Comcast setup & cable modem fees

[jc at trillian.mit.edu (John Chambers)]

Doug wrote:
|
| I am moving to a condo in Acton, trying to sort through the options
| for phone, Internet, and TV connections. Looks like Verizon doesn't
| have a switch close enough, so we have no DSL or fiber.   Speakeasy
| said they could do ADSL at the location which I thought odd since I
| thought they had to work with Verizon.

Something similar happened here. Verizon told us we were too far from
their switch for DSL.  Speakeasy said we could get DSL. Eventually we
decided to do it, when we got tired of RCN's poor cable  service.   A
verizon guy showed up one day to futz with the wires up to the house.
Then speakeasy made it all work.

A few months ago, I checked again with Verizon, and again  they  told
me  that  our  house  is too far away for DSL.  I checked via the DSL
connection, of course, and the line is owned by Verizon.   I  suspect
that  they  just  can't  be bothered.  They get part of the money for
maintaining the wire, but customer support is Someone Else's Problem.

I tend to feel this is a Good Thing. Speakeasy is linux-friendly. And
they don't just allow servers; they actively encourage them.  I think
they've figured out that a customer who runs a web server  is  likely
to upgrade to a higher speed.  And their CS people are geeks that you
can talk to intelligently.  So splitting hardware and network support
between two companies seems like a big win.


--
   _,
   O   John Chambers
 <:#/> <jc at trillian.mit.edu>
   +   <jc1742 at gmail.com>
  /#\  in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, Earth
  | |