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Review by Bubby4j2 
member for 4.3 years, 47 visits, last login: 5 days ago
updated 5 days ago
 Tioga,Grayson,TX
 $59 per month- (12 month contract)
 about 7 days "Best service possible in our area" "Low bandwidth cap" "Good for the average internet user"
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I get 4 Megabit down and 1 up, fastest speed for the price in my area. I can only get satellite and SOL.
Not much downtime.
Only bad thing I have to say is they don't allow servers (even on buisness accounts), or port forwarding either, for any purpose, oh and also;
We are a 5 person family and 1GB per day limit is about 200MB per person, we VERY easily go over that limit, so we have to worry about our bandwidth usage. Plus there's no monitoring tools so you don't know what it's being used on, or who's using it.
Update:
They charge $1 per GB of overage now. There's not even a place to check usage on their website. How do I know what devices are using the bandwidth or what services are? It's like a cop pulling you over when your car doesn't even have a speedometer.
Comments:
 | | Data limit Speed of light is an awesome solution for the casual internet user. Though if you're big into Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, online gaming and The daily ( the iPad's daily news paper), you should look else where. I've had my service crippled down to .06Mps every month for the last three months. And for the last year I've been trying to get my NAT setting open. They limit your monthly usage to 30 Gigs per month. I use 45 gigs a month without videos or any streaming content. | |
| | | | Re: Data limit The IPads daily newspaper would use very little data so I’m not sure why Mr Clayton mentioned that one. As far as Netflix, No our wireless network was not designed to be a replacement for your Cable or Satellite TV service and we are unable to provide the approximately 300 to 1000 Gigabytes of data monthly TV service would use for $49.95 monthly. Online games work fine and our latency is very low even compared to fiber/DSL/Cable.
I checked the latency Mr Clayton has to his home from our last core end router and he is getting 9ms of latency. Mr Claytons home is 15 miles from our Fiber and on a special system we installed at great additional cost to get a few customers that were non line of site to our standard antenna systems. His internet traverses 3 wireless radio towers to reach his remote rural location yet we do it in 9ms from end to end.
I’d argue that Mr Clayton gets a good deal for 4 meg down and 1 meg up with 9ms of latency over wireless. I’d also agree with him that if you need to replace your Satellite/TV/Cable provider by watching TV over the internet you should move to where fiber is available as no wireless service is going to able to provide you that much data for $49.95 per month.
Tim D
VP Network Operations
Speed of Light Broadband | |
| | | | | Re: Data limit Why do you not address his NAT problems? 9ms ping is useless if you can't access your game's servers... | |
| | | | | | Re: Data limit We have addressed the NAT issues. Xbox has had issues since their latest software release on the 21st I believe it was of January or Feb. At that time and without any changes on our end we started to get dozens of complaints about it going back and forth between strict NAT and moderate. After calling them on behalf of our customers they admitted they had issues with that software update. As for having that issue for years we have hundreds of other customers who use Xbox without issues (after special settings we provide them).
We have also received reports from this customer that the Xbox was working fine so we typically stop working on issues when the customers inform us they are fixed. | |
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Review by lanceshealy
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 78 days ago
- Aubrey,Denton,TX
- Contract price not specified.
- "When it's actual running? It's not bad Internet."
- "Tech support, down time, data limits, strict NAT with no way of fixing it."
- "This is a terrible Internet service provider if you have other options explore them."
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When you see SOL, and you have SOL broadband you know that it doesn't mean Speed of Light, rather Shit Outta Luck. This ISP is absolutely horrible. The data overages are near impossible not to avoid even for the average Internet user. If you play Xbox live you might as well find a new hobby because your NAT is going to be strict so good luck on finding games/connecting to other players. I've had SOL for two years and for two years I have been getting randomly booted offline for about 30 seconds every few hours. I know this doesn't seem like much of an issue, but when your playing on Xbox live or a computer game this can pose a real problem.. The tech support? That's a complete joke. Why do I feel like every time I call these guys i know far more about networking then they do. It's ridiculous just a bunch of non-educated rednecks trying to run a broadband company. I doubt very few of them even have degrees in networking. For the past three days I've been on limited to no connectivity, and after sitting on the phone with some moron for an hour repeatedly saying "just give me one second please" about 100 times I didn't get any information besides to unplug and cycle my router and modem, and that a tech will call me later tonight. I've wasted so much time/money on these guys it's crazy, but what the hell else are we going to do there's no others ISP's in our area. Only other option is Hughes net, which is the same ole pot of shit, and why replace one satellite Internet company with the next.
