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Review by Piggie See Profile

  • Location: Orange Springs, Marion, FL, USA
  • Cost: $65 per month
  • Install: about 3 days
  • No Cap
  • Telco party AllTel
They finally fixed their speed and loading at least on my DSLAM
Customer support needs to be trained or allow L2 techs easier access to customers
Compared to caps on cable, this is great. I wish I had more upload but I'm fine.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

2018 update. Free upgrade to 25M and it's went very smooth, now on VDSL 8A, single line, but I'm only 2200 ft from the Dslam. VDSL can run up to 50M to my house on one line. And it doesn't overload like it used to do.

Summer 2010 - Helping a friend set up his restaurant I noticed he paid for 3m but only has 1.5 m. He wasn't over loaded, you could open up 20 download streams and it flat topped at 1.5 M. So I called, figuring this is easy, a provisioning error. They would not send a tech, they said your area has latency problems and until they are resolved we are not opening tickets. I said it's not a latency or over subscribed problem it's provisioned wrong. I had to go through the same crap every time I called since they would not open a ticket (waste of their money). Finally someone did look at it and it was provisioned as 3m. I said well something is still wrong, I never ever see a spike above 1.5 m on my software meter in my computer or router. They said well then it's latency. I said no!! .. I was lucky. I ran into the local tech one day and asked if could look at it. Sure enough I was on a pin that had previously been assigned to someone with a static IP that bought 1.5 service, even then an obsolete speed to sell. He moved me to a new pin and bingo I had 3m. That was after 9 months of calls weekly. I have not been too happy since.

Then in 2012, since I also have Windstream at home, noticed loosing bandwidth at night. It's gotten worse since. Even weekends all day are trash. I pay for 3m at home and it's .8 or 1.5 at best in the evening. Better than some people that are literally seeing dial up speeds on DSL in many other states.

This is not isolated. Windstream has over sold it's entire network, except maybe in Louisville KY it's flag ship city for new stuff. Meanwhile the CEO Jeff Gardener has an annual salary of $5.6 million. They buy other companies. They kept telling me they were broke and waiting for govt stimulus. Broke my sweet porcine bottom. They just gave any money they made to the board, and shareholders, customers, noting except adding more and more accounts to already over sold lines.

Corporate welfare at it's finest. Sure it's legal, but in a just world, they people would be in prison for stealing tax payer and customer's money. It's good to have lobbyists so you can legally steal isn't it Windstream?

Update Dec 15, 2007 - Since something was fixed about a month ago with the intervention of WS employees that read my complains, things have been very good. My speeds are staying fine during prime time and my random disconnects have stopped. But I really think the random disconnects stopping are due to my upgrading my Tomato ver 1.13 firmware and it's quality QoS system. I set my max up and down to 90% of provisioned and set anything that uses a lot of bandwidth to medium. The disconnects apparently now for about 2 weeks have stopped.

Update Aug 16, 2007 - 4 T1's fried coming into my DSLAM, that was 2 weeks ago. No resolution to the problem is known calling CS. If you see a problem and you are a Windstream customer, call right then and there, because if they issue you a credit it can only go back as far as your first call. Don't think just cause your neighbor called you don't have to call. Not going to do a lot of good to call a lot, but do call right away. Sad that it takes so long to resolve an equipment failure on their part. Maybe a week, to troubleshoot and most of that week waiting on parts, but we are well past that now. If you are curious to keep up with this problem I am having here is the thread.

»Piggie has now joined the Haters! Till next time, boys and girls...... Pig OUT! :@)

Update Nov 30, 2006:

They finally after 7 years of promises and me circulating a petition to prove they have over 100 possible customers, put a DSLAM in my remote switch. Thank goodness I finally get DSL and off satellite.

I can say as soon as they put in equipment their turn on time is fast, in the order of 2 days. They activate it the next or the next and send a modem overnight to you. It's mostly a self install. But they send a disk that is a movie that guides anyone thru easy set up. There was such a pent up need for DSL in my neighborhood, that after the tech installed the DSLAM, he put up a sign that it was available. They sold 14 accounts in the first hour! Of course a lot of it was networking from all of us in the petition. I heard within the first week they sold over 50 accounts. Why they didn't see this sooner is beyond me. I told them years ago that their threshold of 30 customers would be met very fast and indeed it was. I asked the local tech and they crossed 30 by noon the next day, which was 20 hours after the work at the switch was finished. Now that is fast pay back. It shows that bureaucrats don't have a clue what happens in the ditches.

Anyway, it working as advertised. I get 260kbps down of raw data on a 3mbps service, which from what I read is about as good at it gets, so I must have tweaked my system correct. Our upload here is advertised at 386kbps, and I see about 325 to 340 real upload. So that is not bad. And that is with a single stream, not multiple FTP, HTTP or NNTP connections, but a single connection.

