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Review by Sorginator See Profile

  • Location: Othello, Adams, WA, USA
  • Cost: $54 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 7 days
  • No Cap
Not much
awful customer service
Use another company
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Northland cable company advertises their speed inappropriately. I am paying for services I am not receiving. I am paying for 12mbps and am getting 6.73. I was on the phone over an hour trying to determine the issues with their service. I had dropped calls twice and no call back. It was awful. I highly suggest using another carrier if you are not out in the country where they are the only carrier and have a monopoly.

member for 7.5 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 7.5 years ago

ham3843
join:2015-01-15
USA

ham3843

Member

You're right Northland Cable is HORRID!

We live in SC and are served by them....if you can call it that...

The prices for any service are outrageous, the customer service is poor,
many cable outages weekly some only for a few minutes some for hours or days, and NO weather problems at all. Problems go on for YEARS without being addressed.
Overpriced and ancient worn out DVR boxes from Motorola from 2007 or 8!

I would definitely say that Northland Cable is one of the very worst smaller tier national providers around.

Review by ke4pym See Profile

  • Location: Ellenboro, Rutherford, NC, USA
  • Cost: $63 per month
  • No Cap
High speed, out in the sticks.
High prices for said speed.
If you've got no other choice....
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
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Value for money:

4/2016 - Service is mostly stable. Upstream bonding is now active. 6 channels down, 2 channels up observed on a Arris 6141. Speeds are as advertised.

Prices leave a lot to be desired.
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11/2014 - No major incidents to report. A few outages here-and-there. Otherwise, speeds are consistent, and downtime is minimal.

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10/2013 - Service is mostly solid. So long as a horse trailer doesn't take out a telephone pole.

-------

12/2011 - Went to check the speed packages, 6/1 no longer offered. 12/1 is now offered. Dropped by the office and it was a buck a month cheaper!! Signed up, few hours later, pulling speed tests of 11.54 down, 0.95 up. Not bad.

Reliability is pretty solid. Very few outages this past year. A couple of the outages were no fault of the cable company (rather, stupid drivers taking down phone poles).

-------
I've had the parents on this service for several years. They had the very basic 768/256 package. While it has been reliable overall, those speeds just aren't enough for today's web sites or multi-user/device house.

Upgraded them to a 6/1 package. $64/mo. Got home to see a 2.5/900 speed test. Gave national support a call. Eventually got pushed up to tier 2. They poked around, re-provisioned the modem and eventually put a call in to tier 3 that revealed a known issue.

Went to bed. Next morning, woke up to a 5/900 speed test. That's acceptable. Though, I'd rather see something closer to 5.7/950.

member for 19.6 years, 8247 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 7.8 years ago


Edin702
join:2008-02-29
Virginia Beach, VA

Edin702

Member

nctv

Yepp got itb2 weeks ago seen the ad in forest city. I'm surprised the way this area isbthat people are acutualty getting it besides just me
ke4pym
Premium Member
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC

ke4pym

Premium Member

Re: nctv

While I was at the office, I did ask them about their DOCSIS3 upgrade plans. I was told they're working on it but it would probably be awhile before they were ready to roll it out to residential subscribers.

When I told them how long I've had D3 and the speeds I've had 50/5 and 30/5 they couldn't believe it. So, something to look forward too, I guess.

Review by saboken See Profile

  • Location: Walhalla, Oconee, SC, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
it's cable??
blatant disregarding FCC cable card laws right on their website
I have a Business UVerse trying them due to AT&T's 3 cut cables in 4 month's
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

