Looking for a DSL provider

[torquill]

I thought I'd repost my brother's request for suggestions for Bay Area DSL providers.

Both he and this household are looking for a decent shop that (preferably) runs through Covad's wires, since we're sick of SBC. The other criteria are in his post.

If you have DSL, how happy are you with your people? Good or bad, all info welcome.

Comments

[ca-snowflake.livejournal.com]

I have speakeasy (http://www.speakeasy.net) and I'm quite pleased with them. :)

I've only had them for about 6 months, I think. But I haven't had any problems. The two outages I had were been short, scheduled, and I was warned way in advance.

[caffiene-fiend.livejournal.com]

Uhh, just to set the record straight, SBC owns the copper and the infrastructure in the Bay Area. Covad leases space in the central office to hang their cards and stick their equipment. SBC field techs like my dad are involved in each and every DSL installation, Covad or otherwise. Covad does, however, require SBC to keep their clients up and running, and sues if they don't. SBC has been forced to sacrifice their own customers (except regular telephone service, seen as a life safety issue) to meet Covad's demands.

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Pac Bell laid all those wires years ago... but Covad, once they've leased them, defends them. If there's a problem with SBC's hardware, Covad goes to bat and deals with the bureaucracy so that the customer doesn't have to. Frankly, at this point that's looking really attractive.

I have zero sympathy for SBC at this point in time. What little was left when my dad retired after 35 years with Pac Bell/SBC (as an installation tech) got eliminated when I found out how they screw over my friends working tech support for the PBI/SBC-Yahoo portion of the company. If Covad has to twist arms to keep the infrastructure up, I won't cry too hard.

[caffiene-fiend.livejournal.com]

I'm not rooting for SBC's DSL department, here. I admit their customer service smells like zoo workers after breaking up a fight in the monkey exhibit, mainly because they seem to hire from those same exhibits to fill seats in customer service and middle management. Basically, if you're working for Ma Bell, either work the union side or be prepared to bend over.

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

The sad thing: the friends I have who work for SBC/Yahoo are union. They still get screwed over (there's currently 8+ hours of mandatory overtime in effect until April, and wages are chronically low). The Communication Workers' Union is no gem. Someone told me that the union gets the corporation it deserves, and the company gets the union it deserves... and the workers are caught in the middle. :/

[foogod.livejournal.com]

The other point is that while the equipment is basically the same, except for the bare wires and the interface into them, Covad owns their own DSLAMs and other associated hardware, and manages them themselves, instead of relying on SBC techs (or more importantly, the SBC management dictating over the tech's objections) to keep them functioning.

That and do I ever have horror stories about the SBC beurocracy when it comes to getting DSL line issues resolved, believe me. A while back I just had to give up completely on ever having a functional SBC-based DSL line associated with my phone number ever again because they'd gotten their system so screwed up, so I've been with a Covad line ever since, and have been quite happy.