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GWI announces base 7mbps connection, price decreases

quote:

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BIDDEFORD, MAINE – Biddeford, Maine-based GWI, Inc. announced a plan to roll out higher Internet speeds on all of its residential broadband connections at the same or lower cost. When completed in 60 days, GWI customers on the company’s basic broadband service will have access to Internet speeds of 7 megabits per second (Mbps), roughly equivalent to cable modem services, while the rest of GWI customers will receive a service that is two to three times faster.

CEO Fletcher Kittredge said the upgraded network speeds of either 7 or 20 Mpbs is higher than the new 4 Mpbs National Broadband Plan definition of “broadband” because Maine and the U.S. need to get back to a global leadership position when it comes to Internet speed, adoption and innovation.

Kittredge noted broadband data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released last month which shows the United States ranked ninth out of 29 countries for mobile broadband adoption, and 12th out of 33 countries for percentage of households with fixed broadband.

“When Seoul, South Korea has download speeds of 35.8 Mpbs and New York has 11.7 Mpbs download speed – we need to shoot higher than 4 Mpbs if we want to create jobs and opportunities for Maine people,” said Kittredge. “As a Maine-based company, that is why GWI is implementing a plan to provide customers with either 7 Mpbs or 20 Mpbs speeds for the same or lower price than they are paying today.”

GWI’s speed upgrade project begins July 1 and will take 60 days to complete. After the upgrade, all residential broadband customers will be on one of two tiers of speed based on the maximum capacity of their line – either 7 Mpbs or 20 Mpbs. GWI customers will benefit from either faster Internet access, lower monthly costs or both higher speeds and lower costs. GWI customers do not need to do anything to benefit and will receive information on their upgrade in special postal and email communication from GWI. Customers can also go to our website to see more information on how their high speed internet access will be enhanced.

Press release: »www.gwi.net/policy/news/gwi-anno···er-cost/

New service and pricing structure: »www.gwi.net/policy/news/speed-up···-access/

Coverage from the Press Herald: »www.pressherald.com/news/gwi-upg···-02.html

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Good news.

But for me today and hopefully not due to everyone using more of their upgraded bandwidth my speeds have been all over the place today, tried connection without router, power cycled modem and still erratic speeds, will check again tomorrow to see if things improve.

Averaging around 2meg, I sync at 16meg, any other Bangor residents experiencing slow speeds? My modem it synced fine so its not my premises.

reply to ElJay

Re: GWI announces base 7mbps connection, price decreases

Will this upgrade be done by going to adsl 3? or are you just adding a bigger pipe to the co's?

If just adding capacity to the colo's then I do not see how the line will magically get better s/n to up there speed, in other words if you have been told you are to far out or have a crappy outside plant they will not improve will they?

Bruce

Bruce,

The service will still be ADSL2+. Distance and outside plant will
always influence our customers' ability to get higher speeds. If you
are maxed out, at your phone line's capacity, this update will not
likely increase your speed.

As always thanks for your interest and great questions.

Erick
GWI Support

Eric thanks for the quick answer, Question If I ordered a second dsl line that would give me a 2nd cable pair, can you bond the pairs, I have a dual wan router(dlink 604lb) that I use to bridge the dsl with the cable, I can get a drylink from japan that has 4 wan inputs, Would this work with a bonded pairs or is it unneeded as would not bonded pairs give a bigger wire size. any change of getting something like this. It is going to suck siting hear at 3-3.5 meg when the lowest is 7meg, any change of a SLC in my back yard? or a dsl extender on my circuit,is there no solution?
bruce

reply to ElJay
This overall is going to be great, competition in Maine what a great Idea. GWI appears to be pushing it along, again a good idea.
Bruce

reply to braynes
Bruce,

Bonded DSL is in the next item in the product development cycle for Residential Services. We're not far enough along to give you a release date. I'll let you know as we get closer.

Heather

any ballpark on when the Bar Harbor area will be upgraded?

mhochman:

We have Bar Harbor slated for 8/24 and 8/25. Hope this helps!

Erick
GWI Support

I think i may be able to wait that long Thanks for the info.

How long on business lines? I've got 2 residentials and 1 business line with GWI.

No biggie, Looking forward to testing the heck out of the upgrades

reply to ElJay
So is GWI making changes at the CO at all? Or just doing areas in batch?

In most places, it is just in batches. The purpose of batching is to control quality. In a few locations, backbone router upgrades are required.

If you are interested, a blog posting on the speed upgrade.

reply to ElJay
I got my upgrade notice today. Even though I was already on the 20mbps plan, I am now seeing an extra 1mbps or so over what was getting before. I went from about 8mbps to 9mbps. I definitely won't question it. Thanks, GWI!

Eljay,
That's great! I appreciate the update and your business.

Guy Cadorette
Customer Support Manager
GWI

reply to astokes
Running very very slow in Houlton ever since early summer, when they emailed me saying I needed to either switch to their phone and internet, or go with the much higher priced dsl solo. I live about 1500 feet from the central office.

Looks like someone deleted a whole bunch of replies?

Edit: im just reading the wrong post.. DUHHHH ME lol