# AT&T U-Verse Fiber Optic vs. Time Warner Cable



## AuraNova

I use Time Warner/Roadrunner cable here in Central Florida, and I have no problems with it. Although they made a change in policy and are charging us $2/month "rental" for the modem now.

Of course we don't have much choice here. Either do satellite internet, CenturyLink DSL or Time Warner cable. So I can't help you if [email protected] is worth it or now.


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## burksdb

i have uverse and havent had any issues. i pay for 12 and ive not seen it dip below 11 at all and service has been great. got them to waive our install fess with 100 back. the modems they use are black 2 wire boxes, but there not too bad the built in firewall is a pita to work with but once you figure it out it's easy.


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## Tom1121

Go for it if you like having capped Internet. I could never support a company with caps however. Time Warner at this time has no caps.


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## burksdb

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Tom1121*
> 
> Go for it if you like having capped Internet. I could never support a company with caps however. Time Warner at this time has no caps.


if there is a cap id like to know what it over the last 6 months or so i know ive used well over 300 gigs, and before that i stay in the 200+ range


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## Tom1121

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *burksdb*
> 
> if there is a cap id like to know what it over the last 6 months or so i know ive used well over 300 gigs, and before that i stay in the 200+ range


http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/13/atandt-will-cap-dsl-u-verse-internet-and-impose-overage-fees/
250GB for Uverse, you have two months grace, then they start charging.


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## rawfuls

Oh whoa, did not know that U-Verse was capped...
Huge con for me..

Thing about TimeWarner is that at good times, I can get 30mbps down, and .5 up (irony?), but at baaad times, can get 2mbps down, and .10 up...
U-Verse would be really stable I presume.


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## Chunky_Chimp

Uverse is bonded ADSL2+ by way of FTTC, hence the low upload ratio; it's not FTTH unless they explicitly say so (and if there's evidence of that). DSL is not guaranteed and cannot be, too many variables. I would ask around if you have friends in the area with Uverse to see if it's any good as far as reliability and CS go, though personally I wouldn't want anything to do with them regardless.

Oh, and there's no such thing as too stable, especially if you do end up with a FTTH connection somehow.


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## Princess Garnet

I had AT&T U-Verse (6Mb/s down and 1.5Mb/s up?) and all was fine. I don't think it was fiber optic or anything though. I have Time Warner Roadrunner now and all is fine as well.

The cable is faster though (not sure what we're rated at but I often seem to get 15Mb/s to 20Mb/s down), but videos (YouTube) seem to be throttled a little bit more (which is funny when Time Warner runs an advertisement saying that "if your video stream stops, you've outgrown your DSL and it's time to switch" because I've had to wait for buffering a bit more since we switched to it...).

All in all, both were fine. If you can get about the same speed for less, I'd say it could be worth it.

I can't speak for caps. They were implemented near the end of our time there and we didn't use as much anyway. We switched because we moved and Time Warner was going to be cheaper for more speed (some service for loyal AT&T customers for years [but really, the service was alright]). Also, Comcast had alright service in the one time I had to use it.

That's just my experience. Yours may vary.


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## rawfuls

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Chunky_Chimp*
> 
> Uverse is bonded ADSL2+ by way of FTTC, hence the low upload ratio; it's not FTTH unless they explicitly say so (and if there's evidence of that). DSL is not guaranteed and cannot be, too many variables. I would ask around if you have friends in the area with Uverse to see if it's any good as far as reliability and CS go, though personally I wouldn't want anything to do with them regardless.
> Oh, and there's no such thing as too stable, especially if you do end up with a FTTH connection somehow.


Achem, is this available in English?









As far as CS, TimeWarner has been nothing but great for me.
Free housecalls to check whatever we need, did line checks without a question (assumption by me, turns out there was a spot where it had been gnawed on by some sort of animal, replaced and speeds were back up), replaced modem with a brand new one a couple of times (they seem to fail after we push them for all they've got), etc etc.

