Internet upgraded

[Rand]

I forgot to mention they ran fiber through here.. and AT&T says I can get fiber... except it ended at the elementary school 2 short blocks away.
Yea I'm about 500-700ft~~ from the end of the fiber run.... and cant get it. Odd part I'm on the DOWNTOWN SIDE of the school..

 

[Hall]

Both are considerably faster at night.

I don't see that changing anytime soon when it comes to wireless / 5g internet. I can get 150-200 Mb/s test results with Verizon late at night or early in the morning but during late afternoon/early evening, I've seen 15 Mb/s, 20, 25, etc. They just don't have the capacity (yet).

 

[redhat]

I forgot to mention they ran fiber through here.. and AT&T says I can get fiber... except it ended at the elementary school 2 short blocks away.
Yea I'm about 500-700ft~~ from the end of the fiber run.... and cant get it. Odd part I'm on the DOWNTOWN SIDE of the school..

Will they let you "purchase" the install or buy the fiber? That can't be that expensive to run.

 

[Hall]

Will they let you "purchase" the install or buy the fiber? That can't be that expensive to run.

More expensive than people would usually guess. It would be thousands. I've seen quotes that are $10k plus to extend a run.

 

[alarmguy]

...

Something that you may not have considered is the fact that cellular Internet (although having throughput often rivaling cable or fiber) has MUCH higher latency, on the order of 30 ms (and often quite a bit higher) on the local cellular link itself.

I disagree, 30ms is not at all high. Our Home Spectrum connection at 230 Mbps has a ping of 20 to 30 and Tmobile 5g with only two bars in strength has a ping of 50 to 60. I doubt anyone could notice the difference.

"Generally speaking, a ping rate that is less than 50ms is considered really good. It is an ideal ping rate for most online activities, even for competitive online gaming. If your ping rate is under 100ms, it's still acceptable for many common online activities such as web browsing."

"A latency of 20 milliseconds or less is so great for your flawless gaming experience. If your latency is between 20 - 100 milliseconds, it's still good for many games. However, if you have latencies of more than 150 ms, noticeable lags will likely occur in the games. Good internet speed for gaming Recommended internet speed for streaming"

 

[wag123]

I disagree, 30ms is not at all high. Our Home Spectrum connection at 230 Mbps has a ping of 20 to 30 and Tmobile 5g with only two bars in strength has a ping of 50 to 60. I doubt anyone could notice the difference.

"Generally speaking, a ping rate that is less than 50ms is considered really good. It is an ideal ping rate for most online activities, even for competitive online gaming. If your ping rate is under 100ms, it's still acceptable for many common online activities such as web browsing."

"A latency of 20 milliseconds or less is so great for your flawless gaming experience. If your latency is between 20 - 100 milliseconds, it's still good for many games. However, if you have latencies of more than 150 ms, noticeable lags will likely occur in the games. Good internet speed for gaming Recommended internet speed for streaming"

I disagree. I would notice the difference. I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this one.
On some Internet activities you won't notice a difference, but IMO, higher latency is very noticeable during web surfing (momentary delays when clicking on links), online gaming, and especially on VOIP calls (I use OOMA for my home phone). I'm getting under 10 ms with Spectrum. The 30 ms latency you get from cellular Internet is on top of (in addition to) the point to point latency one would normally see on a wired or fiber connection. This is why you are seeing 50-60 ms latency on T-Mobile 5g, which is very high IMO. I would also be concerned about throttling and even higher latency during congested cell tower use periods. If you are OK with this to save $20/mo, it is your choice.
High latency is one of the reasons that I have rejected using satellite Internet at my country/vacation house. Latency is so high (>600 ms) that VOIP services can not be used and web surfing is frustrating.

