Does anyone use Adelphia Basic High Speed Internet Service?

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 5

My 1-yr introductory $40 off high speed internet/digital cable package with Adelphia is expiring in March. I noticed that they have a lowers cost high speed internet service ($25/month) that they call "basic high speed internet". I haven't been able to find much information on it -- some references say 128kbps download/upload speeds, others say 256/128 download/upload.

Does anyone have this service with Vonage? I use Vonage for telephone voice service, as well as a nightly modem dial-in by my ReplayTV.

I could use the additional cash a downgrade would free up, but would like some certainty that my Voip won't go to heck.

Thanks,

Joe

Posts: 423 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Oct 03, 2005 Posts: 423

Don't do it. Think of the 2 as interchangeable - You downgrade your internet connection, you'd better believe you are going to be downgrading your Voip performance as well, especially at the speeds you're describing.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 5

LOL -- that's why I asked...

I would like to know what the true speeed of the downgraded "basic" service is -- and if it is still fast enough that it doesn't affect the Vonage Voip.

Vonage doesn't use even a small percentage of the bandwidth for standard high speed service, does it? It only should be a problem is it squeezes the pipe TOO much.

Joe

Posts: 168 · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 6:25 pm Post subject:

When I signed up for Vonage I had the lower speed Adelphia Internet. Because it made sense to have a higher speed with the Vonage phone I switched to their high speed service.

Then I discovered this forum and all the test areas for download and upload speeds. I wish I had discovered this forum first.

I haven't switched back but don't let that stop you. It's as simple as a phone call and you can have them turn it back on right away. It is instantaneous and there is no fee.

So have a go at it and if it doesn't work out, call them back and switch back.

And please let me know what you find out. Smile

Posts: 423 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Oct 03, 2005 Posts: 423

If they advertise 128kbps up and 256 down, what do you think the real world, day to day speed is going to be? And what if you want to watch a video stream or download something and the phone should ring?

If it's a good price break and there is no penalty for switching back and forth, go for it, and report back the results.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 5

The problem is that they DON'T advertise what the data rates download or upload are. I only noticed they have the service because Adelphia is raising cable rates in Central Maine and they sent out a new price sheet for all their services. They don't even mention it on their website.

Doing a google search pulled up only a few hits in user forums like this (but not Voip forums), and the people who were talking about it didn't know what the speeds really were.

Hookbill, are you sure it is a free switch? One of the few hits on google mentioned a $10 service fee for switching. I guess I'll call Adelphia tomorrow and see what they say.

Thanks all,

Joe

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:14 pm Post subject:

drjoe wrote:

Hookbill, are you sure it is a free switch? One of the few hits on google mentioned a $10 service fee for switching. I guess I'll call Adelphia tomorrow and see what they say.

DSLREPORTS.COM has test results by company. You may want to search there to see what you come up with for numbers in your zip code or general area.

And, heck, if you can get Internet for $25 a month, and you try it for a week and it ****, and you have to switch back to whatever the regular plan is for a $10 switch fee, you're out $10 taking a gamble to save a LOT more than that per month.

On the other hand, Vonage needs 90k at regular quality, 50k at medium, and 30k minimum. If this is truly a 128k symmetric connection, you're going to have worse than dialup speeds left over when your are on the phone, and you really, really don't want to use it unless you have great QoS, which means a new router for you.

SusCom here in Topsham ME offers a 128k symmetric, too, but I need too much bandwidth for work, so I stick with their 256k up / 3000k down plan

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 5

Thanks for the dslreports link --

They say:

Adelphia Premiere HSI $59.95; 6000 kbps / 768 kbps
Adelphia Preferred HSI $42.95; 4000 kbps / 384 kbps
Adelphia Basic HSI $24.95; 256 kbps / 256 kbps

Maybe I'll give it a try -- if I do then in a month when the 1-year deal runs out I'll bump this and report how well it works.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:14 pm Post subject:

drjoe wrote:

Thanks for the dslreports link --

They say:

Adelphia Premiere HSI $59.95; 6000 kbps / 768 kbps
Adelphia Preferred HSI $42.95; 4000 kbps / 384 kbps
Adelphia Basic HSI $24.95; 256 kbps / 256 kbps

Maybe I'll give it a try -- if I do then in a month when the 1-year deal runs out I'll bump this and report how well it works.

I have 256K up and it's plenty for Vonage as long as I run QoS or exercise caution.

Since you cannot have QoS on the inbound data, you may experience scratchy/poor inbound quality if you do large downloads while on the phone. But if it's $30+ a month cheaper.... well, you gotta decide what's right for you.

Posts: 168 · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:15 am Post subject:

I am absolutely sure that there is no fee. I ran that by them when I called them for the upgrade, I asked if there would be any penalty for changing back and forth. They said no.

You can feel free to talk to them yourself, of course.