Having experienced the various flavors of residential broadband Internet access (128K ISDN, Shotgun, ADSL, DSL), I was "Excited" to have a chance to experience cable modem-delivered Internet access for the first time recently.

I just moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, and my residence qualified only for 144K IDSL service. I had 384K true DSL in my last house, and I wasn't eager for a downgrade. Excite@Home, via AT&T cable, was my only real choice, so I went for it. I have to say that I am quite pleased.

Installation was a trouble-free and fast. DSL installs typically take 2-6 weeks after the order, but my cable modem was up and running 4 days after I made my call to AT&T.

Over the past month, I've tested the bandwidth of my connection and have consistently experienced bursts of up to 2Mbps, and a solid .75-1.25Mbps on extended transfers.

One of the arguments against cable is that the available bandwidth is shared between other customers served by the same node. I can't argue with that fact. But in my particular case, I haven't noticed any appreciable performance degradation even during peak periods of Internet usage.

The highest praise that I could give to any ISP is that their service works as advertised. In my case, that's exactly what I have to say about Excite@Home, and I am very pleased.



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 39.95