 

[alarmguy]

I disagree. I would notice the difference. I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this one.
On some Internet activities you won't notice a difference, but IMO, higher latency is very noticeable during web surfing (momentary delays when clicking on links), online gaming, and especially on VOIP calls (I use OOMA for my home phone). I'm getting under 10 ms with Spectrum. The 30 ms latency you get from cellular Internet is on top of (in addition to) the point to point latency one would normally see on a wired or fiber connection. This is why you are seeing 50-60 ms latency on T-Mobile 5g, which is very high IMO. I would also be concerned about throttling and even higher latency during congested cell tower use periods. If you are OK with this to save $20/mo, it is your choice.
High latency is one of the reasons that I have rejected using satellite Internet at my country/vacation house. Latency is so high (>600 ms) that VOIP services can not be used and web surfing is frustrating.

Its $25 a month (and actual over $30 a money of income after taxes) for something I can not tell a difference so it would work for me and many others.

Its ok to disagree! No one product is right for everyone or the whole world would be out of business!

I will never see a difference between my latency on Spectrum of 20 to 30 ms and TMobile of 50 to 60 ms. Keep in mind TMobile home internet not available where I live right now and assume signal will improve once it is as my 5g TMobile test was only 2 bars..
We dont game online and being on BITOG, email, shopping surfing, my wife's workstation which is a VPN to her office in another state anyway.

The key here is we dont game.

Oops = actually just did a Spectrum test again, Ping 16MS Jitter 6
Restarting my phone to do a 5g TMobile test now...

TMobile seems to somehow block testing speed on my cell phone, I noticed I can not run the test with the same test site. I just did a test on my Tmobile phone using google fiber test site. Ping was 72ms.
Again, keep in mind my t=moible signal is low at 2 bars. Speed was only 50
Update on TMobile ping = did a few more tests in a roundabout way, png of 72 was the worst but none better than 50.
Speeds all over the place from a high of 70Mbps to a low of 20.
Just a reminder 5g home internet not available at my home yet, I assume things will improve if it ever is. I can actually see the tower when driving outside my community, not many antennas on it yet and none pointing my direction *LOL* YET! They seem to shoot down the interstate both directions and most likely why Verizon home internet not available YET either. Most all cell carriers use the same towers installed by a third party.

What Is A Good Ping Test Result? A Complete Explanation

What is a good ping on a speed test result? We'll tell you good ping rate for different purposes. Read now to know the importance of ping & how to improve it!

gospeedcheck.com

 

[Rand]

depends on the game as well.
WOT blitz is ok with decent ping
CS:GO I can tell the difference between 30 and 50.. 100 is usually horrible.

 

[redhat]

depends on the game as well.
WOT blitz is ok with decent ping
CS:GO I can tell the difference between 30 and 50.. 100 is usually horrible.

man I haven't played any csgo in a long time, love vertigo map

 

[alarmguy]

I don't see that changing anytime soon when it comes to wireless / 5g internet. I can get 150-200 Mb/s test results with Verizon late at night or early in the morning but during late afternoon/early evening, I've seen 15 Mb/s, 20, 25, etc. They just don't have the capacity (yet).

Well have a got great news for you!

Wow, I went out to the super market at roughly 4:30 today. We have two cell towers near us, the closest one approx 1 mile, I dont think upgraded yet but maybe it is, there is another about 2.5 miles from my house, straight line not road miles.

I was sitting at the traffic light, look up at the tower and think hmmmm ... let me see if there is TMobile on it, sure enough I look at my phone and have 5 bars and 5g showing. I only have 2 bars at my home not far away, as mentioned I think in my earlier posts.

Light turns green as I am driving and fumbling... I open the browser on my iPhone 13 (safari) go to AT&T speedest site (which I use all the time when I can, no matter the provider) and WOW, there is hope!
Get this! First time ever on my cell phone, I pulled 2 speed tests as I was driving away from the tower at 45MPH with the cell phone in my hand in my SUV.
I pulled between 600 and 700 Mbps on each of the two tests!. Never thought that was possible and jsut about prime time traffic on the interstates and local roads at 4:30 PM.

(BTW - if you notice on the screen shot it says 5G-UC, if you google that you will see it is T-Mobiles 5g ultra capacity network.)

