Good, But Not As Good As It Could Be
Written: Jul 29 '02
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Pros: Cheap, reliable, no-frills
Cons: Semi-proprietary connection software, slow connections
The Bottom Line: If you won't be dialing in from any remote locations, it's a great service.
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| p2tpeoples's Full Review: AT&T WorldNet |
AT&T WorldNet Service
By Stephen Smith
Although good in the past, AT&T WorldNet Service has started to deteriorate and become slow and unwieldily. Last year on my annual trip to Hawai’i for a month, I signed up from AT&T WorldNet Service for my dial-up connection. It was great, achieving up to 50 KB/s most of the time with a standard dial-up interface. When I returned to Hawai’i this year, I signed up with AT&T WorldNet Service again, hoping that the quality would remain the same. To my dismay, many things had changed. For one, there was only one access number for the whole state. The speed had been cut in half and you needed a proprietary program to access the network. Some things had improved, however. I have not gotten a busy signal yet and when I tested it in Pennsylvania the speed was more how I remembered it.
When you install the program, it installs a dialer application to access the internet. It used to be that you could simple fill in the data for the standard Windows dialer, but now they require you to use a proprietary program to access the internet. Most people won’t be bothered by this, but like the familiar interface and do not like proprietary software (one of the reasons I try to avoid AOL). However, if you really don’t like the interface you can always manually enter all of the information and tweak it, but this is more work than it should be.
AT&T has also apparently cut the number of access numbers in all of the islands of Hawai’i down to only one. This isn’t as bad as it sounds because one of the nice things about living in Hawai’i is that everywhere on any of the islands is area code 808 which is always local. You don’t have to pay the long distance charges, but I’m sure it contributes to the fact that it is so slow.
This brings me to my next point, the speed. At most I’ve only gotten up to 29 KB/s on the AT&T service this year as apposed to the 50 KB/s I’ve gotten up to last year. This is on a self-professed 56 KB/s v.90 phone number, something that obviously is way out of the speed that you’re likely to get. Like I said earlier, this is probably do in part to the fact that there is only one access number for all of Hawai’i so everybody is using it which makes it impossible to find a fast number when exists more than one number to dial into. I’m sure that in other parts of the country (like in Pennsylvania where I tested it) there are dozens of numbers and the speeds are faster, but I find it disappointing that they have neglected Hawai’i, the only place where I really need to use it.
Some things, however, are not all that bad and have even improved. This year I have gotten not one busy signal in three days of connecting. I didn’t get that many busy signals in the past, so it wasn’t too bad, but it’s nice that they have totally annihilated them now.
As for the price, it’s fairly good. If you want only 150 hours (which is five hours a day, more than most people will need) they will bill you for $16.95 per month with $.99 each extra hour. If you need more than 150 hours, they offer unlimited time for $19.95, still about $4 less than AOL or MSN. But, because I’m only using it for one month, it’s free of charge since they offer a one-month trial period.
Overall, I think it’s a good service with some quirks. If you’re anywhere but Hawai’i, I’d recommend it because in Pennsylvania I have gotten 50 KB/s with dozens of access numbers. If you’re in Hawai’i or some other remote part of the country (Alaska, North Dakota, Wyoming, etc.) then I’d recommend going with a local provider where you are guaranteed fast service. The price is right and it isn’t a bad service, unless of course you’re dialing in from a remote location.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 16.95/month
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p2tpeoples
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