Review by hjdiet8 Location: Bethlehem, Northampton, PA, USA Cost: $330 per month Install: about 1 days Good service New company Astound's prices have gone through the roof. You will be Astounded when you get your next bill !..

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money:

Updated - August 2023....

*** RCN was purchased by some Investment group (along with a couple of other cable companies in the US) to form ASTOUND. Prices rose almost immediately. Had to call several times to get a new 'promo'... This process gets old....

08/01/2023 - after months of rising bills, and making phone calls with no help - I have cancelled RCN/Astound service (ALL of it). There's no reason that my cable bill is more than my electric and gas bills combined...

After almost 40 years of having them (Twin County Cable, CTEC, RCN, and now Astound) they made no attempt to keep me.... enough is enough.
Went with Service Electric...

My original post:
After having DirecTV for almost 14 years... made the switch to RCN.
RCN gave me a package deal (good for three years) that's saving me almost $60 a month (with a Tivo). This helps especially when you have a kid in college. I had some reservations about their phone service (now VOIP)...but it's been great. I couldn't tell the difference after I was switched over from Verizon.
One thing to be aware of is that if you have an extended power outage (greater than five/six hours), you might be without phone service. The Arris modems do have built in battery backup, but it's only good for a couple of hours. When your modem powers down, that's it (unless you have the modem plugged into an extended UPS). We found that out during Halloween snowstorm in 2011 and hurricane Sandy in 2012. And always make sure to have at least ONE regular corded phone. You will loose phone service immediately if all you have is cordless phones (no power - no base station).

FYI - Just keep in mind, RCN raises their rates and every few years so when your bill gets too high, you'll need to call them and negotiate a new package price.

Chris 313 Because It's Geekier Premium Member join:2004-07-18 Houma, LA ·AT&T FTTP ·Comcast XFINITY Chris 313 Premium Member 2007-Aug-16 5:56 am extra $20 per month? What did you have before RCN, DSL or Dial up? And with whom? You must be loving cable now. Don't know how you did without it internet wise before? I was in the same boat about 4 years ago now, MSN dial up. Then in 2004, I got cable and haven't looked back since. Good luck with RCN! 2007-Aug-16 5:56 am: · hey mods ·
	hjdiet8 join:2004-02-12 Bethlehem, PA hjdiet8 Member 2007-Aug-23 12:07 pm Re: extra $20 per month? Had dial-up, then DSL (never again) and now RCN. 2007-Aug-23 12:07 pm: · hey mods ·
		Chris 313 Because It's Geekier Premium Member join:2004-07-18 Houma, LA ·AT&T FTTP ·Comcast XFINITY Chris 313 Premium Member 2007-Aug-23 1:13 pm Re: extra $20 per month? said by hjdiet8: Had dial-up, then DSL (never again) and now RCN. Indeed. I went from AOL to MSN Dial-up and had DU for a total of 4 years. At that time, I switched to cable and have been there ever since. Almost 4 years now. I will never go back to anything slower. After seeing what cable net does, my family considers it a utility. I hope you continue to have a good experience with RCN. I've never had them (I'm on Comcast in an area not even served by RCN.) I would love to get my hands on that Mach 20/2 package. Still, in a few months, I'll be upgraded to Comcast's 16/2 Blast! package. You take care and enjoy that net the way it should be. 2007-Aug-23 1:13 pm: · hey mods ·
FreeBSDfan join:2022-04-28 Stamford, CT 1 recommendation FreeBSDfan Member 2023-Aug-15 12:55 am Astound destroys good ISPs Before everything was merged into Astound, I had Wave. More specifically, the "Wave G" Gigabit service given to certain apartment buildings. The service was crap. Astound still owned them then, however. I could get Gigabit to speedtest.net, but if I downloaded a file from a server, I usually got 200 Mbps from a CDN, or 10 Mbps from a server on the east coast. Most other ISPs in Seattle give full Gigabit from a CDN and 200 Mbps from the east coast, as was the case with Google Fiber Webpass and CenturyLink, even both had more overhead from wireless radios and PPPoE respectively. What's worse is the landlord only allowed Wave or Comcast, favoring the latter. Wave only got in because they bribed the landlord. The landlord blocked Ziply Fiber (bought Frontier) and Atlas Networks because neither wanted to pay up. Astound takes great ISPs and turns them into trash. I wish I took the POTS route with Ziply when I lived there, exclusivity arrangements still legally can't deny access to a "public utility" like POTS, even when landlines are dead. 2023-Aug-15 12:55 am: · hey mods ·
	hjdiet8 join:2004-02-12 Bethlehem, PA hjdiet8 Member 2023-Aug-15 8:46 am Re: Astound destroys good ISPs It's difficult if they're the only game in town. I was lucky enough to have another cable company available to me. 2023-Aug-15 8:46 am: · hey mods ·
		brad152 join:2006-07-27 Chicago, IL brad152 Member 2024-Jan-14 11:50 am Re: Astound destroys good ISPs said by hjdiet8: It's difficult if they're the only game in town. I was lucky enough to have another cable company available to me. RCN (and wave for that matter) was owned by said investment group long before the name change. The investment group just decided to "unify branding" In Chicago, I'd always just cancel for a day then re-sign up to get the 2yr promo when mine ran out. It was far easier than arguing with someone on the phone about it. The problem is when these investment companies get involved - they only worry about "shareholder" return, and the performance of said service suffers. If you have any other option and *need* reliability then go to the other cable ISP in your town (Spectrum or Comcast likely) 2024-Jan-14 11:50 am: · hey mods ·
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