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Review by buelatfb 
UPDATED: 138 days ago
member for 138 days, 0 visits, last login: 138 days ago
 Fort Lupton,Weld,CO
 $44 per month
 "typically faster than satellite or dialup"
 "80% of the time, slower than advertised. oversubscribed Terrible tech support"
 "Get, if this is all there is in your area. Don't expect VOIP or Video to work well."
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They have had tower issues in the Brighton area for over 1 1/2 years and nothing seems to be being done about it. Speeds are getting slower and less reliable every month. Speeds are dropping in the triple digits quite often lately.
Don't expect to get more than 2 meg service out of the Brighton/Hudson area, eventhough the radio might be set for the 7 meg service.....
Followup comments:  
Jack Mueller
@qwest.net
| Skybeam Sucks I was transferred from GWE.net to Skybeam.
What is this? No tech support, now the webmail is down,
I get a bogus notice that makes no sense.
This is clearly a financial instrument of funded takeovers
of smaller ISP's w/out the mission or infrastructure to
support customers.
I'm going elsewhere, hope the investors lose
their cynical bundle.
Jack Mueller
jackmueller@gwe.net | |
|
sheriinlongmont
@skybeam.com
| Skybeam is totally the worst When Mesa had it everything was great. Since Skybeam took over I have daily outages, long hold times and over the past two weeks I've stopped being able to go to a lot of websites, msn.com as one of them. I am a home based business so this is a huge problem for me. Unfortunately, I have no options but wireless. I never, never thought I would say this, but Skybeam is worst than Qwest in every way shape or form. If you have other options, I HIGHLY recommend going with someone else. You will not be happy with Skybeam. | |
| | | Bahnzo
join:2002-08-09
Loveland, CO
 ·LPBroadband
·Skybeam.net
| Re: Skybeam - Great Price The above reply is either someone who has no idea what internet service should be like, or an employee of Skybeam.
11pm on a Saturday, and here's what Skybeam's service looks like:
»www.speedtest.net/result/569876523.png
Computing statistics for 100 seconds...
Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct
1 2ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 10.0.1.1
2 58ms 21/ 100 = 21% 2/ 100 = 2% 10.9.64.2
3 63ms 22/ 100 = 22% 3/ 100 = 3% 1-253-73-208.skybeam.com [208.73.253.1]
4 57ms 19/ 100 = 19% 0/ 100 = 0% dvr-edge-11.inet.qwest.net [205.171.52.89]
Trace complete.
21% lost packets from their first hop, incredibly slow speeds....and this is what it's like during non-prime time hours, you can imagine how it is during "busy times".
For months now I've been told by Skybeam they are "Waiting on equipment" to fix the issue out here, but it's become obvious this is not true. I can only hope that anyone considering them for net service has other options and is smart enough to use them because, hands-down, Skybeam is the worst ISP I've ever had, and I've seen plenty...from Cox cable to PacBell to Comcast to Qwest. Skybeam makes them look like they invented the internet.... | |
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Review by mattmcl
Posted: 167 days ago
member for 8.1 years, 23 visits, last login: 135 days ago
Erie,Boulder,CO
$44 per month
"Umm... upload speeds are kinda fast..."
"Terrible download speeds, horrible latency"
"Used to be great as Mesanetworks, now it barely beats dial up"
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I'm paying for 1.5 mbps, and only get half that. Skybeam support told me my tower can't support anything faster, yet I was pulling 10mbps when Mesanetworks ran the show. I've been through a couple "network upgrades" from Skybeam and each time it gets worse. If you have any other option, go for it. For what they're charging and delivering, I could get two phone lines and a modem, pay less and have faster speeds.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Skybeam.net |
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Review by Bahnzo
Posted: 203 days ago
member for 7.3 years, 54 visits, last login: 42 days ago
Loveland,Larimer,CO
$50 per month
"None that I can think of"
"Unreliable, slow speeds, OVERSOLD NETWORK, poor tech support"
"If you have another option, don't choose Skybeam"
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I've had skybeam since it was LP Broadband. For months now, my node has become oversold, and practically unusable, especially in the evening hours. Extremely slow speeds, high packet loss, and outright service loss is now to be expected.
And tech support from the company isn't much better. For months I called and emailed only to be told "Your connection looks fine". When I sent proof (speedtest.net and WinXP "pathping" screenshots) showing the slow speeds and dropped packets, I was ignored. It was only this week that someone in their "Tier 3" support took notice and conceeded that a "network upgrade" was needed to solve the problems. Taking the months of previous "support" into account, I have to assume that upgrade will not be soon in coming.