(UPDATE) RUN RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN! Don't waste your time with northland unless you have no alternatives, I asked for them to send the tech out with there equipment also a cable card for my Ceton Infinitv 4 cable card tuner, when the tech showed up he led me to believe he had the cable card I asked for, he then began looking for ways to get out of the install first it was we needed a letter head from the owner stating we could have cable installed (check we had one authorizing both cable and satellite) he then said it was not specific enough (this was the same letter given to all tenants to date!) then he said he didn't have a cable card I had to take my Tivo down to the Seneca office this was the only way to activate a cable card I then explained to him again it was simular to a Tivo but was a tuner in a PC some TV's also accept cable cards and bringing a PC or 50" - 60" TV to their office just wasn't practical! I also tried to explain the FCC Cable card laws to him and refusing to allow me to use my own equipment was against FCC law (he then said he was calling the police on me because he didn't like being told what the laws were) he called someone and told them he wasn't going to take this and to send someone else out to install my service, as for the cable card he said someone would be bringing one to me shortly, at this point I drilled the hole he refused to, I thought he had left but when I heard banging outside to my surprise he was running cable? So I then had to corner him (he didn't threaten to call the cops this time) to tell him how I wanted thing's routed since he had no idea what a cable card was he really didn't know what it was he tried to tell me their receivers didn't use them and he pulled a Motorola DVR out of his truck and pointed to a empty slot on its front bezel that was for a chipped card like the one's used in satellite receivers I had to tell him to look at the back and point out were the card was, so he managed to get a line into my office were my D3 modem and Ceton tuner was, I had the Motorola Cable card that someone dropped off, I asked him to install a splitter just outside were he began to run the line through the hole I drilled so a line could be run about 40' to the front of the house where the directv line came in and was already split for a line to both the living room and bedroom I explained I wanted these to directly connect the 2 tvs (I knew I needed this because some of their channels were analog only and the Ceton card was digital only) I didn't explain why not too confuse him anymore he then came in with a drill wanting to drill new holes were they were not needed? When 30 Minutes earlier he was not allowed to drill??? I had to tell him to just run the line to the entry point in the front of the house he then said he didn't have enough clips to attach the line that far I said just split it prior to the first entry and coil up enough line to reach the bullet that was between the dish and the front entry, back inside he connected the cable to the my cable modem provisioned it and began to pack up? I asked him to install a splitter so he could connect the Ceton card so it could be activated (Something I had to call in to do myself) he said he thought it worked through the cable modem somehow but he did split the line and connect both the modem and tuner to the cable, before leaving never checking the line for a proper signal to the tuner he said he'd leave enough cable at the side of my house to run the line to the front as I asked, now that I am done with this guy so I thought I made the call to have the cable card provisioned I then was told I had to bring my Tivo into the Seneca office (here we go again!) I finally got the person on the phone to understand what was needed and he asked for the numbers needed to hit the card I was then told the one person that could activate the cable card was in a meeting he would do it as soon as the meeting was over, it's now about 4:30 pm I asked if I was needed at my residence just in case there were any issues I was told no I then took my wife to get something at a local store about a task that took about 1 hour when I got home I saw the cable left for me on the side of my house (about 200' piled up in a rat's nest) and I check were the line came into my office there is no splitter! So I check the PC to see if the card was activated nope! I then call technical support and was told there was nothing that could be done till tomorrow Saturday possibly Monday because my local office was now closed so I get the cable left outside and attempt to directly connect a TV disconnected the Ceton tuner and run the cable from the inside splitter to my 50" Panasonic 3 plasma TV do a channel scan in both digital cable and antenna modes nothing??? What's going on now? It turns out that the installer never removed the line trap that blocks all the digital TV channels so now I have a feeling an attempt to activate the cable card was made but failed because of the line trap. All the local channels are suposed to be available free in HD through a direct connection to the TV with the digital tuner built-in. Internet works that's about it oh the 50+ analog channels come in and they are as bad as another review stated my last call to Northland's 24/7 support all I got we're sorrys looks like I found a company worse than my prior cable Co and DirecTv I will be making a trip to the Seneca office on Monday to drop off their cable card and Gen 1 Roku I will have to keep my 12 Meg business AT&T UVerse account (it is a true cap free account) as far as TV service my wife and I are still kicking around the idea of cutting the cord and using an antenna and possibly Hulu/Netflix until we move somewhere we can get services from a real cable Co. Again if you have no options for TV service stay away especially if you own your own equipment! I know the FCC has strict law's about customer owned equipment in the customers favor but it is not worth the migraine and hypertension you will get dealing with Northland. (Original pre install review) I will re review after they get my service running if they can? I have a Business UVerse 12/1 right now that I would have kept but somehow my burried line keeps getting cut?? I know how but have yet to catch them! So far I can say Northland is another Atlantic Broadband they refuse to comply with the simple FCC cable card laws and even have a disclaimer on their website stating cable card users will not get any discounts and are not eligible for any promotions they are offering customers that choose to use their (Northlands) equipment, I own my own dosis 3.0 Motorola cable modem, and a Ceton Infinitv 4 Pcix cable card tuner that was in use with Atlantic Broadband for about 1 1/2 years that started a year long battle until I got the refund I was entitled to for charging for things against FCC law this happened shorty after they were sold to a Canadian company. Back to Northland they have no idea what a Switched Digital Video (SDV

