[semi-OT] Review: Comcast Workplace cable Internet

[Matt Brodeur]

On Mon, Sep 10, 2007 at 03:56:25PM -0400, Ben Scott wrote:
>
>   We're paying $64/month.  $59/month base, plus $5/month for a static
> IP address.  (I was told a block of 5 addresses would cost $10/month.)
>  This is an introductory offer.  After a year, the price is supposed
> to go up.  Supposedly to $105/month if it happened today.  We'll see.

FWIW, I've had Comcast Workplace Standard w/ 5 Static IPs for just
over two years.  The cost is now $112.35/month after fees and taxes.
I have no complaints about that, since my 144k IDSL was $170/month and
Workplace was closer to $250/month for the first nine months.


>   There were some one-time costs related to getting a line run on the
> poles to our facility.  These will not generalize to anyone else's
> experiences, so I'm not going to post them.

Since it's already being discussed...
If you're getting a residential install (which really confuses their
sales and support folks) to a house with existing cable it'll often be
free.  At the last house we had a relatively new drop from a recent
(free) video service install.  At this house we only have the
Workplace service, and they still replaced the ancient drop line for
free.
Well, there is that 6-12 month contract thing...


>   In short, if you need or want an SLA, Comcast is not the right choice.

Comcast changes thier ToS about every three months as they constantly
reinvent the service.  My $105 6.0/768 includes the "refund if it
stops working" SLA.  The catch is that I have to report the outage,
and I have to actually request the credit.  I keep forgetting the
second part, so I've missed out on something like $30 in credits.  Oh
well.


> RELIABILITY
> 
>   Insufficient data.  We just put the Comcast feed into production for
> web surfing a few days ago.

As I hinted at above, I've had approximately two full days of total
outage in two years.  Unfortunately, at least 24 hours of that was in
one shot.

At least thier business tech support is better than the residential
clowns.  When I call to report an outage it's:
"Did you power cycle the router?"
"Yes"
"Hmm... There are currently zero subscribers on your head end.  This
is our problem.  Here's a ticket number if you need to call back..."

-- 
Matt Brodeur                                                     RHCE
MBrodeur at NextTime.com                         http://www.nexttime.com
PGP ID: 2CFE18A3 / 9EBA 7F1E 42D1 7A43 5884  560C 73CF D615 2CFE 18A3
All generalizations are false, including this one. 
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