If I had any other option besides Skybeam for broadband service, I would've switched providers long ago. Skybeam seems to be a model for how NOT to run an ISP.
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Review by Seric
UPDATED: 221 days ago
member for 221 days, 2 visits, last login: 213 days ago
Lyons,Boulder,CO
$65 per month
"Was first broadband to boonies"
"Too many drops and outages, latency too erratic"
"Too unreliable for even the most modest of internet users"
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I was with this service since it was Greenspeed. Was only a two man operation and had some bugs now and then but overall was decent. Then Mesa Networks took over but service quality remained splotchy and erratic, however, Mesa was very cooperative and motivated to fix issues. It would run well for a few weeks then fall apart until tech support worked with me to get it working well again. This pattern of breaking and fixing remain for the entire Mesa time.
Now Skybeam handles it and the system still has the usual reliability problems, and also seems to be oversold now. What makes Skybeam bad is they don't really seem to care much about the quality of the service and won't even look into issues without a lot of customer persistence. It became a big ordeal and chore to keep going through a week of arguing and convincing every time the network inevitably developed problems. So finally I just didn't have the will or energy anymore to keep going through it all so I switched to Qwest DSL (which became available in the area during Mesa years). The DSL is slower than the best days of Skybeam, but the reliability can't be beat (in the last year had a total of 8 hours downtime and maybe 24 hours of slow speeds). I also don't have to call when there are outages; Qwest always seems to know about it right away and gets quickly resolved. I used to only care about speed but after these experiences I've realized reliability counts for much more.
Followup comments:
gharvey
@skybeam.com
| garbage company 5 years of living hell because they were the only game in town. Every negative thing that anyone has said is true for me. Started out as LP Broadband. Used the service for my business in town and out at my house. Had to stop using the service for my business because of the down time. Found the best way to force them to fix things is to go to their office and let it rip. | |
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considering
@wildblue.net
| Re: garbage company Ok, neighbor is getting this service and I am considering it. I'm with Wildblue as was my neighbor. Tired of the costs and outages due to weather, I'm obviously looking for something else.
Not much available around here, no DSL, No cable, a very bad at&t dialup which I lived with for 6 years.
Is this really such a horrible choice for services? | |
| | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO | Re: garbage company It will *probably* be better than WildBlue, but sounds like you can't count on it. I've heard good and bad things about Skybeam myself... | |
| | buelatfb
join:2009-07-09
Fort Lupton, CO
·Skybeam.net
| Their service is progressively getting worse the past year. What do you expect? They started out with 6000 customers, and couldn't handle it. Now they have worked up to 15,000+ customers. They are completely overwhelmed. Poor management throughout the company also.
DOOMED for failure.... | |
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Walking Away
@urbanbroadband.net
| Good by, good riddance... I signed up originally when the company was called Suburban Broadband. Service was great and the people were extremely helpful and responsive. The company underwent a few names changes over the last few years but the service remained fine.
Then Skybeam took over.
Over the last several months, internet speed has been slowing to a crawl. Simple websites now require multiple attempts before they will appear on screen. Upload times via FTP are ridiculously slow (200Mb file took 4 hours to upload). Download speeds are a joke. And this is with a DSL line!!!
I contacted tech support and got ZERO workable help. Not a clue was to be had by the two people I spoke with. I was told to expect a follow-up call to determine a solution... never happened.
Result: I've contacted QWEST and my service is being transferred this week. Am I happy about that? Not really. But I need reliable internet service and Skybeam is unable to deliver. And I don't have time to deal with tech support that is non-responsive to customer issues. Loyalty to a company stops when the company expects me to continue paying a monthly fee yet doesn't see fit to deliver on its promised service.
Avoid Skybeam if you need fast, reliable internet service. | |
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urbanwarrior
@comcast.net
| Re: Good by, good riddance... Im not here to defend Skybeam as I was fired by Wispertel last summer, but just to clarify a few points and to be of help. Suburban Broadband was purchased a couple years back by JAB Wireless, mostly for its VOIP Structure. Suburban broadband has a couple hundred subscibers mostly on 802.11 wireless networks. A few folks like you were on DSL which was purchased and resold from Qwest. The DSL assests were worthless and no money was made on these customers unless they had VOIP as well. Suburban was a small responsive local company. JAB purchased quite a few wireless companies and merged them into other companies. Wispertel got Suburban and stopped reselling DSL.
