I recently went from Verizon's DSL to Charter.
The DSL had become unusable for an extended period for the second time in two years. The first time they sent a tech out after a short talk with tech support. It turned out it was a badly configured DSLAM. The tech took several hours to find the problem but they did find it.
The second time it happened it took a week to get them to send someone out and then he spent about five minutes on it and pronounced it normal and left. It dropped out shortly afterwards and stayed out until about noon the next day.
We've only been on Charter for 3 months but so far it hasn't gone down once. Maybe it is crap elsewhere or maybe they just fail on a yearly schedule like Verizon but they've been good so far.
I really hope they remain a going concern. the only other options we have for internet here are a WISP through trees at long range, 3G with caps so low I'd go through them in about a week, or satellite at ridiculous prices.