WatchHate for ATT is permanently etched in my brain after dealing with them for many years for my DSL service. They forced me to also pay for a local landline though I didn't want one, they kept raising the fee for DSL without telling me, and no two bills were ever the same price! Each bill was an amazing list of constantly changing obscure fees, lately about $52. And of course it's not easy to get a human at ATT on the phone if you value your time. Oh, and the service sucked! The speed was OK when it worked, but ATT DSL stalled very frequently, and I'm sure the problem was not with our computers because the stalls happend no matter which computer we used.
So I switched to sonic.net 3 mbps "naked" DSL for $40/month and I'm very happy with it so far. It's definitely far faster than ATT DSL and doesn't stall like ATT used to. Here's the list of standalone (no landline dialtone) DSL plans from sonic.net:
http://sonic.net/solutions/home/internet/fusion/
We cancelled our local line and will just use TMobile for regular cell service because TMobile is way cheaper than ATT's iPhone plans.
One hazard in cancelling: ATT lied to me or was mistaken about several things when I asked them to cancel my service.
* ATT claimed that DSL would be shut off Monday at 5pm, but they did it overnight on Sunday, leaving us without DSL for a bit.
* ATT claimed that we'd get 60 days of free dial tone service, but they cut that off too. It's too painful to navigate their voice jail system to complain.
Sonic.net did not pay me anything or give me any discount for this post. I really am thrilled to have escaped ATT entirely, perhaps for the first time in my life!
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San Antonio, TX
jvolstad's website
Here you go. This service isn't cheap but I need the speed when working remotely via a VPN.
XFINITY TV 13.70
XFINITY Internet 47.95
Taxes, Surcharges & Fees 1.85
If I could do away with the TV, I would. I don't watch it. Internet access by itself is more expensive then this package. Go figure.
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I just got through with an on-line chat. They will not give me a break on the price. I've been with comcast for over 3years now. The fastest DSL I can get at my location is 3MB.
Oh well. At least I don't own one of these overpriced Bay Area houses.
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Jvolstad, thanks for the details.
You can indeed do away with the TV if you get the dual-play (data + voice) for $40+$5+XX. That is what I'm looking into. Comcast also quotes $25 + $25 installation costs for the two services. And maybe it is only for new customers.
I've also seen a $20 6-month offer with just data. Again, likely only for new customers.
I may just buy an EMTA (Cable modem with integrated VoIP) used and go for it. I'll report back if I do.
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
jvolstad says
I think that's because they make money off you when you watch TV. Just like the old "free" commercial stations over the air, they get paid when you watch the commercials.
jvolstad says
That's what I'm getting with sonic.net for $40/month flat, 3MB/s. It's EXACTLY $40, not like that crap ATT used to pull with the zillion ever-changing fees and the bill creeping higher each month. I still love Sonic and recommend them.
I agree -- not owning an overpriced Bay Area house is such a huge benefit every month that all these other little costs don't really matter.
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Okay, I have made the jump and will get Comcast internet + phone dual play.
$40+taxes= $43.xx per month for 12 months
$25 installation (originally quoted 2*$25, one per service)
$0 EMTA (modem) rental fee (flyer said $5/month but they waived it somwhow)
I'll know in a few days. Should get 12Mbps internet access and unlimited nationwide calliing.
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I can report that the 2nd month Comcast bill for the VoIP + Internet contract described above came out to $41.50 total. Apparently there are less "taxes" an other jink fees on cable bills that in phone bills.
This is in SIlicon Valley, SF Bay Area.
I'm pretty happy with the service so far, no big problems.
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Oakland, CA
OK, I'm starting to prepare for dumping ATT completely. I want ATT out of my life forever.
I just got a Google Voice number so that I can make international calls cheaply from my cell phone and computer (if I so choose). Also I use it for voicemail now on my cell phone and I really like getting texts that transcribe my voicemails into text. No, the technology isn't perfect, but most of the time I get the gist of what the voicemail says, if I don't want to call and hear it. If I'm in a meeting this feature rocks!
And I'm continuing to wrestle with my decision to get either the EVO 4G or the Epic on Sprint's network so that I can use my phone as a hot spot and/or tether it to my computer to access the Internet. If I choose to do this it will be cheaper than my current combination of landline+DSL with ATT plus my cell phone package at Sprint.
