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 Review by Mortis 
UPDATED: 359 days ago
member for 7.9 years, 2756 visits, last login: 10 days ago
 Clearlake,Lake,CA
 $125 per month
 about 7 days
 "Up to 20 Mbps service in a rural community!"
 "Horrible Customer Service! Intermittent VOIP problems!"
 "Adequate, but there's better to be had...."
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I live in a small isolated town. Our choices are 1.5 Mbps DSL for $25/month or 8/10/20 Mbps cable internet for $50-70 per month. We're lucky to have any broadband at all, so I guess I can't complain.
I have not experienced any ISP downtime at all in the past year. Their speed dips to around 3.0 Mbps during peak hours, but ping is always good and I never notice any serious packet loss. The internet connection is rock solid. If you have the $, you can get a pretty decent connection, especially during off-hours....
VOIP service has been iffy at times. Occasionally it has a noticeable echo, and it can be down for hours at a time once or twice a month. I'd advise against using their VOIP for now...
4 local HD channels are available. Analog picture quality is nothing special. Digital channels come in crystal clear.
The phone-in customer service sucks. 15+ minutes on hold is not a good way to treat customers paying $125/month. Field techs have been helpful and knowledgeable, on the plus side.
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 Review by rednekbrh
UPDATED: 364 days ago
member for 4.1 years, 1110 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Mason City,Cerro Gordo,IA
$200 per month
"Fast Speeds, decent connectivity"
"Hard to deal with tech support"
"Can't get the static IP i need"
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Need a static IP for work reasons was told under no circumstances would i get a static ip, wil. be looking for other solutions.
Followup comments:  bradleym
join:2002-08-05
Dunfermline, IL | Question Just wondering why you need the static IP... | |
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 Review by sawman
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 7.5 years, 1187 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Baldwin City,Douglas,KS
$47 per month
about 3 days
"Seldom down"
"Price and you can tell when students are online"
"Speed increase made the price almost tolerable"
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11-24-2008 We will give thanks for another 3% increase in our bill this Thanksgiving. $3 increase in broadcast basic TV. I guess that's to rub the digital artifacts in our face. $109.28 total now. Direct TV and DSL a very good bet when we get a HD LCD TV.
12-3-2007 Biannual rate increase will raise total bill by $3 again next month. Ho, ho, ho.
10-15-2007 5% price increase in last year for basic tv/broadband package. Little down time usually due to storms, but the speeds seem to be affected negatively by Baker U. students online. Over 5000 down is knocked down well under 2000 or less than 1000 at times. Had pulled 7000 often during summer.
5-26-2005 Update: Bottom line still says it all. Restarted my modem yesterday and am getting almost 4600 down with the bump to 5000/256. Thank you Mediacom!
Mediacom brought us broadband over two years ago and Sprint just this year offered DSL here. Pretty sad considering I could be at Sprint's world headquarters inside of thirty minutes! Mediacom is still the better deal from what I hear. The 2750kps speed has been great as we used to be lucky to get 700 and often much less with the 1500/128. Service has been more consistent too, only having a couple of hours or so down about once a month lately. The dynamic IP actually seems static, not changing for months at a time and then only when messing with a buggy Linksys firmware upgrade/downgrade. Took a year to get our drop buried but we had service in the mean time. Never understood why it was so difficult to communicate what needed to be done. We were somewhat compensated for the frustration by never being charged the thirty dollars(now eighty) for the bury.
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Review by jpg366
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 5.6 years, 1399 visits, last login: 88 days ago
Mobile,Mobile,AL
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
"RCA modem seems to run fine, plenty fast"
"some downtime... seems weather-related"
"Good bundle price with cable TV, will drop Bellsouth bill a lot"
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Phone bill with DSL was running about $100 monthly. Cable bill with digital cable and intenet only went up 59. Plan to drop land line and let Bellsouth make their money from someone else. Self-install went fine. Did have to call their CS for a bit of help. Mediacom's internet Customer Service is FAR BETTER than their cable TV CS.
Running a wireless net up front, no problems.
Moved to TX in 2007
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Review by KublaiCon
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 1 year, 2 visits, last login: 1 year ago
Valdosta,Lowndes,GA
$110 per month (36 month contract)
about 3 days
"Few... they employ locals?"
"High latency, slow at times, inept customer service and technicians"
"AVOID at all costs,"
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Mediacom basically holds a monopoly in my area (as it turns out, they give "gifts" to the city planner as a way of preventing his vote on a municipal ISP/Cable provider). They decided, quite hurriedly, to start their phone service about 2 years ago. Ever since then, the network has been brought to its knees (I hear the phone service is down an average three days a week).
I already pay too much for a "6 Mb/s" connection (and basic cable), the latency is ridiculous. The representative over the phone informed me that, "It's probably due to the weather getting cold." Are the pipes freezing my man?