AT&T, however, will charge us $50/per house call if it's not their fault (ie, 2 wire modem/router, or their line).

So in our case, if our area goes down for a bit, and comes back up a little slow, I called out TimeWarner, they came out and checked everything, everything seemed to be working okay, just a few slow speeds, but replaced our modem just to be safe.


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## Chunky_Chimp

Heh, sorry, FTTC = fiber to the curb (those VRADs or "lawn fridges" as I've heard them called further east), FTTH = fiber to the home (Verizon FiOS or any local municipal fiber service). AT&T takes fiber to those VRADs and knocks it down to standard copper. It's no different fundamentally from what other telcos have been doing for the past 15-20 years or so but since they're using an outdated standard they need to spam VRADs everywhere in order to keep the speeds up. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but VDSL2 would take the guesswork out of it somewhat and provide much greater ranges. That's why CenturyLink/Qwest has the sense to use it in more densely populated areas, including in upgrades they're doing in my general area, though my terminal isn't going to be upgraded so I can't benefit from that.


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## phaseshift

I'm trying to decide right now whether to switch over to Uverse, I'll be working as a technician for them at the end of the month. The only thing I have a gripe on is that their highest speed isn't available in my area.


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## unleaded91

I was a Time Warner Cable customer for over 5 years and switched to U-Verse for a very "long"







3 months then switched back to Time Warner.

I used to have 10/1 with Time warner and then 20/2 from U-Verse.

I am not sure about your area, but when I had U-Verse it was really bad.
I am talking about super unreliable internet, TV, and phone signal. I only had them for three months because the service was really bad. There was one time where we didn't have internet,TV, and phone for 3 days for an unknown reason.

In those three months that we had U-Verse we prolly had the "Tech" come over more than 6 times and still we had problems.

This was also the case with my girlfriends house (San Diego, CA). There service would go down for no reason for hours during the day.

I see some people had some good experiences with U-Verse. I am just sharing how mine was.

Now I have Time Warner 20/2 internet service and I will never look back to U-verse ever.

The only thing I dont like about Time Warner is there crappy single unit modem/router combo!

I ended up getting my own router and bypassing the router function of the unit from Time Warner.


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## rawfuls

Alright, so we made the switch from TimeWarner to U-Verse, and then back to TimeWarner.
Be prepared for a story...
*Cliffnotes at the bottom.*

All the plans below are with the basic home phone plans w/ medium-advanced internet.

With just myself on the U-Verse on the router to test it out, and the rest of the family were still using the TimeWarner service.
By myself, it was great; constant speeds above 15mbps, but never hit 18 (had the 18/1.5 plan).
Upload was 1.2, which was nice, but I rarely upload anything.

The few days that I made everyone use the U-Verse service, it was still pretty nice and speedy.
Though, it would lag every now and then, and their DNS seemed to be a bit slower compared to TimeWarner, but switched to Google's public DNS and things were a bit better, webpages started loading a bit quicker.

We were very ready to switch over to U-Verse, service was alright, the few things that we were hesitant about:
-Housecalls were very pricey, unless the issue was 100% their fault [anything outside of the household, on their property was free], but anything within our household, including their own wiring they installed in the attic, if that failed, we'd be charged a $50 for it JUST to be checked out.
-Caps! This was probably the biggest thing, between five constant devices on all day, and a few on and off here and there, 250GB would've gone by quickly. I called up techsupport about 2 weeks in to discover we'd already used 125GB, and if we were to continue, we would've hit ~200 or so.. Their cap is 250GB, then $25 for every extra 50GB.

The differences for us, was either a 250GB cap w/ pricey housecalls, OR, excellent customer service [techs, and level2 tech support] but with a bit more money for a less 'advertised' speed. Though, with TimeWarner we always end up getting above the advertised speed, so we don't complain.