I'm continuing to read the reviews by actual Sprint customers in the Premier and regular forums on the Sprint website in order to make the best choice possible. I come due for my full discount on either the EVO or the Epic on 9/1. Sometime in September I'll dump ATT forever. YAY! :)
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Monterey, CA
I know ATT is hated around here - but I've had zero problems with them over the past two years.
I had Comcast (in Fort Worth Texas) and the service was down frequently... When I moved out here to the Monterey area, I switched to ATT's dsl, 768kbps connection for $19.95/mo. I've had zero outages in two years. They just upped my speed to 3mbps for no extra cost. Still paying $19.95/mo. And yes, my bill is EXACTLY $19.95/mo.. no extra fees or anything.
I don't have cable or satellite, or home phone. Just have my Verizon cell. Wife and I's combined phone bill is $65/mo after all fees. We get a corporate discount.
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Comcast is pure evil. To top it off, when I left them for months they would not refund my credit balance because they claimed I had their cable modem. In reality, I bought my own cable modem from Amazon and could prove it and the bills even stated 'customer owned modem. I had to nearly sue them to get my credit balance back from them.
Further, they play sneaky games by having data caps and bandwidth throttling.
Never again.
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Oakland, CA
Hey folks! I'm posting from my new Epic 4g on Sprint. So far I love it. Patrick.net loads super fast and I'm only on 3g because 4g hasn't come to Oakland yet. Tonight I'll test tethering to my desktop at home tonight to see if I can live without ATT dsl. I'll report back.
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
How did the tethering go?
What's the cost for unlimited Sprint data?
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Alexandria, VA
Simcha, I am thinking of getting one myself.
How do you like it so far?
And your monthly cost is?
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Saint George, UT
elliemae's website
Patrick says
Hey, what he does in the privacy of his own bedroom is his business! (sorry, I just had to!)
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
There's got to be some good joke about bondage with ATT as well.
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Oakland, CA
Patrick,
I finally figured out the tethering today. I have to say that I'm impressed so far. It's much faster than my stupid ATT dsl.
I'm getting ready to dump AT&T once I change the phone number for our building's security gate.
I'm so excited!
I can't believe how fast this is on my Epic 4G using only 3g service.
Simcha
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
Thanks Simcha. It is impressive if a wireless data service is faster than copper lines. And it's totally portable - big bonus.
Please write back here in a day or two and let us know if it's still that good, or if it was just some kind of fluke. I'd love to be totally wireless.
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Oakland, CA
Here's the test at the moment:
ping 156ms
1320kbps download
430kbps upload
This was using speedtest.net and the server in San Francisco.
My stupid ATT dsl got half that on average and I wasn't very happy with that.
No, it's not Comcast cable speeds, but it's better than what I was getting. And yes, it's portable.
I got similar results using a server in Chicago:
ping 144ms
1280kbps download
520kbps upload
Yeah, I can't wait to see what it does on 4g tethered. :)
This is with 3g. I can't wait to see what it will be like when they roll out WiMax 4g.
On and I forgot to break down the cost for you so here it goes:
Everything 450 $69.99 (This means that between 7am to 7pm I have a limit of 450minutes per month. I don't care because I get around that using Google Voice to make calls during that time. If you want unlimited minutes you go to $99.99. All "Everything" plans include unlimited data on 3g and 4g networks, wifi, texts, sms, etc.)
Premium data $9.99 (Required on phones that are 4g capable, for now.)
Tethering/wifi hotspot $29.99 (I can connect up to 5 devices through the phone's wifi)
So, all told I'm paying $109.97 plus taxes and fees. Again, on the plan I chose and on the unlimited voice "everything plan" there is no data cap at all. The "premium data" charge is for 4g capability even if you don't have it yet. That's the only sucky thing at the moment. There is a 5gb limit on roaming data per month though.
Oh, and I qualified for a discount for being a member of a credit union. I'm not sure how much the discount is and it only applies to the $69.99 plan. If I remember my research the discount is 10%, so I'll be paying about $102.97ish plus fees and taxes when everything is settled.
Oh so just for the heck of it, I plugged my ATT dsl back in to run a speed test on speedtest.net using the server in San Francisco. At first, as it has been doing lately, it wasn't even working. I had to futz with it to make it work. I got:
ping 26ms
1120kbps download
330kbps upload
Chicago server:
ping 78ms
1140kbps download
320kbps upload
OK, so tonight ATT dsl is actually faster than usual. Even their faster than usual speeds are slightly under 3g tethering using my Epic 4g on the Sprint 3g network.
