For the past eight years, I've been bouncing back and forth from one ISP to another, trying to find one that actually feels worth the load of money I pay for it.
I've used a variety of services from both of the main St. Louis area providers (AT&T and Charter Communications), and am testing Clear wireless (a new game in town, but one that's been around in Chicago and other larger cities for a year or more). I've paid anywhere from $15/month to $90/month (for Internet service alone—I've never participated in the 'Charter Bundle, ' 'Uverse' or any voice/data/video bundles).
I'm going to go through the reasons why I've tried all the different services, and what I've liked—and hated—about each. As a prelude, I am still not pleased with the performance I've received from any of the providers (at least, not for what I'm paying/have paid!).
AT&T 'High Speed' DSL
I've tried AT&T's DSL service in three different parts of St. Louis: North county, the Central West End, and Shrewsbury. In all three areas, I've encountered the same problem—an unreliable connection.
I've been through many support calls, and in all cases, when a technician is sent out, he says the line signal is perfect. Go figure. I've used a few different modems, some rather expensive, and they've all exhibited these problems.
The unreliable connection is inconvenient, but the slow speeds are the worst part of the equation. You'd expect that, if you can purchase Uverse and get 24 Mbps, why is there no option for regular DSL at that speed... or Uverse with only Internet service? I'd be willing to pay for it, so that's not the issue... I just want raw speed.
So, I've always been limited to 6 Mbps down, and 1-2 Mbps up, which is acceptable, but can feel pretty slow sometimes. When the connection is live, the speed is always pretty stable, which is a plus.
AT&T's customer support is worse than abysmal, and getting an actual human on the phone or online is a bit of a challenge. When canceling my account (both times), I had a lot better support, and they were all but falling over themselves with flattery.
Charter Communications High Speed Internet
I've tried Charter Internet both in the Central West End and in Shrewsbury, and my experiences have varied quite dramatically. The first time I tried Charter, I cancelled after about three months, because no matter how many cables I tried, no matter how much I babied the modem, the connection would never remain stable—this was inside a large apartment complex.
The second time was/has been much improved, but is leaving a rather bad taste in my mouth. I'm getting 10 Mbps reliably (I used to be on the 20 Mbps plan, until they jacked the price up double what I was originally paying), and the connection only seems to drop out once every month.
I have two huge problems, though, with Charter:
- Their customer support—with the exception of support via Twitter (more on that in a sec)—is abysmal... and it's even more challenging to talk to a knowledgable person at Charter than it is at AT&T.
- Any time my connection is flaky or drops, they want to send a technician... and not today, but maybe a week or so from today. What the heck? I was paying for their most expensive Internet plan, and they wanted me to have a full 25% of a month without service? No thanks.