I decided to give TimeWarner one last chance.
Gave CS a call, got ahold of a woman who was adamant about helping us get another promotion on top of the $10 promotion we had ($52 to $42) as she agreed that we'd been with them for a long time (since '05). Put me on hold to speak with the supervisor.
Them not having a hold 'song', I didn't even know she had accidently hung up on me.
She called back, and was very, very, very, VERY, apologetic (hey, if I had a customer on the line who said they had just installed U-Verse, and wanted to cancel service but wanted to see at a last promotional price to stick around and hung up on them, I'd be pretty scared too!) and after speaking to her supervisor, got us down to $29.99 (our original promotional price, about 1-2 years ago.) and that our bill would be updated during the 9:00PM refresh that night.

This hit the spot for us, and I thanked her a ton.

Calling back, maybe, a day later to ask about the length of said promotional pricing and whatnot, I received the retention department (I pressed for customer service, oh well, I figured it was updated and noted in the account).
Boy, what a bunch of d-bags.
These guys (in Culver City) are seriously... I can't even find the right word.
After asking the rep (Nellie? Nelli? Nelly?) about the promotional price, she began telling me that she had believed I had fostered up a nice little story in hopes of getting a better deal. How she doesn't even know how they are able to apply new promotional prices at CS level, and how they do not even have a $29.99 deal/price. I began from step one, how we'd been with them for quite a while, and that we'd have this price plenty of times, and that I have logs on my phone saying we had spoke the day before. I told her I was interested in removing TW service if I was unable to reach a new promotional price with TW, and end up with U-Verse.

Here comes another rant, she began 'lecturing' me on how U-Verse was far inferior to TW, and began throwing out false numbers about prices, 'small text' and actual details. She had even said the housecall would be $120 as opposed to the $50 I had told her [The $50 was even on U-Verse's website, somewhere. I cannot find it anymore]. Here came the yelling. She repeated how the 10/1 is a guaranteed speed, U-Verse wasn't. How TW had better CS than U-Verse (what?), and a bunch of other stuff I didn't even end up listening to. I told her, that her script was incorrect, that she please research into this a bit more before trashing other companies on different pricing, and that I immediately be upped to her manager/supervisor. She muttered 'like you'd know', seeming like she'd just transfer me to her buddy across the cubicle from her.. I don't even know.

The manager I spoke to calmly talked to me (which I am thankful for, by this time I had a headache dealing with all this crap), and told me that the $29.99 pricing would be incorrect.
Alright, that's fine. Let's do one thing, I asked him to check my account to check for past calls. He notes that I did in fact call in the day before, and the notes in that call were signed off by the supervisor, but he was unable to view such notes. I had a feeling this was a bowl of poo, so I asked him to review the recordings, and that I would gladly hold while he did so; afterall, they were there for customer satisfaction, right? He puts me on hold. About 7 minutes later, he returns and says that he is unable to access such recordings. (Uhm... okay.) I asked for his name, past rep's name, department name, number, and the head corporate's number, and notified him that I would be filing a complaint. Whether it may be for him, or the girl before me, I would file one. Grudgingly replied with info, and noted that there was only one retention department, in Culver City. Gave me corporate's number, and I did end up filing a complaint, a few days ago, just for representative misconduct.

Anyways, to continue this unnecessary life-story, I say "Thank you, good bye", and call maybe two, three days later, and get retention again. I asked to be transferred directly to Customer Care, and was directed right away. Talked to the supervisor there (didn't even bother with Level1 at this point), and asked her what the balance on the bill was. Sure enough, $29.99 for one year. (Finally, took all of one minute). Asked her to view notes, and when that bill had been updated, and it was updated two-three days ago, the night right after I hung up with the apologetic-lady. Also noted notes had been entered the same time. At this point, I'm in a good mood, and I quit while I was ahead.

Maybe ten minutes later, I get the realization (hey, why don't I switch into TimeWarner's phone&internet plan, it's bound to be cheaper!
Talked to a very pleasant guy, very courteous and all, and was very patient as I spoke it over with the family.
After putting him on hold, frequently, and asking questions here and there, I might as well give him the commission and order right then, as opposed to thinking about it and then calling again and possibly dealing with a lunatic.
He asked for the home phone number's account number from our phone provider, and as I was giving it to him, my phone died.
Great, now I feel bad!
I decided to wait maybe an hour for him to call back, and on the 30 minute mark, his call came in.
This time, I was apologetic to him!

