dslreports logo

Review by bri3d See Profile

  • Location: Golden, Jefferson, CO, USA
  • Cost: $85 per month
Works. Sometimes.
Horrifically slow. Unreliable.
Beats dial-up when it works. Beats nothing a good bit of the time (when it doesn't work)
Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

IonSky (my old ISP) was recently purchased by WisperTel, and I hoped their promised upgrades would help many of the speed and reliability issues I was experiencing. This hope grew when WisperTel replaced my old 2.4Ghz access point unit with a new 5Ghz unit with a parabolic dish. I had a few concerns here, though, since I had purchased the old 2.4Ghz unit and they did nothing to address this (assuring me that the new unit would also be mine, informing me of differences, etc.) when they took it away. But I wasn't too worried. At least I'd have something that worked. Right? Nope.

My hope quickly died when I started using the new service. It worked, which was slightly better than the old service was doing at this point, but it was slow. Horribly slow. I soon learned why: WisperTel only dedicate 256Kbits to each old IonSky customer (Trango Wireless AP "Committed Information Rate"), even if they're on the highest-end plan. This is significantly slower than IonSky's usual 1mbps (when it wasn't down). WisperTel then advertise "2mbit maximum information rate," which basically means "you might get 2mbits at the beginning of a transfer once in a decade." Currently I am getting 768 down (which is better than usual) and 900 up. Their upload is usually significantly faster, about 1mbit, proving that it's probably not a wireless issue but rather an issue of either extremely oversold backhauls or simple stinginess.

Then, during Colorado's second blizzard, WisperTel's wireless access died. Completely. On the second day of no service -whatsoever-, I called to ask them what had happened (since they kindly managed not to inform us themselves that an entire set of their subscribers, including us, had just lost service). Our tower was having "unknown issues". Again. The major issue with IonSky (outages) still had not been fixed - appearantly even with the new 5Ghz equipment nobody at this company seems to understand how to make their hardware withstand Colorado's weather.

Our internet access was down for four days, and no alternative access methods are supplied or offered. I had to travel to a coffeeshop in town to complete my work, which depends on a decently-fast network connection.

Overall WisperTel is no better than IonSky was, and with their atrocious bandwidth caps are possibly worse.

An amazing feat in failure, especially for $80/month.

I'd recommend using something, *anything* else if at all possible.

member for 18.2 years, 5 visits, last login: 17.2 years ago
lodged 17.2 years ago


BrandonWicks
@urbanbroadband.net

BrandonWicks

Anon

Decreased Reliability

I found myself in a similar situation recently. My former provider, Suburban Broadband, was bought up by Wispertel. Prior to their acquisition, my service was magnificent. In five years I must've had very close to 100% uptime. As soon as Wispertel took over, outages became frequent, and extended. What's worse: we weren't even informed that our service had changed hands. During one particularly bad outage (after several weeks of minor ones) we made a call to Suburban Broadband to find out what the hell was up. Instead of going straight to the tech guys at the company, as it had previously, the call got routed to a call center. The employee of the call center then informed us that our provided had been bought out by Wispertel.

Review by Nightside21 See Profile

  • Location: Evergreen, Jefferson, CO, USA
  • Cost: $34 per month (35 month contract)
Smaller company, good tech support, reliability on par, latency much lower than satellite
Smaller company
A good buy if DSL and Cable are unavailable or unreliable
Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I set this up at my parents house about a year and a half ago. I also handle a lot of the technical aspects of managing their network and computers on a regular basis. As I said above, WisperTel is what I would consider a smaller internet service provider and which has both good and bad aspects to it. The good side is that customer service seems to be quick and personal and it seems to me that the company as a whole cares more about making you happy than say, a large company like Qwest. The downside is that their staff is smaller and service (billing, technical, etc) can be delayed during surges in requests.

The setup and install went well. It did take a few days for the survey to be performed, but it was not an unreasonable wait. The billing staff promptly emailed me back when they determined service was available and answered all the questions I had about installation, setup, and billing. They were also willing to work with me on setup and I was given a period of time to return the equipment if I wasn't satisfied. The installer came out and was courteous and knowledgeable. He provided several install options and worked with me to pick the best. The install was quite nice, leaving a professional look.

