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Review by buelatfb 
UPDATED: 139 days ago
member for 139 days, 0 visits, last login: 139 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."
| Pre Sales Information:
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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: 168 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: 204 days ago
member for 7.3 years, 54 visits, last login: 43 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"
| Pre Sales Information:
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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.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Skybeam.net |
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Review by Seric
UPDATED: 222 days ago
member for 222 days, 2 visits, last login: 214 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"
| Pre Sales Information:
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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: 236 days ago
member for 4.4 years, 4 visits, last login: 140 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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Skybeam - Great Price