By the way, I'm on the "pro" tier of the dsl plans for ATT. I'm supposed to get "up to" 3.0mbps or 3000kbps. I'm getting less than a 3rd of that on most days with this plan. I hate ATT. They suck. Oh, and also my bill mysteriously creeps up $1 or so per month and no one is able to explain it to me at ATT. Again, I hate ATT.
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Saint George, UT
elliemae's website
simchaland says
Man, I love it when you talk dirty!
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Oakland, CA
elliemae says
Yeah, I'm one of those geeky gays. ;)
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Saint George, UT
elliemae's website
Stop it! You're making me hot! You had me at
simchaland says
Actually, I don't understand a word ya'll are saying. I operate on the "need to know" basis.
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
I think the ping times are a little high, but that's to be expected with wireless. When I ping patrick.net in Fremont, it's usually about 13 ms.
What it means for usage is that very interactive things like online games will feel a bit slow. But the good download speeds mean that overall you'll feel it's fine for web surfing, email, and other things that are primarily about getting big blobs of information into your computer.
So it's more like a truck than a motorcycle. You can move a lot of stuff efficiently, but it takes a few moments longer to get started moving.
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Oakland, CA
I also get wifi on the Epic in my apartment.
23 ping
5343kbps download
2490kbps upload
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
Neighbor's open wifi?
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Oakland, CA
APatrick says
It must be because I'm not paying. :)
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Oakland, CA
I'm so relieved. I just cancelled my AT&T service. This will be the first time that I've ever lived without a land line and it's liberating.
I took a look at my ATT bill and found out that my discount for dsl had ended increasing my bill by $10. Then l noticed that other services had increased in price unexplicably such that my bill ran up $15 over last month.
And customer service was brain dead as usual. They attempted to justify all of the increases and tried to get me to keep my service. I found out that each piece of my service had different billing dates. My regular local service's end of billing cycle was the 4th of the month. My dsl ended on the 26th of the month. My international long distance ended on the 20th of the month. No wonder why my bill was always so incomprehensible.
I'm due a refund for services that I paid for ahead of the month based on those end of the billing cycle dates.
We'll see if they try to pull some sort of BS on my way out of AT&T Hell.
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
Woohoo! Another one liberated from AT&T.
They did pull some BS on me, claiming I got an extra day of service which I did not get, to push me over into a new billing period for DSL, so I would have to pay the whole month. I just did not pay it.
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Rockledge, FL
I sure miss the days when FDR's regulators ruled the phone company. Ma Bell used to be a big employer in the U.S. The old AT&T could never get away with overloading the system and defrauding its customers like they do today. Exchanges could not be allowed to sustain more than a 60% load! If sustained traffic exceeded 60%, AT&T had to build up a new exchange.
The old phone system was robust,
billing was simple,
residential phone service was subsidized by corporate customers,
your phone was owned by AT&T and leased to you,
the phone itself was built robust,
and they always had plenty of public phones available.
Hell, AT&T used to be called the Widows and Orphans stock! Ma Bell used to be a benevolent corporation (with the ghost of the New Deal keeping her arm just twisted enough to make her behave).
All this hell we are experiencing is what we voted for when Reagan was swept into power. A lot of suckers fell for the incredible arguments for wholesale deregulation. That the "achievers", shysters, banksters, corporate goons, and Gordon Gekkos of the world, should be allowed to rape, pillage, and plunder the American people and offshore all of our jobs. They argued that such predatory feasting on our flesh would reap tremendous payoffs and would benefit us all.
Some sheep still worship at that altar - notwithstanding the blood of their fellow herd members still freshly stains it by the daily sacrifice on Wall Street! We've lost it all and now we suffer the naked insolence of deregulated ENRONIZED corporations. They know we don't have any real alternatives. And if we don't like the abuse they heap on us, then hit the road chump. Your rightful access to the fruits of technology are denied because you would not tolerate their tyranny and fraud.
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International DID numbers .
A local DID number may be forwarded
to conventional PSTN devices mobile phones,
Voice over IP (VoIP), Skype or Google Talk anywhere in the world.
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Sacramento, CA
I had Comcast which was a nightmare. I went with ATT because there really isn't another option available. So far no problems, but I'm kind of annoyed that my plan has a $5.00 convenience fee if I pay online. I have no problem writing a check and mailing it to them if it will save me $5.00.
