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Disclaimer up front - I only joined DSLreports to write this review. Texas communications was my internet provider for 4 years and I absolutely loved their service. Speeds were exactly was I was paying for (10Mbps down/2Mbps up). There was one bad case of downtime in the 4 years that I was with them which lasted several days, but that is because their tower was badly damaged due to storms. They kept posting regular updates on their FB and twitter pages and I could actually call Scott Sewell at Texas Communications and get accurate updates on repair and when service was expected to be restored. Beyond that, I never had any problems with them, EVER. Then, about a couple months ago, for about a week straight, speeds dropped to 2Mbps down and 0.3Mbps up and connectivity kept dropping several times per day. I tried calling Scott only to be told "We sold our internet service to Skybeam and if you haven't been contacted by them, you will be in due course." The contact came in the form of mail which informed us that we were now Skybeam customers. So I called them up to see why the speeds were down so much and why connectivity was so spotty. After being on hold for ~45min, the customer service rep basically said "You're getting speeds consistent with our pricing tiers and we show no problems with connectivity to you" just like that. I kept insisting that the connection was dropping several times a day and my speeds weren't what I was paying for. He refused to believe me. So I told him to cancel service. He said, "ok, hold on, I can get you a really great deal on our 10/2 package and with the promo code, you'll be paying exactly what you are right now for 1 year". I kept insisting that they cancel my service. He kept trying to sell me one of their packages. Finally, I told him "Look, I want to cancel my service. What don't you understand about that?". So, he said, "ok, we're canceling your service." I came home from work the next evening and to my horror, my antenna that I had bought from Texas communications (when I first established service) with them was gone from the roof and the wire was just dangling from the edging. I called Skybeam up and they said, "do you have any proof that you paid for the equipment?" I said I hadn't kept the receipt and could not therefore prove that it is mine. So he laughed and hung up on me. My conclusion? Skybeam is a very shady company run by really shady people and staffed by really shady people. Avoid them at all costs! member for 8.9 years, 1 visits, last login: 8.9 years ago updated 8.9 years ago
We have had service for a number of years now, initiated with Eccentrix Wireless, a ma-pop operation that got bought by Skybeam a couple of years in. Service with Eccentrix was always professional and reasonably punctual. Equipment in service: Motorola Canopy with yagi antenna atop 50' pole, 900 mHz. D/L speed max 2.0 mbps, supposedly on 5 mbps plan. Not too long before the buyout, problems arose due to local power company (Oncor) implementation of so-called "smart" meters which also operate in the 900 mHz band. Eccentrix correctly and accurately diagnosed the issue and proceeded to work with local Oncor boss who was inclined to make adjustments. After all the "smart" meter usage is totally illegal and a violation of FCC Part 15 rules. Meter says right on its face, "Must not interfere with other users." Service was reasonably restored until after Skybeam took over. Eccentrix did undertake to move customers it could off of 900 mHz. When more band jamming occurred with Skybeam running the operation, the company could not and/or would not either diagnose nor even attempt to find a cure. It is after all a part of JAB wireless out of Colorado, a big operation that seeks to buy up ma-pop wISP operations so they can cut costs (fire people) and make money. With a little chain pulling, they did move our access point to a closer tower, out of the path of illegal "smart" meter jamming, and it has been reasonably good for a number of months. Fast forward to 2015: Service down and absolutely deplorable Customer Support. I am not knocking the poor CS people who try hard. Management feeds them baloney which they try to give the customer. That is after you wait over an hour to get one of them on the phone! CS typically knows nothing because tickets do not get timely updated. Just a few days ago, an email announced "Skybeam is becoming Rise Broadband... same great people... More resources ... Best internet experience at an affordable price no matter where you live!" Sounds great, but two days after that they tell customer they are decommissioning the tower and there is NO alternative! Zero notice. Pay your bill every month for years and they kick you to the curb! Did you get that! "Service anywhere" but we are ceasing to serve a long term customer who pays bill every month! Likely reason? Skybeam is too cheap to replace their faulty access point. Impossible so far to determine if that is the true reason because we get multiple different stories. That is why "Sky NO Beam" is now becoming Ruse Broadband! Recommendation: Deal with these people if satellite is your only other alternative. Attachments: member for 13.9 years, 1 visits, last login: 9 years ago updated 9 years ago
