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 Review by Owlbet 
UPDATED: 27 days ago
member for 7.1 years, 2191 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Palmer,Matanuska Susitna,AK
 $45 per month (12 month contract)
 about 5 days
 "Tech support is STILL top-notch"
 "20 GB download limit, 50 GB would be perfect for this household."
 "Affordable & Speedy"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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10/24/2009
Well, MTA has listened. My gig limits have doubled to a whopping 20 GB per month. I can now view Alaska Aces away games on B2 Networks (pay per view), view Hulu & YouTube, and listen to music without getting the dreaded email from MTA that I'm about to exhaust my monthly allotment of gigs. Twenty gigs is a start, I'd be content with 50. With that allotment, I can upload videos to YouTube. My upload speed has increased from 512 MB to 768 MB. For $15.00 more per month, my down/up speed can jump from 8/768 to 10/768. For now, I'm staying put at 8/768. The DTV still works flawlessly. I just need an HD set top box or two. I'll wait till the holidays are over before I consider the HD boxes.
I haven't had any serious issues with MTA, although I recently had a technician to the house to troubleshoot drastically reduced download speeds. These problems are as elusive as ghosts. He couldn't find a problem. He reset the port at the CO and all seems well.
All in all, MTA has been delivering what it advertises and I've adjusted my review accordingly. I'm a happy camper.
07/11/2008
Why should I sing the praises of Matanuska Telephone Association? They certainly don't listen to me or to its other subscribers that are clamoring for increased download limits. So until such time that MTA increases the upload/download limits to a more acceptable and realistic level, I really have nothing favorable to say about my internet provider. I have a high-speed internet connection. What good is it if I'm capped at a 10 GB upload/download limit? I guess I could sign up for the "all-you-can-eat" plate at $130.00 per month. Guess what? It's only offered at the 768/768 speed level. After experiencing the 8 meg connection, why would I want to go back to 768? It's a no-brainer to stay at 8/512. I could spend $60.00 for an additional 20 GB a month for a total of 30 GB. That makes my internet connection $105.00 per month. It's not worth it even at that price. So I stay at my 10GB limit for $45.00 per month. I'm not a downloader of movies and music. That's theft! I just want enough upload/download to comfortably watch ALL the Alaska Aces away games on B2 Networks, the daily online episodes of CBS's daytime drama The Young & the Restless, missed episodes of Survivor during their twice yearly series, occasional You Tube videos, and more than a few minutes of my favorite web cams without having to constantly monitor my usage with Matanuska Telephone Association's online usage tool. I want to be able to do more than just hang out at forums such as Broadband Reports and do email. I'd be extremely happy with a 50 GB limit for $45.00 or even $75.00 per month. I'd give up my capital credits (Matanuska Telephone Association is member owned) for increased limits.
10/04/2007
In May of 2007, my ISP, MTA Online (Matanuska Telephone Association) was suffering 30-50% packet loss. I ran a line quality test at DSLR and the loss was indeed on the Alaska end of the internet and not somewhere in the Lower 48. Annoyed by a second consecutive day of packet loss, I called MTA to inquire about when relief was in site. While on the phone to tech support, and annoyed to begin with, I griped to the tech support person that my download speed has always been lesser than my upload. He said that wasn't right and he had a network technician call me back. The network tech called me and we ran some preliminary tests. He said I did have a problem and that he would need to schedule an on-site visit. We scheduled the visit and he showed up on a Saturday during the three day Memorial Day weekend. That was way cool.
The network technician diagnosed my problem. Unfortunately, I cannot remember what the problem was, but I had to get a new modem and be provisioned for a new line. While he was here, I casually mentioned that I had toyed with dumping my cable tv provider in favor of MTA's offering. He asked why I hadn't already and I told him that I didn't have a phone line anywhere near my televisions. He said that shouldn't be a hindrance as wireless or hard-wiring could be done. The hard-wiring could be done free of charge. The network tech said that if I was serious about that, he would provision my line in case I went that route in the future. Once I was provisioned with the new modem and new line, my download speeds were now greater than my upload speeds and I was finally getting the advertised (or more) speed.
Now that I was getting my advertised speed, I made arrangements to dump my cable tv provider and begin using my ISP's offering. Depending on what Digital TV package I selected, I could also upgrade my internet speed to 8,000/512 for an additional $45.00. I could also get 10% off my monthly digital TV bill if I selected a phone plan as well. It's a given: I have a need for speed and an even greater need for cheap long distance.
