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Small though they are (and upstart, basically), there are companies offering wireless radio internet service in my area (DFW). Nextlink, Rise, and, recently, Vivint (you might know them as a wireless home security service provider with newfangled touchscreen pads) have begun offering service out here and I think they all offer no data caps and reasonably high (at least, good enough for gaming with more expensive plans) speeds. Those speeds can't compare to cable or fiber, however. The thing is, you need clear line of sight to a radio/cell tower so the techs can install a dish to receive the signal. If there's anything at all blocking the line of sight, you're denied service and installation. The companies don't charge for installation attempts if they can't get clear line of sight. I think there are some locations that don't require a dish, but all these companies said my house would need a dish. None were able to get line of sight from my house. The Vivint rep I spoke to flat-out said that they just barely started here so don't have many towers in the area yet, and wouldn't even make an appointment to come out. They recommended Rise, which is how I heard about said company. They came out and couldn't either. I live in an area within DFW that has a smaller population density (even though it's two miles from good internet), and there are lots of trees. The trees killed any possibility of me having good internet. That said, OP, might not hurt to throw dedicated wireless ISPs in the OP. What I'm talking about is different from wireless phone service and data providers like you listed. AT&T is the only company that services my area with conventional cabled internet and the highest speed they offer (due to their dated underground cables) is 768kbps U-Verse. No other company offers service, again due to population density. Just down the street from me, a neighbor was denied internet service by them. We only pay $20 a month for this internet, but it's so slow it's like having nothing at all most times. I can't game, we can't watch DirecTV on-demand, we can't watch Netflix. AT&T reps I've spoken to deny that their regular DSL would be faster, but they said their regular DSL service is separate from their U-Verse internet service. They can't provide any timeline as to when they will eventually upgrade the cables out in our area, so I'm thinking never, as long as we don't have enough people out where I live for them to justify the cost (2-3 miles of cable is over 15,000 feet). For this reason I turned to wireless ISPs, and they couldn't deliver unless we cut down two big elms that are inhibiting line of sight in our backyard. We're not doing that because we like the trees and they improve property value. I'm not complaining; I have been through all that, and now I'm in the acceptance stage of grief. One of my close friends works as an installation tech for AT&T and said that in a town pretty near me, they have started running overhead fiber cables along telephone poles, but I'm not sure if that will ever take off or make it to my area. The last option was a mobile WiFi box. I did a lot of research into these and they were all reviewed as mostly slow and unreliable, whether describing the network or the hardware. Finally, I found a little thing called Karma Go from Karma Mobility. It's a tiny little box about the size of a sticky note that grabs a cell signal from the air and provides WiFi. There is no contract, and there are two plans. There's pay-as-you-go, wherein you can purchase data and once it's used up you're not charged, to keep surfing you have to purchase more data. The more data you purchase up front the more money you save, allegedly; and there's a $50/mo plan that has no usage/data caps and up to 5mbps. It's useful for streaming and such, if not gaming. When each month is up, again, you're not automatically charged for the next month--you purchase the next month yourself. It runs on battery and the battery life is not great, but is chargeable via a USB dongle, which is useful when you're using it on your laptop because you can just keep it charged through one of the USB ports. They recently did a promotion that cut the cost of the hardware down to $99 plus the first month's data. The catch is, (where the product's name comes into play) anyone (up to 8 people with the regular pay-as-you-go plan and 3 people with the Neverstop plan) can just jump on your WiFi signal and you can't lock it with an encryption key to keep anyone from getting on it. Whoever jumps on it gets a free 100mb and gives you a free 100mb in return, so there is potential for unlimited data if you're an on-the-go type person who uses it in coffee shops or bars. But security is a potential issue as well. All of that said, literally the same week I had this thing delivered to my house, they send out an email saying, basically, that too many people have been using too much bandwidth by streaming HD Netflix, porn, whatever, and straining the service. So they experimentally throttled the speeds and are looking into lowering the speeds permanently to deter people from "over-using" it--anyone who is thinking of getting a Karma Go should keep this in mind. What got me is that they state the possibility or potential of streaming video with the Neverstop plan on their website and then they go and decide they might throttle speeds permanently due to people doing a thing they advertised as a thing people can do with it (to get people to buy it I suspect), which kind of defeats the whole reason some people might buy the thing. They did offer a full refund in this email, however, and it's still faster than my current 768kbps internet. Karma Mobility used to only run off the Sprint network on a protocol that is now defunct, so it's good they upgrade in that respect, but literally after reading on their website that they may offer higher speeds in the future, they send out an email saying they're probably going to throttle the gently caress out of it. I noticed it was slower than advertised this week and wondered what the hell was up since I get a good LTE signal out at my house--couldn't stream or do much with it. Now I know I wasn't just imagining it. One final drawback