Speakeasy - First Impressions

[bill at horne.net (Bill Horne)]

I have switched to Speakeasy and ADSL, after all the trouble I had with 
Comcast blocking my mail and web ports.

My first impressions:

Plus:

* Excellent service - better than any other ISP I've ever dealt with. I
   got an automatic daily report on the progress of the installation, which
   included verbatim logs of communication between Speakeasy and
   Covad. They assigned an actual human being to supervise the install,
   and gave me his email and direct phone number. If I got his voice mail,
   he returned my phone call by the end of the next business day.

* VERY knowledgeable tech support - to the point where the guy I talked to
   today was able to retrieve a solution to a Thunderbird/IMAP problem  by
   using bugzilla while I was on line.

* Good data response times: mail and web access actually appear faster than
   Comcast, even at about 1/4 the theoretical line speed.

* IMAP mail service: for someone like me that's always switching between
   a desktop and a laptop, this is a godsend.

* NNTP service much better than Comcast, with frequent updates and
   very low latency.

* Fixed IP address, with PTR record, so that even AOL accepts my
   email directly. I chose the "Tech Plus" service pack in order to get
   this, and it includes 150 hours of dialup use every month, which I
  also wanted.

Minus:

* Long wait for customer service on my first call - about 25 minutes,
   although it is probably better at other times, since I called around
   1 PM today.

* Long wait for install - it took Covad/Verizon two tries to get the
   line working, so I had to wait over a month for service after I
   placed the order.

Neutral:

* Price comparable with Comcast, assuming you don't already have cable
   TV and will pay for the minimum "antenna" service that Comcast requires
   for data users. If you're paying for Cable TV already, you may or may
   not choose to include your cable TV fee as part of the cost of data
   service: I had to pay ~12/month for the bottom tier of TV service in
   order to get a cable modem.

In summary, I'll recommend Speakeasy to the BLU and my customers.

Bill Horne
P.S. Although Speakeasy will allow you to share your line via Wireless, 
and will even bill your neighbors for it and rebate most of it to you, 
don't count on that unless you have an agreement set up with the 
neighbors in advance. I tried, and they already had high speed 
connections or were comfortable with dialup.