| USI Wireless We have had nothing but problems with USI Wireless. Frequent disconnects that last about 5 minutes, inconsistent speeds, nodes (the wi-fi transmitter on the light pole) that go down - they are in a daisy-chain so if one goes down all the nodes downstream go down. We've had to use dial-up as a back-up so frequently that we are seriously considering canceling. But the price is so good we hand in there hoping they will get the bugs worked out. But after 4 months we've just about had it. |
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BlamperPremium
join:2007-10-12
Minneapolis, MN | Had major problems too, but then I'm just outside the service area.
There is a node about a 1.5 blocks from me, but its obstructed by trees and leaves. When it rains the connection disappears due to microwave attenuation. I think the service would be worthwhile if you've got a clear line of sight to a node or you're only a block away. A expensive high gain outdoor antenna might work, but I didn't want to gamble so I canceled. |
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| I've been using their service since about Sept 07. Moved up to the 6Mbps service early in 08 and (first rented) then purchased the Ruckus Modem and have been getting speeds around the 4.5 to 5.1 range (Prior to the Ruckus Modem the speeds were inadequate). The upload is generally around 800 to 950kbps. Just committed to a full year, so I'm only paying $23.95/mth for the next 12 months. Pretty happy with it and can't argue with the price. I have a transmitter just at the end of my alleyway and live about half way down the block. I do find that sometimes a quick unplug of the modem is necessary to bring the speeds back into the ranges I quoted earlier. |
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| reply to Lawmoose
Re: USI Wireless (this is a cross post) Sorry -- I meant to post this reply on this thread, but sent it to the other USI thread, so this is a cross post.
I watched as USI installed wireless nodes in my Bryn Mawr neighborhood in late November 07. I saw SSIDs for them in December with a "testing" message only. But it was a full 30 days from that before I got the post card from them inviting me to subscribe. I got my subscription in January 08. In the first three months I had outages twice, one lasted an hour and the other went almost 6 hours -- I called their tech service each time and they told me they had already been aware of the problem and said they were already working on the problem. In my decade of DSL from Qwest, I can't recall ever having an outage. But considering they were in a build out mode, I could forgive a couple of bugs.
But by April I've been glitch free. I am using their Ruckus modem and the window I have it in can just see one of their light pole units at the far end of my block. I now am getting a solid 3 Mb/s inbound all the time, including early evenings, when I would anticipate other users might slow my neighborhood nodes down.
After the trees came into full bloom, I have noticed they have replaced a number of their backhaul 5 ghz antennas. Before they only had little white stick omni antennas, then I saw small panels and now many links in my neighborhood are the larger panel antennas, suggesting that they were having problems with some of their nodes having reliable connections as they were trying to shoot the microwave signals through trees.
Considering I am now paying HALF of what I had paid for my DSL and my speed has doubled, even taking into account my two outages, I think USI Wireless is a homerun for the citizens of Minneapolis and I have recommended them to several friends of mine. People with bad experiences are more likely to post complaints than those of us who have had good luck with them. If I were you, I'd go for it.
Kevin |
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