Corporations! -- and we're just they're "employees". But I digress...
Jan 2007 -- I'm gone! Charter Cable now has to compete [locally] with FiOS! They have a 10/1 + VoIP plan for less than SBC is charging (SBC voice is W-A-Y overpriced). Even though I H-A-T-E SBC's rolling-over to lick the Bush's ball's -- their QoS is still tops. (GOODBYE SBC/AT&T !!!)
August 2007 - I'm in housing "transition" now. Our new condo-rental has an exclusive deal with AT&T for all communication services (funny thing -- I thought AT&T just sued the cable cos for that very practice???).
QoS is still good. Price is stellar. Many lessons at many levels can be learned from AT&T. First, suck-off your government leaders -- and you can get any regulation you want (no details here -- think NSA). Secure your market base with smart marketing (overcharge for voice service, undercharge for DSL).
Let history show that AT&T sped up the adoption of broadband while hindering the bit-rate thereof by stubbornly delaying the inevitable conversion to 100% fiber to the home. Also let AT&T with its many mergers, aquisitions and "Big Brother" antics show the face of American style Oligarchy. 'Turns-out America never really lived-up to it's potential -- but now it's just history. The corporation rules (period). Oh, great broadband too 
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AT&T Southwest