The installer hooked up the antenna to the computer, and explained the setup. The residential setup uses a dynamic IP, but a static is available for business I believe. At that time, they offered 256 kB up/down as their lowest and that was what we ordered. The installer brought up the link and made sure that we were receiving at least that before he considered the job complete. He also left a useful packet explaining how to set up the email and other features, along with the technical support numbers.

The reliability of the service has been good as well. The service has had almost 100% uptime at my parent's house. It has only gone down three times in a year and a half. Once they were merging with another company and were having backbone trouble. Another time a service technician was working on the microwave tower providing our service. Both times the technical support staff answered the phone quickly and were able to explain the situation and give an estimated completion time. For the instance where work was being done on the tower, the technical operator even called out to the technician on the tower to ask him for a progress report. The last outage was actually due to problems with the antenna at the house. It took several occasions of the service dropping for them to diagnose the problem. They made sure to check everything else before focussing on the antenna as that could have cost us a service call fee if it wasn't the antenna. Upon settling on the antenna, though, they quickly came out and replaced it with a newer model. The service has been great since then, I actually seem to have more problems at my house with DSL getting flaky.

The bottom line is that WisperTel provides a quality service that compares well with DSL or cable in reliability and customer service. I believe they are actually cheaper compared to the DSL rates that I have seen as well. They cover a large area of the Denver foothills that would otherwise not have reasonable access to broadband. Yes, satelite is always available, but it can be more expensive and the latency can be 10 times longer or more. The upload speed is terrible as well, unless you pay for the pricy two-way connection. I have seen several reviews giving WisperTel a bad rap and don't understand them at all. My experience has been totally the opposite. And no, I do not work for them or have any association with them other than internet service (I work as an aerospace engineer down in Denver).

My suggestion is that if you can't get cable/DSL and you are in their coverage area, give them a call or email. I think you will be happy with the results.

member for 19.7 years, 36 visits, last login: 14.5 years ago
lodged 18.2 years ago


Review by artbrock See Profile

  • Location: Denver, Jefferson, CO, USA
  • Cost: $100 per month (12 month contract)
Speeds up to 9.0 Mbps both ways! Reaches some areas others can't.
Failed to install & deliver, Poor response & support.
Might be great if you're in their target zone and can wait.
Pre Sales Information:
Install process:

My experience in the sales process was dreadful.

I called and reached somebody who took all my information and said they'd see if they could determine via a driveby of my house if I was in their coverage area and he'd call me back. (They need line of sight to nearby mountains for microwave dish transmitters.) They never did.

The following week I submitted sales inquiries by web site mail form and voice mail. I never heard back.

I repeated actions for a third week. Still nothing, and I was not able to reach anybody live by phone even though I was calling during business hours.

Fourth week I reached a person who was a new sales hire and said they could only determine if I was in their coverage zone (which by their coverage map I should have been) by having me place an order and having an installer come make that determination. So, being hungry for the 9.0 Mbps, both-ways, high speeds, I placed an order to get slated for an installation right away.

My order apparently got lost in some computer crash in their scheduling department, but the sales person made sure that I got a call from them anyway. I had to complete the order again from scratch, but it got me scheduled for an installer to come to my house in about 10 days.

December 1st install date: I had a housemate stay home all day for the installer. Installer tried calling my cell phone (I was in meetings and could not answer) and said they came up and rang the doorbell (we don't have a doorbell). And then left because "nobody was home" even though somebody was in fact home all day.

Their scheduler called my assistant and said the contractor was waiting at the house and we needed to call back immediately. She tried calling back for the next hour only to receive busy signals. When she finally reached the scheduling department to find out what happened, she was told the installer left because nobody was home. My assistant (who had called the house and verified somebody was there and asked him to walk out and look for the installer) assured her somebody was in fact home and diligently noted that nobody could have answered the doorbell since there isn't one to be rung. The scheduler said she'd have to check with their contractor for when they could re-schedule and call us back.