Anyways, we ordered TimeWarner's basic phone package (I was told basic was unlimited outgoing and incoming calls to Canada, US, Puerto Rico, Guam, and a few other places... weird) plus the 'Standard' internet, which was 10/1.
All together, it would be $54.98, $30 for internet, $25 for phone.

Perfect, $10 cheaper than AT&T U-Verse, and $20 cheaper than our deal before U-Verse.

TimeWarner guys come out Monday morning, and after forgetting to write a note for my brother to provide the tech with our details, my brother ended up doing basic things, and having our phone base station moved to his room. (Worst room, thickest walls on planet earth, no reception in half of the house, great).

Called TimeWarner as soon as I got home, scheduled up another appointment, and have a guy coming out tomorrow (scheduled on Monday).
Also called prior to the appointment to find out why our home phones were showing up as restricted, tech on the line was very friendly, patient, and helped us out right away, and answered any questions I had.

Overall, I am VERY pleased with TimeWarner, and will be sticking with them afterall...
Who knows, maybe another 7 years?









Why?
TimeWarner has 10/1, but realistically, many of my neighbors are using AT&T Triple-Pak for TV, Internet, Phone so that gets them off our TW cable, or they are just too elderly to use the internet hard, so we get a lot of bandwidth.
Checking as of now, I am getting a solid 28.3/.65 speeds on SpeedTest, averaged out between five consecutive tests.
And we're paying for 10/1... Pretty sweet!

*Cliffnotes:*
-Switched to U-Verse to test it out, phone and internet.
-Called TimeWarner for one last chance to come back into the equation, they matched it.
-Unhappy experience with retention on second call to verify.
-TimeWarner rep comes out and does his thing.
-TimeWarner rep coming back out, to 'activate' wall sockets for our telephone lines.
-Faster speeds, and lets us use our own router.
-Cancelling U-Verse for a full refund as we are within the 30day grace period aka, trial period.

Overall, it wasn't much of a performance issue.
It's hard to compared TW w/ U-Verse as TW can be a bit tricky.
Very, very often we will get speed well above 15mbps (never hit 50 yet!), but also frequently will get speed of around 5mbps when the internet is getting hounded.
TW also seems to have a better CS, their Level2 is incredibly friendly. However, retention dept. is a handful.
Same goes for AT&T.


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## Tangoseal

UVerse is fiber to the street then everyone on the block is still on good old analog coaxial line.

So either one will work. Uverse has an upload cap of like 2-3mbps no matter the downstream you get.

Docsis 3.0 is far far far far far superior if you are in a market that offers higher tiers for lower cost like Atlanta and others.

We can get 150/15 for a steep price in certain areas and other areas 100/10 for $99/mon.


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## Tangoseal

Read my above post and also you are not hitting speeds of 50meg because you probably have a poopie router. Get a just released kinda router with a gig port, like an Asus, or Dlink or something new and you will hit 50 all day long.


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## rawfuls

I don't really think we could get 50 down, my neighbor up'd himself to a Netgear N900 (installed it for him.. boy, what an expensive router), due to wireless range, and had a little money he wanted to get rid of..

He's hitting 20/1 all day long, but he may have a bad coax line.
I've seen speeds of up to 30mbps.
But I do agree, modem and router are probably poopie, but I'm only paying for 10/1, so anything above that and I am happy!

Just got off the phone with AT&T U-Verse, cancelled all services for a full refund, don't even have to pay a single dime to do anything.
We just need to drop off the router/modem at a UPS store, bring our bill with us & a disconnection number, and they take care of the rest.
They also let us keep the Belkin battery backup (which has a proprietary plug, but I'm sure if I unscrew the little cap on the back, it will reveal some guts







).
Will have to play with that at a later date..

