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 Review by ronpin 
UPDATED: 212 days ago
member for 5.5 years, 2461 visits, last login: a few hours 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"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(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 
Followup comments:  prince_ind
join:2005-11-01
india
| truth abt sbc tech support agreed that the bbr tech support rocks !!!! if u have difficulty understanding the tier 1 offshore techs just say that u want to speak with an onshore agent or tier 2 onshorem is better caz to reach the tier 2 u have to be on hold for minimum of 20 minutes pls dont take ur anger on the tier 1 there is nothing that we can do abt our accents just as u can do nothing abt urs | |
| attsbcisgay
join:2003-03-18
Beverly Hills, CA
| hiya »prisonplanet.com/
»infowars.com/
My friends, we need to put a stop to this illegal intrusion into our privacy. It is none of their business. How would they like it if we stick our nose up their butt?
I feel they have violated our rights to privacy. By interfering they are asking for legal trouble. They are hated more and more then ever. This will bring them down.
WE CAN NO LONGER TOLERATE THIS BS. | |
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AT&T Southwest
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