High Speed Internet Question..

[o0dano0o.livejournal.com]

At my current apartment, I have RCN cable internet. This weekend I'm moving, so I called RCN to get service transfered to the new apartment, which is a few houses down the street. Apparently they don't service that address...

So what other options do I have? I know of Comcast (which is 2x more per month than I'm paying now) and possibly Verizon DSL. Are there any other suppliers that I'm unaware of?

Thanks in advance!!

Comments

[o0dano0o.livejournal.com]

Ok I lied - Apparently Verizon isn't available either. So does that mean I'm stuck with Comcast?

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Where's this place that you can't get any service?

Unless it is underground, it sounds like one of the dish services would be your best bet.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

My apartment building has an exclusive contract with Comcast. I can't wait to move out.

[jenaflynn.livejournal.com]

Did verizon ever manage to get their Fios service here? I have RCN and it's pretty decent, but more competition is always nice. :)

[o0dano0o.livejournal.com]

Verizon says no FIOS at either the new or old place.

[ron_newman]

No FIOS in Somerville yet, just DSL.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

they also so no FIOS on the Cambridge side. :(

[ron_newman]

Isn't RCN required to serve all of Somerville, as a term of their license from the city?

[o0dano0o.livejournal.com]

I called RCN again using a different number - apparently the address is in the system but not servicable. The woman on the other end said something about laying new cables down by the end of 2007 or something... I don't know.

[ron_newman]

There are other DSL providers besides Verizon, such as Galaxy (which I use), EarthLink, and Speakeasy.

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

And Speakeasy really, really rocks. They're not the cheapest, but they're by far the most tech-savvy. Highly reliable, and their terms of service don't treat you like a criminal.

On the other hand, they were recently purchased by Best Buy, which makes me concerned. Not (just) because Best Buy = evil and dumb, but because all the announcements about that purchase are full of business-to-business language and inevitably, eventually, individual customers are going to get screwed.

[elements.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who recently tried to go with Speakeasy and had an utterly terrible experience. He's now switched to Comcast, his only other option in his area of Allston, and having a moderately less terrible experience.

Many years ago I chose Speakeasy for the small office I worked in and never regretted it. We were also, though, quite close to the main line, and that was well before the BB acquisition when Speakeasy were reliably still the geek's choice. I'm worried that they might not be anymore.

I have RCN right now, and it's not as bad as Comcast, but still not great. Lots of slowness, especially.

There are just not nearly enough options, none of them quality for a home user.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

How is Galaxy? And can I use it for VoIP? Or do I need cable for that? Comcast just raised my rate--they said there was an error in my account and so they have to increase my monthly fee to $60 for internet alone. I feel like an idiot for doing business with them.

[ron_newman]

Galaxy offers VoIP but I didn't choose that option. I'm paying about $23 a month (including taxes, etc.) for 768K DSL.

VoIP

[avjudge]

We've been using Vonage for our home phone service for a year, with Verizon DSL. But we had the faster connection, 3Mbps up/768kbps down. I can't say how it would be with their basic level of service - probably OK. They say "an upload speed less than 90kbps could affect the quality of your calls" and I think pretty much any broadband is above that (when it's working right!). But you definitely don't need cable.

But if you can't get Verizon DSL, I wonder if you could get any other DSL- I mean, it's the same line. How *weird* that you don't have Verizon *or* RCN there. Unfortunately, I don't think satellite is better than Comcast - it's pretty pricey, plus there's a lag that makes it less than optimal.

We just left Verizon because after a year at $35 per month for a dry loop (no phone), they raised the dry-loop surcharge. Besides, I'd rather not be giving Verizon more money than I have to - on general principal before, on specific (vonage vs. verizon) principal now. We're on RCN now, which is faster down but slower up. So far so good with Vonage on that, but it's just been a month or so.