[PLUG] Squeaky Wheel [AT&T cable]

[Steve Bonds]

On Tue, 30 Jul 2002, McCann, Joe McCannJ at tri-met.org wrote:

> I read here on the list a few weeks ago that ATTBI.com was doubling
> their upload speed to a blazing 256k. My upload speed was always
> pitiful, so I decided to test it. I went to a number of speed test
> sites and they all gave me pretty much the same numbers 700k - 800k
> down and 2k upload. That is 2k, like a 2400 baud modem. I tried
> rebooting the modem. Pulling the plug overnight. No change.

> Yesterday I got my letter from AT&T saying that MY broadband upload
> speed had also been "doubled". I called and eventually got to a real
> person who ran through her script asking me if I would clean out my
> history and cache.  I pretended along with her, "What problem are you
> having with Outlook Express"? I suppressed a giggle and continued to
> explain that my problem was UPLOAD speed. I was the first person to
> ever complain to her about that.

>  After a ten minute volley and numerous offline consultations, a tech
> telneted into my cable modem and "fixed" the speeds. She had me pull
> the plug on my cable modem and "hold it in my hand" for 45 seconds. I
> did so and now I have 256k up and 1500k down.

Good work!  It's pretty clever of ol' AT&T to advertise this as a
justification for cranking up our rates.  (Don't even get me started on
how I bought their $200 cable modem planning to recoup my costs as I saved
$10/month + $60 off on install.  No, it has not been 14 months yet.)

It's also especially clever that they advertise the speed increase, but
don't actually deliver until someone both notices and calls in.  I bet
that will only be maybe 5% of their customers.

Which sites do you think actually measure upload speed decently?

  -- Steve