Two days later, not having heard back, my assistant called the scheduler back and was told that our ticket had been cancelled since they hadn't heard back from us. Being a stickler for the details, my assistant read back her notes from the previous conversation including the promise that we would be called back with the next date scheduling was available. Apparently, the conversation was quite unpleasant.

Not easily daunted, my assistant called the company and tracked down one of the executive/partners who was not particularly helpful nor apologetic until he began to understand that the discrepency about ringing the doorbell probably indicated that the installer was at the wrong house. He said he'd get another installer scheduled, but warned "if you aren't there again, you'll have to pay the $50 fee for the contracted installer to show up." Since the previously mentioned housemate works at home and does not have a car, she was not intimidated by this threat.

Today (about 8 weeks after my first call to them), an installer came to the correct house. He was experienced, knowledgeable and professional. However, he assured me that it would not be possible to establish a reliable line of sight to the dishes because of intervening hills & trees. It seems that all this time and energy could have been saved by the first person I spoke to fulfilling their promise.

They may be able to serve some, but they have failed me.

member for 19.4 years, 11 visits, last login: 16.5 years ago
lodged 19.2 years ago


natter
join:2000-12-18
New Boston, NH

natter

Member

Wispertel Response

Of course every story has two sides. Unfortunately, inability to get broadband internet access somehow seems to evoke the most negative possible emotions, and otherwise polite, understanding people go into altered states.
This gentleman did in fact suffer an unfortunate scheduling delay, but what he does not know is that the same installer was dispatched on both visits. As it happens, this particular installer is a former private investigator
and is well familiar with determining whether a house is occupied. Although we were convinced that we were at the correct house and also convinced that the location was not suitable for wireless broadband, we agreed to make yet
another trip. We arrived as scheduled to find someone home this time, but as we suspected the location was not suitable for our wireless access. The installer making this determination was the same "knowledgeable and
professional" installer who had come to the same house on the previous trip when in fact no one was home.

So if you carefully read this gentleman's posting, what is the message? Did WisperTel cause him any harm? Did WisperTel cost him any money? Or time? No. He works out of this house and is almost always home, by his own
admission. He paid no money to WisperTel. On the other hand WisperTel paid a considerable amount of money trying every possible way to please this gentleman and get him broadband internet. But WisperTel cannot alter the
laws of physics, cannot make wireless work where there is no signal path, and cannot offer broadband access at this location. So in return for the effort and expense WisperTel expended this gentleman feels obliged to vent
his anger, frustration, and disappointment by disparaging the company, as if in doing so he will somehow be able to get broadband to happen at his house.

Bottom line: If you are evaluating broadband providers, ask one of the thousands of very satisfied WisperTel customers--not an individual who never
used the service and simply posted in a feel-good effort to assign blame to WisperTel for his inability to obtain broadband access. Call WisperTel sales and make up your own mind, or ask an actual customer. You will find out that no other broadband provider in metro Denver can deliver the same combination of speed and pricing.
artbrock
join:2004-10-22
Denver, CO

1 edit

artbrock

Member

Re: Wispertel Response

That's odd. The installer told me he'd never been there before and that he'd love to do the install because he doesn't get paid unless he does so. What a sneaky fellow! And your people said NOTHING about availablity of service after the first supposed visit.

And I said my housemate stays at home, not I.

The bottom line is NOT that I'm perterbed that you couldn't provide service, but rather that you dragged it out for almost two months while I could have been pursuing other options and made it an unpleasant process by blaming me for your mistakes.

It's nice to see that you've continued that trend with your reply and "private investigator" allusions.

Review by Coloradomnts See Profile

  • Location: Evergreen, Jefferson, CO, USA
  • Cost: $55 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 1 days
5
NOT Worth the MONEY. Sketchy internet service...
Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Not worth the money. Great sales staff, but the wireless service is NOT RELIABLE. Our family has had alot "page cannot be displayed errors" and luckly we still had our dial-up account with AOL, jumped on AOL and the websites would load up right away! ??? I'm just being honested with you all, so I'm not sure what the problem is, but the wireless thing isn't reliable for the money.

