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Review by jstelzer 
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 1.8 years, 2 visits, last login: 1.6 years ago
 Helotes,Bexar,TX
 $30 per month
 AT&T
 "Only broadband service available in rural NW San Antonio area."
 "Intermittent reliability/speeds, tech support problems never resolved"
 "I use them because I have to if i want anything resembling 'broadband'"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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I have used Internet America, previously 2Fast(lol) Communications, for about 4-5 years now. I live about 20 miles NW of San Antonio and their wireless service is the only thing available for broadband. Actually, I'm sure satellite is available but online gaming is my hobby and that makes it out of the question.
I have never had anything approaching what I would consider fast speeds (for broadband). At full bore I get about 65kbps d/l speeds.
Over the last 4 years my service has--and I'm estimating--about a 95% 'up time'. That may sound good but we are talking around 75 days with no working service. They are constantly having problems with a nearby relay tower--at least that is what I'm told.
Even when the service is up though I still have problems...the most annoying of which is the day to day connectivity. As I mentioned above my hobby is online gaming. Most of my time gaming is spent from 8pm in the evening until at least midnight. My connection will 'time out' so that I get disconnected from games and voice chat programs (at the same time both get dropped). This usually last about 30-40 seconds and then it comes back up. It happens anywhere from 1-4 times an hour. It may be more but I'll quit for the night if it happens more than 4 times or so.
This is terribly frustrating as I have to reconnect to voice chat and whatever game I'm playing at the time. For those who understand: try raiding in World of Warcraft like this..it just doesn't work.
Worse still is when I call technical support (in Dallas) to be told that they can see/ping my connection just fine and there is no problem. If I push them I can sometimes get them to notice the drops but that is only if it happens while they are pinging my radio. I go through the same process every call:
Them: 'Well sir, I can see your radio fine...'
Me: 'Yes I know you can but nonetheless I'm still getting dropped'
Them: 'Have you tried rebooting your radio/router, removing your router, etc'
Me: 'Yes I've done all that multiple times, the problem is still there'
I have called perhaps 50 times over the last 4 years. I've attempted to escalate the problem..all to no avail.
Before they became Internet America, 2Fast (lol) would sometimes send a tech out to look at the equipment. I've had it changed out completely. The problem remains.
It appears at this point my options are to either give up gaming or move into town.
I don't know if they just don't have the capability to fix the problem or if they don't care enough since I appear to be the only squeaky wheel. I suspect that they don't get too many complaints on the day to day issues as this is mostly transparent when you are simply browsing sites. It only shows up when streaming data.
If I somehow get some resolution I will update this review.
UPDATE: I have been contacted by a regional manager from Internet America who has given me some explanation as to why my issues are occurring and what they are planning to do to resolve them.
I appreciate the contact but must say I wish it didn't come to this for it to happen. Nonetheless I will give them ample time to resolve the issue and will certainly follow up here when that happens.
Followup comments:  clock
join:2007-05-02
Roslindale, MA
 ·T-Mobile US
 ·RCN CABLE
·RoadRunner Cable
| Mobile Broadband Have you looked into 3G from any of the cellular phone providers? A quick look on Sprint & AT&Ts websites say that they have coverage in your area. Verizon also has coverage, but has got a 5gb/mo cap, so that wouldnt do you much good. Throughput is about 1.5Mbps/800Kb (real world about 600k/400k). Ive played XBox Live over it, and you should be able to play WoW w/o any issues. | |
| | Doug135
join:2008-01-12
Laredo, TX
clubs:
 ·AT&T Southwest
| Re: Mobile Broadband That's true, I would say go with Sprint though, as AT&T has a cap on its internet just like Verizon does. I gone up there to San Antonio and used AT&T's 3G and Sprints EVDO and they are fast. The slowest speed I got was 600K when i had about 3 bars, but when I had full, I got close to 1.4 Mbps with not to bad latency. AT&T's internet was good for regular broswing, and Verizon's was amazingly fast and had real good coverage, but it would suck for what you want because of the cap. | |
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Review by harold4187
Posted: 3.3 years ago
member for 7.2 years, 27 visits, last login: 3.1 years ago
Bandera,Bandera,TX
$52 per month (12 month contract)
"Wireless is avalible at lake medina shores"
"it works only part time"
"not happy yet"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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I just installed this two weeks ago. I had direcway and was so tired of there jerk off i was willing to go with anything.
They did a quick install but the wireless tower was down when the install was done.
The tech left before the tower was up and the internet was no up and running when he left. I work out of state and have been playing phone tag trying to get it working right. It constantly go on and off. My son said it was down 2 hours last night.
When you call tech support you are always on hold for five minutes and then get voice mail. i have yet to talk to a live person after two weeks of trying.
my up speeds are 210 down speeds are 310 .i think the reciever on the house is bad.
Hopefully when i get back in town it will get fixed.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of 2Fast Communications WireWeb now Internet America |
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