Review of RCN CABLEMember review of |  about |
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Although reliability has been good, for the most part, bundled pricing for RCN Internet and TV service has gone way up over the past 6-7 months. When changing bundles, I was also forced to downgrade from my legacy 7 Mbps tier to the current standard 5 Mbps "Mach 5." Technical support has also become horrible. I have no issue with overseas call centers if the technicians are knowledgeable but RCN agents consistently read from a script and make you jump through hoops that have nothing to do with your actual problem. For areas where FiOS is available, RCN will surely be loosing a bunch of customers. However, if the only competition is a major cable provider, RCN is still the best bet. 11/05/2008 UPDATE Not much to say except that the reliability of my RCN connection remains excellent. This is the ISP with which I have had the least problems (and I've had quite a few ISPs over the years). One disappointment was that when I tried to downgrade back to "Mach 7" when my free trial of "Mach 10" was over, I was told this would not be a problem but I ended up being downgraded to "Mach 5" because the 7Mbps tier no longer exists. Next time I'll refuse the free trial upgrade... 02/10/2008 UPDATE: My RCN service (both HSI and TV) remains excellent. Packages have changed quite a bit. I now have 10 Mbps service as part of my bundle. On the TV side, NYC went all-digital a while back and there has been a marked improvement in video quality since then. RCN also added a free HD tier, which includes HDNet, Discovery HD and about a dozen other channels (including HD versions of all the premium movie channels). Internet service has been highly reliable and I almost never have to reboot my modem. Updated 07/23/2004: After 10 months of reliable service, connection remains reliable. While on Mach5, I experienced speeds over the 3 Mbps mark and usually around 4-5 Mbps. However, I decided to revert to "standard" service, which is now 3 Mbps!! (Free upgrade period ended and I decided not to pay $10 more per month for the 5 Mbps tier.) Good going RCN on the basic service speed upgrade. Uploads vary between 700 K and 800 K, far better than standard DSL service. The upload bandwidth allows my VoIP service to work without a hitch. The installation was completely painless and my favorite feature of Cable Modem service (vs. DSL) is that no extra software (such as PPPoE or ISP-related software) is required. In Win XP, the connection is completely seamless and no configuration changes or tweaks were necessary to receive the best speeds. Tech support has been far from outstanding but this is hardly surprising. The reps' knowledge is about the same as with any other broadband service provider, so until you reach higher tiers, don't expect to find out anything you didn't already know. Service has been consistent and reliable and there have not been any outages as of yet. Having used both "standard" 1.5 Mbps cable and DSL services (Comcast, Earthlink and Verizon) in the past and been perfectly satisfied, it is surprising how much difference 3Mbps service makes -- really worth trying.The 5 Mbps upgrade may be worthwhile for some but I didn't find it worth the extra fees, I am paying less than $40/mo. for my broadband connection, including 3 Mbps service. A word of caution: despite reliable service, on the couple of occasions when I needed RCN techs to come out to the house, they were relatively inept and uninformed... but this is hardly unusual from my experience with other cable companies. Followup comments:
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RCN CABLE
(22)
(20)
(23)
New York,New York,NY
$48 per month
about 5 days
"Good speeds, no configuration hassles & no software to install, good reliability"
"Prices have gone up, tech support is almost always clueless"
"RCN is a good value with better pricing and speed than the traditional cable competition; it is no match for FiOS, however"
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