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Review by praetorian46 
Posted: 1.7 years ago
member for 1.7 years, 1 visits, last login: 1.7 years ago
 Yuma,Yuma,AZ
 Business customer
 $1500 per month (month by month)
 about 2 days
 "No monthly Contract. Same day response on support calls. Helpful phone support. Fair price."
 "The connection has gone down, but no more often than the cable we had before."
 "This is an ISP that will work for you. A service provider is only as good as there tech support and theirs is top notch."
| Pre Sales Information:
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Our company has moved to multiple ISPs trying to find one that will work for what we need. Our needs are: Hi-Speeds both upload and download, Same day tech support, No port blocking, and a connection that is on over 99% of the time. Beamspeed has stepped up to this challenge. For only $1500.00 a month Beamspeed provided two dedicated links to each of our locations. We get both 5Mbps up and down to both locations. They also went outside of there normal service and helped with our VPN setup for no extra charge where any other ISP would just simply state that that has nothing to do with there service. They were also very quick with there installation. I made the call on Monday morning. A price and service plan tailored fit to our needs was e-mailed to me before lunch. I placed the order that afternoon and I was up and running in both locations on Wednesday. If you’re looking for an ISP that you can rely on these are your guys.
-Cody
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Review by lewellyn
Posted: 2.3 years ago
member for 6.8 years, 98 visits, last login: 13 days ago
El Centro,Imperial,CA
$69 per month
about 11 days
"Flexible company with a better deal than TWC or ATT."
"Unacceptable packet loss, supposedly will be fixed in 2 days."
"If you're looking for an alternative to AT&T or Time Warner, and satellite just doesn't appeal, this is THE way to go!"
| Pre Sales Information:
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I recently moved to the Imperial Valley. Having lived in urban areas previously, I was expecting to see more competition for internet service out here. (Well, till the realities of living in a desert kicked in, anyhow...) The only 2 games in town are cable and DSL, as far as anyone I asked was concerned. I was about to relegate myself to dialup after having seen the speeds of what passes for "high-speed" out here... Why pay that much extra for not that much extra value?
I came across BeamSpeed by accident, looking for service for someone outside Imperial. I noted that they had a provider listed that I didn't: BeamSpeed... As I read over their (simple, but information-packed) site, I realized that they had to be using a MMDS or LMDS modem. (AKA "Wireless DSL" for city-folk.) Sure enough, when I called and spoke to Mike (he's a great asset to the company, and certainly knows his stuff!), he confirmed that they use NextNet stuff with many mile range. That ruled out millimeter-wave LMDS. Having been familiar with Sprint Broadband's MMDS offerings in the San Francisco Bay Area, I knew that MMDS would be even better in the desert.  So, I signed up and asked for an install on the next weekday I'd be available for a 4 hour window. (They don't do weekend installs...)
So, I sat with bated breath for a couple weeks... Install day came today. The guy was within his window, which pleased me. Also, I don't generally allow techs to install my equipment. But, since I'm in a new development, they didn't know whether I'd be able to have the RSU (modem) indoors or if outdoors mounting would be necessary. And, sure enough, I couldn't get a lock on the signal even with the NextNet Expedience RSU in a window, facing the direction of the access point. So, we mounted it not far from one of my windows (with full strength showing on the LEDs) and ran Cat5 with 2 lines of power through the window. (Tight seal on the window, but it's better than drilling a hole!)
We hooked it up and waited for the DHCP lease (they even provide IPv6 addressing, it appears!) Since we had a good link, good speed, and an IP, I sent the installer on his way (he had other installs to do, and it certainly doesn't appear that my problem is install-related...). My only complaint was packet loss...
