Friday, February 26, 2010

Cable broadband and voice - feedback/guidance?

We are being wooed by Comcast. They are offering a 50 MBPS connection, with
nine phone lines for about $500/month for a three-year contract. This is
very tempting because it would be less expensive and much greater bandwidth
than we currently have. Right now we use a single T1 (9 pairs are
priority-voice but bounce to data when not being used) supplemented by a
Verizon business DSL (peak < 7 MBPS down).

We're located in D.C. which limits our options somewhat. For example, FIOS
is not available.

QUESTIONS:
*> Do you currently, or have you previously, used Comcast or another cable
provider for your school Internet?
*> Do you have reason to warn us away from doing business with them? I have
a generally low opinion of ALL the major ISPs but it is hard to avoid them.
*> I've been warned that voice-over-cable quality can deteriorate if the
packets aren't isolated. Do any of you know about this?
*> I understand that cable throughput speeds can vary greatly. Any words of
advice / things I should be able to ask the cable company for?
*> Are there potential security/privacy issues? I have been told that
cables are shared lines.
*> Is something else even faster coming out in the next year that we should
wait for?

Any and all help would be most appreciated.


Dan Berger
Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation's Capital

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