)Tuning Adapter is or if I need one or two, will I get all the channels? Or are some of them analog only? Under the law all channels they broadcast need to be available through the cable card in some form of digital, just like owners of the newest Tivos that are digital only and do not have analog capabilities, in some cases the workaround is a (SDV)Tuning Adapter, my install is set for this Friday 01/02/2015 because of the ignorance of everyone I had spoken to so far I asked them to bring one of their DVR's along with a M Card for the Ceton CC tuner in my HTPC just in case the tech can't contact someone that knows how to hit the card correctly. Hopefully all goes well or I will be Keeping my uncapped business UVerse for what it's worth and Hulu with Netflix

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member for 20.4 years, 230 visits, last login: 2.6 years ago
updated 9.1 years ago

ham3843
join:2015-01-15
USA

ham3843

Member

Yes, Northland Cable in Seneca, Clemson, and Pendleton, SC is THAT bad!

The analog pictures are terrible, their prices are worse than outrageous, and
they really don't give a crap about customer service. I would say that among my experiences Northland Communications is one of the worst cable and internet providers in the entire US cable industry, and our local franchise is among the worst in Northland's group. Horrible services, insane prices, and customer NO service!

Review by prestonc See Profile

  • Location: Rutherfordton, Rutherford, NC, USA
  • Cost: $73 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
Only broadband available in my area.
Horrible latency and 50% reduction in throughput during peak hours.
Avoid Northland if you are a gamer or want to stream HD video consistently.
Pre Sales information:
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Service from Northland in the Rutherfordton, NC area is heavily over sold. On a daily basis from 6PM to 2AM latency goes from about 15ms to 100-200ms to my cable modem's first hop, packet loss is >10%, and throughput is reduced by half or more. I pay for 24Mbp/s downstream but regularly get less than 10Mbp/s from various speed test sites. Casual web browsing even seems slow during peak hours. I have been told this area is having a capacity upgrade. I have been told the upgrade will take about 3 weeks, which they are about 2 weeks too late on so far. I've been graphing latency and packet loss from my home connection and the results match my experience.

I do not recommend this ISP for people who want a consistent Internet connection.

member for 9.3 years, 2 visits, last login: 9.3 years ago
updated 9.3 years ago

ke4pym
Premium Member
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC

ke4pym

Premium Member

On the other side of the county

The up time and speeds are pretty consistent.

Parents subscribe to the 12/1 plan and they're always within that range and they have minimal down times.

A couple of down times this year were caused by telephone poles running out into the middle of the street and getting hit.

Price leaves a lot to be desired. I pay $69 for 50/5 (going to 100/20 in 2015) via TWC. They pay $67 for 12/1.

Review by Jlaporta2000 See Profile

  • Location: Mabank, Henderson, TX, USA
  • Cost: $158 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
Even when not right better than CenturyLink
Unreliable speed and no support for higher speed than 12 Mbps
Laws need to be changed to allow competition
Pre Sales information:
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Choosing to live in a rural community is almost a death knell for good Internet service. None of the "biggies" are here, Fiber runs 300 feet from my home but the technology used to deliver Internet is old-world technology. As a retired Optical Network Designer I am apalled.

I threw out CenturyLink after going to Texas Legislature fo force them to deliver service. Over a 2-year period they attained 86.4% uptime.

Northland has been doing better, however, over the past 3 months they have begun to be unreliable. Currently they are at 94% and I expect 5-Nines and faster speed. Cost is way to high compared to other choices. It appears my only hope will be WiMAX if we ever get it. Alternative is to move when the economy improves.

member for 19 years, 14 visits, last login: 6.8 years ago
updated 11 years ago

wirelessdog
join:2008-07-15
Queen Anne, MD

wirelessdog

Member

5-nines?

