Case study: Speakeasy OneLink DSL July 2005
I recently decided toss my land line + dialup and get DSL. I signed up for Speakeasy's "OneLink" service, which does not require you maintain a land line. Here's detailed info about my experience.
In the U. District, at least, Speakeasy contracts with Qwest (to provide the wires) and Covad (for the actual DSL service --- i.e., the connection from the other end of the wire to the Internet). OneLink required two separate service appointments: one for Qwest to install a "local loop" in my apartment building, and one for Covad to get their servers to talk to the DSL modem. Each of these had to be scheduled a few days in advance, and they cannot be parallelized or pipelined --- the local loop install must commit before the DSL setup can begin. You must be home for both appointments, which are scheduled in a daylong (Qwest) or half-day (Covad) window.
Speakeasy's online technical support system during installation is pretty well-designed and responsive. You will be assigned an "installation coordinator" who will almost always respond to any email query with an affirmative solution within 24 hours. I had numerous (re-)scheduling hassles (due to problems on my end, not theirs) and they were able to reschedule to accommodate me pretty well. The people who handle their phone service, however, appear to be drones working off scripts, so don't try to get anything done with them.
I had some schedule conflicts so it actually took me a month, all told, from the time I placed my order till the time I was able to browse to Google on my laptop. However, this could easily have been two weeks if my schedule had been less crazy.
The base OneLink package assigns you one static IP address, and does not provide DHCP, so you will have to configure your computer's network settings manually every time you switch from CSE networks to your home network, or you can buy a router. Routers are pretty cheap these days and bring other benefits, so I suggest you do the latter.
So far, everything's working great, though I've only had service for a couple of days.
Here is a breakdown of the monthly fees, as of July 2005:
Monthly DSL Line Charge 55.95 Federal Regulatory Fees 2.10 WA State Sales Tax 2.09 Tax Reimbursement: Utility Users Tax - City 1.92 Tax Reimbursement: Sales Tax - City 0.74 Regulatory Compliance Fee 1.68 Subtotal 64.48
As you can see, taxes and fees add 15% to the total price. ISPs are a low-margin business, so I suspect that you'll see similar nickel-and-diming regardless of your broadband provider.
Keunwoo 08:51, 5 Sep 2005 (PDT)
