Review by iansltx 
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 2.7 years, 872 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Golden,Jefferson,CO
 $47 per month
 about 14 days
 Qwest
 "Cheaper option than cable, self-install pretty easy"
 "Modem practically locks with large transfers taking place, network congestion, slower-than-advertised speeds, fees!"
 "This might be your only option in your area, but it isn't in mine...Comcast wins vs. Qwest"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
UPDATE 10/5/08: A few days ago I got a letter in the mail from Qwest. Or rather, a bill. I already paid $10.78 ($9.99 plus tax) for shipping on the DSL modem I gave back to them. Now they want $9.99 as an "activation" charge (wait...this isn't the same as shipping for the modem...which I had to get because I couldn't pick it up at the Qwest kiosk?) and four days' worth of prorated service, though in reality I used the service for less than 24 hours. Calculating the service costs out, the extrapolation is even more shocking: the equivalent monthly charge would be around $57.99, $11 more than what I had seen online!
I'll pay this bill, but Qwest had better either offer me some ridiculous promotion later on when they actually show that they care about the network here, or else don't bug me for one more second about their service, hich is an inch shy of ridiculous.
UPDATE: Service cancelled. Good riddance. Let's see what kind of fees they want to gig me with.
OTHER OPTIONS
See my Comcast review...Qwest is lower-priced per month than Comcast, but it's also slower. Endgame: Comcast wins when the option is presented, at least in my area.
PACKAGE
The highestend package available here is "Up to" 5 Mbps down, 896k up. The modem is provisioned at 5120/896, no overprovisioning so that you actually get advertised speeds. The price per month is $47 + junk fees. Modem is free if you want wired, $40 if you want wireless. There's no higher tier here (no fiber fed DSLAM waaah) so no "fre wireless modem" option.
ORDER\INSTALL
Ordering process was pretty easy. Just walked up to a Qwest kiosk in Colorado Mills Mall (they have kiosks and such, unlike Comcast, who relies on BestBuy\CircuitCity\etc. to sell their stuff, or going online). They set things up, though I had to push modem shipment and service activation back six days because I wasn't able to be on location when the modem arrived. Still, you'd think they could have the modems in stock, right there for you rather than having to ship the darned thing.
When I got the modem, setup wasn't too bad. Just hooked it up, went through a seven-or-so-step (rather cunky but usable) install CD and I was online. Though again things could've been easier; as much as I hate walled gardens why not force users to put in the Qwest order info, then have them set up an e-mail address and password, then have those as the PPPoE username\password settings? As it is, Qwest has a montage of order codes and usename\password stuf that makes things more dificult in the long run I think.
EQUIPMENT
The modem supplied was an ActionTec M1000. Standard-fare ADSL/2+ modem (ADSL only here). The UI was nice however start a download that uses up the full pipe and latency goes to one-plus seconds. OTOH this happened on the 2Wire wireless modem that the apartment complex I live in has for internet (I thought a dedicated, or rather semi-dedi, line wold get me more speed) so it may be a DSLAM issue. In any case, download + VoIP = epic fail.
The modem has a top panel that, when removed, shows two USB ports...that can only be used for one of a few addin cards for the little guy. Looks like $20 gets you a WiFi card, $20 less than what it'd cost to upgrade to a 2Wire router\modem combo. However with the $40 upgrade you'd get four Ethernet ports instead of one. But I'd use neither; I got a Linksys WRT54G for wireless\router duty.
MISC\CONCLUSION
I'll be calling Qwest to suspend serrvice. Wait, I said that wrong. I'll be calling them to CANCEL service. Why?
1. Modem (or DSLAM, not sure which) cracs under load.
2. Download and upload speeds are not overprovisioned, and as such suck. The service max's out at 85% of rated speeds (4.25 Mbit) on downloads and even less (705 max but usually more like 650kbps) on uploads. In short, you don't get what you pay for; $47 per month is expensive for a landline connecion that *might* break 4 Mbps on downloads. But probably won't; downloads seemed to vary between one and three megabits per second in testing, maybe three and a half. Four was uncommon, more than four was seen only on Qwest's speedtest. Sorry, but I want at least a megabit of internet connectivity for every $10 I pay to an ISP, specially a wireline one.
3. Speeds seemed to get slower during prime time. Not 100% sure on this but it loked to me as though things taanked when lots of people might be accessing the internet. Don't give me crap about DSL not being a shared resource. Qwest *might* have a T3 running into their DSLAM here (not fiber fed remember?) and as such when everyone gets on, speed tests go below 1 Mbps down and 300 kbps up. C'mon guys, it's not that hard; SNR and Attenuation are fine on the line but looks like the backbone connection ain't.
4. Latency, due t interleaving, is lousy. 80, 90 or 100 ms to anywhere is common, much more if I'm donwloading something. VPN to school adds on about 80ms to anything, though Qwest is part of the blended bandwidth they get. Fist hop? 45ms average. Cable, r FastPath DSL, can get to an even semilocal server in that time!
Yep, I'm returning Qwest back to those folks. They advertise decent speeds and don't deliver, which I sot of expected. Nowlet's hope the cancellation process works. Comcast wins in the match between broadband prociders here; too bad it's the usual cable-telco duopoly (cable is high-end, DSL is low-end) with a competitive wireless company offering services that aren't quite good enough with a price that's not too nice...gotta love the US's broadband system.
Followup comments:  marktwo
join:2008-08-19
Salt Lake City, UT
| Qwest I was getting 1.2m for years. Then it went to 359k.I called and the tech came out and said that I was to far on the wire. He said that he could put me back to 256k instead of the 1.5 (Silver) that I had. I asked if there were any other options and he said that he could possibly use a Remote Terminal. He did it and now I can get 1089k download.
thank you Randy. | |
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