roadrunner

[billeuro]

how does at&t honestly compare in speed and reliability with timewarner? im thinking of switching over to at&t only if i can get the same speed im getting from roadrunner. The channel packages at&t offers look good from what ive seen! do any of these offer deals come with a telephone service? ive got all in one timewarner for 129 a month never had a problem but I still wouldn't mind saving some money if possible

Message Edited by billeuro on 03-04-2008 07:26 PM

[hogrunr]

You want the just internet comparison or the tv/internet combo version of this tale? Either way...I'll let one of the FORMER TWC customers tell you their story.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

TWC (now Comcast here) blows...they lie a lot, have constant price increases (disguised as equipment rental fees), lousy customer service, horrible SD picture (in my area)...
The Internet (DSL) doesn't share a *pipe* with everyone else, so you won't experience any lags at a certain time of day (when a lot of people near you hop on).

Pip, it's your turn!

Message Edited by spd2demun on 03-04-2008 11:55 PM

[Pip_2]

On the other side, we were Comcast (loved the service, NOT the pricing) and were switched to TWC with the Adelphia deal that took place.

Now, to be fair, I never had internet service with either one. Why? Why should I pay double to Comcast when I was perfectly happy with my DSL from Ameritech (at the time).

As for TWC, after just a couple of weeks of their service, I knew I would never use their internet service based on the outages that happened. Plus, the cost again, was more than I was paying for my DSL.

Now here is an example from a good friend who has the RR service.

They have RR and without fail, a neighbor does some heavy duty downloading every single morning for about 2 to 3 hours and during those hours, my friend cannot get online to save her life!! She is ready to tear her hair out about it, BUT, she has no other options at this time, so she is stuck.

I know others in the area where I live that had RR and they said, when school lets out, there is a noticable difference in the internet speeds...in other words, they drop and drop a lot! That's the pipe that Spd refers to and that is something that cable will never talk about either. With DSL, it's your line only. You share nothing! Not so with cable.

I only have the express internet with Uverse, but it suits my purposes. I am getting a much better deal from Uverse than I ever would with TWC, not to mention their customer serivce is better also and the services themselves, TV and internet (no VOIP for me) are stable and reliable.

Since the end of Sept, I have lost my connection once, and that was due to maintenance. Can you say the same for cable? That was what scared me about TWC. If I had their internet services, on average, I would be losing the use of that feature several times a week! I have enough problems that I don't need to deal with that too.

Now, if you are happy with TWC, well, then that is your decision. Uverse is new, it's the new kid on the block and it has some growing pains to experience yet, however, many who have been with Uverse for a while, have already seen the improvements and more features and improvemnets will be forthcoming.

I cannot see myself ever going back to TWC ever again.

---

spd2demun wrote:
TWC (now Comcast here) blows...they lie a lot, have constant price increases (disguised as equipment rental fees), lousy customer service, horrible SD picture (in my area)...
The Internet (DSL) doesn't share a *pipe* with everyone else, so you won't experience any lags at a certain time of day (when a lot of people near you hop on).

Pip, it's your turn!

Message Edited by spd2demun on 03-04-2008 11:55 PM

---

Okay, who's next?

[golferinga]

Ok, I will chime in on Comcast (where I worked over over 20 years). I had their service here in Atlanta since they bought it from the old AT&T Broadband (about 6 years). Comcast had to put a long of $$$ into rebuilding the system to also offer their internet service. While I had their service (both cable & internet), they both ran fine and I had only a few outages over that time. Before I had Comcast, I did have DSL for a couple of years and liked it fine. I only switched to get both cable and internet from the same provider. Comcast's internet service was also faster then DSL. Over the years I had Comcast (in GA and in FL), my experience with them was very good (not just saying that because I worked there), and their customer service was also very good.

I now have Uverse and so far I am very happy with the overall service. I have only had one instance where my internet went down for about 2 or 3 hours, and the TV picture quality has been good. They had some pixal problems with the pictures at times, but I have not notice that as much recently. As Pip said, a new product will have growing problems, but I think things are getting better and will continue to do so.

[TexasEd]

My turn, I guess -- I had TW for years.  I finally got tired of the rr price increases and some outage issues and switched to ATT DSL.  When UVerse became available, I jumped at the chance.  I find the internet service as fast or better and more reliable (have elite), the picture is much better (both SD and HD.  I have twice as many channels for the same price.  I don't have to pay extra for:  stbs, DVR or wireless service.  The sports package is far superior to TW, including NFL network and Big Ten network.  Also, I hate to admit this, but it's kinda cool to turn on your TV and find new features or system updates just showed up overnight.  I think the potential for this system is amazing -- just look around this board at the possible new features -- never happened on TW!  (I wonder if TW execs ever look at this board -- they might learn something )

Message Edited by TexasEd on 03-05-2008 11:19 AM

[formercanuck_1]

I've had Cable Internet (Cogeco Canada and Time Warner in the San Fernando Valley, CA).
Cable worked ok for me when I had it, however, when I moved 'over the hill' to Santa Clarita, Comcast was VERY pricey, and wouldn't do anything without some huge upfront cost, and a lot of B.S. (e.g. Comcast wouldn't sell me 'access basic' as they claimed it didn't exist in my area ), and wanted a $100 install fee for new service + shipping of equipment + programming fee + a lot of hassle (T.W. didn't have those fees, and you could get a few months of free service by installing yourself)

I went to DirecTv and AT&T (now DSL-Extreme) DSL.  DTV has been great - < 10 minutes of outage in 5 years.
DSL has been a mixed bag.   AT&T Express was ok for the 1st year, then they wanted to increase my price (so I went to DSL-Extreme), and then I got 'Pro' speeds.
Prices remained stable, but required a basic POTS service.  Now, DSL rates are on the rise, and AT&T won't qualify me for anything but 'Express', even though my max sync rate is ~6100/1000kbps.