It's currently about 2 hours after install. I'm surfing with about 10-20% packet loss with a solid 768+ up and about 150 down. As for the packet loss, I called tech support and they claim that they're doing some maintenance on their back-end and that if it's not resolved in the next 2 days, to give them a call back. The pattern does appear to be such that it's simply congestion. In which case, I'll be fine once Wedsnesday rolls around. Even with unacceptable packet loss, my speeds are still quite acceptable. And, for those of you who fear the ping-monster, here is a ping-test I did against Google (with no other traffic):
Ping statistics for 64.233.167.99:
Packets: Sent = 724, Received = 643, Lost = 81 (11% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 73ms, Maximum = 527ms, Average = 191ms
So far, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on the packet loss, which is apparently the cause of the well-above-average ping times. Most of the ones I actually saw while watching were in the 100-200ms range. The outliers seem to have taken the average up. Even at 200ms, that's more than acceptable ping for me, especially considering that it's wireless.
I hope to update this once I actually have a better feel for BeamSpeed. But, I would solidly recommend it to anyone who's upset with the craptastic speeds of TWC and ATT.
And, I'm about to take note of a couple MAC addresses to see how hard it is to get a static IP (apparently just a DHCP reservation...), which sounds like it's a very reasonable price.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 2.8 years ago
(review was emailed from domain beamspeed.net)
Yuma,Yuma,AZ
$39 per month
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
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I am a snowbird who was looking for a wireless service provider in the
Foothills area east of Yuma. I contacted Beamspeed. They informed me,
in a very courteous manner of their various plans and options. They
came out and in a most professional manner installed their NextNet
wireless equipment in my 5th wheel, and got me set up with an email
address. This had a reasonable one time installation fee. Their Tech
was neat, pleasant, and answered all my questions. I pay $39.95 per
month, and when I return north, I simply return their equipment prior to
my departure. Next year, when I hope to return, I simply pick up their
equipment from their office and simply pick up where I left off, with no
repeated installation charge, and I pay for only the months I use their
equipment/service.
In reading local newspapers, Beamspeed recently hooked up with a
Nation-wide wireless company, and this may well have improved their
service. The review I read on your site from one irate fellow back in
2005 I feel is misleading today, and may well sour many who are looking
for a wireless provider in the Yuma area. On only one occasion did I
loose service. I called Beamspeed, and a recorded message indicated
they were experiencing a problem which they hoped to have fixed shortly,
which it was. My personal experience with this company has
been excellent, and I won't hesitate to hook up with them again next
winter.
Norm
Followup comments:  
tomsawyer
@rr.com
| Good Up and Down Compared to other local services, beamspeed has the best up and down I've seen. The times you're getting your paid bandwidth is much better than with Time Warner Cable or Qwest’s DSL. I’ve seen the local cable, DSL, and beamspeed all in action and beamspeed seems to perform better than either alternative. For instance, with DSL, my download speed always came below 800 kbps, even though I was paying for 1.6 Mbps. That’s less than half the bandwidth. With cable, my download speed was usually consistent but my upload speed was constantly falling under 300 kbps (paid for 768 kbps up). Only a third of what I paid for. I’d say Beamspeed is definitely the ISP to go with if you live in Yuma. Good customer service, easy setup, reliable Internet, and you get what you pay for! | |
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jimoj
@racudanetworks.com
| Beamspeed is a really good option if... ... you live out in the rural areas where DSL and Cable aren't available.
However, as the previous gentleman mentioned, they are very consistent with their speed. If they tell you that you're getting 500K/s speed, that's what you get.
I have a friend who lives in Somerton and she's paying Qwest the ridiculous $79 per month fee for 7Mb/s download. That's supposed to be over 7,000Kb/s, but when I ran a bandwidth test over at PCPitstop.com, it consistently downloaded at only 1,250Kb/s !
That's ridiculous if you ask me. She's only getting one-fifth of what she's paying for!
Then, my sister, who also lives in Somerton, also has Qwest DSL and is paying for the 1Mb/s service. She hardly every downloads faster than 500Kb/s, which is half of what she's paying.
Not to mention, her service is down more offen then up, so she's really frustrated with it already.
I'm sorry to say that Qwest DSL seems to be very poor quality. I've been using BeamSpeed for the past 2 years and couldn't be happier with it. It's always up and you get what you pay for... simple as that.
Jim | |
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