Spectrum Issues

[Randy]

Been a cable customer again (at the new house) for the first time in 25 years.

And I am already about to tell them to stick it.

The people selling the shit have no idea what they can actually provide you with and then tell they can whatever.

Then when the service techs come out because it isnt doing what they sold you, they are jerks because they are tired of making excuses for the company and listening to customers bitch.

If I could figure out how to get internet here with enough bandwith to satisfy wife's work from home requirements and kids gaming, without keeping Spectrum, I would tell them to pound sand and go back to DirecTV.

 

[Towen7]

 

[mzpro5]

I have Spectrum for Internet only no real problem. ATT not available in my area

 

[Akula]

It really seems like providers are super-spotty in how well they work. In my neighborhood AT&T is absolute garbage, especially down my street... we're on the tail end of a run from the node and when I used them it was nothing but trouble. Nowhere near the speeds claimed, constant dropouts, noise on the phone line. I couldn't get them to do anything about it... they kept saying the issue was inside the house, but even in the junction box on the outside of the house I had the same issues and fresh indoor wiring didn't fix anything.

Charter Spectrum, meanwhile, has been absolutely solid for us. I do, however, get our TV from DirecTV... I detest the Spectrum cable boxes- no whole home DVR, crappy guide and user interface. Initially they promised they were going to boxes designed by TiVo, but that never happened. But their cable internet and phone service works great for us and when I have an issue the techs are always competent and easy to work with.

 

[Deacon]

I have come to the conclusion that no provider can deliver competent service over a prolonged period of time.

I have had Dish which was OK, no real problems with the overall service but trees behind my house eventually grew too tall and blocked reception.

Dropped dish, went to Spectrum. That eventually soured.

Dropped Spectrum for ATT Uverse after they installed fiber in my 'hood. Really wanted this to work as I thought fiber was going to be a winning solution. Stuck it out long as I could but the service was absolutely horrible. 2+ years of audio and video problems, crappy equipment, and incompetent CS came to an end the moment they raised prices.

Dropped Uverse and am now back to Spectrum. Didn't want to but my options are limited and Spectrum does have the best internet speeds. So far so good. There are things that bother me but it is so much better than Uverse that I am not complaining at all.

 

[Towen7]

I think you all know this but I have to say it even though we're friends (well ... most of you anyway). I'm employed by AT&T, currently in the Consumer Field Operations department, but I do not represent them here. My comments and opinions are my own.


Regrading broadband internet service...
I'm very biased but I really do believe that in most markets that AT&T competes in... overall.. they provide a better experience. There are localized places where that's not always true and there are lots of varied reasons for that in those cases. Some solvable some not so much.

Fiber-To-The-Home Is not available everywhere but where it is it's the superior product. I can't go into details but AT&T is spending a lot ... A LOT ... of capital to expand the fiber footprint and increase the penetration rate for areas where it's already deployed.

Regarding TV services ...
U-verse TV never got big enough to justify the resources needed to solve issues with low occurrence rates. I had the service for years and while it wasn't completely problem free, I loved. To be fair though I had the ability to make sure my home wiring was in perfect condition. Obviously the QOS of IPTV is dependent on the broadband service which is dependent on conditions outside and inside the home. And in the areas where it's below standard the IPTV experience will be as well.

When fiber-to-the-home became available I dropped U-verse TV for AT&T TV. Also not 100% problem free but overall I think it's great.

 

[Akula]

I think you all know this but I have to say it even though we're friends (well ... most of you anyway). I'm employed by AT&T, currently in the Consumer Field Operations department, but I do not represent them here. My comments and opinions are my own.


Regrading broadband internet service...
I'm very biased but I really do believe that in most markets that AT&T competes in... overall.. they provide a better experience. There are localized places where that's not always true and there are lots of varied reasons for that in those cases. Some solvable some not so much.

Fiber-To-The-Home Is not available everywhere but where it is it's the superior product. I can't go into details but AT&T is spending a lot ... A LOT ... of capital to expand the fiber footprint and increase the penetration rate for areas where it's already deployed.

Regarding TV services ...
U-verse TV never got big enough to justify the resources needed to solve issues with low occurrence rates. I had the service for years and while it wasn't completely problem free, I loved. To be fair though I had the ability to make sure my home wiring was in perfect condition. Obviously the QOS of IPTV is dependent on the broadband service which is dependent on conditions outside and inside the home. And in the areas where it's below standard the IPTV experience will be as well.

When fiber-to-the-home became available I dropped U-verse TV for AT&T TV. Also not 100% problem free but overall I think it's great.

The moment I see somebody laying fiber down my street I'm calling them. I'll put my $ where my mouth is. But I don't think anybody will- we're down a residential street on a dead end. When I check with AT&T, using their tool to check availability, the result has zero mention of FTTH service. We've got FTTN, but where I'm at they only offer "up to 50Mb" service. My Spectrum internet speed test in my Google WiFi system reports 329Mb download (my upload has slowed, only 15.9Mb last time). So that FTTN ain't gonna cut it.

Alas, I wait and hope. I know AT&T periodically sends people through the neighborhood talking about FTTH service, but they always seem astonished when I point out the fiber in our neighborhood is only to the node and the real issue is the distance to said node. I've even had one call me a liar when I told the idiot that the distinct lack of Ditch Witch equipment on our street means there's zero fiber to the house.

 

[Towen7]

I wish it was easy to get fiber to every home but it's a fairly big deal. Municipalities, rights of way, contractor availability, supply chains for all elements (in some markets companies are literally laying fiber as fast as it can be produced).
And there's the whole 5G deployment which involves a LOT more fiber than most would think ... hint: wireless service is only wireless between the device and the antenna.

 

[Deacon]

When fiber-to-the-home became available I dropped U-verse TV for AT&T TV. Also not 100% problem free but overall I think it's great.

I didn't have that option and as you said Uverse was the stepchild, and they had the worse receivers!

 

[Towen7]

I didn't have that option and as you said Uverse was the stepchild, and they had the worse receivers!

Well, there's a reason AT&T doesn't sell that service to new customers anymore.

 

[Akula]

I wish it was easy to get fiber to every home but it's a fairly big deal. Municipalities, rights of way, contractor availability, supply chains for all elements (in some markets companies are literally laying fiber as fast as it can be produced).
And there's the whole 5G deployment which involves a LOT more fiber than most would think ... hint: wireless service is only wireless between the device and the antenna.

And then there's the economic case for it- it's just not cheap to lay fiber. It's going to be in more densely populated places long before it comes to more spread out suburbs.

 

[Towen7]

And then there's the economic case for it- it's just not cheap to lay fiber. It's going to be in more densely populated places long before it comes to more spread out suburbs.

Density is definitely a factor but ... again I'm sorry that I can't give more details ... a very significant portion of the fiber build money is targeted suburban and rural areas.

And just to keep the water nice and muddy, we can discuss how government infrastructure dollars could be spent to increase fiber penetration to underserved areas, specifically rural communities.

 

[Akula]

Density is definitely a factor but ... again I'm sorry that I can't give more details ... a very significant portion of the fiber build money is targeted suburban and rural areas.

And just to keep the water nice and muddy, we can discuss how government infrastructure dollars could be spent to increase fiber penetration to underserved areas, specifically rural communities.

Here we are talking telecommunications and Towen just goes right into the gutter. Increased penetration... yeah, we bet you want to ram that fiber right in there, don't you?

 

[Towen7]

Hehe