I thought maybe this would be hard to believe, keep in mind I was driving but managed to get off two screen shots from my iPhone. Actually looking at the time one must have been on the way and one on the way home... confusing myself ... was just gettin bread...
whatever ... anyway, wow, there is hope ...

 

[alarmguy]

One more at 7:38pm just as a second evening test to the afternoon above. If you read the post above, I can't get this at my house, Im about 1.5 to 2 miles too far from the towner or the wrong elevation.
If I could get this at my house it would be goodby to Spectrum, I guess I can only hope one day they upgrade a tower literally down the road about one mile from us.

T-Mobile 5g UC on an iPhone 13
Over 800 download and 100 upload...

 

[Skippy722]

I disagree. I would notice the difference. I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this one.
On some Internet activities you won't notice a difference, but IMO, higher latency is very noticeable during web surfing (momentary delays when clicking on links), online gaming, and especially on VOIP calls (I use OOMA for my home phone). I'm getting under 10 ms with Spectrum. The 30 ms latency you get from cellular Internet is on top of (in addition to) the point to point latency one would normally see on a wired or fiber connection. This is why you are seeing 50-60 ms latency on T-Mobile 5g, which is very high IMO. I would also be concerned about throttling and even higher latency during congested cell tower use periods. If you are OK with this to save $20/mo, it is your choice.
High latency is one of the reasons that I have rejected using satellite Internet at my country/vacation house. Latency is so high (>600 ms) that VOIP services can not be used and web surfing is frustrating.

Granted it’s highly variable with cell networks, T-Mobile’s 5G and LTE routinely run only 10ms higher latency than my home internet, which averages ~15ms to Chicago. At the giant metal and concrete box I call work it’s higher on account of getting 1-2 bars of LTE only, averaging 40-50 to the same servers.

 

[blupupher]

...
I will question one thing in your post. I will be curious if they will let you use your own modem. I wont be surprised if you get surprised when you want to use your own that you find out they no longer allow it.

There is a FCC ruling that they have to allow me to use my own, so long as it is on their supported list.
Not saying mine will not fall off that list by the time I need it, but I will just buy another one on their list for less than a years rental fees.

 

[alarmguy]

There is a FCC ruling that they have to allow me to use my own, so long as it is on their supported list.
Not saying mine will not fall off that list by the time I need it, but I will just buy another one on their list for less than a years rental fees.

Yeah, I understand that. I always owned my own equipment but Spectrum no longer charges a fee for a modem. On a service call last year the tech blamed my personally owned modem which is well respected. I know it was NOT my modem but told him well than, put a Spectrum modem in, still had the same issue. Turns out the issue wasnt in my house, it was in the community. Anyway, I kept their modem since it is free.
They do charge for the WiFi router and I use my own, so no charge.

Its hard to have a conversation on this in a national forum because it varies so widely depending on state and internet provider. Some, like yours, did everything in their power to circumvent the "spirit" of the legislation and at OUTRAGEOUS prices.. Others like ATT flat out denied people being able to do away with equipment fees on their fiber optic network.
Well, once again, consumer reports and other groups, just recently asked the FCC to look into this, companies circumventing the law.

You can do a search online, TONS of articles on it. search words like "are model rental fees legal" "how do I get rid of my modem rental fee" ect ect... jsut be sure to make the distinction between modem and router. HUGE difference, even a lot of the writers get it wrong in the media.

Router and modem rental fees still a major annoyance despite new US law

ISPs dissuade customers from using their own routers, Consumer Reports tells FCC.

arstechnica.com

 

[JTK]

Crazy to be paying for 200 and getting 60 to 70 Mbps.
I pay the same for 200 and get 235 Mbps. Before I did though, I had to file a complaint with the FCC. Within days Spectrum field supervisor called me to see when it would be ok to come over. They worked the entire day in the community and got it working at the correct speed.
Only takes seconds to fill out the form = https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/115002206106-Internet-Complaints

Click where it says = If you are interested in submitting an informal complaint about an Internet-related issue, please complete this form.