Sent from my iPhone
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Review by jlkmks2008
member for 2.1 years, 2 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago
lodged 2.1 years ago
- Celina,Collin,TX
- Contract price not specified.
- (24 month contract)
- about 2 days
- "Nothing now"
- "low download limits"
- "Horrible internet service"
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Basically, SOL was great for the first year and half. The connection was great and I was getting 10mb/s download speeds which was 3 times better than any other alternative. However, a few months ago they changed the services terms that allows them to throttle internet speeds for "excessive use". Excessive use according to SOL is more than 1 gigabyte downloaded per day. No Netflix, movie, music, or software downloads. This is completely unrealistic. SOL is not for normal internet usage. It is now only a web surfing service only. As quoted in their service terms, "WE ARE NOT THE CABLE COMPANY", well apparently they are not the internet company either. I had no idea of the service term changes, even though they were supposed to send a letter, yet they limited my download speeds to 500kb/s. So I am paying $70 a month for slower than DSL. Good job SOL, you had a good thing going. I will be switching to ATT DSL. Enjoy your lost revenue.
Comments:
1 edit | Response from Speed of Light Broadband We don't offer 10 Meg Service so if you were getting 10 megabit service you were getting more than you were paying for at that time. We have not changed our service terms other than the method of notification by email and some legal wording. We have had the same terms in our terms of service for nearly 10 years and you will also see these in your contact. Please contact us for a copy if you are unable to find yours.
No where in our terms of service does it say. "No Netflix, movie, music, or software downloads". Nor have we ever made that statement. However if you were contacted for excessive use it was most likely Netflix. We do agree that our wireless Internet system was not designed to replace your DSL/Cable/Satellite TV service. NO wireless ISP is going to be able to provide from 300 to 1000 Gigabytes of monthly data to be a full replacement for your TV service for $49.95 or $69.95 (our current monthly rates)
It does say "we are not the cable company" on our terms of service information page however its above the terms of service and should not be on that page. This was old advertising information and in that area gives the wrong impression when placed on that page. I have contacted someone to remove it from the terms of service page/location. | |
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Review by durkindurk
member for 2.3 years, 0 visits, last login: 2.3 years ago
lodged 2.3 years ago
- undisclosed location
- $55 per month
- "Speed of Light is great for casual internet users."
- "Worst terms-of-service I've ever seen."
- "If there is another service available, chances are they are much better."
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The terms of service for Speed of Light say this: "SOL does not allow the Customer to run servers of any kind without written permission from SOL. This includes but is not limited to FTP, WWW, Email, File sharing, Peer to Peer software or any other software or server which provides files, videos, music or data to others in an automated and unattended fashion. If Customer is found running servers without SOL’s permission, SOL will, without notice, have the Service severely limited in speed and number of allowed connections."
I thought, "Okay, I'll just ask permission to carry out those activities". I sent an e-mail to support regarding said activities, they were very friendly. They told me they would give me permission. I carried on for about a month until I stopped being able to do all of the things I was given permission to do. I was very angry with the service, but I pretty much just stopped doing all the fun stuff on the internet. My point is I shouldn't have to ASK them what I can do with something I paid for. I've never had another ISP that even mentioned those services.
Oh, and here's an interesting addition: "To protect the rights of other SOL customers, SOL reserves the right to limit Customer’s use of the Service due to excessive use. “Excess use” means if Customer frequently uses a Gigabyte or more in any 24 hour period." Seriously? ONE gigabyte? You pay $55 for one gigabyte in 24 hours. That's roughly 205 high-definition picture files or 1.5 movies.
The reason all of this regulation exists is profit. The less a customer does, the more the provider benefits. Unfortunately, I am forced to do business with them because there are no other high-speed options.
