what to do after @home

[lars at larsshack.org (Lars Kellogg-Stedman)]

>>anybody care to share their experiences
>>with either rcn or at&t mediaone?
>>
> 
> We have plain cable and a plain phone from them.


Who?  RCN or AT&T?

> They mess up
> billing, don't answer the phone, and are a bit sleazy.  In otherwords,
> kinda like any cable or modern-day telephone company.

I've been an RCN customer since moving into Somerville in 1998.  For my 
first year here, I had RCN for telephone, cable television, and cable 
modem service.

Unfortunately, 1999 was RCN's first year as a cable modem provider in 
this area, and it was an unmitigated disaster.  They were using a 
proprietary system from a company called "Hybrid", and performance on 
the cable modem network was abysmal.  I regularly saw average round trip 
times in excess of 4 *seconds*.

For most of the work I do, I got better performance with a 28.8kbps 
modem.  I found that their technical support was clueless in the 
extreme.  In all the time I had RCN as a provider, I never once received 
a promised callback on an open technical issue.

I switched to AT&T for cable modem service late last year (as soon as it 
was generally available), and I've had nary a problem since then.  The 
network has been far more reliable.  I have also found their tech 
support to be more competent.

I received a letter from RCN a few months ago; I believe it indicated 
that they have finally upgraded the local cable modem hardware to 
something from a DOCSIS compatible vendor (3com maybe?  Cisco?).  It 
sounds as if the service is both faster and more reliable now.

I have retained RCN for cable television service and telephone.  I've 
only had a single problem with the telephone, and that was resolved on 
the same day I reported it.  The cable television service was cheaper 
than comparable service from AT&T, and the basic lineup was more 
attractive.  I have not compared their offerings for some time, so I 
don't know how much they differ these days -- RCN has raised their 
prices some since I first signed up.

Now if only there was an alternate power distribution network, I'd be 
happy. :)

-- Lars