Jab eventually purchased Mesa and LP and merged everything into Skybeam last winter.
Bottom line: Point to point fixed wireless is faster cheaper and more reliable if you are in a remote area and Wildblue is your only choice. There is no contract so you have not much to lose. The company keeps evolving and goes through growing pains. Eventually they work things out with customers they want to keep. | |
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Review by grahamsz
Posted: 235 days ago
member for 4.4 years, 4 visits, last login: 139 days ago
Erie,Boulder,CO
$60 per month
"Good coverage in places that aren't served by DSL or Cable. Fast upload (when it works)"
"Horribly unreliable"
"I've been with these guys since 2005 when they were Mesa Networks and the service has degraded horribly"
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I signed up with Mesa Networks in May of 2005 and at the time was thrilled. While not as fast as the DSL or Cable I can get in my neighborhood they were rock solid and had great (tech literate) technical support people.
Sometime in 2009 they got bought out by Skybeam and everything went to hell. My service that's been rock solid for four years now scarcely makes it through a day without dropping. I no longer get the advertised speeds, and it takes forever to get a support person on the phone (if their wait system doesn't hang up on you first).
If you can't get DSL or Cable then they are certainly better than dialup, but after years of singing their praises I can't recommend them if you have another option.
Followup comments:
storm311
@skybeam.com | Skybeam Actually Mesa wasn't bought out - it was a merger and the network hasn't been changed in any way. | |
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canoedf
@skybeam.com
| Re: Skybeam Being a subscriber for a few years it seems that the network SHOULD have changed. Oversubscribed? I do not know about that but a little TLC would help while the dust settles.
My perception - service is interrupted more now than before the merger.
The Skybeam website could use some help.... the current version is just lacking depth. I do NOT want to talk to a live human sales type when I should be able to click and get the information I want. Let me sell myself and THEN I will call in person if needed.
Now if I could just get some redundancy for the network piece...... | |
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Skybeam Customer
@skybeam.com
| "...hasn't been changed in any way." Really.
If the Skybeam network hasn't changed in any way why did my static IP address change? Also why have I been getting significant lag and random outages for the past month since the merger or whatever it was?
All I know is Skybeam customer service is basically non-existent, in addition to the outages and lag compared to Mesa Networks. Skybeam has not responded to any but one of my six complaints in the past month and your tech support voice mail is on infinite ignore.
Not a good way to come to our town Skybeam. | |
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Former Fan
@nsc.com
| Can you say oversubscribed? Mesa Networks was AWESOME. Since the merger of Mesa and LP Broadband into Skybeam (they took back the old name) the speed has fallen off a cliff. I had the 2.5Mbps package with Mesa and usually got better than that during the day and seldom below 1.5Mbps in the evening. Now I'm lucky to get 500kbps in the evening and 250kbps is not unusual. The network may not have been changed but the available bandwidth sure has gone down. If you've got a choice, RUN AWAY... | |
| | grahamsz
join:2005-06-01
Erie, CO | Re: Can you say oversubscribed? Yeah, mesa were great. I downloaded a 33 gig file over a vpn connection once and it worked first time. It took all weekend, but i'm lucky if i can stay hooked to work for more than 2 or 3 hours right now. | |
| mattmcl
join:2001-10-05
Erie, CO
 ·Comcast
·Skybeam.net
| Network HAS changed, or Skybeam doesn't know diddly... I was with Mesa when they opened their doors, and had stellar service and performance. Early on, I had an uncapped connection and was hitting 10mbps consistently. They later figured that out, and capped me at 2.5. At some point, I switched to the 1.5 plan.
Then Skybeam came along, and connection speeds dropped to .6 mbps. I asked to upgrade to their highest plan, and was told my tower couldn't support that speed.
So if the network hasn't changed, why was I able to get 10mbps almost TEN years ago, and now I can't get a tenth of that?
I strongly suspect something fishy, as my recent speed tests show downloads of .6 mbps, but uploads of 1.5 mbps. So it's not a connectivity issue. I complained about this several times, and have been told my connection was "reallocated," and speeds improved for a week or so. Then slowly I'm back down to a crawl.
Why Mesa, why why why did you leave us? | |
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unhappy customer
@skybeam.com | Re: Network HAS changed, or Skybeam doesn't know diddly... I couldn't agree more. Was very happy with Mesa for years. As soon as Skybeam entered the pictures this service has tanked. It blows to say the least. I couldn't even recommend Skybeam to a enemy. I'd like to see the place go under personally. | |
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Silent Partner
@skybeam.com
| Re: Network HAS changed Darn right it has changed. MesaNetworks was great. Skybeam and their tech support are the pits. I know more about their network than they do, due to all the problems we have had since they became Skybeam.