On a connection that is $133 a month? Wow.
Jlaporta2000
Premium Member
join:2005-03-03
75676

Jlaporta2000

Premium Member

Updated to 2013

Service was updated to 12/2 Business Class Internet Service in 2010. Has generally been reliable, attainment of 98.4% uptime. In late 2012 and early 2013 began having drop out and low speed issues. In March 2013 forced Northland to replace integrated Voice/Data Modem Router (Arriss) with a stand alone Arriss Voice Modem and stand alone Motorola SBG658 - Both DOCSIS 3 devices. Still on DOCSIS 2 Nodes and backbone - Northland does not have the money budgeted to update. Demanded that the area GM call for corporate to fund the change to DOCSIS 3 and provide 20/4 services. Over the past 3 days service has on rare instances delivered 12/2 - and once again getting a max of 7 or 8 Mbps downlink tonight for the past 4 hours... dropping as low as below 1 Mbps download service.

Again, 5 Nines service is the standard nationwide, no expections that is stated in the TR's. I can live with my business getting 98% full performance, this week it's under 90%. Hopeful that they will fix it soon.
wirelessdog
join:2008-07-15
Queen Anne, MD

wirelessdog

Member

Re: Updated to 2013

Care to expand on what "standard" you refer to?

You demanding things accomplishes nothing except creating office humor.

No non-carrier class service will deliver 5 nines in the reliability department - at least not on this planet.
Jlaporta2000
Premium Member
join:2005-03-03
75676

Jlaporta2000

Premium Member

Re: Updated to 2013

There are several standards, the oldest one is a congressional record where all of the carriers agreed to provide that standard back in 1988. »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi ··· lability loosely covers this.

Today my circuit is running 2/2 not 12/2 and thats with a new modem. Northland has much to learn about delivery of services. Unfortunately they are the only game in town because this county signed a consent decree that does not allow competition.

I am looking into multi-provider bonding as a possible solution now.
wirelessdog
join:2008-07-15
Queen Anne, MD

wirelessdog

Member

Re: Updated to 2013

I wouldn't doubt the rate you have treated them they are deliberately screwing with your line hoping you will cancel. I wouldn't blame them.

You are completely and totally incorrect about a "five nines" standard. You have no SLA and no SLA exists on a consumer product. Order a T1 and then you can preach about SLA's.

The ending of this story will be you with no Internet and blacklisted to never have Internet at least from that cable company.

Nobody likes a know it all - especially when they are sorely mistaken.

Review by gjrhine See Profile

  • Location: Pawleys Island, Georgetown, SC, USA
  • Cost: $43 per month
speed increase
occasional down time
ok for rural area service
Pre Sales information:
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»www.speedtest.net/result ··· 0178.png

For some reason I now get 6 Mb/s service instead of the 2 Mb/s I got for the last 5 years here at our mountain condo in Sapphire Valley near Cashiers, NC. Nice boost indeed.

Now getting 7 Mb/s. Spring 2012

member for 22.2 years, 6662 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 11.8 years ago







Review by zevus See Profile

  • Location: Chandler, Henderson, TX, USA
  • Cost: $64 per month
  • Install: about 10 days
No contracts, can switch between plans at no charge
Spotty connection, especially during peak hours
Overpriced, unqualified personnel (Flint, Tx)
Pre Sales information:
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$64 a month for 6Mbps/1Mbps. The 6Mbps/512Kbps package was $50/mo, but I needed the extra upstream. I am also paying an extra $5 fee (I believe) for not having cable service. Their website alternates between calling these packages 7Mbps and 6Mbps, but they are in actuality 6Mbps. This is the cause of the low rating for 'Pre Sales information'.

I have had service from this provider in the past and was not satisfied & cancelled, but came back w/ all the problems with Centurylink. For the first month or two, it was "acceptable". Perhaps on average about 5 hours of outage a week & good performance outside of a couple hours during primetime. Performance has gradually degraded as the months have passed, and at this point (June 10th), I have steady 25%+ packetloss during the afternoon hours and degraded performance during primetime. The only time the connection operates properly is from around midnight-1AM til 8-9AM.

The local office serving my area (Flint) appears to be highly incompetent. The 24-hour national tech support line is decent quality, but the most they can do is to send a ticket to your local office.

-------

update (6/17)... Flint, Tx plant manager visited my location today and stated that downstream 17 SNR was acceptable and that only the average SNR mattered, rather than the range within the specified test period. when corrected, talked about his years of experience and that since i wouldn't 'work with him', he was leaving.

update (6/21)... Connection seems better now with downstream power level adjusted. Pretty sure the only issue now is the SNR. Continuous 1-5% packetloss on first hop for about 20 hours a day. Still having a few drops, but not as many. Perhaps 30m-60m a day of 5-10% packetloss.

update (6/28)... DSL

update (7/7)... I was given a refund for my last month of service, which I appreciate. After the 6-17 visit, I dealt w/ a different technician @ Northland and it did seem that I had some improvement in the service.... but still was having the near continuous packetloss (albeit in the single digits, rather than double digits) & problems during peak usage hours.