*****It's problem just not good idea to tramsit information through the airways anyway we thought. ***** The secondly the installers that came to our house were very young and looked like a couple of not so friendly people! There was no identifaction that they were with Wispertel communications, they just showed up in regular cars with ladders strapped to the roofs. Just a warning to all. You never know now days!

Thanks,

The Millers

member for 19.7 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 19.7 years ago


natter
join:2000-12-18
New Boston, NH

natter

Member

WisperTel - Response

"I'm just being honested with you all, so I'm not sure what the problem is, but the wireless thing isn't
reliable for the money."

WisperTel -- We're sorry you think this way. Did you contact customer support? We have over 2000
customers that use our service daily with no problems. Just like any growing company, there will be some slight
growing pains but we strive in solving these with the least amount of customer downtime.

"*****It's problem just not good idea to tramsit information through the airways anyway we thought. ***** "

WisperTel -- As stated above, we have over 2000 customers that rely on our service for personal and business
uses everyday with no problems.

"The secondly the installers that came to our house were very young and looked like a couple of not so friendly people! There was no
identifaction that they were with Wispertel communications, they just showed up in regular cars with ladders strapped to
the roofs. Just a warning to all. You never know now days!"

WisperTel -- Our installers are very experienced and very professional. We are not a company that brings in billions
of dollars every year. We would rather spend our money on our customers than fancy trucks and uniforms.

As always, if you have a problem, please feel free to call our office. The benefit of a local company
is you can always talk to someone that cares.


Franchesco23
@wispertel.net.xx.116

Franchesco23

Anon

Perhaps.

Perhaps you are so stupid you could not get the service to work right for you? I have used wispertel for quite a while with only 1 service outage and ultra fast ping times as well as cable like download speeds. Go back to your AOL as this is where you likely belong. Paying 25$ a month for overhyped dialup.

Review by carlstrauss See Profile

  • Location: Morrison, Jefferson, CO, USA
  • Cost: $60 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 1 days
Speed, ease of use, reliability, value
N/A
Love it!
Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:

The cost of my WisperTel, which offers excellent, speedy, reliable service, is comparable to dial-up service (when including the cost of a landline phone). However, the level of service, reliablity, and speed is outstanding in comparison.

member for 20.1 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 20.1 years ago


hustn
@hstntx.swbell.ne

hustn

Anon

Willing to try WisperTel

I am moving to Conifer Mtn in Devember and plan on using WisperTel.
gasinc
join:2004-11-27
Morrison, CO

gasinc

Member

Re: Willing to try WisperTel

12 Months ago I contacted Wispertel to see if I could get their service in South Turkey Creek. At that time they could not provide service. I opted for Direcway Satellite service, and it has filled the need adequately, but can be tempermental. Tests show speeds in the high 600s download, and crappy for uploads. Day-to-day service is fine, but when I try to tune into a monthly webcast it drops, sometimes frequently. I got an email that Wispertel is now available - I'm contemplating 'jumping ship' for Wispertel and am wondering how 'solid' their speeds really are (relative to the webcasts)?

I'll let you konw how it goes.
hausfunk
join:2004-10-19
Conifer, CO

hausfunk

Member

Re: Willing to try WisperTel

I would reccomend that you look at other alternatives. This company is the most incompetent i have ever seen. There system is down alot, and 90% of the time the argue with you saying everything is fine on there end, when come to find out 1 hour later and you call they tell you we are down. Not to mention there billing department, which seems to want to charge your credit card for erroneous services. Being connected with wispertel is a complete nightmare. Hope it isnt too late for you







Review by tgermain See Profile

  • Location: Morrison, Jefferson, CO, USA
  • Cost: $65 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
Reliable Service
n/a
Great internet speed and reliable service in the mountains!
Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:

The installer showed up on time. Seems to be a very professional and organized service. I was up and running in only about 30 minutes. Never had any problems with downtime in 8 months. I'm a very happy customer!


member for 20.1 years, 2 visits, last login: 19.2 years ago
lodged 20.1 years ago