Skybeam has awful service & refused to even attempt to fix my issue or offer me something other than "continue to pay us money while you wait for the trees around your house to have the leafs come off so you can have a better connection" I've been with skybeam for 4 years & have always had bad connection but had no other option other than to deal with it. now i'm leaving them for Nextlink. Hopefully they will treat me better. member for 9.5 years, driveby review (so far) lodged 9.5 years ago
I have lived at the same location now for 7 years, in those 7 years I have been through 5 ISPs, the best by far was named PVCO, they got bought out by Skybeam... I started off with a wireless ISP that just couldn't get through the trees, they cancelled my contract after about 6 months of not being able to provide reliable service. Then I got an ISDN connection from AT&T, after about a month they got both links working and it was reliable, but too slow for anything other than checking email, and for the price/speed I was better off with a wireless connect card, so I got one from Verizon. For 6 months it worked fine, I just never did anything but play video games on it because it would burn through my data cap. Then I cancelled everything and switched to PVCO, they were great, good service, speeds were almost always as advertised, the only outage I had was fixed within a day, everything was grand. Then one day I got a piece of mail stating that they were being acquired by Skybeam... then everything went downhill, my 3 meg connection became a 768 connection, when it was working. I would have days of internet not working even after frequent calls, and during this time all of my neighbors cancelled their service because they said it just wasn't worth putting up with... none of them still have internet. I weathered through the storm and eventually the service came back to a somewhat usable form. During the "storm" my internet was down for 3 months straight with frequent calls and eventually it got fixed with some outside intervention. Now the service scales out to be about 3 megs down at 3am and around 1-1.5 up. during peak times it still slows down a lot but usually stays over 1 mbps down. The installers that I have worked with so far have been great, always friendly, always willing to answer questions and test things out, but the service is generally less than adequate and the connection just never stays up. Currently I lose .5 percent of my pings over the course of a month, which should be about 1 percent downtime, but spaced out just perfectly so I can't play any video games or do any voice calls. Luckily I have a backup unlimited 4g connection to rely on when I just cant take it anymore... member for 14.2 years, 62 visits, last login: 9.5 years ago lodged 9.7 years ago
When it works it is great.I have had to change my review a couple times. The yearly problem is back again... There was a "weather related outage" that started 7/6 and ended 7/9. Despite the outage having ended, I still have intermittent or no connectivity. This happens every year in the summer months. After 4 calls to support and over an hour of hold times, they issued a service call on 7/11. Based on previous years experience, they will issue 2-3 service calls, and then eventually they will realize it is at the AP and finally fix the issue. Last year, I had to contact the BBB before it got fixed. I like the service when it works, but this gets REALLY old. Got the service call (he actually came early, but didn't bother to phone prior to showing up.) First he wanted to replace the power cable, which was suggested and tried at the beginning of my troubles last year. Then he checked some things and finally said the AP was getting interference from another AP, and that I would have to install a pole at my expense to reach a different tower... I know this is BS. UPDATE 2012: Iiiiit's baaaaaack. They not only have started a bandwidth limit and implemented some kind of bandwidth allocation snake oil that has turned latency from 10-20 ms pings to 50-60ms pings, but my yearly problem is back. Severely intermittent connectivity. I guess it's back to the BBB. I can no longer recommend this service on ANY level. STAY AWAY! UPDATE: 2014 They upgraded my antennae and thus I have to pay much more for equipment and my monthly fee. The illegally instituted a fair usage policy despite the service being marketed as unlimited. The upgraded antennae was supposed to solve my yearly issue, yet I have had intermittent connectivity for multiple months now despite the fact that the agriculture equipment that they claimed was causing interference has been long put up for the winter. Despite record of multiple years of intermittent service they have given me NO billing consideration. I have over ten years of supporting LAN/WAN connectivity, and I guarantee this is not my equipment. 6/2014 Radio died. Had a service call. They left the new POE injector lying by my desk. The service tech advised my wife (I had to work) that there is something wrong with my router. He had just opened a browser, but didn't get redirected to their provisioning page. He didn't even try purple.com. Once I easily sorted that out, I'm connected, but still getting intermittent connectivity. Dropping packets for 30-60 seconds at a time, with latency before and after. Just sad. member for 13.8 years, 20 visits, last login: 9.8 years ago updated 9.8 years ago
