SF Bay Area DSL recommendation?

September 15, 2009 12:05 PM

I love the DSL service from Sonic.net but they keep raising their rates. I do know better than to go with a "bargain" rate from AT&T. Anyone have another suggestion for quality, affordable home DSL service in the San Francisco Bay Area?
posted by twsf to computers & internet (10 comments total)

Ignore the bargain DSL rate from AT&T... but take a look at their U Verse service. I've been amazingly pleased with them so far, and it seems to be an entirely different operation from the rest of AT&T's services.
posted by strixus at 12:08 PM on September 15

Call Sonic. They will lower your rate to the promotional rate for another year. I've done it twice.
posted by zsazsa at 12:22 PM on September 15

Also, since you're in SF you can get Sonic's Fusion ADSL2 service. The main draw for the service is higher speed, but they also offer speeds similar to their normal DSL at lower non-promotional pricing. If they won't let you get back on the promotional rate for your DSL, it may be an option.
posted by zsazsa at 12:29 PM on September 15

I've had Sonic extend their promotional rate several times. They've generally given me whatever the promotional rate is at the time. They do require you to call and ask for an extension after your current promotion expires. So, say, your promotional rate expires on September 20, you need to contact them on September 21st or after to ask for an extension.
posted by zombiedance at 2:49 PM on September 15

Thanks for the echoes of how good Sonic is. The problem is that they keep raising their promo rates, which is crazy given the dropping prices from everyone else.
posted by twsf at 3:30 PM on September 15

When I was in Sacramento I used DSL Extreme, which is probably available in SF too. I had a land line from AT&T for $10 a month, and the DSL cost around $15. I never had any problems with it, and the price sure was right.
posted by apricot at 6:22 PM on September 15

It's hard to answer this question without knowing why you're on DSL in the first place. If you want a fast broadband connection with a dynamic IP at low cost, it seems like the answer has been cable for a few years now. On the other hand, Sonic, Speakeasy and similar seem to survive by providing static IPs at a somewhat reasonable price and having knowledgeable techs. (Personally, I'm on Sonic for the reasons listed above, but if I switched over to hosting for various things I'd probably switch to cable.)
posted by pbh at 6:58 PM on September 15

Switch to cable. You can get fantastic speeds at reasonable prices. DSL is relatively slow these days.

I had PacBell and then Speakeasy for DSL, but they just couldn't deliver a whole lot of bandwidth to my house. I've been really happy since I switched to cable.
posted by DrumsIntheDeep at 9:20 PM on September 15

Another vote for DSLExtreme. We've been customers for quite a while now, and the service has been great at reasonable prices, with very knowledgeable reps when the occasional problem arises. Plus, no protocol filtering/bandwith shaping/other crap that the big guys (e.g. Comcast) love. So if that's important to you, there's that.
posted by harkin banks at 10:14 PM on September 15

If you really need DSL please just ignore this comment. But if you could work with non-DSL, and it's available in your building, try Webpass.

Webpass is a small company that doesn't support a lot of properties, but it is really fabulous -- super-fast, very cheap for what you get, smart and supportive, and zero marketing spam // price-changing nonsense. I have no connection to the company (I stumbled across it via Yelp) other than using their service: I would recommend them whole-heartedly.
posted by Susan PG at 2:24 AM on September 16