Last time, to get resolution to the problem, I had to write to a local newspaper and copy the manager of sales at SkyBeam. Then someone took a look. This was after two weeks messing with "tech" support. I think all the real "tech" people have moved on.
If you want to know their standard operating procedure. It is their is something wrong with your equipment. Then we might be having problems an our backhaul (I keep pointing out that their DNS servers are dropping - so it could be a switch, router, the server itself, etc - turns out they are using some Linux "box" as their router(s), who knows what the switches are) then it will be something about your radio not working correctly. See if I am wrong.
I've had to tell tech support "damn my lying eyes" three times now. (Spoof a MAC address - get assigned to a different subnet via DHCP, and viola! It's fixed). Tech guy told me my radio was dead. Sheesh.
Avoid them if you can. We got this house after thoroughly vetting MesaNetworks. Now I have no other providers and am stuck. (My wife and I are both full time telecommuters). Skybeam has bought all the competition. They don't have to provide reasonable service or quality if they are the monopoly. | |
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Review by mrg123
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 5.8 years, 1332 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Berthoud,Larimer,CO
$39 per month
"The only broadband available in the rural area that I live"
"A little less reliable than a wired connection"
"Overall, I'm satisfied and glad that I'm not stuck with dialup"
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We recently moved to to an area outside city limits where neither Quest nor Comcast offer Internet service. LPBroadband was the only ground-based broadband available. (LPBroadband is in the process of merging with another wireless ISP -- Mesa Networks. The two combined companies will be known post-merger as SkyBeam.)
Installation was quick, and everything seemed to work well right away. However, the installation was done in early spring while the trees around our house were still devoid of leaves. By early summer, we started having connection reliability problems. When this occurred, it seemed that the equipment would get hung up requiring a power cycle.
I had to call tech support at least 3 times to convince them that there was really a problem. At least one of the techs had that "customer is stupid" attitude, and seemed to be certain that the problem was my Linksys router. This was after a previous tech had already seen a temporary improvement by having me power-cycle their radio. Finally, the third phone support tech looked at the signal strength numbers and decided that I either needed my antenna re-aligned or a new radio. After a tech came out to do antenna re-alignment, things are back to normal with good reliability.
We use AT&T callvantage VOIP which worked flawlessly with Comcast before we moved. With Skybeam, we occasionally miss incoming calls; i.e., the phone never rings, caller ID doesn't show anything, and no voicemail indicator. However, call quality is great once connected. VOIP obviously didn't work during the aforementioned radio/signal strength issues, but since that has been resolved VOIP is back to almost-normal. I have the VOIP box behind my router; I suppose that the missed incoming call issue could be related to that.
Bandwidth is around 2 Mbps downstream and 500-600 kbps upstream. Measured bandwidth is pretty close to these numbers.
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Review by jkrutar
Posted: 5.6 years ago
member for 5.6 years, 0 visits, last login: 5.6 years ago
Berthoud,Larimer,CO
$50 per month (12 month contract)
"Very good Download and Upload speeds"
"At first, my antenna was too weak"
"Very satisfied and glad they are here!"
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dslreports.com ,
Thanks to this ISP the Berthoud community has High Speed Wireless. Starting out as Inventive Wireless and then merging with Skybeam proved to be a good move. I have had their service since Inventive's inception and find upload and download speeds are great. Once we worked out my antenna strength problem all has been flawless. I work out of my home as a graphic designer. I send large files all over the world. If it were not for Skybeam's excellent service, this would be impossible. Job well done.
Satisfied customer.
--
------------
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Review by dgoodman
Posted: 5.6 years ago
member for 8 years, 12 visits, last login: 5.6 years ago
Loveland,Larimer,CO
$65 per month (12 month contract)
 about 14 days
"Great company, courteous and profressional people. responsive"
"Cost could be a little more competitive."
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I've been a Skybeam customer for 2+ years utilizing their 512K offering. Service is on line consistently with minor outages. Any time I call with an issue the personnel were professional and responsive to my request. I've referred other customers and understand Skybeam delayed installations to ensure they did not impact performance and serviceability to their existing customers. This sincerely creates value and instills confidence in Skybeam's customers. Those new to the service should appreciate this companies standards. Unfortunately all companies don't work this way.
