Review by robscullion 
UPDATED: 85 days ago
member for 7.9 years, 3082 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Philadelphia,Philadelphia,PA
 $102 per month (12 month contract)
 about 20 days
 Verizon
 "Explicit rights to run Web/Mail/FTP servers on the account,"
 "Pricey"
 "Great DSL Provider. Good VoIP provider. Worth the extra $"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
January 2002
I ordered the sysadmin 608/128 RADSL static IP package for $59.95/month on 11/28. Installation was accomplished via a self-install kit from Covad using line-share DSL. Got the self-install kit in the mail around 12/8 or so and was up and running using the SpeedStream 5260 at ~ 520/111 a hour or so later. I checked around and those #'s seemed to be about what was to be expected from 608/128 RADSL.
Called to have my extra IP allocated and it was taken care of on the spot. Same with our extra email box and shell account. I don't currently use the web-space of news services so I can't really comment on that. Customer service has been great every time I've contacted them. During the ordering process, the TAC system was very effective in communicating where my order was and what, if any, issues were pending.
Beyond the premium price, It's hard to find fault with Speakeasy. They've delivered on everything they promised me so far and I've never had a less than pleasant interaction with the folks running the phones and feedback system. I've also had great support from Covad directly on these forums regarding service upgrade possibilities. In the end, the explicit right to run servers was what sold me on the service. Not having to deal with PPPoE is another benefit.. I guess you have to pay a little more for good service but so far it's a trade-off I'm happy to make.
November 11th, 2005
Due to a recent apartment move, on 10/13 I called up SE to switch my service from the old place to the new place. I was pretty sure I wanted to try OneLink + VoIP but wasn't clear on some of the details. After talking to SE sales, I in fact decided to go with that configuration using the low-end TechPlus package, which is 1.5/384 with 2 static IPs. The OneLink package at that speed was $65.95/month + fees. Speakeasy Voice is $23.95/month + fees for the usual unlimited local + NA long distance plus voice-mail, call waiting etc. Since I was signing up for both at once the $100 setup for OneLink and the $40 setup for Voice were both waived. I ended up being responsible only the $16 S/H fee for the ATA, in addition to the 12 month contract on DSL + VoIP. After a brief discussion with the sales rep, we decided to skip shipping Broadxent modem since my Speedstream 5260 should be fine for the task and it would let me skip doing the $100 rebate dance.
On 10/21, the Verizon tech showed up right on schedule to setup the dry pair. He had to install a new NID since the existing wiring was pretty messy. I was pleasantly suprised at the great job & service he provided, considering the problems I've heard of with other ILEC/CLEC interactions.
On 10/26, the Covad rep showed up, also on schedule, to setup the DSL connection. The Covad tech was very professional & helpful, answering my newbie questions about VoIP wiring etc while he examined the home wiring looking for the right pair for the DSL. He even installed a new wall-jack since the old one looked pretty suspect. All in all, he did a quick thorough job and the connection has been rock solid since day 1.
On 11/2, I received my VoIP ATA (Moto VT1005s) from SE and put that in place. That commenced a few days of outages with both my DSL connection and VoIP which I was, unfortunately, to busy to properly diagnose. On Saturday, after reading the ATA manual poking around the ATA management interface and talking to support it turned out that the ATA was using the same static IP I had used on my NAT router. I have no idea how I ever got inbound IP connections at all in that 2 day period, but that was obviously the root of them problem. I switched to the other IP listed for my account and the problem was completely resolved.
Since then, both the DSL and VoIP service have performed flawlessly. Voice quality has been excellant and no service interruptions to date. The QoS thing seems to work well also, although I haven't really stressed it by talking during a BT session or anything. I also have yet to play with the extras, like accessing voice mail via IMAP etc but the basics are working well.
Aside from the confusion regarding the static IP on the ATA and the router I don't think this could have gone smoother. I was a bit suprised that the techs didn't hit on the static IP issue right off, but they were probably giving me too much credit to think I'd mess that up.  It would be good if the IPs for a given account were ID'd as public or VoIP to avoid this in the future. It's not clear from the TAC interface which IP is allocated for VoIP and which is for regular service. The fact that the TechPlus package comes with 2 static IPs just confused the issue further.
The only real gripe I had was the serial nature of the OneLink and VoIP setups. Luckily, I wasn't porting a number, so it took only a week or so to get that going. Still, it added around a week to the overall install period. If that could be done in parallel, it would certainly be a lot nicer.
