n9ae
@tds.net
| My Madison West Side TDS WIMAX Nightmare
We've been a TDS DSL customer for about 8 years. We are close to 18,000 feet from the Black Oak CO on Reetz Rd. so throughput has always been marginal, 640 / 430 K on average. For the past 2 years we've also experienced an increasing number of total outages. The TDS engineers have been here several times and given the distance limitations WIMAX was suggested as an alternative.
After being assured by a TDS sales engineer that we could have great coverage in our area we signed up as soon as it was available and on Feb 28 tow technicians attempted the install. Surprise just as I expected the hill between our house and the Prairie Rd. site was blocking the signal making it marginal.
So an antenna on the roof was not going to work. OK we just happen to have a 67 foot ham radio tower in our back yard and the TDS installers suggested we install the WIMAX antenna about 40 feet up the tower. Sounds great BUT TDS now refuses to allow there installers to do this install because it doesn't follow their script. I've been fighting with them but they will not bend. The really sad thing is no one in this area is going to be able to get a usable WiMAX signal. There are areas west of our house where they could put up another site to fill in, Channel 3 on Raymond Rd. for example but they don't appear to have this in their plans.
So TDS can no longer deliver reliable DSL. Their WIMAX coverage is limited by geography although they continue to sell the service and they are so inflexible they would rather loose me as a customer than have someone climb a stable well maintained tower (much safer than climbing on someones roof) for a very straight forward install. They don't even have to drill any holes. There's conduit from the tower into the basement.
I was a very happy customer for several years but I no longer have confidence in their commitment to customer service.
Not that it makes much difference but I've worked in local and hight speed wide area networking for close to 20 years so I am not totally uneducated. I know this is a rant but I feel like I've run out of options. |
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n9ae
join:2008-05-16
Madison, WI
| I should add to me comments above. TDS scheduled the install for May 14 in the AM. They never showed up and never called to cancel. The only way I found out they were refusing to do the installation was when I called to ask why they didn't come. Obviously they were just going ot blow me off. |
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Island Jeff
join:2005-07-18
 ·WildBlue
 ·TDS
| reply to n9ae
quote:
So TDS can no longer deliver reliable DSL.
What happened in your area that made DSL unreliable? Some degradation of the lines, or another entity owns the actual physical phonelines, or what?
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Very happy TDS DSL user | Wildblue in Lake Michigan |
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n9ae
join:2008-05-16
Madison, WI
| reply to n9ae
Pretty simple. There's a big hill between our area west of McKenna Blvd and the transceiver site on Prairie Rd. In order to get adiquite signal we need to go up about 40 feet. The tech's who were here used their bucket truck to confirm this but their manager will not OK installation on our tower. Everyone else in this area is just SOL. It doesn't take an engineer to know signals at such high frequencies don't go through hills.
BTW I spend an hour on the phone with TDS DSL support last night. We are again having peek time total loss of signal. Every day before 8 am and after 4 pm we loose sync with the network. This happened about 5 months and it took about a month to fix. We are now having the same problem.
I sure hope they don't think I'll go back to dial up and be a loyal customer.
Peek time lowdowns with Charter is better than no service at all. |
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n9ae
join:2008-05-16
Madison, WI
| reply to n9ae
Update. We are going to try this again. Although the signal from our roof is a 5 to 6 of 8 it's very likely to be much better than your current DSL service. While I would much prefer to get the better signal that comes with more height I'm optimistic we can at least get acceptable service.
We'll know June 20th. |
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philfna
Premium
join:2003-12-30
Wisconsin | reply to n9ae
I've had no problems whatsoever with the WiMax service. I am off of Blackhawk Avenue on the westside. Plenty of trees blocking line of sight, but I am getting 5.9 to 7 mbits per second down and 1.5 to 3.0 mbits up. |
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n9ae
join:2008-05-16
Madison, WI
| reply to n9ae
That's somewhat encouraging. I assume you are getting service from the channel 27 antenna.
I have no concerns regarding line of site through trees with the technology TDS is using. The hill between our house and the Prairie Rd antenna is clearly an obstruction. The issue will be is the limited service we get better than DSL which is marginal at best and is it sufficient to sustain service of at least 2 Mbs for data. The hill is not moving any time in the future so this area is a black hole. the question is how much of a black hole. I'll post an update after June 20. |
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n9ae
join:2008-05-16
Madison, WI
| reply to n9ae
I thought I would post in update. TDS was scheduled to do a standard roof mount WiMAX again today. For the 2nd time they failed to show up, did not call and canceled the installation for no apparent reason other than incompetence .
I'm at the end of my patience. |
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n9ae
join:2008-05-16
Madison, WI
| reply to n9ae
Here's my final update and a happy ending!!!!!! With the help of 2 diligent TDS employees we were finally able to get past the misinformation and confusion regarding how the antenna should be mounted and the install was completed the morning of July 2. The service is working wonderfully and I'm now again a happy TDS customer.
Lessons learned.
1) The installers who were dispatched on Feb 28 were just plain wrong. The signal strength from a standard mount on the side of our garage at the peek of the roof was excellent. There's no reason to suggest we mount it on our radio tower.
2) The suggestion of using the tower generated so much confusion that it took 5 months, 2 unannounced cancellations and the help of 2 very helpful and professional TDS employee's to untangel it. Not to mention a great deal of stress and frustration for the customer.
Thankfully this story has a very happy ending and I hope some lessons have been learned.
The service is a great bargen. If it's available in your area get it!!
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Island Jeff
join:2005-07-18 | Congratulations!!!
What kind of speeds are you getting now? And how is the wimax connection for reliability? |
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