For the past two weeks, I've been dealing with frequent interruptions (Mediacom's policy is to provide credit only for 24-hour consecutive interruptions... theoretically, your connection could be up for 23 hours a day and they would not do anything to remedy this financially). When it is working, I'm pulling down close to 2Mb/s... one THIRD of the advertised speed. Don't get me started about upload (80Kb/s...).
If that weren't enough, my neighbor actually has their digital cable service and 6Mb/s connection... and pays HALF of what I pay for basic cable and the same Internet connection. He has had this running for nearly two years.
In short: unfair pricing, terrible quality of service, technical support is laughable at best... just get DSL.
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Review by amgqmp1
Posted: 1 year ago
member for 1 year, 52 visits, last login: 80 days ago
West Des Moines,Polk,IA
$60 per month
about 7 days
"Capable of being very fast"
"Low quality of service due to poorly managed network"
"If you're using Mediacom, you likely have no other choice. It's better than dial-up...sometimes."
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I have the choice of Qwest DSL or Mediacom cable modem service. I went with the cable modem service as my home is not new construction, and will need some rewiring to get DSL service to function at advertised speeds.
I initially ordered Mediacom High Speed Internet service with basic cable. The monthly recurring cost was about $70. As I found myself rarely using the basic cable (the picture quality is pathetic), I dropped the basic cable and now pay $60.95/month. This provides me with the standard 8Mbps/896Kbps service.
The order process was simple and the install date was less than a week from the time of ordering. I dislike that the only option for ordering service is via telephone, but, it wasn't a practical concern.
The installer arrived on-time, however, he was less than professional. He was a contractor and was doing the best he knew, however, he didn't have the tools necessary (e.g. an 8ft. ladder...he only had a 40ft.) to do a basic install. What he lacked in tools, he made up for in determination. He was able to get the job done, even though it required standing on my gas meter outside, getting dirty fingerprints on my soffit, and an extra hour that I'm sure we both could have used better doing something else.
I was provided with an obviously used (the warranty seal was already torn) RCA modem. I later looked at the diagnostics web page for the modem, and it had already been operational for the previous four years. It was replaced recently by a Mediacom Tech. trying to solve a quality of service issue.
Speaking of quality of service issues...for a few months I have suffered from nearly unusable access. Ping times (to any destination) of 300-500ms, and throughput barely able to reach 2Mbps. An on-site tech. made a wiring change to correct a mistake of the original installer, and replaced my antique RCA modem.
After reading about many other Mediacom customers in my state experiencing the same issue, I took the initiative to request that my downstream card utilization be checked. Within 24 hours my quality of service problems disappeared. I'm mystified as to how such a network quality of service issue could go unnoticed, but, I have to believe proactive monitoring is simply not a priority to them.
I've also had a billing issue with Mediacom that was unacceptable. They cross-linked my account number to another customer in a city 150 miles away. When I would login to my online account, I would see all of his contact information. When I paid my bill, they would apply it to his account. To the credit of their customer service, they did resolve the issue in a reasonable amount of time. However, hold times to reach customer service is another problem. The average time I waited on hold was 30 minutes.
The bottom line is that Mediacom is a subpar ISP. Improvements that would benefit a majority of their customers include:
- Ability to order/change service through their web site
- Reduced hold times for reaching customer service and technical service
- Proactively monitored network
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Review by kb0nly
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 6.3 years, 34 visits, last login: 85 days ago
Tyler,Lincoln,MN
$45 per month
about 3 days
"Fast! Beats the DSL available here by light years!"
"Customer service hold times, if you have to call be ready to wait."
"Great value for the money!"
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I dinged the Tech Support rating to a 4 for one reason only... If you call them be prepared for a LONG wait on hold. I had to call them one night and was put on hold for nearly a half hour before reaching a human being. But this is a problem with all ISP's these days due to volume of customers and how many of them are just itching to call when a network glitch affects their connection.
For the record, i just called because we had been experiencing some random disconnects, found out it was due to a problem with the network elsewhere and within an hour of calling it was all back to 100% lightning fast.
I got a one year promotional price on a 5mbps connection, $9.95 a month for the first year, then it goes to $45.95 a month, which is still cheaper than the only other option i have. Frontier offers 1.5mbps DSL service for $49.95 where i live, and thats the only option they have, no faster!
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 Review by NicoleDiana
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 6.1 years, 744 visits, last login: 7 days ago
Valdosta,Lowndes,GA
$20 per month
about 7 days
"Speeds, price break"
"Local office, installation problems"
"Faster than DSL, CS is improving"
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11/04/08
Customer service at the 800 number has gotten worse, it is unchanged in the store BUT my connection actually works most of the time. Being on a retention plan hasn't hurt any but the torture I had to endure to earn the reward wasn't really worth it. Overall, the only reason I'm on Mediacom now is because they cut the price under DSL. Once that deal is over, I'm walking.
02/28/08
I have to say that Mediacom service has come a long way in just a few short months. I've only experienced one very brief service disruption and speeds are around the advertised rate.
