Review by airjrdn 
UPDATED: 234 days ago
member for 5.2 years, 341 visits, last login: 8 days ago
 Springfield,Sangamon,IL
 $36 per month (12 month contract)
 about 10 days
 "Stable, Consistent, Inexpensive, Good for gaming"
 "None yet"
 "Good value, solid pings & speeds"
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(ratings match consensus)
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I've had DSL in the past, starting around 1999 or 2000. I signed up for SBC DSL in 12/2004. I was (and still am as of 1/13/2005) on InsightBB Cable in Springfield, IL. SBC has a 1yr contract, but will give you 30 days to try it out before you're locked in.
I contemplated leaving Insight because of massively fluctuating pings, and packetloss during gaming. I'm a huge gamer; probably 2 to 3 hours a day 7 days a week, so pings and packetloss mean a lot to me.
I've been with SBC for about 3 weeks now. Anytime, night or day, the pings are consistent, and packetloss is non-existent. I'm on the Express plan (1.5M/384K) right now. I'd like to have the Pro (3M/512K) package, but am 14K feet from the CO, and they're having to do extensive checks on my line to see if it can handle the higher speed. Typically, the limit to qualify for the Pro speed is a distance of around 9.5K feet. I've been working with the people in the SBC Direct forum, and they've been extrememly helpful.
My speeds have been a consistent 1.3M down and 330K up. From what I understand, this is as fast as I'll see on the 1.5M/384K plan.
I purchased my own modem, had my own router, etc., so I can't comment on their end-user equipment. As for the timeframe from order to usage, 10 days is about what I'd expect from most ISP's.
If you are having issues on cable relating to troublesome gaming and SBC is available in your area, I'd have no reservations about recommending them.
UPDATE - 04/27/2005
It's now been close to 5 months and nothing but excellence. The gentlemen in SBC Direct got me on the Pro plan even though I'm about 14k feet from the CO. Downloads are at 2.6M (~315KB/sec) and uploads are at ~51KB/sec. Pings have never been more stable. I get consistent 24 pings to my Chicago based UT2004 gameserver.
UPDATE - 08/19/2006
Service is still awesome. I'm still gaming (UT2004) nearly every night, and we've even changed to a new gameserver located in Chicago. My ping is always a consistent 16ms regardless of time of day. As a gamer, I couldn't be happier. Download speeds are still rock solid as well. The only thing I could wish for would be the availability of the 6Mbit service, but at 12k feet from the C.O., that's just not going to happen. I will say though, in my experience, there's never been a better solution for gaming than SBC DSL.
UPDATE - 4/3/2009
Service is still great, but the speeds are slow compared to others now. Thinking about switching for faster speeds, but I'm hesitant because it's always worked so well.
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