of the Karma Go is this: whenever you connect a new device to it, you must be able to bring up a webpage to log in to your Karma account. This effectively renders it useless with anything but mobile devices, PCs and laptops. Smart TV? Nope. XBOX One or PS4? Nope, won't automatically launch a browser, and though they'll connect to the Karma, they won't recognize an internet connection so you can't go log in. DirecTV box? Nope. I've heard that you can make this happen with some other hardware but that means you'd be spending more money, so if it's worth it to you, I guess go for it. There's also some WiFi as WAN routers that can make it possible. tl:dr -- There are wireless service companies that can provide reasonable speeds with no caps in some cities/areas, and might warrant an addition to the OP; useless whining about my lack of broadband options; possible alternative for those without access to broadband at home who just need it to surf the web and do email without going over on their phone data plans. life is killing me fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Jan 8, 2016 |
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Jan 8, 2016 18:00
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One thing I'm trying to work out is whether or not my modem (an Arris/Motorola NVG510 provided by AT&T) has a WAW mode, because I'd like it to pick up my Karma Go's signal and use it as the internet source so I could make it work with my TV and DirecTV box. Anyone have any experience with WAW?
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Jan 8, 2016 18:49
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I like how AT&T won't bury any new cables out in my area, but now that they are apparently hanging fiber cables for Gigapower from telephone lines, it's looking like they won't even do that out near me. I wish, since they go off population density, that they'd just consider the population density for the entire city of Fort Worth rather than just the most populated suburban areas and just leaving everyone else out in the wind. There's very few people alive right now who don't need or use internet for some purpose, so it seems to me they are missing out on long-term and even short-term profits by bypassing less populated areas (my area is less populated, but is literally surrounded by higher population density--we're a dead zone in the middle of everyone else). Thwomp posted:The first set of DOCSIS 3.1 modems have been certified, officially signaling the start of the new 3.1 era. Nice. At least I won't ever have to worry about getting a new modem that supports multi-gbit transfer since I don't even get a real-time data transfer rate anywhere near even a mbyte. Less than 50kb/s out here. Are these modems being offered by the ISPs with install or do you have to buy them for hundreds of dollars at Best Buy? life is killing me fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Jan 14, 2016 |
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Jan 14, 2016 20:34
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Daily Forecast posted:Internet speeds were part of the reason I left Dallas. Shoot, at least Dallas gets FiOS, and Keller was the first suburb in DFW to get FiOS. Most of Fort Worth just gets screwed with companies who want to pick and choose who gets their faster internet because of population density. Everyone in less-populated areas gets screwed the most with internet that is so slow, it's like not having internet at all. Mine is literally only barely faster than 56k and due to the reclassification of "broadband," it's not broadband anymore. poo poo, I don't think you could have called it broadband before the reclassification of the term. But AT&T likes to tell us that it's U-verse and DSL would be slower. No, that's actually just their way of saying, "Not enough people live where you are living even though you're surrounded by higher density, so gently caress you." All I see is internet speed capabilities inching higher and higher with ISPs, and I'm stuck in the stone age. Trying to throw money at them and they don't want it because it's not enough money for a multi-billion-dollar company to make. I'd kill for better internet. I'd kill for even 1mbps right now. The Karma box blew up in my face when they decided to throttle the speeds literally the same week mine shipped to my house so it's no longer going to be 5mbps, and you can't use it on anything but mobile and computers anyway. Meh. life is killing me fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Jan 14, 2016 |
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Jan 14, 2016 20:51
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Update on Karma mobile wifi: As I mentioned a while back, Karma had recently sent out and email saying they were testing lower speeds on the service due to "strain." Apparently, people were doing too much of a thing Karma advertised as a thing that could be done, and that thing was Netflix and other streaming. This was mostly on the second of two plans, Neverstop, for $50 a month. You'd think $50 a month was more than enough cost to justify being able to watch Netflix every now and then at 5gbps, but I digress. They also included a survey in this email. The survey was basically asking how we use the service, how often we use it, what we do with it, etc. So they send an email out this morning saying they had read the surveys and had decided not to throttle. Great! Continue reading, and they are offering 15gb of unthrottled data a month for Neverstop users, and after that data is up, the speed will be throttled and only usable really for email and light browsing while still retaining "unlimited" data. They ARE offering full refunds, I'll give them that. So OP, can you add that (if you added the Karma at all) to the main post? But I admit I'm unsure what possible strain could even exist on the service? How is it that there are "too many" people streaming? How is it being slowed down when there's actually thousands of people on the Sprint 4G LTE service daily? What are those of us without access to broadband internet where we live supposed to do when they throttle/limit the speeds and data of any alternatives we might be able to use to get internet access?
