Another Survey of Ann Arbor ISPs

Nov 14 22:24 UTC 2000

tir.com, my current dialin provider, seems not to exist any more.
They seem to have been bought by Earthlink.   The old tir.com dialin
number is having problems over the last few days -- basically, traffic
stops moving regularly.  And, the new web pages offer no information
about who to contact about problems.
 
So, it may be time for a new ISP.  What are the good choices in Ann Arbor
these days?

response 2 of 54:

Nov 14 23:02 UTC 2000

I like netperson.net

response 4 of 54:

Nov 15 05:48 UTC 2000

They're making their customers change e-mail addresses?  Ouch.

response 6 of 54:

Nov 15 14:51 UTC 2000

Theoretically the old email address is supposed to continue working.

response 8 of 54:

Nov 15 23:50 UTC 2000

As chronicled elsewhere, I now have Ameritech DSL service. It's wonderful when
it's' working, which it has been of late.

response 10 of 54:

Nov 16 18:10 UTC 2000

I am using tir.com, and was told they were bought by onemain.com, which goes
around buying small local isps.  My email address still works fine.  When I
sent a help request to helpdesk@tir.com, it was forwarded to
support@onemain.com, who wrote back right away telling me to contact
abuse@onemain.com (for two unexpected SPAM mailings to that address - they
would contact the sender).  I signed up before the end of August for a very
special introductory price (half the normal price), which I suspect may have
been their way to increase the numbers so that they would get paid more by
onemain.  
        I have had good service from Worldshare (1-877-674-4607 tech support)
- very reliable, never busy, excellent tech support.  They are as low as
$8/month for 30 hours, 1 email account, no tech support and I think minimal
webspace, or as high as $18/month for 150 hours.  Cincinnatti.  Local access
all over the country.
        Bignet bought out mich.com and still offers unix shell accounts. 
$10/month unlimited if you pay for two years in advance (with prices falling
the way they are this might not be a bargain).  Local access only in SE
Michigan.  1-888-643-6826.  Their website is not helpful.  The shell accounts
seem to use the same computers as U of M.  Lynx version 2.8 (grex has 2.7)
and Linux Redhat.  Looks a lot like grex but no bbs or party. 
        Megsinet out of Chicago (see phone book) is $10/mo unlimited and keeps
its costs down by attempting to answer tech questions in 10 sec or less.


A friend thought Primus phone company was giving out free internet service
if you signed up for their long distance service.  Anyone know more?

response 12 of 54:

Nov 17 18:18 UTC 2000

I think it goes beyond just ISP's buying other ISP's.  When Ameritech
was purchased by SBC, their quality took a dramatic turn for the worse. 
Now people can't even get a simple POTS line installed in a reasonable
timeframe -- let alone a DSL line.  

I don't recall seeing any acquisitions that were good for the acquired
customers.  The same probably goes for mergers, too.  

response 14 of 54:

Nov 17 22:18 UTC 2000

There some economy of scale issues in running an ISP, that make small ISPs
not really a viable business model.  Per customer profit margins are extremely
small, and a lot of the network operations and engineering tasks really don't
get that much more time consuming as the network gets bigger, at least not
in a way that's anywhere close to being linear.

Being aquired is certainly good for the owners of small ISPs, who finally get
some money back for their investments.  Depending on who is doing the
aquisition, it may also be good for the customers.  Whoever is doing the
aquisition is likely to have more resources than the company being aquired
did, although how they choose to use them makes a rather large difference.
It may or may not be good for the employees, who either become part of an
organization with the resources to pay them, or find themselves without jobs,
but this is an industry where finding new jobs isn't all that difficult.

It sounds like it's not good for Bruce's employer.  Judging by that statement,
and knowing a little bit about Bruce's employer, it sounds like Bruce is
saying their business plan depends on a steady supply of ISPs that are too
small to be able to afford their own support departments.  In an industry that
changes pretty quickly, a business plan that doesn't allow for that sort of
change isn't likely to be very successful in the long term.

response 16 of 54:

Nov 19 06:03 UTC 2000

We aren't in that kind of trouble.  It just ticks us off that some of these
companies are buying up the smaller ISP's in order to make themselves more
attractive to the big boys out there.

response 18 of 54:

Nov 19 15:37 UTC 2000

re 16 - bruce, why should capitalism piss you off?  That seems very democrat
of you.

response 20 of 54:

Nov 19 17:09 UTC 2000

wow, bruce...you be soundin like nader!


        

response 22 of 54:

Nov 19 18:07 UTC 2000

(FWIW, I switched from Ameritech ADSL to a cable modem (Media One) when I
moved in August, and have been much happier with the service, performance,
and uptime.)

response 24 of 54:

Nov 19 21:47 UTC 2000

(FWIW I've had Concentric SDSL for over a year and have had no more than 6
hours of down time)