A colleague sent this email out yesterday:
All---
I've had Verizon DSL for the past several years and have been intermittently dissatisfied with its speed. I see that Comcast is offering up to 16/2 Mbps service, which would be considerably faster than my DSL is spec'd (assuming, of course, that the cable ever achieves anything resembling that kind of performance).
Anyway...
I'm interested in hearing folks' experiences with Comcast broadband service in terms of speed, customer support, and the like. In particular, I'd like to hear from anyone who (1) has switched in either direction between DSL and cable or (2) had experience with Comcast's ability to support Mac OS and Airport WiFi networks. But all input is welcome.
Since most everyone will have to make this choice at some point, I thought I'd share my reply on pittsBLOG.
I just switched from Verizon DSL to Comcast and I have been mostly happy. Cable internet is SO much faster than DSL. That I'm really happy about. But Comcast is another story. First, their modem doesn't come with a built in wireless router, so you have to buy one of your own. I thought this would be a good thing, but apparently the latest and greatest linksys router is a piece of junk, but that's not Comcast's fault. Second, Comcast is notoriously bad at customer support, but they have been striving to improve (see recent articles citing their use of twitter and they've even been known to contact bloggers with problems).
Here's my install (with Mac) experience. Making an appointment was easy, plenty of spots were available immediately, including some on Saturday. The cable guy actually showed up at the early end of the 4 hour window I was assigned. The guy came out and got me wired, but I opted for self-install kit. Now, I have a Masters in Computer Engineering and I couldn't get the thing to work very easily with the Mac. Once I finally figured out where and what software to download there was apparently a computer issue at Comcast that kept me from registering my modem. So I called and waited for 20 minutes only to be told to try again in a couple of hours. A couple hours later I tried again and got further into the install process but still not dice. I called support again and after another 20 minutes I was magically set up by the guy on the phone. So my question is, if the guy on the phone can set me up, why do they even offer self-install?
Anyways, Comcast is mostly reliable in my neighborhood. I've heard people in Sq Hill and Shadyside complain about poor connection. I've heard that Oakland is good. My connection, in Regent Square, is really fast but sometimes around midnight it's intermittent for a few minutes. Overall, I'm happy with the change. Especially since it's, at least psychologically, infinitely faster than Verizon DSL.