I made two calls today, one to Eastlink and one to Island Tel, to ask about their low-end, static-IP “high speed” Internet products. Here’s what I found:

When I called Eastlink’s toll-free line, I had to wade down two levels through the telephone tree, then wait 4 minutes on hold before I could talk to someone. The person I ended up with seemed quite capable, and could answer all my questions.

Eastlink’s bottom-end service, branded Enhance, is $150/month, with an $89 installation fee. It includes 1 to 5 static IP addresses, DNS service, and 10MB of web space. Bandwidth is 1 Mbps up, 5 Mbps down.

Island Tel’s toll-free number was answered on the first ring by a live operator. The operator was quite helpful, and answered my basic questions. When I had additional questions that were beyond her knowledge, she promised to get back to me, and approx. 1 hour later I received a call back from a very knowledgeable sales rep.

Island Tel’s bottom-end service, branded OfficeLink, is $199.95/month (however various discounts can take this as low as $139.95/month) with a $150 installation fee (no discount for existing DSL service switched over). It includes 5 static IP addresses, DNS service, 5 MB of web space, 15 hours of dial-up service an a Merx account. Bandwidth is 1 Mbps.