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 Review by gabeman 
UPDATED: 271 days ago
member for 8.6 years, 3785 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Philadelphia,Philadelphia,PA
 $35 per month
 "None"
 "Slow speed, horrible service, monopoly"
 "If you have Hotwire Communications, you probably have no choice."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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Hotwire is a building-level communications company, they service apartment buildings. I haven't had such a horrible internet connection since I was on dialup (and even that was more reliable). Every day, I wish I could move out of here just because of them.
We have no choice in our building, Hotwire is the only choice.
2009 update - I managed to ditch Hotwire the only way I knew how... moving. Hotwire is a prime example of why you should check who your cable provider is before you move in. If you live in any building owned by Philadelphia Management, you will not only hate your apartment, you will hate your internet connection as well.
Followup comments:  
hotwire cust
@comcast.net | a very happy Hotwire customer Hello
I Have hotwire here in sunny isles florida
and I find them to be a outstanding catv,and hi-speed internet
provider
two thumbs way up  | |
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pier0188
@dsli.com | NYC Hotwire Hotwire in my building sucks also. Internet DNS server sucks horribly but is otherwise fast. TV blows. Dish network is horrible. NO local HD channels, sounds like a skipping CD with ran or wind. | |
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pier0188
@dsli.com
| Re: NYC Hotwire Follow-up. After more than a week and a half without cable, the techs have visited twice. In order to get at least some TV I hooked the Dish receiver up to the local terminal so we could get local channels. Did the Dish tech unplug this and plug it into the cable terminal? Nope. They essentially didn't do one thing.
They dangle in front of us that they will have fiber IPTV, fiber internet...etc before Time Warner gets here. Sorry, but if the crap service is this bad under Dish, then I won't give them another chance. Even though TW isn't great, at least their techs do something. | |
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Another Philly
@dsli.com
| Apartment Hotwires What an appropriate name they have. I feel like I'm being burned with hot metal when I try to watch streaming video or even check my email. Why do our apartments make deals with these people?!
I still remember the day my modem was delivered and I went to speedtest.net to check the connection. I thought, "There must be some mistake... DIAL-UP ISN'T THIS SLOW..."
Alas... | |
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lauderdaleone
@bellsouth.net
| hotwire sucks!!! Hotwire sucks. Internet is slow. IPTV is even slower. PVR for IPTV only allows you to record one show at at a time. Phone service goes out at least once every two weeks.
An all around awful company. If you are considering moving into a building with Hotwire, recondsider! Everything about their operation is absolute crap. The customer service folks, the service techs and the actual product are all garbage.
This is an awful company but they pay off apartment and condo complexes and prevent anyone else from providing service. Cable and Satellite are criminal, but Hotwire takes it to a totally different level. Worst company that I've ever dealt with in any field. | |
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| Forums » comments on review of Hotwire Communications |
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Review by special7
Posted: 2.1 years ago
member for 5.1 years, 126 visits, last login: 180 days ago
Philadelphia,Philadelphia,PA
$35 per month
 Verizon
"None"
"Everything"
"It sucks"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
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Service is terrible, connection randomly drops, it slows down to near 56k speeds at times. Support is non-existant it's just a horrible service.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Hotwire Communications |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by holycrapitso
Posted: 2.8 years ago
member for 3.3 years, 4 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
Philadelphia,Philadelphia,PA
$35 per month
"None"
"Advertised at 3Mbps down, nowhere close"
"If you value a true high-speed internet connection, don't move into an apartment which uses Hotwire"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
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Hotwire communications advertises broadband service, but doesn't provide anywhere near it. During peak usage hours expect to have a service more comparable to dial-up.
I live in an apartment complex that provides ONLY hotwire internet, and if you enjoy streaming movies, online videogames, or any other bandwidth sensitive applications I would highly advise that you stay away. Ping times will make most games unplayable, and streaming movies/music will need to be set to the lowest quality to ensure you don't have to buffer every 30 seconds.
Their customer service is a joke, only available during WEEKDAYS and normal business hours. Think about that. If you work normal hours (like 90% of the population) you have about a 1 hour time frame in the evening to talk to a live person. Otherwise, expect to send multiple e-mails that never get answered.
It is cheap, so I should have known better when I moved in, but what's done is done. I could only recommend this to people who are looking for a cheap semi-broadband service, without need for any post-2001 internet services.
Stay away!
Followup comments:
Nohotwire
@aol.com
| Hotwire Communications is not a real company!! "Hotwire Communications" is a partnership/ division/ subsidiary, etc of University City Housing Co. It doesn't exist on it's own. All UCH complexes have Howtire as their cable & internet "provider." It's just another way for the owner to make even more money. They have a connection into each complex and disperse it from there to the apartments. The entire setup is probably illegal, but the owner must pay off city hall. A dish would be cheaper and better ONLY if you face the south..... | |
| | johngalt4
join:2007-06-23
New York, NY | Re: Hotwire Communications is not a real company!! This is not true--I have hotwire in NYC and I have never heard of University City Housing. The service has been reliable so far (about six months now) and definitely beats Time Warner. | |
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gabeman
join:2001-05-03
Philadelphia, PA
clubs:
 ·Hotwire Communicat..
| said by Nohotwire :
"Hotwire Communications" is a partnership/ division/ subsidiary, etc of University City Housing Co. It doesn't exist on it's own. All UCH complexes have Howtire as their cable & internet "provider." It's just another way for the owner to make even more money. They have a connection into each complex and disperse it from there to the apartments. The entire setup is probably illegal, but the owner must pay off city hall. Apparently they do pay off alot of people in the house and senate... »www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_det···=KRISTIN
--
Rest in Peace Hunter S Thompson."There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die." | |
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los
@hmsonline.com | it gets worse There entire service sits behind a transparent proxy, So connecting remotely, or settings up a web server is not feasible. | |
| | axsixas
join:2006-03-25
Lafayette Hill, PA
| Re: it gets worse Hotwire Communications sucks, I have the service now and during peaks hours it doesn't work. Essentially the upstream speed will slow down from 384kbps to as little as 15kbps during peak usage times, so it runs slower the dial-up. They have over saturated their network at the apartment complex I live, by subscribing to many users. Its been crappy for 2 months now. They send a technician out, but he only works during normal business hours when the net speed is fine. So he comes to your place, test your speed and says its fine, every single time. If you are looking at apartments and they have Hotwire internet only...stay away! | |
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| Forums » comments on review of Hotwire Communications |
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Hotwire SUCKS
I live in an apartment that ONLY uses Hotwire in Philly. This is even worse than dial up. Just thinking of turn ing on my computer gives me a headache. I have a non-tech savvy roomate that complains all the time. 
Moving is in the works for that SIMPLE reason! We called about our router making the connection slower...like watching paint dry much better. The tech told us it was because the computers were too old. The laptop is less than 2 years old and the desktop was on a year old.