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Review by wingzinco
Posted: 6.3 years ago
member for 6.3 years, 24 visits, last login: 3.9 years ago
Loveland,Larimer,CO
$75 per month (12 month contract)
about 90 days
"Not many in my case"
"Took 3 months to get service, never ran right, never was fixed"
"Company wasn't truly willing to fix my problems until I threatened to leave"
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First of all, it took 3 months from my first contact to get service hooked up in my home. Skybeam is now working with Front Range Internet, so it may be better now. I was not the only one this happened to, others reported the difficulty of getting a response after requesting service.
500k up/500k down service ($75/month) worked fine for the first 2 weeks, then it went to crap and never fully recovered. Had mysterious traffic coming from my router, was told that it had to be my computer. No traffic leaving my machine, no bugs or viruses on my machine, no activity at all on my machine. It was leaving my connection worse than dial-up! The owner changed the config on the router, worked for about 2 days. Made other changes after that, it would work temporarily, but would always revert to a poor connection. In the first few weeks I was told it may be the electrical wires behind my house (in the opposite direction the antenna is pointing) that could be causing problems and that a stronger antenna would help. I never received a stronger antenna. Rarely would I get over 400k down and would never get over 250 up (I ftp files to servers often). I would email the company with problems and they seemed to be unique to me. Still, no major fixes, just hacks to the configuration. I work from home and need a fast connection, I would lose connections, etc. and never was I offered credit for down time or my problems. I stuck it out because I was desperate for a fast connection and Skybeam was my only choice. Part of the time was better than none of the time. I work in a IT related field so I'm pretty understanding when it comes to realizing technology isn't perfect and there can be issues.
Well, about a month ago, I found another solution was available (Mesa Networks). After finding the price was $18 less per month for twice the download speed, the technology is much more sound, and after speaking to people firsthand about their experiences, I decided to leave Skybeam. Problem, I was in for a 12 month contract (it's in the fine print, read carefully). There is a $79 cancellation fee to leave, I figured if I had to pay it, I'd still be saving money monthy for better service. I was fed up.
They also wanted to charge me $150 to de-install my antenna!!! LOL! Ah, but the contract says if you WANT it uninstalled, it will cost you. I didn't care and I wasn't about to pay $150 for deinstallation....especially after waiting 3 months and paying $250 for installation! So, I left it to them, if they wanted their equipment, they could come get it, but not with me paying. Once I called Skybeam/FRII to let them know I was cancelling, I was then offered a new, "stronger" antenna...little late.
I told them if they wanted to get their antenna, they would have to call me and I wanted to be home when they did it.....didn't happen. The antenna sat there for 2 weeks after I cancelled, went on vacation for a week, only to come home to it being gone. They came to my house, without my permission, went on my roof and removed...leaving all the cables attached to my house!!!!! I emailed the guy at FRII to call me immediately (btw, FRII has good customer service, so I don't blame them for most of this, it's Skybeam all the way). Finally last week, the cables came down. I spoke to the guy at FRII again about waving the cancellation fee because of all of the troubles I went thru....only to be told they couldn't do it because they offered to fix my connection!!!!! Unbelievable! Offered after 3 months of problems and my threat to leave...that is!
So, I'm stuck paying the cancellation fee to get rid of service that was never up to par to begin with.
Take it for what it's worth. I'm not out to just ruin a company's name because I will admit that I know people that have not had any problems at all. Just wanted to share my experience so that people can use it in making their decision.
Also, from reading and talking to others, I've found that other wireless companies have used the same technology in the past, only to abandon it for newer technologies. hmmmm......
Luckily for other Loveland people, Cable broadband will be here soon. I'll stick with what I have though, it's been flawless...but that's another review.
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Review by mazinbenny
Posted: 6.5 years ago
member for 6.5 years, 10 visits, last login: 6.2 years ago
Loveland,Larimer,CO
$74 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
"Awesome speed, right at advertised transfer rates"
"not much.... extra cabling charge at installation?"
"Solid speed, best you can do in Loveland (since cable, DSL seem pretty nonexistent)"
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I have been loving Skybeam's premium 512k service sinec it was installed last week. The speed is consistent and fast -- much better than my old ISDN (and no dropped connections). Speed tests on dslreports show my connection running at the advertised speeds (513/452) for 512/512... I couldn't ask for anything better. Jayme at Skybeam is easy to work with, and he gets the job done quickly and professionally. The installers were also professional as they ran CAT 5e across the back of my house.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Skybeam.net |
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Skybeam - Great Price
