Disclaimer: I have no financial interests in Time Warner or any of the companies that I mention. These are purely my observations from what I have seen, and public information available on websites. I may be slightly biased because I had RoadRunner cable modem for many years. Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of the following facts:
http://oceanic.com/ (Click Internet) RoadRunner ========== ~$45/month normally ~$50/month if you don't subscribe to cable television $22.95/month for 3 months current promotion $50 setup 2,000kbit/sec download 384kbit/sec upload Works great with Linux with simple DHCP. Earthlink Broadband =================== $41.95/month normally $29.95/month for 6 months current promotion $100 setup 2,000kbit/sec download 384kbit/sec upload Includes unlimited Earthlink dialup service I am told that that it works great with Linux. We have opened access to Earthlink Broadband Hawaii to Videl too. Verizon DSL =========== $34.95/month normally $29.95/month for 3 months current promotion $29.95/month if you have Verizon local and long distance phone service Their website seems to hide the data rates, I'm guessing because they can't be competitive if they tell the customer the truth about their relative speeds compared to the advertised data rates of cable. This is just my opinion though. I have no idea if this ISP is Linux friendly. They seem to be proud about the included access to MSN8. I have no idea if they have the hassle of PPPoE, client-id or other hoops you have to jump through to get Linux working. Flex DSL ======== http://www.flex.com/adsl/ $63.49/month for 768k/128k $69.99/month for 768k/384k $93.99/month for 768k/768k I would list several other DSL providers here, but it appears that Verizon successfully leveraged their monopoly control over the lines, causing the line charge alone to be above their own DSL service price. Perhaps the only real benefit of this Flex DSL is the static IP and cheaper than RR prices for greater than 384k upload. RoadRunner Enterprise ===================== http://oceanic.com/ (Click on Internet, RoadRunner, Business) $79.95/month "Small Business" rate, same thing as residential $129.95/month "Business" 3Mbps/384Kbps with static IP $179.95/month "Corporate" 3Mbps/768kbps with 5 static IPs $199.95/month "Enterprise" 3Mbps/1Mbps with 5 static IPs $249.95/month "Enterprise Plus" 3Mbps/1.5Mbps with 13 static IPs Pretty good deal compared to T1 prices, although I suspect CIR is well below 100%. Probably good if you need higher upload rate and/or static IPs. Summary: Mainly due to the technology, it is my opinion that DSL has a difficult time being competitive in price/speed ratio with cable modem. I suspect that Verizon is using a low price on their DSL plan along with hiding their true data rates in an attempt to appear competitive with cable, while at the same time make it difficult for competing DSL providers to survive. I personally have been happy with my RoadRunner cable service for many years... maybe 5 years now. Based upon some e-mails from other people it seems that Earthlink is roughly equivalent and friendly to Linux users too, only simple DHCP to connect. Any Verizon DSL users can comment if simple DHCP from Linux works, or must you use PPPoE or client-id to make it work? Other Options ============= As for other competition in town, there appears to be a wireless Internet provider http://wow.hi.net. I haven't seen their service so I can't comment on quality, speed or security. Has anyone used this or other wireless ISPs? I also heard something about Hawaiian Electric currently in residential testing of powerline Internet. I am unable to find any information about this on their website, so I don't know anything about the technology, prices or speed. Does anyone have any information about this? Warren Togami [EMAIL PROTECTED]