Dumped Skybeam back in December 2012 after I was getting like 1Mbps on my 5Mbps plan, went to Nextlink (NxLink.com) and am currently getting 29/20 Mbps and only paying for 15/5Mbps... WITH 4ms PING.. yes, FOUR... single digit pings! Superior in every single way to Skybeam member for 19.6 years, 960 visits, last login: 143 days ago updated 10 years ago
Performance varies widely. Inclement weather (lightening and high wind) take out my surge protected router; I suspect this is from signal spikes, I am on my 6th replacement (Thank goodness for warranties). Some days, service is so spotty it is unusable..today is one of those. On days like today I have spent over an hour trying to get back online, with rebooting routers and the skybeam connection. Phone service is also troublesome. After a long hold time decided to choose the call back option. within 2 minutes of hanging up I was called back and not given an agent, but put on hold again. Limited ISP options here. member for 10.1 years, driveby review (so far) lodged 10.1 years ago
I was originally using a small mom & pop ISP known as PVCO -- The service wasnt amazing, but it was honest. The owner even warned you that low latency applications might not work well and if thats what you need, his service isnt for you. And, well, it did spike a little bit. More often than not though it was downright usable. I move away for a few years, come back, and I find out skybeam has bought them out. Price has gone up quite a bit. Service has gone down even more. They claim 5/1 is their lowest plan, but I'm lucky if I even get 1 megabit down. The bandwidth isnt even the problem though, its the latency. Throughout the day you'll have anywhere from 200-300ms ping TO THE SECOND HOP. By the time you get outside of their network its usually 500-800 minimum. And thats not counting the spikes. The spikes are between 2-3 seconds, with 20-50% packet loss..and they last for 30+ minutes at a time. I once left a multi-traceroute running and came back to find out that one of the packets managed to take over 60 seconds to come back. Thats right, 60,000 ping. Brutal. You can not game with this connection. You can not stream video with this connection (netflix, hulu, or even watching a youtube video). All you can really do is check your email, and hope nobody sent you any attachments. One time I was playing WoW on a server located in Dallas. I found out that my friend playing on a 3g connection from the middle east had about 1/10th the ping I have. It's that bad. I sent an email complaining and asking about this awful latency to their "24/7 support" email. 4 days later, no reply yet.. Honestly at this point I think I'll just swallow the cost of the microwave tower I had to buy and just get a 3g service. I hate bandwidth caps, but I'd rather have a capped usable connection than this. member for 18.4 years, 8 visits, last login: 10.1 years ago updated 10.1 years ago
Area of service, Caddo Mills, Tx. Service 5 dwn/1 up, price around 60 dollars. Average hold time for phone calls to Skybeam, 40 mins concerning issues that eventually ended service agreement. I perceive this as a lack of "agents" as they put it in their "for my convenience" automated messages between the repetitive melody played while on hold. Which also leads me to believe they are reaching past their capabilities of an ISP. The tower that our service was connected to has been in "SOS" status since Aug of 2012; they knew this when they installed our service initially which seems to highlight their priorities. We called to cancel service in the first 30 days of service to recoup set up fee, they baited us in past that allowed time frame with a free month of service. I would not recommend their service to anyone. The actual internet service is too inconsistent for the price they charge and the customer service is inexcusable. member for 10.8 years, driveby review (so far) lodged 10.8 years ago
Like many others, I was changed from Partnership Broadband to Skybeam several months ago. The move was HORRIBLE for me. No notice and service went to hell quickly. No Tech Support, constant drops of service for days at a time and unreliable speed when it was working. I now am pretty satisfied with the service. Speeds are consistent and the service seems to be much more reliable. My speeds are 5 Meg down and 2 Meg up. Tech support now either answers directly or will return a call the same day. Per their techs, their towers where I live are overcrowded, but they have upgrades ongoing. Overall, I am now recommending their service where I live over USB modems or other wireless services. UPDATE 12/31/12 I have finally found another provider that I am going to try. Skywave-TX. They have been around for a couple of years, but I just learned about them. I will have an install on 1/2/13 and will give a full review after a few weeks. It is obvious that Skybeam is just sucking the profits out of all the companies that they have bought out the last few years. I don't blame their workers for their crappy service as it is a management issue. Their tech support has worked with me and they are exasperated with having to make excuses for the company they work for. member for 22.8 years, 5209 visits, last login: 5 days ago updated 11.3 years ago
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