Bye Bye DSL, Hello Optimum Online

Michael Gartenberg | March 08, 2004, 06:42 PM

Four years ago, there was only one choice in my area for high speed internet access from a single ISP. (what was odd was both Covad and Verizon told me they couldn't do DSL and yet both were contracted from my former ISP to provide the service). Over the years, when it worked, it worked well but with periodic outages that involved my ISP blaming Covad, who would blame Verizon, who would then point the finger back to them. There's a lot to like about my former DSL service including an authenticated SMTP server, reliable e-mail access and other nice perks. None of this matters if you can't get online though. After nearly a week without service it's time for a change and the good folks from Optimum Online came out on Sunday to install a cable modem. After a week of waiting on hold for hours, waiting for techs who never arrive and classic lines like "the problem is in the fourth floor phone closet of your apartment building and will be fixed shortly" (we live in a single family house, no apartment buildings in the area... no fourth floors either) it's great to be running at what appears to be lightspeed.

 All I can say is that if your company makes the cable folks seem like a good alternative, you might want to take a look at your service model.

Update - Verizon showed up an hour ago looking for our phone box. This was the third tech coming to look at my line (long after they and Covad determined the problem to be elsewhere) He had no idea he was the third person doing this. Nor did he have any idea that I had cancelled the service this morning.

Updated Update - Covad just called to tell me they still don't know what the problem is but they expect to have it fixed soon.