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Review by lrnroch 
UPDATED: 5.8 years ago
member for 6 years, 127 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
 Peyton,El Paso,CO
 $43 per month (36 month contract)
 "Personal Service, Good Download"
 "Part Time Tech, Bad Upload (with standard antenna at distance)"
 "Good - though an antenna upgrade was necessary"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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When I discovered that a couple of Wireless ISPs had just started in my area, I was thrilled. Unfortunately, one could not get a signal in my area, and one other did not respond to a request for a site survey. The last in the BB Reports list for my area was the only choice I had. Not a bad choice, but not quite what I was expecting.
The operation is run by a father and son team, and is a part time job for them. This is both good and bad. I like that the owner(s) will talk to me directly, and have visited my house while on service calls in my area. The down side is that they are not always available for questions.
I initially ordered 128 up / 256 down, and was installed on a Saturday about two weeks later. They showed up when they said they would, and did a good job of installation.
The service is generally reliable. Occasional outages seem to be fewer than outages reported to me by friends using other services. At least once this has been the result of equipment further upstream than my ISP (I could ping the WAN server, but nothing beyond), so is not something they could fix directly.
My download speed is usually very good – several times coming in as better than my tier speed (currently 512 down) on speed tests. Upload speed is a different story. Currently my upload is as fast (slow) as dial-up or even slower. After a couple of weeks of testing using BB Reports tools, I changed my service to 64 up / 512 down since I felt I should not have to pay for an upload that I was not achieving. Increasing the download speed made the service about a dollar less than what I initially ordered.
The upload problem may be from several factors, including distance to the tower, Fresnel zone issues, cap/problem from their T1 provider, or something within their own network. First impression from them was that it is a Fresnel zone issue, which a taller mast or more powerful client antenna may fix. They are doing some work to try to find out what is causing the problem, but have not responded in a couple of weeks. I have been hesitant to review them incase the upload problem was fixed or was not a fault of their service, but decided I could always amend my review later.
**Edit: 6 Dec 2003**
My latest speed tests show over 50k, so something must have been changed or fixed. If this remains consistent, I will likely upgrade to a faster upload. Also, if this stays consistent, this review will be changed to reflect the better service.
**End Edit**
**Edit: 19 Jan 2004**
The earlier fix was a change in the frequencies for send and receive. The owners found a frequency that had less interference. I asked them to push it up to 128K for a few weeks of testing, if that was allowed. They agreed. After several weeks it was apparent that while 64K was possible, getting anything over 100K was unlikely. However, they offered to upgrade my client antenna to a more powerful version. This solved the problem. In a test, my upload will now reach 1.5 Meg (they opened me up for the test). The antenna costs $200 more than the standard. I only have to pay the $200, and that only over the next year, since the 3 year contract included free equipment. Now things are great.
**End Edit**
Am I satisfied with the service? Yes. This most definitely beats dial-up, and gives me better pings for gaming than satellite (not to mention less expensive).
Am I happy with the service? That’s a more difficult question to answer. It would be nice to get the rated upload for my tier (currently 64), and full time (not necessarily 24x7) tech support. However, the more I think about it, the more I can say that I am moderately happy about my service.
Would I recommend them? Yes. It is a lot better than dial-up, and also a better choice than satellite, in my opinion. In fact, I have already recommended them to 3 neighbors, but always with the caveat that it is part-time business for these guys – at least for now – and that the distance from to the tower our area may affect upload speeds.
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Jazz Wireless, L.L.C
