Review by georgew3 
member for 9.7 years, 46 visits, last login: 35 days ago
updated 35 days ago
 Pflugerville,Travis,TX
 $90 per month about 7 days "Good bandwidth tests" "Bad bandwidth on everything except tests. Bad netflix, bad amazon prime, etc..." "This company is ok, if nothing else available."
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(ratings match consensus)
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Suddenlink is a cable TV company providing Docsis service. I purchased 20 megabits with TV, but cancelled the TV because the DVR never worked right, and they were unable to resolve any issues. Very poor TV service.
The Internet service was good at first, delivering 25 megabits down (2mb up) for the price of 20. Netflix and Amazon Prime video worked great... in the early days. More recently I'm getting 6 to 15 megabits down.
I frequently have outages, my modem will have a strong flawless signal, but I can't get to some or all of the Internet. they seem to have a lot of /different/ issues:
> Strong signal to the modem, but only connected on one channel and no network
>Strong signal to my modem on 4 channels, and no network
>Strong signal to my modem on 4 channels, but I can only pull up suddenlinks page
>Strong signal, and some internet, but half of the Internet is unreachable
But now they act more like a malicious service provider, blocking video services, or limiting bandwidth to the point they don't work. I can get good quality video from lesser known providers, but the popular services are all throttled. I pay $80 per month, and it is NOT worth it with the throttling and firewalling.
They also intercept search engine traffic, as well as other traffic. So if I mistype a domain name, suddenly I'm on a suddenlink search page. I frequently cannot access google, and am directed to suddenlink's own very crappy search page.
The service is frequently down, and when I call tech support, they are surprised how knowledgeable I am, and I have some really good discussions with their staff (I operated an ISP for 20 years starting in 1987, and I currently work for a company that manufactures cable modems, DSL modems, set top boxes, and ISP management software). The guy at the other end of the line often asks me for a job during the call. So the support people are personable and helpful, but help is not what I need when I call... I want them to get the service working.
The quality of the cable signal to my house is very good, it is their back-end network that has the problems.
So the bottom line is Suddenlink has great high-speed connectivity, but spotty reliability, and malicious bandwidth throttling to third party OTT video providers like Netflix... all at a fairly stiff price. And when I say third party video providers don't work, I mean they never work, it is not intermittent. If we want to watch Amazon or Netflix, we have to tether one of our phones and use 3g. I can do 15 megabits to a bandwidth test site 2000 miles away, but I can't pull 400k from amazon prime.
AT&T has a fiber terminated 4 houses away from me, and their Uverse technician depot is two blocks away, but I don't qualify for service from them. So the only other option is wireless, but the wireless provider in the area (Clear) only provides crappy USB connections here (everywhere else in the country they provide ethernet). I think Clear has some sort of contractual obligation, or policy preventing them from selling network type connections here... So Suddenlink is the only game in town.
Update... Clear has their portable hotspot and ethernet router available for my area now. The bandwidth won't be as good, but they are supposedly not bandwidth rate limiting the OTT services... so I'll probably try them out.
Comments:
 Pete AbelPremium
join:2008-01-15
Saint Louis, MO
kudos:8 Reviews:
 ·Charter
| Perhaps I can help I'm at Suddenlink's HQ office, and I'm vetted to assist customers in this forum (»Approved Suddenlink Tech Support Agents). If you're willing to IM or email (pete.abel@suddenlink.com) the name and address on the account, I'll escalate your situation to the attention of senior managers for your area. | |
| | | Suddenlink Nice write up. I had the very same issues a few years ago with them. Good product when it worked. I game frequently so it worked pretty good. It went down ALOT. Not enough techs in the field to help with issues. They tried but were overwhelmed since they were the only game in town at the time. We switched to ATT DSL and now UVERSE and its ok except they keep jacking up the price. I was considering trying Suddenlink out again but probably not now. | |
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