Embarq DSL is a high-speed internet connection over a phone line. It's not as fast as cable, but, unless you need extreme speeds, the speed is sufficient. I am able to play games online and download large files in a reasonable amount of time.

The problem is that it's not really any better than the alternatives. The reliability in my area (Carlisle, PA), is awful. It doesn't go down for long periods, but it goes down frequently (on average probably about 7-10 times a week) for anywhere from one to five minutes. Since I play a lot of online games, this causes serious problems, and it will cause the same problems for people who are downloading large files.

Price is not very competitive either unless you want a land line. I had to sign up for local phone service, so my total is about $75 a month, which is roughly the same as cable internet with a basic cable TV package. We also have satellite so the total for TV and internet is about $140 a month, which is a good $20 more than we would pay if I were willing to tolerate Comcast's ceaseless nonsense. The only reason we DON'T have Comcast is because they didn't bother to run the cable all the way through our development, and I don't care to was my time having them come out to do it based on my past experience with them.

While we're on the subject of customer service, I only had to contact Embarq once for tech support, and they were useless. They told me they couldn't find my account by anything but my land line phone number, which I didn't have readily available because we had just moved into our new house. I would up hanging up and figuring the problem out on my own. Their website allows you to pay your bill online, however, with minimal hassle.

The modem provided with the service is cheap and frequently overheats. The junky modem may be a part of the constant disconnects problem, and paying for a better modem on newegg.com may help.

All in all, it's the typical monopolistic internet "service" you'll get anywhere in America. You get a subpar product for a premium price, but you're not going to find any better anywhere else. If it's this or a cable company, you might as well just pull straws on who to go with, because you're going to get an equally lousy product and service regardless of who you choose.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 75