You weren't kidding with the FCC link. I filled it out the other day and within 24hrs was contacted by a Spectrum rep. They're sending someone out tomorrow to look at the my lines.. On Easter Sunday no less. I almost feel bad about it. LOL. The spectrum rep gave me his direct cell number. They don't kid around if you go the above route.

 

[alarmguy]

You weren't kidding with the FCC link. I filled it out the other day and within 24hrs was contacted by a Spectrum rep. They're sending someone out tomorrow to look at the my lines.. On Easter Sunday no less. I almost feel bad about it. LOL. The spectrum rep gave me his direct cell number. They don't kid around if you go the above route.

That is awesome. My take on this is = Yes communication companies are very sensitive to FCC complaints. The FCC keeps track of complaints and the companies that are getting them.
It also becomes public record and sometimes Congress likes to see those records when they’re drawing up legislation.
We had the same experience as you know and I forgot to say we were surprised with their cell phone number as well.
In fact the day they finished working and getting our speed correct the field supervisor stopped at our front door and left a business card and phone number, this was last year but I think it’s correct to say they even called up a day or two later to make sure everything was working correctly.

 

[JTK]

Just an update on my recent speed related cable company visit.

The tech showed up on Easter Sunday at 3:30pm. He checked everything over from the street, through the house and to my modem/router. He eliminated one splitter in the system that wasn't needed.

Now here's where I am a big dummy... I was testing internet speed with two different older windows based laptops, that I would plug directly into the modem/router. As clean and uncluttered as I keep these laptops (no antivirus software bloat, etc), they still indicate slow internet speeds. Same with my Moto andriod phone and my FIL's Samsung phone. This is what I was basing my 60-70Mbs speed problem on all along. Duh!!!

If you test internet speed with any iPhone, apple product or Chromebook, it's FAST and actually over the 200Mbs speed at ~210-240Mbs.

After the spectrum tech finished up, a supervisor showed up at my door to make sure everything was A-OK. I apologized to this guy too. They were just happy I was satisfied. Days later, the first fella that contacted me also followed up.

Again, there's no messing around if you follow the above FCC link to file a complaint.

 

[alarmguy]

Just an update on my recent speed related cable company visit.

The tech showed up on Easter Sunday at 3:30pm. He checked everything over from the street, through the house and to my modem/router. He eliminated one splitter in the system that wasn't needed.

Now here's where I am a big dummy... I was testing internet speed with two different older windows based laptops, that I would plug directly into the modem/router. As clean and uncluttered as I keep these laptops (no antivirus software bloat, etc), they still indicate slow internet speeds. Same with my Moto andriod phone and my FIL's Samsung phone. This is what I was basing my 60-70Mbs speed problem on all along. Duh!!!

If you test internet speed with any iPhone, apple product or Chromebook, it's FAST and actually over the 200Mbs speed at ~210-240Mbs.

After the spectrum tech finished up, a supervisor showed up at my door to make sure everything was A-OK. I apologized to this guy too. They were just happy I was satisfied. Days later, the first fella that contacted me also followed up.

Again, there's no messing around if you follow the above FCC link to file a complaint.

Well, thanks for the honest update! It may also help others to make sure they plug in a device or test with a device that is capable of delivering the speeds they are testing for. At least you know its working.

 

[SEMI_287]

Guess I got the upgrade My 12 month introductory offer ends in August. Wonder if I can keep my current price.

 

[alarmguy]

Guess I got the upgrade My 12 month introductory offer ends in August. Wonder if I can keep my current price.

View attachment 97730

You dont say how much you pay Spectrum.
Pricing with Spectrum depends on competition in your area.
For us, the speed increases were sweet. We have the same as you for over a year now or around that.
Thing is, over the last 3 or 4 years the price has gone up 50% for us. The "non special" price in this area is $74.95 a month for your speed of 200/12
If this means anything, when we went back to Spectrum last year, we had a $49 one year special, this year it was to go back to $75 but to our surprise we got a letter saying the increase to $75 would not be in effective for another year and for this year it will be $65.

(I suspect with the coming of Verizon and Tmobile and possibly my electric utility expansion with fiber is the reason for the above)