The visit on the 17th by the plant manager (head technician) was my biggest concern, really... He presented faulty information and when corrected, took offense. In such conditions, it's not surprising that troubleshooting failed...

member for 13.3 years, 153 visits, last login: 2.4 years ago
updated 12.7 years ago


Review by fredpb See Profile

  • Location: Greenwood, Greenwood, SC, USA
  • Cost: $45 per month
  • Install: about 3 days
Speed not guarranteed. Speed not reliable.
Expensive. Not worth it unless it is the only game in town.
Pre Sales information:
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Worked great for a few months. Now it goes to 1.8mbps at night and only 3 mbops during the day. Tech support says they don't guarantte 6gbs (although they charge for it), and mine is ok. Bull. DSL is faster for half the price. But they are both so unreliable here in Greenwood, SC, I use BOTH with a dual WAN router.

Tech support for Northland is some great, sometimes useless. Only thing good about the cable is I just use it for internet, and there is no contract. Had it over a year now.

member for 21.3 years, 109 visits, last login: 9.7 years ago
lodged 12.8 years ago


Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: Greenwood, Greenwood, SC, USA
  • Cost: $45 per month
Nothing
Everything
Go with century link
Pre Sales information:
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Tech Support:
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I previously had Northland Cable, the triple play. I found the customer
service and technology way below standards. I currently have embarq
10mbps which speed tests pretty close to the full 10mbps. I
contemplated on going back to Northland but see that the reviews have
not changed and after going in to the office their prices are still
outrageous. They are now using tivo boxes as their hddvr boxes with an
additional $17.00 per month per box and you don't own the equipment
after it is paid for. If you have cable through them and use the tivo
you have to purchase their slow internet speeds which max at 6mbps
download and 1mbps upload (upload is descent if it in fact runs at that
speed. I want verizons new fiber service or comcast 100mbps yes that is
correct 100mbps download. Guess here in old Greenwood we will continue
to stay behind the times and pay the same rates for less than city
standard speeds.

(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 13.4 years ago

overtimeman
join:2006-11-11
Central, SC
·Northland Cable ..

overtimeman

Member

Northland in Central

Yep I have been stuck with Northland because it's the only internet(BB) provider in this area.But AT&T ran fiber optic through our neighborhood last Christmas week but still no start up date when it's gonna be up and running.They were nice enough to put an orange connector in my yard,but for now I'm just waiting.You are right about them being overpriced and years behind other cable systems even if they do have a so called fiber optic ran on the main highway.Gosh here it is 2010 and their analog picture quality is no better than when I had them twenty years ago!

Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: Sandpoint, Bonner, ID, USA
  • Cost: $74 per month
used to be local company
drops out a half dozen times a day, paying for 2 mb; avg download speed 300 kb
unacceptable
Pre Sales information:
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We have tv and internet service through Northland Cable Television
(NCTV) in Sandpoint, Idaho. It is disappointing and getting more so. We
pay for the proverbial "up to" 2 mb service, and recent tests have shown
our download speeds to be around 250-350 kb. The service gets slower the
longer we've had it. It also drops out without warning several times a
day, at which point we must stop whatever we are doing and unplug the
modem and router to reset it (the reset button on the modem worked
briefly when we first got the service, but it hasn't worked in a long
time). This service has progressed beyond unacceptable and must soon
stop working altogether if it continues its current trend, so we are
looking for a satellite or DSL alternative.

(review was emailed from domain nctv.com)
lodged 14.1 years ago


qwalla
join:2004-04-04
Portland, OR

qwalla

Member

NCTV in Sandpoint

ANY cable internet service is heavily dependent on the quality of the lines inside and outside your house and in your neighborhood. There is a lot of older housing in Sandpoint and I'm sure the cabling isn't the newest either. We live near Pine and Lincoln in a newer area and have full-speed servce on a 6M plan. If you are still on cable internet service it would be nice to contact NCTV and ask for a line quality monitor, or whatever they might be able to offer; this would help to understand why your results aren't up to par.