And I can say after much frustration for 7 years, now that I have their DSL it rocks!

End of Nov 30, 2006 update.

=============================

I am not on Alltel, but guess I wish I were. This is a time line of broken promises, lies or just really bad intelligence on their part about installing DSL in our area.

Time Line:

1997 - Moved here and had 43 kbps modem download. Not bad being about 3 miles from our towns main switch building.

1999 � Due to supposed growth in our area (none seen) a remote switch is installed to give them more phone lines in our area. 4 of the original lines were combined to give the new switch a T1 and the neighbor was now feed off the switch. Obviously killed my modem speed down to 26.4 on a good day.

Was told "not to worry" that because a switch had been placed closer to my house and as soon as DSL was available I would get awesome speeds as it was a short run from my house to the switch. I was told soon would be a couple years. Not happy. Beginning of their "misinformation" campaign.

Considered Starband but heard too many horror stories and stuck it out on the modem.

2003 - Saw Alltel digging and found they were feeding my remote switch with fiber to replace the wired T1. Again told this would make the switch ready for DSL. But it would still be about a year till they upgraded the switch. They are still in an information vacuum or they were just still "mis-informed". Told DSL was coming the first of 2004.

2004 - First of the year I start calling Alltel, assured that as soon as downtown (feed off the main switch building) got DSL, that my remote would be a few quarters later. March 2004, downtown did get DSL. Called again about my switch and they said then against previous statements, "your remote switch is never scheduled for DSL upgrade". Wonderful. Took them 5 years and lots of calls for them to finally admit the truth to me.

Spent a lot of time asking Alltel why? Many many days on the phone, finally talked to the local supervisor. He gave me the truth, finally! Our switch placed there in 1999 was used, old and not up to date. They removed it from another remote to upgrade them to DSL. Our area was considered a remote area and didn't need anything else for our phone service. The shelves in the switch could not be upgraded to accept DSL cards. The only way we would ever get DSL was if they replaced our entire switch and that was beyond their budget.

I told them they hadn't done their demographic research as most of the people with computers and business owners lived in the area servered by the switch. That they could get as many or more DSL customers off that switch as the main building. They were not impressed. They said if that was true, then I needed to canvas the neighborhood with a petition to prove to them they had customers there. I asked isn't that a task for your sales dept? The answer was no and it�s still not in our budget.

June 2004 � I have a DWay dish installed, tired of fighting the Alltel machine. While not the perfect solution or even true broadband it was a lot better than my modem. Most of the serious internet users get DW dishes and turn off their spare phone lines. Many angry just turn off the lines and use cell phones that are cheaper anyway.

2005 � As the internet grows, web pages become more bandwidth intensive. I was lucky with my previous (before getting DWay) modem speeds 26.4, as asking more neighbors most of them were at 21.4 or 24.0.

Most of them disconnect their extra line for the internet as it's just no longer worth the price for slow browsing. Virtually everyone in the area disconnects any extra phone lines and several totally to use cell phones (more do to price than dis-satification with Alltel landline phones).

But! This frees dozens of lines off the new remote switch, which was placed there 6 years ago for phone line expansion in our area! Less than 10 new houses were added to our neighborhood in that same time. Net result was they now had more free lines than they did 6 years ago. Which was the "reason" for the switch in the first place.

2006 - They totally stonewall my calls now and any field engineers that are to call me about it never return calls. I order the DW7000 upgrade from Direcway and sign a new 15-month commitment, as I don't see any changes ever in our area. And I write this review to warn other's never to believe what Alltel tells you.

member for 18.3 years, 823 visits, last login: 4.2 years ago
updated 5.8 years ago


h4x0r3d
Premium Member
join:2003-04-13
Oxford, MS

h4x0r3d

Premium Member

`

I dont understand what your complaining about ??!

wiredaddy
Premium Member
join:2005-04-22
in a chair

wiredaddy

Premium Member

clear as mud

So do you have dsl or not?

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Time Keeper
Premium Member
join:2004-01-07
Little Rock, AR

Icon

Premium Member

No sense

Your review makes no sense. Like the others asked, do you have it or not, as you kind of contradict yourself in your post. First off, a remote will not drop your dial up speed. Now your facilities to your home could have changed, like maybe they put you on a pair-gain line, but we don't know that.

Piggie
Just A Pig With A Computer
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Orange Springs, FL

Piggie

Premium Member

Re: No sense

Too all the replied. I have rewritten the review to hopefully clarify my meaning.