TimeWarner is going a bit wonky, our phone system has been acting up a little, and if I start downloading something that's pretty hefty, phones will go down for a few.

Calling them back to move the base station, so will have them solve that as well.


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## Mootsfox

U-verse is HORRIBLE. AT&T does not offer a good internet service. I've personally had their DSL and have friends that have switched off of their crap U-verse service.

I don't like TW much, but they are better and Cable (DOCSIS 3 FTW) is better than anything but fiber right now for home users.

Congrats on the price, but why are you bundling phone? VOIP is a rip-off, if you really need a number, get a magicjack, they have a model that doesn't even need a computer now for like $70 (+$20/yr). Or just use Skype/Google.


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## kemsoff

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Mootsfox*
> 
> U-verse is HORRIBLE. AT&T does not offer a good internet service. I've personally had their DSL and have friends that have switched off of their crap U-verse service.
> I don't like TW much, but they are better and Cable (DOCSIS 3 FTW) is better than anything but fiber right now for home users.
> Congrats on the price, but why are you bundling phone? VOIP is a rip-off, if you really need a number, get a magicjack, they have a model that doesn't even need a computer now for like $70 (+$20/yr). Or just use Skype/Google.


Care to elaborate? Ive had uverse for over 4 years, running 24/3 and Ive never once had speeds below 23 on my down and 2.5 on my up, Ive also never once lost service in that entire time frame (with the exception of a power outage)


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## Mootsfox

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kemsoff*
> 
> Care to elaborate? Ive had uverse for over 4 years, running 24/3 and Ive never once had speeds below 23 on my down and 2.5 on my up, Ive also never once lost service in that entire time frame (with the exception of a power outage)


When I had DSL, the connection was spotty at best. This was back in the PS2 days and it was bad enough that I couldn't play SOCOM for more than a few minutes without dropping. Ping was generally 100ms+ and the connection topped out at 2Mb/s.

Friends that have had it hit the caps, complain about drops and slowdowns, disconnection issues, especially while downloading games (via Steam), throttling on downloads during uploads to dropbox or similar. It's not cheap, not fast, not reliable and the customer service blows. Why support them?


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## Tangoseal

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *rawfuls*
> 
> I don't really think we could get 50 down, my neighbor up'd himself to a Netgear N900 (installed it for him.. boy, what an expensive router), due to wireless range, and had a little money he wanted to get rid of..
> He's hitting 20/1 all day long, but he may have a bad coax line.
> I've seen speeds of up to 30mbps.
> But I do agree, modem and router are probably poopie, but I'm only paying for 10/1, so anything above that and I am happy!
> Just got off the phone with AT&T U-Verse, cancelled all services for a full refund, don't even have to pay a single dime to do anything.
> We just need to drop off the router/modem at a UPS store, bring our bill with us & a disconnection number, and they take care of the rest.
> They also let us keep the Belkin battery backup (which has a proprietary plug, but I'm sure if I unscrew the little cap on the back, it will reveal some guts
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ).
> Will have to play with that at a later date..
> TimeWarner is going a bit wonky, our phone system has been acting up a little, and if I start downloading something that's pretty hefty, phones will go down for a few.
> Calling them back to move the base station, so will have them solve that as well.


I chunked the Belkin to my old Uverse setup as it has the power reserve of a AA battery lol. Just a useless piece of junk,


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## kemsoff

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Mootsfox*
> 
> When I had DSL, the connection was spotty at best. This was back in the PS2 days and it was bad enough that I couldn't play SOCOM for more than a few minutes without dropping. Ping was generally 100ms+ and the connection topped out at 2Mb/s.
> Friends that have had it hit the caps, complain about drops and slowdowns, disconnection issues, especially while downloading games (via Steam), throttling on downloads during uploads to dropbox or similar. It's not cheap, not fast, not reliable and the customer service blows. Why support them?


