 Review by McLovin 
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 4.4 years, 1092 visits, last login: 5 days ago
 Fairbanks,Fairbanks North Star,AK
 $215 per month
 "Stable, fast connection, fastest in Alaska."
 "The few outages that have occurred have happened right when I needed to use the internet..."
 "The fastest, and most stable internet connection in Alaska."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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Ordered the "Ultimate Package Plus" on 5/2/08, which includes the digital cable package (151 channels), VoIP phone (local and 500 long distance minutes), and 320Kbps/128Kbps internet. for $89.99
Upgraded the cable service to get the preferred service to add an additional 80 channels, plus the HD package and HBO premium HD package. Also added an HD DVR, which is required to add any HD package. Also upgraded internet connectivity to 10Mbps/1Mbps. Total in upgrades is roughly $105.00/mo.
I may scale the bandwidth back to 7Mbps/768Kbps later to save some money, but I have got some catching up to do on the internet!
They had to delay the install because they were out of stock on HD DVRs, and they wanted to wait to roll me on a new cable modem they are going to start using (DOCSIS 3?!? *crosses fingers*). Anyway, the install date is set up for Monday, 5/19/08. Customer service has been great. They offered me one free bill, and $20 off the following two bills for the inconvenience.
I will update on 5/19 after the install to advise of status and installation procedures. Along with pictures, potentially.
UPDATE 5/20/2008
Install went OK. They were still missing the DVR, however they did get into the store that day, the tech just didn't have one with him as they had gotten in about an hour before the truck roll.
The only real thing I have against anything that went wrong, was that the installer was 2 hours late. Thus delaying the account creation until the next business day, sticking me at the lowest possible cable modem provision at 128Kbps/64Kbps. Needless to say I just went to bed early and didn't even bother.
Now that I have my nice HD DVR and the cable modem at 10Mbps/1Mbps. Speedtests show accurately...
Download #1
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File size transferred : 14.65 MB (15360000 bytes)
Total time taken : 12.27 seconds (12265 milliseconds)
Throughput : 1252.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 1.25 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 10016.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 10.02 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]
Upload #1
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File size transferred : 14.65 MB (15360000 bytes)
Total time taken : 128.14 seconds (128141 milliseconds)
Throughput : 119.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
= 0.12 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]
= 952.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
= 0.95 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]
The plan is nice. Cable TV picture is actually outstanding. I also ordered the HD package and the display is phenomonal. 1080i over CATV is great, and will be worth its weight in gold once football season starts!
UPDATE 11/16/08:
So service is great. Internet has been quite solid (had some instability, found out it was the routers fault), couple of outages, but none lasting more than an hour or two. Only complaint I have is that they are adding more HD channels, which is good. The bad part is that they nearly doubled the price of the HD package without telling me... Bill comes in the mail that's $20 more than usual... They raised the price of the HD package from $15/mo. to $25/mo. But they STILL don't have the local channels in HD, which SUCKS... GCI told me however that it faults to the local stations not being capable of HD, which I have a hard time believing... Customer service did a stunning job, crediting me for my frustration. But I still elected to keep the HD package...
As far as internet connection goes, its great for the New Xbox Experience. 10Mbps streaming HD Netflix rocks, video loads in ~20 seconds, plays without hiccups, as long as your roommate doesn't start trying to download stuff against you... Upload appears to be slacking, going at about 820Kbps consistantly. Several modem and router reboots does not improve anything...
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