You've Gone Inside!

The 1999 GO INSIDE
ISP Report for December

by David Boles

December 1, 1999

Welcome to the Go Inside Magazine Internet Service Provider (ISP) Report!  Concentric is not only this month's top Premier Member selection in our ISP rating system, but they've scored the long-haul win of becoming The GO INSIDE Magazine ISP of the Year!  We are honored to award Concentric with our top rating once again and we're certain their speed and robustness will serve you as well as they've served our Premier Readers.  Each month there are thousands of data pinpoints that must be scored, processed and presented to you here in a readable form so we can present the yearly and monthly ISP winners.  The fact that Concentric won the overall title is again pressing proof that Concentric is impressive on all certifiable counts.

We here at Go Inside use the internet daily and daylong in order to bring you, one of our beloved 2.5 million readers a month, the web of the world.  Beware that these rankings are subjective and, perhaps, even a little whimsical, but what "Best of" list isn't?  These ISPs are ranked on day in and day out reliability and performance in our Jederman end user experience. 

We take everything into account in these rankings... network connectivity, call drops, throughput, newsgroup robustness, ISP friendliness, willingness to help, intelligent tech support, avenues of support, network status online, problem reports online, speed of experience, extras, honoring end user privacy, ease of use and we give them all equal weight because only everything bound together builds the complete "internet experience" for you in the end.  Your mileage may vary from our rankings.  If so, be sure to let us know.

Here's how it works:  We have rotating pools of Go Inside Premier Members who track and report their experiences with various ISPs around the world each month.  They then fill out a form and send the results back to us for tabulation.  We then add those experiences with my experience and the experiences of the Go Inside masthead Editors.  We then total the results to come up with our monthly ISP Report.  

Here are some of the methods we use to regularly test our ISPs each month.  We can't get too specific, because we've discovered some ISPs shading their service to meet a certain set of criteria we used to publicly list here in order to bolster their Go Inside rank.  We do realize, however, that you need a bit of a blueprint as to how we're ranking our ISPs and this short task list should do that for you:

Be aware that some ISPs are regional and not national.  You can click on their hotlinked names to discover precisely where they are and what they offer.  We've taken into account the method and motivation, regionalization and service span of each ISP to make these rankings fair across the board in direct comparison with each other. 

We regret that, due to overwhelming interest from local, national and international Internet Service providers, we are unable to accept any new ISPs into the monthly Go Inside rankings at this time.  However, if you're an excellent ISP and would like to be on our waiting list for inclusion when another ISP dies or gets gobbled up, please touch this to find out how to participate. 

We assure you these rankings are a wonderful, monthly, snapshot of the warp and woof of the amazing "Web Experience" broadcloth.

Now?

Onward with the update!

The December 1999 Rankings

  1.  Concentric
  2.  America Online  
  3.  Microsoft Network
  4.  Prodigy Internet
  5.  WebTV
  6.  Navix
  7.  US West
  8.  ioNet   
  9.  FlashNet  
10.  MindSpring
11.  @Home
12.  Bell Atlantic
13.  CRL
14.  Southwestern Bell  
15.  RCN
16.  SkyNet  
17.  TIAC  
18.  AccuCom
19.  CTS  
20.  Pacific Bell  
21.  CWIX
22.  GTE
23.  AT&T Worldnet  
24.  Coastal Net
25.  CompuServe  

GO INSIDE ISP of the Month! (4326 bytes)Concentric is the big winner this month. Concentric is a top-tier backbone provider and riding bareback on their bandwidth back makes your trip across the world of the web a rich and delicious experience.  We've presented them with this exclusive award you can see at the left.

If you want an ISP that well-connected, fun, quick and easy to use, then give Concentric a try and tell 'em Go Inside sent you!  

As per usual, if you have any thoughts or feedback on these (or any other) ISPs, please touch my hotlinked name at the head of this article and share your experiences!

GO INSIDE ISP of the YEAR! (4584 bytes)All year long we tallied the ISP winners for each month so we can award The Go Inside  ISP of the Year.  The big winner for 1999 is Concentric!  We have also provided Concentric with the lovely award you see displayed at the right! 

Here's the final monthly win count for 1999 in alphabetical order:


The FINAL 1999 Tally for
GO INSIDE Magazine ISP of the Year!!!

(in alphabetical order)

@Home = 1
America Online = 1
AT&T Worldnet = 1
Bell Atlantic = 1
Concentric = 2
Microsoft Network = 1
MindSpring = 1
Navix = 1
Prodigy Internet = 1
WebTV = 1

And that's it for now.  Be sure to join us again next month as we crack 2000 with the first GO INSIDE Magazine ISP report!

Best Wishes,

David Boles
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
Go Inside Magazine

 

 

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Copyright © 1999