Choices of high speed Internet providers

In the old days you could visit a NYNEX office; in between their various merges and name changes Verizon closed off the option of going to an office to straighten out your bill, request or acquire a telephone directory, or pay your bill.

Now, the customer service has gotten worse.
A service representative provided poor service, refused to let me speak to a supervisor, and as a result has lost a Verizon customer.

Here is a good way to compare and shop for an Internet Service Provider (ISP): read comparison reviews.

More professionally, J.D. Power reviewed several ISPs and provided a chart at this address, comparing aspects of service of several ISPs.
Verizon rated inferior to Cablevision, Cox, EarthLink and Time Warner's Road Runner in terms of customer service and billing, two main areas of concern for me, in terms of how Verizon has handled my concerns.

PC World's ISP comparison table, from Fall, 2007.

PC Magazine's comparison article, early 2007.

Computer World's ranking of ISPs.

The user forums include discussion of the various packages, dial-up, DSL, high-speed, cable-provided Internet, FIOS, and Internet bundled with television cable service.

Here is Broadband Reports / DSL Reports' site assessing Optimum Online.
And their site for user reviews of Verizon.
And their site for user reviews of Earth Link.
Their site for Cablevision.

These sites include ratings for pre-sales information, install coordination, connections reliability, tech support, services, and value for money.
(And here is a meta-comparison result, at ConsumerReasearch, of competing ISPs.)

Optimum Online, a broadband subsidiary of Cablevision, does not appear in most of these ratings (except Broadband Reports / DSL Reports). This is probably becauses the service has a regional area (metropolitan New York and parts of Connectict, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.