So I’ve got this problem. My 640/640 DSL line is just too damn slow, but the next step up - a fractional DS1 or whatever - is too stupidly expensive for some apartment I’m renting for only the next year.
Other than waiting to buy a condo so I can get a leased line, what are my alternatives? Buying two 640 lines and bonding them together is all I can think of; has anyone tried this?
Look at other providers; if your line can handle it, there’s faster DSL in your future. (I use http://www.speakeasy.net, and love the performance – 1.5M down, 768k up).
I just got 8M/1M ADSL, and I’m pretty happy so far, even though it has been less stable than my previous 512/400. It costs $50/month tough, so it’s not exactly cheap. If you live in the right areas you can get 26M/26M VDSL for the same price, but you have to live really close to the station (300m I think).
Did some research today; it turns out my problem is that Qwest is full of fuckheads; not only do they only offer up to one phone line’s carrying capacity before the leased line switchover, they strongly imply they’re the only way to get service.
The helpful people at Covad, Speakeasy, and DSL.net all offer nice speeds because they don’t use Qwest’s dipshit switching. Hooray!
Edit: Speakeasy so rocks. 3000/768 for $160/month ($20 for the first three months), $0 install, full rebate on hardware, and doesn’t cost me anything to change addresses when I move. :D
If you dont need the upstream bandwidth and wish to save money, the Seattle Earthlink cable modem offering should get you 1500/256 for about $50 a month.
I had this with Qwest. I called to ask them if I could prepay for a line to get a discount and they told me that it would probably result in a higher charges, for some reason. They just completely don’t have it together.
If 3000/768 costs $160/month in the USA, then I guess it’s pretty cheap. But $50 doesn’t feel quite as cheap when you can get 26M/26M for the same price…
3M/512 with my cable modem, for $40/month. I work for a dsl provider, and I’ve never heard of someone being peaked at 640/640. The reason the gap is so huge, though, is because DSL isn’t reliable worth a damn (standard DSL contracts allow for 72 hours of downtime before work even starts… I’ve seen DSL lines go down for 2-3 weeks and the customer has no legal recourse) and T1s are extremely reliable.
If you live close enough to certain major cities (I know Philadelphia is one), you can get 100M/100M line from Cogent for $1000/month. Just a fun fact.