The conversion was done in stages. A network card (for lack of what they are called) had to be installed at the NID on the back of the house. This device separated phone and data and allowed me to receive via IP the digital signal for TV reception. MTA needed to run tests on that card and I was without internet for two days. Based on tests and my distance (5,504 feet) from the CO, I was eligible for three set-top boxes as well as the 8,000/512 internet speed.
Based on the size and complexity of hard-wiring my home for Digital TV, I decided to go with a wireless option for the three set-top boxes. The technician was concerned about interference from other networks (he used Net Stumbler and there were quite a few wireless networks around me, but only one network was an MTA Digital TV network) and advised me that wireless might not work for me. Three hours after arriving, everything was online. Three televisions all had reception and I ran my first speed test at DSLR while the technician was still here. I got 6,500 down / 421 up on that first test and I was happy. I asked my technician when would be a good time to cut the cord with my cable tv provider and he said the weekend would be a good test to see if interference from other networks would be a problem. I didn't wait for the weekend to be over. My new speeds and digital TV where up and running on a Friday afternoon and the next day, I permanently cut the cord with my cable tv provider.
I regularly run speed tests at DSLR. I'm aware of internet congestion and that I may never get my advertised speed. But I've been pleasantly surprised on many occasions. Not only do I get my advertised speeds more often than not, I get speeds in excess of my advertised speed. I also check the speeds of ISP rivals Alaska Communications Systems and GCI and no one even comes close to the speeds I am getting with MTA.
A sampling of my speed tests: »/testhistory/693202/5641c
MTA's best points are customer and technical service. The help desks for both the internet and digital tv are staffed 24/7. Both are staffed with sharp people. I'm happy and content with the choice I've made.
01/02/2007
In October 2006, I received an invite from the Extended Pacific Northwest forum to sign up for line monitoring. I was appalled at the quality of my connection (512/512) and I could see latency issues at the same time every day. I figured maybe tweaking my connection (via DSLR's Tweak Forum) would improve those issues, but it made no difference. I called MTA to inquire about the congestion and they couldn't really give me a better answer. I decided to ugrade my speed to 768/768 and I'm glad I did. While on the 512/512 package, all trace routes to DSLR went through AT & T lines and took about 12-16 hops to NAC in New York. Now on the 768/768 speed package all traceroutes to DSLR ride on Time Warner lines and the number of hops to get there are about 8-10. I still see periodic congestion at this speed, but not the blatant congestion I saw on the 512/512 package. I definitely like this package better than the 512/512 I was on previously. Tech support is still MTA's best point. MTA offers higher speeds of 4,000/768 and 8,000/768 with their DTV package for $113.95 and $123.95 respectively. I am considering dumping GCI as my cable tv provider and going with the 8/768 DTV package. I'd save $16 a month including the cost of remotes and boxes by going with MTA for internet and digital tv.
12/18/2005
I've been with an MTA (Matanuska Telephone Association) DSL subscriber for 3.5 years now and still have no complaints. Advertised speed at $50 is 512 up/down. It may be more than that as my upload speed (yes, my upload speed!) is more than 512. My upload speed is still faster than my download speed. This problem is no fault of MTA's, though. It's a problem inherent in Win XP PPPoE. I've given up on tweaking it. I don't game and I don't download, so all I care about is the pages load quickly when I click on links.
MTA offers DTV (digital television), but I haven't signed up yet. Once I get a High Definition TV I will make the switch to DTV. With DTV I will be upgraded to 768 up/down.
The other broadband option is switching to GCI Cable. Given their track record with tv cable, I think not.
Even though MTA is pricy, I still like their product.
MTA goes down now and then, but it's usually somewhere in the Lower 48 that causes problems for Alaska.
Followup comments:  Viz9
join:2007-08-30
| AK is in the Internet stoneage. I agree with the above comments completely.
Utter disgust for this company. Overpriced, slow speeds and to top it all off they added a 10gb monthly cap about a year ago...ugh.
Sadly most people here have zero to few other choices.
GCI and Clearwire, are also both horrendous from what I hear. ACS may be the way to go but they are not where I live, Wasilla.
I would avoid them if possible. | |
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