Generally, the whole experience confirmed my confidence in SE as a top notch operation. Given that I had no unscheduled outages of note in my entire tenure with them, I'm expecting the same sort of experience with the new naked DSL and VoIP service.
November 13th, 2005
I had a chance to check out the quality if the VoIP connection while torrenting a few files. It's not flawless, but the quality was tolerable. It sort of "burbled" a bit as if there were small micro-dropouts, but never got to the point where is seriously affected the conversation. So I'd give the QoS on Speakeasy Voice an A-. Not perfect, but definitely good enough.
November 22nd, 2005
Just wanted to sound a positive note for the SE billing dept. During the course of troubleshooting the VoIP problem, the tech shipped out a new DSL modem to me freeof charge. I was a little dismayed to see a $99 self-install kit charge show up on my bill today. I called SE ready for a tussle and was pleasently surprised when the tech simply verified my story via the trouble ticket system and issued a $99 credit. I had heard that the billing dept did not get the same high marks as SE tech support, but so far they've handled the few billing issues I've had quickly and to my complete satisfaction.
Reading back my whole log, I probably come off like a SE shill or a fan-boi. All I can say is that, having dealt with Comcast, Verizon & AOL, getting this kind of service from a company makes me want to let people know. I'm generally a cheapskate (one of the reasons I switched to VoIP) but in this case I've found SE really does provide superior value for the extra money.
December 4, 2005
Just a VoIP update as the data service has been problem free. VoIP quality is decent, but some calls do sound a bit garbled. It hasn't been so bad that it actually interfereed with the conversation, but there are occasional micro-drop outs and echoes. Also, I confirmed something observed by another user: SE VoIP caller ID is phone # only, not # + name. Kind of weird and annoying if you're used to standard POTS caller ID, which gives both.
Neither problem is enough to make me want to switch away from SE Voice, but I'd say it's not quite up to the quality of POTS yet. So far I've never failed to have a call placed and no one has mentioned problems dialing in, so it's still looking like a reliable service. Just not *quite* POTS in terms of sound quality.
December 27, 2005
I saw in the SE forum that Caller ID + Name is back. Just wanted to note it here to be fair to Speakeasy. I was also recently informed that I've got free international calling to 22 countries. I doubt I'll ever use it, but it's a feature of the service so it seemed worth mentioning.
March 18, 2006
Voice quality on the VoIP line has settled out at decent to good. Most of the time the quality is somewhere between that of a cell phone and a POTS line. I have had several instances in the last month of calls in which one party could suddenly no longer hear the other. I'm pretty sure most of them involved calls to cell phones, but I'm not sure if that's significant. Otherwise, I really can't complain. It's still pricey overall, but no outages for either the DSL or the VoIP.
June 09, 2006
I discovered a month or so back that most of my quality problems with my SE Voice service actually stemmed from a combination of 2.4ghz cordless phones and a pair of WRT54G wireless routers. I was fooled as we had a similar combination at our old place before my Oct move and didn't notice any problems. That was before I added a second WRT and setup a WDS "bridge" to my front room just after our move. Once we purchased 5.8ghz units, the voice quality improved dramatically. Still just a shade below POTS but no longer as burbly as I had previously reported
June 09, 2009
Having retired my home server sometime last year and moved over to Comcast HSI last month, I finally made the difficult phone call to disconnect my SE service. I still give SE very high marks for reliability and professionalism, but $70/month for 1.5mbit DSL is just too much when I'm no longer taking advantage of the perks. I wish I could keep the VoIP service, but it only rides on their own network so it will have to go as well. I've left it active for the next few days as I pursue options for porting the number (which was an option I didn't know I had), but as of now I'm effectively an ex-Speakeasy customer.
As always, the Speakeasy rep was professional and helpful, even pointing out the possibility of porting our number to another provider. I got more than 7 good and trouble-free years from Speakeasy and would recommend them in a heartbeat to anyone who needs a residential broadband service with static IP and the right to run servers. It comes at a fairly steep price, but if that's what you need, this is the company you want to go with.
Sept 05, 2009
Last entry. Had a bit of a mixup with the SE billing dept. I thought I was free-and-clear following the port of my VoIP number to Comcast, but I received a letter this week telling me I owed $10.19. Called the SE #, talked to the customer service rep and he waived the remaining balance and confirmed that my account was closed, bringing my experience with SE to a pleasant conclusion.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Speakeasy |
|
Speakeasy