I would think about going to Uverse from DSL, however, AT&T wants me to jump through hoops to do it.
Since I still have DTV under contract, I would have to order Uverse then cancel and hope that I don't get billed for TV, or lose my internet service (work from home).

I may just go Cable just because I can keep my DSL while cable Internet (doesn't require TV!) is being installed.

[hogrunr]

I think I might have asked this before canuck, but have you asked anyone in sales at ATT if they would cover your contract-break fee from DTV? Some reported they got their fee refunded by ATT when they switched over.

[golferinga]

That would actually be a good promotion  for U-verse to run to target Dish owners, similar to Comcast's "Ditch the Dish" promotion they have run in the past.

Just a thought.

[Arius1]

They could do that with Direct but they can't with DISH I don't think since they are partners.

[formercanuck_1]

---

hogrunr wrote:

I think I might have asked this before canuck, but have you asked anyone in sales at ATT if they would cover your contract-break fee from DTV? Some reported they got their fee refunded by ATT when they switched over.

---

Yeah - they won't cover my DirecTv contract... especially since I _really_ only want Internet or Internet + VoIP.
I think they could with Dish, as AT&T has an arrangement with them for TV services (Homezone?)

Message Edited by formercanuck on 03-05-2008 10:14 PM

[jdub12280_1]

Depending on which Region of ATT you're speaking of, DirecTV is as much a partner as DISH. IE the Bellsouth region.

But the point that it is a partnership is why we won't be buying out contracts.  There are creative ways of doing that>> MONTHLY savings / cash back promos most (a lot) of the time equal to any etf fees.  Just make sure you get the leased equipment back.

IMHO - Justin

[jdub12280_1]

HOMEZONE works w/ either Directv or Dish>> The difference only being the state (region) in which you live in relation to what ATT will be offering.

Justin

[formercanuck_1]

California uses AT&T/SBC/Pacbell which has its ties to Dish, unfortunately.

[djrobx]

I have 10mbps service through Roadrunner, and 10mbps Max Internet through U-verse.

At 6pm, my U-verse speeds drop down to 1.5mbps or less to many hosts like Microsoft and Apple (and countless others I've tried).   Some routes DO continue to work fast, though.

At 6pm, my Road Runner connection runs at full speed.

My RG shows not a single uncorrected error, and my TV service works perfectly.  There is no local issue with my line. 

I am trying to work with U-verse support to see if they can find better routing for me but I kinda doubt it will happen.   It's looking like I'm going to have to keep Road Runner if I want consistently fast internet service. 

So much for that whole shared bandwidth theory.

[zdman]

I live just north of Dallas, TX. I had Comcast and really had no problems until they switched over to TW Roadrunner. While it worked most of the time, I had lots of outages (usually temporary) compared to the old comcast. Also, had lots of problems using Vonage - had lots of cutouts especially in the late afternoon when people got home from work. In addition, my wife uses faxing over vonage and we had lots of trouble with that, worked sometimes with TW and sometimes it did not. Never had a problem when we were on Comcast. I also have a VOIP phone I use for work and it had lots of cutouts at various times of day with TW.

Now the good news. About a month ago we switched to the max plan (10Mb) with Uverse. I use only internet with Uverse, no TV. It is excellent. With the various test sites I get between 7Mb and 9.8Mb speeds and close to 1.5Mb upload. If I run the detailed test for VOIP ( (http://www.voipreview.org/voipspeedtester.aspx ) which tests more than just raw speed, I always get great results. As for my Vonage, I have absolutely no problems anymore and even the faxing works perfect every single time. My VOIP phone for work is fantastic too. My wife was very reluctant to change, but now she loves the new service....it just flat works. Some complain they dont get full 10Mbps download, but of course that always depends on the site. If I had to rank Uverse internet on a scale of 1-10 I would give it a 9 (I have friends with Fios and knowing how good it is, I just cannot give uverse a 10). As for TW Roadrunner, I would give it about a 5 out of 10.

Hope this helps. Again, keep in mind I have only Uverse internet. I have no idea if running HD TV streams would affect my service or not.

[Pip_2]

And TWC wondered why I would never sign up for RR.  I'd never have internet access if I did, the outages were so often.

[djrobx]

After about a week of mediocre speeds and escalated trouble tickets, AT&T fixed something and now my Max speeds operate consistently like they should.  

Much, much better.

-- Rob

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Did they find out what the problem was?