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Let freedom ring on your land line. No more AT&T (plus free long distance). No more slow uploads from Covad. Well, I know what I'm thankful for...
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I had bad experience with Sonic.net, but first:
They use the same gear that ATT does, through the bay area. It's all the same - so unless you got a new dls modem (which could obviously resolve problems) I would be surprised if your service changed in any other way. Sonic.net just services the account. They get great reviews from people who switched from AT&T ... because AT&T is just evil.
Anyway, get anything and everything in writing when dealing with them. While they are generally pleasant to deal with, they have some odd policies and at the end of the day you are a source of money first and foremost.
In my case, I was on a year contract and I moved during the contract. I was assured that my contract would not change - I paid some nominal and fair setup fee at the new place. My monthly rate did not change. At the end of the year of service (roughly 4 months of which were at a new location), I opted to switch to another service. When I attempted to cancel the service, they claimed I was under a new half-year-long (yes, half a year - not a year) contract ... at a notably higher price. In fact, the price of 29.95 was not mentioned anywhere on their website for the speed I was getting (not measured, actual speed - obviously that was lower; I mean the tier of service I was in), either for month-to-month service (25 or so if I recall correctly) or a new year-contract (much lower, 18 and I don't believe that was even the introductory new-customer rate).
Basically, when I tried to cancel they made up a 6-month contract that had no documentation and immediately started charging me a price that was not referenced anywhere either as an introductory rate (much, much lower), a year-contract-non-intro rate (still lower, but not quite as low), or even as a month-to-month no-contract rate (this rate was STILL nearly half what they wanted to charge me).
I filed a complained with the BBB and they completely ignored it for some time. Eventually, after a second complain, they offered to 'compromise' by offering to charge me the equivalent of the month-to-month rate ... for the duration of my 6-month contract. This sufficed for me but as soon as I could get away from them I did.
Bottom line - they will lie and steal and cheat you out of every penny you can, and will hold your credit rating as hostage if you don't play along. So get EVERYTHING in writing that is explicit and clear. True of any company I suppose.
BTW I switched to comcast. I have had plenty of minor complaints about them but if you go into it knowing they charge more - but offer a vastly superior net service - you won't be disappointed. Just get everything in writing with them too, to be safe!
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I'm getting anywhere from 5-6 Mbps for the downloads and around 700kbps (600 kbps minimum) on uploads as measured by speedtest at sonic.net. Matt, I would check out Fusion service from Sonic.
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Matt.BayArea says
I asked about this when I first became a Sonic customer and it was perfectly clear that if I moved during the contract term, they would restart the contract period at that point. Sounds like there was some misunderstanding.
In any event I have nothing but praise for Sonic (and not because I switched from AT&T, I've never had AT&T for data) and their Fusion service does not come with a contract, so that aspect is irrelevant now except for the remaining locations which don't qualify for Fusion. I get about 7.5+ Mbps down and 800K up myself, it's very dependent on the distance from the CO of course.
They are way more than just a servicer. AT&T provides the local loop but not a whole lot more than that.
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elliemae says
It's not illegal to call. They usually don't pick up for several minutes anyway, just enough time for the robbery or gun fight to settle down. Once the dust settles, they'll answer the phone and take the report and the body count so an officer can come later and file paperwork.
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Anyone have update on Sonic.net?
Thinking of switching from ATT U-verse DSL to Sonic.
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dcllee says
I don't have an update, as such. Sonic continues to work wonderfully for me and they gradually add features to Fusion - blocking incoming calls by number and maybe by CID string is coming soon, which I really look forward to in order to kill off some of the "OBAMA HOME HELP" mortgage/credit scammers.
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My last bill for sonic.net DSL Fusion was $51.41 (including all the taxes and fees). Data rate is still 5-6 Mbps on downloads and 600kbps min. on uploads. No outages to date (knock on wood). Be free of AT&T.
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First sonic.net outage. DSL and phone are out. This seems bad. For some reason I want to blame AT&T. We shall see.
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Davis, CA
Call them on cell and you will get a REAL TECHNICIAN on the phone. They'll run diagnostics over the phone and dispatch a service order to AT&T if it's a line problem. You do realize they lease the copper from AT&T right?
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I'm betting AT&T messed with my line at the CO. Going home now and will be silent (free of the the internets).
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Phone and internet were back up next morning. I'm betting someone (at AT&T?!) 'accidentally' pulled my line at the CO. long live sonic.net -- for now.