And ark_con, yes I am on remote switch with pair-gain technology and it does kill modem speed. 56k type connections are no longer possible as the signal is now digitized twice before reaching your ISP's modem bank. ADSL is also obviously not an option either.

My point is while pair-gain is a solution to meet simple telephony, it is totally incompatible with the expanding internet and a phone company offering more services. They idea of selling more and making more money?

Moreover my real problem is the years that went by before Alltel came clean and explained my remote switch was too old to upgrade for DSL and they had no plans what so ever to upgrade me anytime in the foreseeable future. Also while told by talking to cooperate customer service I could get a cut around, local supervisors have also stonewalled that as an option for me.

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Time Keeper
Premium Member
join:2004-01-07
Little Rock, AR

Icon

Premium Member

Re: No sense

Thanks for clarifying your post. Yes, pair gain doesn't play well with dial up for the reasons you mentioned.

I hate to hear that you've run up against a brick wall, even with the local management. Cut arounds aren't fun...especially for records' sake, but it would seem in your case that the local supervisor would give more of an ear to your issue. In any case, keep calling corporate and give them your gripes. If your neighborhood is interested in DSL like you say, have them call and request it as well. Alltel IS in business to make money, and maybe if they get enough calls in a concentrated area, it will get to the right person's ears.

Good luck

mshelton
join:2004-04-29
Blairsville, GA

mshelton

Member

Same here

Your not alone. I'm going through the same thing. The local Alltel guys have admitted there are many complaints in our area from people unable to get DSL, but the higher ups will not approve of the upgrade for whatever reason. They say maybe this year, of course they have been saying that for the last 3 years. Since Alltel is the only ISP in this county and they dont give a damn, it doesn't look like I will be able to get it anytime soon.

wiredaddy
Premium Member
join:2005-04-22
in a chair

wiredaddy

Premium Member

Try this

WE have had some success here in KY. by getting signatures from all individuals in an area that would like to have dsl and getting these to the local management. If this were going to be done I would do it quickly, as the first quarter isn't far away. And not a better time than the first quarter for things of this nature. Show them they will get a return for their investment, and they will come.

Piggie
Just A Pig With A Computer
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Orange Springs, FL

Piggie

Premium Member

Re: Try this

This is a reply to all again. I will keep bugging them. I went ahead and signed another 15 month contract with DW as I figure even at best it will take that long. Alltel corp did tell me to get everyone to call and call frequently, but getting people to do this after work is hard. On the other hand if I have to spark plug the signature thing I can give up a lot of my work at home time which isn't smart business wise either. And I have also heard that requests do need to be submitted before the first quarter to Alltel. Thanks everyone.

Cerabus12
Dial-up 4 Life
join:2005-08-09
Brooker, FL

Cerabus12

Member

Windstream

I fuking hate these people, I have been told for the last 4 1/2 years I would be getting DSL soon, and still nothing. Im actually thinking about hiring an attorney, and filing suit against them for rural discrimination. If anyone has any ideas on how to get them to work faster plz enlighten me.

Piggie
Just A Pig With A Computer
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Orange Springs, FL

Piggie

Premium Member

Re: Windstream

Start a petition of those in your area that they want DSL.
When Windstream sees a list of names that will be buying DSL if they install it, believe me it speeds things way up.

I tried everything for 4 years. Then I did the petition. We had DSL in 6 months.

It works.
Lunatech2
Premium Member
join:2002-04-25
Charleston, SC

Lunatech2

Premium Member

As good as it gets????

Unfortunately, cable is not available to me (even though the actual Comcast cable runs North past my house about 75 feet away...that's another story) so Windstream's DSL is my only (realistic) option. I HATE it. I'm supposed to have 6Mbps service and NEVER get above about 1.5 Mbps-- and that's only at 3 am; most of the time it more like 80-150bps. I realize the 6Meg is a "theoretical" maximum never to be seen in practice, but why the *&%*&^% should I accept 80bps for the price I'm paying. In your review you say "I get 260kbps down of raw data on a 3mbps service, which from what I read is about as good at it gets". Why do you consider this OK?? At my previous address (about 20 miles away) I had ComCast (aka ComCrap) cable service and although there were problems (frequently had to reset modem & router, no connectivity for hours at a time, etc) at least when it was working my speed was generally >3Mbps... Why is Windstream's paltry 200bps acceptable when you have 3M service???
MeSue
join:2007-01-15
Fort Mc Coy, FL

MeSue

Member

Windstream woes (early 2013)

Hey Piggie... remember me? How is your Windstream service these days? It is just awful across the river here. Since Christmas we have been getting less than dialup most evenings and rarely over 2M during the day. Several times this week it has been completely out. They say it's a known "Latency outage" but don't seem in any hurry to fix. Grrr!