What has REALLY improved is the quality of customer service when calling the toll free number. I was already content with them but as of late, CSR's have really gone above and beyond to work with me on package deals, credits and so forth.
If you experienced a lot of service problems like I did in the past and have them documented on the account, I encourage you to call the retention department and talk to them about it. There are some very sweet deals available.
I now pay $19.99 for broadband, $24.99 for family cable and $9.99 for Showtime/Starz combo pack.
******************previous update below ******************
12/12/07 Update
Well after giving plenty of time for system "hiccups" to get worked out, I've lowered my rating(s) and am updating this review. Mediacom in Valdosta, GA is horrible on their best days. I spent over an hour on the phone with a CSR out of Florida, talking in great detail about the problems up here. There was actual concern about the situation, especially with locals once again pushing for the city to step in and provide the service since Mediacom apparently cannot.
The overview: I've received credits already for seven days of outages within the last billing cycle. Last night, the service was on but latency online was extremely high and the cable picture was fuzzy with sporadic black screens. I have no doubt that the system probably tanked while I was off at work today. This is ongoing and I'm suspecting that no relief is in sight. My complex doesn't allow dishes so DirecTV is out and DSL is unavailable on this block. I'm going to follow up to find out why.
I subscribe to the TV channels and internet service to relax but it has wound up being more of a headache than anything else. There is nothing like coming home from an awful day and wanting nothing more than to immerse myself in some tacky comedy only to find that the laugh is on me: the screen is dark and the service center answers calls with a recorded "There is a known outage in your area".
The library appreciates this situation, I'm sure, as I've become a regular again. Maybe that is a good thing but still, I expect to get what I pay for. Right now, I don't even get half. I am the type of person to MOVE to a place with better services and I know there are others just like me. Perhaps if customers cannot get results, landlords losing tenants will.
If Mediacom is your ONLY option, be prepared for a lot of phone calls to get credits for outages. FYI: it is up to you to call when your service is back up and request the credit.
******************original review below ******************
I'm not new to Mediacom but it is pretty new to the house I recently moved into. It took four different visits and as many techs to finally get the cable/phone/internet connections going but aside from one no-show, everyone was at least pleasant and hard working.
As part of the VIP package, I was upgraded to Online Max (10Mbps). My speeds have been consistent and my connection hasn't given any hint of a problem. My TV service, on the other hand, still has issues but I'll leave that discussion for another part of the site.
Overall, I'm impressed with the speeds and pleased with the phone support employees. The staff at the local office are a whole other story. With each conversation, from pre-sales to post-install, I jotted notes and found that no two people in the office ever gave the same answer. From install times to actual prices and features, each person had his/her own story. At first, the local office informed me that cable service wasn't even out this way. Having seen the Mediacom trucks working on a neighboring line, I had to wonder if she knew what she was talking about. Sure enough, one phone call cleared it up and the order was placed.
My advice to those considering Mediacom: call the toll free numbers when at all possible. I'll update my review as my time online continues. If there are any major hiccups along the way, I'll make mention of them.
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Review by saulnierpr
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 1 year, 2 visits, last login: 319 days ago
Milton,Santa Rosa,FL
Contract price not specified.
about 3 days
"Dedicated sales/technician provides good end service"
"In my first three days, internet has dropped nearly ten times"
"Depends on what you're doing; if you need a reliable but slower connection, get DSL."
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I live in Whiting Pines (NAS Whiting housing), and we have our own dedicated cable guy; he was fast, pleasant, and efficient. Called me back within an hour of my leaving a message (impressive, considering the black hole of service usually portended by voicemail), scheduled at my convenience. He also has a pricing package that beats what's normally available. The normal sales channel people are completely unaware of this.
While our technician installed my service quickly, the reliability over the wire has been spotty. It's dropped several times this week (my FIRST week), without any reason given. I haven't had service this unreliable since I was with Cox in Virginia in the late 1990's, and that was pretty much the dawn of the broadband era. This is unacceptable. Needless to say, it's a monopoly, so the only other options are satellite (too much latency for me) or DSL, which suffers from bandwidth issues. However, if the reliability stays at this level, I'll be switching and requesting my money back.
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Review by shaneo8256
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 3 years, 29 visits, last login: 9 days ago
Ottawa,La Salle,IL
$110 per month
about 4 days
"every things working alright."
"none yet"
"good service,realiable connection"
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Just got Mediacom's highspeed 8mb internet service and their digital cable.
im pleased with the speeds i get. Download Speed: 7677 kbps Upload Speed: 492 kbps
Now I have all 3 of mediacoms services everything works very well internet is pretty fast getting about 10mbps down and 1mbps up.
Followup comments: fallenangel
join:2005-10-04
USA | Review? How are the speeds? Are they as advertised? Any problems w/ P2P programming? | |
| | shaneo8256
join:2006-10-31
Ottawa, IL | Re: Review? Yeah the speeds are close to whats advertised no problems with p2p programs. | |
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