I have 0 of those issues, so I dunno. I go way over my caps, no drops, i dont consider it expensive, but meh to each his own


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## rawfuls

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Mootsfox*
> 
> Congrats on the price, but why are you bundling phone? VOIP is a rip-off, if you really need a number, get a magicjack, they have a model that doesn't even need a computer now for like $70 (+$20/yr). Or just use Skype/Google.


I've told the parents this multiple times, but they'd like to keep VOIP mainly for the phone number.
I know we could just port number into Google, but they like the idea of how everything is set up, and don't like change.









Although, now that I look at it, it looks pretty interesting.
Not sure how the technology works, though..
Care to elaborate on that?

[EDIT] Just looked into it a bit more, and noticed you're paying $30/year?
Is this right?
So the MagicJack Plus price ($70?) plus the $30/yearly (where is it that says $20/yr?).

Just may have to end this TimeWarner deal..








Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Mootsfox*
> 
> When I had DSL, the connection was spotty at best. This was back in the PS2 days and it was bad enough that I couldn't play SOCOM for more than a few minutes without dropping. Ping was generally 100ms+ and the connection topped out at 2Mb/s.
> Friends that have had it hit the caps, complain about drops and slowdowns, disconnection issues, especially while downloading games (via Steam), throttling on downloads during uploads to dropbox or similar. It's not cheap, not fast, not reliable and the customer service blows. Why support them?


I'll say my friend has AT&T U-Verse, and it has been spotty.
He gets very, very low speeds, and he's been pretty unhappy.
I'm going to talk him into talking his parents into getting U-Verse, and probably getting better plans.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Tangoseal*
> 
> I chunked the Belkin to my old Uverse setup as it has the power reserve of a AA battery lol. Just a useless piece of junk,


We do have frequent problems with the Belkin dropping once in awhile, but if it works, we don't see that big of a deal to upgrade..
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kemsoff*
> 
> I have 0 of those issues, so I dunno. I go way over my caps, no drops, i dont consider it expensive, but meh to each his own


Aren't the caps limited to 250GB, and then anything after that, each 50GB is $25 more?
A bit expensive IMO.


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## Mootsfox

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *rawfuls*
> 
> I've told the parents this multiple times, but they'd like to keep VOIP mainly for the phone number.
> I know we could just port number into Google, but they like the idea of how everything is set up, and don't like change.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Although, now that I look at it, it looks pretty interesting.
> Not sure how the technology works, though..
> Care to elaborate on that?
> [EDIT] Just looked into it a bit more, and noticed you're paying $30/year?
> Is this right?
> So the MagicJack Plus price ($70?) plus the $30/yearly (where is it that says $20/yr?).
> Just may have to end this TimeWarner deal..
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> .


I guess the standalone version is $30/yr. Still that's <$3 a month versus $25 a month. Would pay for itself in like three months.

A magicjack is just a VOIP service like Skype/Google Phone, but it's unique in that it has a standalone version so you don't need a computer to be running to get calls. There's also products like Ooma: http://www.ooma.com/

I just feel like a $20/month service from a provider that uses an existing service you pay monthly for is crazy.


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## rawfuls

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Mootsfox*
> 
> I guess the standalone version is $30/yr. Still that's <$3 a month versus $25 a month. Would pay for itself in like three months.
> A magicjack is just a VOIP service like Skype/Google Phone, but it's unique in that it has a standalone version so you don't need a computer to be running to get calls. There's also products like Ooma: http://www.ooma.com/
> I just feel like a $20/month service from a provider that uses an existing service you pay monthly for is crazy.


I've talked my parents into giving it a try, but we're going to get AT&T and TimeWarner's bills sorted first.

I wonder how MagicJack compares with Vonage?


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## adcantu

The thing you have to remember about Uverse and DSL/ADSL is that they are limited by distance. The further from the central office or VRAD you are, the less stable / slower connection you get. If you are lucky enough to have fast speeds and zero connectivity problems, you are probably very close.

This is why one customer can have great service but his neighbor might have poor service. They may not even be on the same VRAD, one half of the street might be only 1k feet from the VRAD while the other half is 10k feet away.


