What is the best price and quality for DSL internet service in the
city of La Mirada, California zip code 90638 area code 714 with a 522
prefix? $49.99 is just too hard to justify and we are trying to find a
deal on DSL service.

Thank you

---

Request for Question Clarification by alienintelligence-ga on 01 Aug 2002 23:33 PDT

Hi searay...

Most sites that you will be able to find
DSL availability at usually start by asking
for the phone number that the DSL will be
billed to. I will use your prefixes and make
up a test # 714-522-xxxx with it. Thanks for
providing those.

Quality and availability of DSL service
can be affected by just a few thousand
feet. So we could not guarantee the final
install quality. The speed looks like an
average of 1.5Mbps down / 128Kbps up.

[ http://www.dslavailability.com/pacbell.htm ]

The biggest problem you will find is that
much like your phone service, DSL is provided
by a monopoly. Sure there are other phone
carriers that exist, but only one is able
to provide to you. I dunno, sounds like a 
monopoly to me.

The # you gave me, comes up SBC. I have them
myself. When I first got the DSL installed
it took over 6 months to finally get it to
a point that could be considered consistent.
They were PacBell at the time, and were
in the process of changing over DSL stuff
to SBC. Now that SBC and ASI (the people
that do the wiring) are in charge... the
service quality is nearly 100%. I recently
had the DSL service spec'd to be capable of
over 4Mbps. That's a pretty clean signal
path. It has taken them over a year to get
to that point though.

The quality of your service will be dependant
on how many old parts are in the path of
your signal. Also, bad wiring taps can detract
from service quality, speed, and reliability.
You really won't know what the final signal
will look like till everything is installed.

I can feel your dismay with $50/mo but it looks
like you are stuck with that price, since the
monopoly is in place and SBC is in charge of
the "final mile" connectivity for you. I have
the $75/mo service myself. But it's really 
worth it for me.

I replied as a clarification because I do not
think we can provide you with a cheaper service
than $50 as per your question. Maybe there is
something I missed that someone else knows of?
There could be a deal on the monthly costs that
I haven't come across, but the final monthly
charge will eventually move up to regular price
even on a special usually.

If you are friends with a neighbor, maybe you
could share the internet connection, using
wireless ethernet?

[ http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_ics/ ]

[ http://www.homenethelp.com/connection-sharing.asp ]

[ http://www.linksys.com/Products/product.asp?grid=23&prid=173 ]



-Search method-
DSL service california SBC
[ ://www.google.com/search?q=DSL+service+california+SBC ]

wireless ethernet internet sharing
[ ://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=wireless+ethernet+internet+sharing
]


please let me know if I can clarify any more,
or find other resources for you.

-AI

I like this site.  It sorts providers by price, and has sections for
people to give reviews of service in their local area.
http://www.dslreports.com/dosearch?zip=90638&s=1

The lowest price there is $44.

Have you considered cable modem? It looks as if AT&T has this service
in your area, but the website wanted your address to tell me exactly.
I have high speed cable modem through my local cable TV provider, and
it is as fast as the T1 carrier at work. My cost, because I am a cable
TV subscriber is a reasonable $35 a month. Here is AT&T's site
https://securebb.att.com/services/products/InternetOverview.jhtml

You can also often buy the cable modem itself at a large
computer/electronics store, much cheaper than through the cable
company, and sometimes the cable company offers specials where either
the cable modem or the installation is free. (The cable company
itself, of course, will still have to connect your modem to their
hookup.)

Good Luck, crabcakes