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Jan 18, 2016 16:20
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Daily Forecast posted:Man Yeah, Frontier bought part of Verizon, I had thought it was the fiber optics part since Verizon isn't planning on expanding FiOS any further than where it already is since apparently it's costing them too much money and not bringing enough returns. Couldn't speak for Frontier, but you could ask them. If you want faster than 7mbps (lol I'd kill for that speed, it's literally more than 7x faster than what I have) you could just go to Comcast for a year or however long it takes for Frontier to expand to your area. How are you out of their service area if your new apartment complex has Frontier though?
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Feb 4, 2016 22:45
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I have to move, and the new apartment we're going to has Frontier, but not FIOS, so I can't move my service. Even if I downgraded, I'd only be getting 7mbps, and LMAO, I live in loving 2016
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Daily Forecast posted:Because they have Frontier, but not Frontier FIOS. Which is really weird but that's what the guy told me. I guess that complex just hasn't been upgraded for FIOS yet, but he said that it might happen soon-ish. I get it now. Yeah, Frontier is not the greatest of companies. Then again none of the big ones are great. You're saying the best Frontier offers out there is 7mbps? I'd still kill for even 1mbps out where I am, but 7mbps is pretty lovely.
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Feb 4, 2016 23:37
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Daily Forecast posted:
The only problem with them really is that it's cable (AFAIK) and if a bunch of people in your new apartment complex have it, it'll slow down. But I'd bet their cable can offer faster than 7mbps.
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Feb 5, 2016 22:52
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Thwomp posted:I think that's partly to do with how the business looks three to five years ago. AT&T stills seems to be very much all about the bundles, hard to get affordable anything period, even with bundles. Since they bought DirecTV, at least, you can get small discounts if you were already a customer with one or the other. Their priorities are still pretty much being the top dog, if they are the only provider in the area they are not much about improving their service because they know they are your only real option. That said, our internet bill has always been much lower than our home phone bill with them ($20 a month versus $50 a month). AT&T doesn't get much competition out where I live other than the areas of town that have FiOS. I really am curious to see how Frontier handles the FiOS and whether they will continue being Frontier, or start to get competitive with other ISPs wherever they have competition. My wife was involved (consulting) in their acquisition of Verizon's fiber and she opined that the higher-ups at Frontier, all of whom she met and sometimes presented to, were just cruddy people with cruddy practices who seemed to have little interest in the customer service side of their company and weren't very nice to their employees.
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Feb 12, 2016 20:25
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whydirt posted:Does anyone have experience convincing a traditional ISP to deliver service to a currently "out of area" residence? The house in question used to be very rural, but now is literally two doors down (500 feet away) from one that gets Comcast service and across the street from a brand new subdivision. I'm dealing with something similar except where AT&T won't upgrade the Internet lines because we are "in a rural area" so it's like 56k speed here on "DSL." Not kidding. Until they see an area as profitable, they aren't going to do poo poo. In the view of most companies, you're lucky to have any internet at all and you'll be even luckier when they deign to bless you with sweet, sweet internet you can actually use to do anything. Ours is literally so slow we can't even browse on it.
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Mar 6, 2016 17:38
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Thwomp posted:General consensus is it depends. One building may be wired better than another, or have tenets who use more or less capacity than others. If fios sucks for you, switch to xfinity and give them a try for a few months. It can't possibly be worse than what you've got, right? FiOS shouldn't be dependent on number of users since it's fiber, but I bet xfinity will be.
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Mar 7, 2016 16:27
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Has anyone used cablemover in their area to see what providers service their area, and found they are full of poo poo? I checked them on a whim and they said Charter Spectrum services my area. I check Charter's site and they say they don't. Months ago they said TWC services us, same deal, go to their site and enter my address and they don't.
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Mar 24, 2016 17:05
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