If you want to do anything other than check your facebook and e-mail, I suggest you subscribe to a different ISP. It is a great service for casual customers that primarily download small amounts of data and yes it will load a web page fast. However, the connection cuts off frequently so if you depend on a reliable connection this service will disappoint you. Read the entire terms-of-service before doing business with these people.
Comments:
3 edits | Answer From Speed of Light Broadband Yes, our terms of service does say we do not allow customers to run servers of any kind. This is correct. If you were given permission to run some type of server you were at that time told about the limitations of the wireless network in handling massive quantities of outgoing data. You would have had to agree to these limitations before we sold you a static IP address or let you run some type of server. If this permission was given and you used an excessive amount of data in contrast to what you agreed to we would have removed the static IP from your account and make no apologies for doing so.
Yes, Our terms of service does say "to protect the rights of other SOL customers SOL reserves the right to limit customers use of the service due to excessive use. “Excess use” means if Customer frequently uses a Gigabyte or more in any 24 hour period."
You go on to say that this is only 205 pictures or 1.5 movies. This is incorrect and misleading. If you use Netflix and watch a movie at 4 megabit per second it will consume 1.8 Gigabytes per hour. This is their highest level of service offered. This would mean 16.66 hours of HDTV streaming monthly before your usage was considered excessive. As far as 30 gigs being 205 pictures your pictures would have to be 146 Megabytes EACH. According to Verizon's online data usage calculator you would have to upload 200 pictures a day to equal 30 gigabytes a month.
You say that the reasons for all this regulation is profit. If by this you mean that we can't provide customers hundreds or thousands of gigabytes of monthly data over a wireless network and make a profit, you are correct. It would be impossible to deliver that level of service using the current technology and stay in business even if it was a non profit company.
You mention that there are no other high speed options in your area. If we are the best option in your remote area why are you posting negative and inaccurate reviews instead of realizing that you live in a rural area and receive your internet over a wireless service that does have some limits? You will notice that even the largest cable companies now have monthly limits due to the incredible increase in demand due to services such as Netflix. No business can supply 100 times more services than they did a year or so ago without a price increase or some limitations. This is what streaming HDTV is, a 100 fold increase in demand for data for those customers that use it as their primary TV service.
Also note that we charge 49.95 per month or $69.95 not $55 per month. The total with tax is only 52.01 and the tax goes to the state not us.
Tim D
VP Network Operations
Speed of Light Broadband | |
| | | | Re: Answer From Speed of Light Broadband "You go on to say that this is only 205 pictures or 1.5 movies. This is incorrect and misleading. If you use Netflix and watch a movie at 4 megabit per second it will consume 1.8 Gigabytes per hour. This is their highest level of service offered. This would mean 16.66 hours of HDTV streaming monthly before your usage was considered excessive. As far as 30 gigs being 205 pictures your pictures would have to be 146 Megabytes EACH. According to Verizon's online data usage calculator you would have to upload 200 pictures a day to equal 30 gigabytes a month."
Quit talking out of your ass, you know perfectly well he meant the 1gb/day limit. Your calculation of 16.66 hours per month comes to about half-an-hour per DAY. So if you buy this internet service, in the provider's own words, you will be unable to watch a full netflix movie in one sitting. I don't know about anyone else, but I expect to be able to at least watch a netflix movie once in a while without having to stop for my internet to take its own little bathroom break.
All of the posts this company has made in response to its own customers are a real turn-off, I'm glad Tim D has made the shortcomings of his service so transparent! (Even if he does so in a pedantic manner.) That's what you call honest business. | |
| | | | | Re: Answer From Speed of Light Broadband We don't enforce daily limits. We don't even tightly enforce monthly limits. We must have some limits to stay in business due to new technology like Netflix. You will notice that even AT&T now has limits even on their Fiber to the curb U-Verse service and so do most major providers. I seriously doubt AT&T needs to have limits but they have them now anyway.
As far as shortcomings of our service, sure we have limits. It's wireless! It's in the country and it's rural. It's not unlimited capacity as it is wireless. We don't have the frequency and or the technology available to feed unlimited bandwidth so people can watch Netflix in HD many hours per day. We still provide more bandwidth and faster speeds than anyone in our service area. | |
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