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## rawfuls

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *adcantu*
> 
> The thing you have to remember about Uverse and DSL/ADSL is that they are limited by distance. The further from the central office or VRAD you are, the less stable / slower connection you get. If you are lucky enough to have fast speeds and zero connectivity problems, you are probably very close.
> This is why one customer can have great service but his neighbor might have poor service. They may not even be on the same VRAD, one half of the street might be only 1k feet from the VRAD while the other half is 10k feet away.


He is in a different city albeit the border is close to both of us.
So we aren't too far away, but he is definitely on a different 'VRAD' than I am.

He might be switching off of home telephone provider as well, who knows, may even talk them into a Magic Jack..
Until then, off to search for some new promotional prices.


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## kemsoff

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *rawfuls*
> 
> Aren't the caps limited to 250GB, and then anything after that, each 50GB is $25 more?
> A bit expensive IMO.


Yes, its 250. Although I have have never once been billed for going over. Not sure why. And as far as I know its 10$ for every 50gb over. Thats what the letter I got said when they implemented it. Unless they changed it. Not sure


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## Mootsfox

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *adcantu*
> 
> The thing you have to remember about Uverse and DSL/ADSL is that they are limited by distance. The further from the central office or VRAD you are, the less stable / slower connection you get. If you are lucky enough to have fast speeds and zero connectivity problems, you are probably very close.
> This is why one customer can have great service but his neighbor might have poor service. They may not even be on the same VRAD, one half of the street might be only 1k feet from the VRAD while the other half is 10k feet away.


They claimed this was the reason for our poor service. They claimed we were 21,000 feet from the nearest node. Since we were one of the first customers for their DSL, we signed up fine, but by the time we called to finally cancel they told us that they wouldn't even let someone sign up if they were that far out.


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## kemsoff

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Mootsfox*
> 
> They claimed this was the reason for our poor service. They claimed we were 21,000 feet from the nearest node. Since we were one of the first customers for their DSL, we signed up fine, but by the time we called to finally cancel they told us that they wouldn't even let someone sign up if they were that far out.


You must live out in the boonies


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## Mootsfox

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kemsoff*
> 
> You must live out in the boonies


What's funny is that I was in the middle of a suburb. They just didn't roll the service out properly for our area.


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## lrukhina

DO NOT SWITCH!!!! I just did and I am cancelling the AT&T account and going back to Time Warner. ATT experience is a nightmare...the techs don't know what they are doing (2 of them)
and they are rude. Time Warner techs ALWAYS know what they are doing and do it well and professionally. Time Warner even sweetened the deal for me to stay, although just getting away from AT&T is enough.


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## rawfuls

Yeah, ended up switching back to Time Warner (finally escalated my call high enough to corporate where they gave me the "standard" internet (10/1) for $29.99 again.

Dropped the phone after a month, now using a MagicJack..


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## Shev7chenko

I have had road runner since 2002 with my parents.

I recently bought a new house in a new development and time warner does not offer service here yet. I have lived in the house for a year and during this year I have had the fastest DSL att offers.

6mbps down and 768kbps up. This has been fine for the most part. Updates through steam were never higher than 768kbps and usually hovered around 500kbps.

My parents did switch over to Uverse though because they really don't need to be paying so much for internet once I (the only power user) left the house.

They had Uverse 12/1 and have been very happy with it for a year. Although my DSL is slow for my needs it has always been consistent and has never dropped.

Finally after a year ATT offers uverse at my address. The fastest speed available is 18/2 and I will eventually get that but went with 12/1 to avoid having to pay 150 dollar activation fee that is included if you want 18/2. If i get the 12/1 and then a month later "upgrade" to 18/2 I won't have to pay the activation fee.

I will stick with ATT for at least another year and if cable starts providing service I will probably go with them.


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## killabytes

Unless your ISP is really behind on the times, circa 1997+ they should all be FTTN. My ISP has had FTTC/N since around 1997-98. Previously the "In" thing was HFC.


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