Friday, February 26, 2010

Re: Cable broadband and voice - feedback/guidance?

Just a couple of comments. We do have Comcast cable for our school =
internet. We are in the Shenandoah Valley and there is no other option. =
In terms of service, by and large, they have been fine. We've been with =
them for 8 years. There were two several day outages back when it =
belonged to Adelphia, but nothing more than an hour or two with Comcast.

Yes, cable is a shared service. One advantage we have is that we are on a =
stretch of cable with very few people on it, especially during the day. I =
would think you need to ask about how they are guaranteeing the speed and =
how many other users are on the same stretch of cable with you.

I can't address any of your other concerns.

Good luck,

Sister Elizabeth
Powhatan School

>>> JPDS Tech <techpurchases@jpds.org> 02/26/2010 1:44 PM >>>
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). =20

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? =20
*> I understand that cable throughput speeds can vary greatly. Any words =
of
advice / things I should be able to ask the cable company for? =20
*> 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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