You've Gone Inside!

The 1999 GO INSIDE
ISP Report for September

by David Boles

September 1, 1999

Welcome to the Go Inside Magazine Internet Service Provider (ISP) Report!  We're a little surprised to report that WebTV is this month's top Premier Member selection in our ISP rating system.  Our surprise stems from the fact that WebTV have grown so quickly in our readership poll compared to previous months.  We are pleased to see this verifiable sea change as to how folks are interacting with the Web and we hope to continue to see new growth in expanding ISP markets and online ideas.

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 September 1999 Rankings

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

GO INSIDE ISP of the Month! (4326 bytes)WebTV reigns supreme this month! Nothing is easier to set up and use for Web access than a WebTV device.  WebTV is expanding and growing and bringing in new blood to the Web and we  celebrate and honor their success!  We've presented them with this exclusive award you can see at the left.

If you want an ISP that gives easy access to the Internet, give WebTV 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're tallying up the ISP winners for each month so we can award The Go Inside  ISP of the Year at the end of 1999.

Be sure to watch for it, won't you?  The winner gets the award you see displayed at the right! 

Here's what we have so far for this year in alphabetical order:


The 1999 Tally for
GO INSIDE Magazine ISP of the Year

(in alphabetical order)

@Home = 1
America Online = 1
AT&T Worldnet = 1
Concentric = 1
Earthlink = 1
Microsoft Network = 1
MindSpring = 1
Prodigy Internet = 1
WebTV = 1

And that's it for now.  Be sure to join us again next month!

Best Wishes,

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

 

 

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Copyright © 1999