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WHT
join:2010-03-26
Rosston, TX

2 edits

WHT

Member

"Bandwidth exhaustion" in Texas

Had a new 10 Mbps DSL line installed last week. First speed and best speed test was 520 Kbps. Today, Wednesday, I could get 8 Mbps at 6 AM, but after 8 AM I'm getting 2 to 3.5 Mbps.

Called CL and was given the scripted answer there is "bandwidth exhaustion" in my area and there is no estimated time of resolution; the reason was too many people were on line during peak hours. While it is the first admission of a "bandwidth exhaustion" I have ever gotten from CL, it was absolutely no surprise. I am concerned there is no expected time frame for any resolution - to me that means there *IS NO* expected resolution.

I'm going to start logging FTP speed tests using their official speed test site. By next week I should have enough information to follow this up through appropriate channels.

They are knowingly selling a 10 pound bag of sugar that only weighs 2 pounds. This could easily escalate to advertising fraud.

Edited for typos.
GDRobins
join:2011-07-13
Romeo, CO

GDRobins

Member

Is this something the FCC would respond to?

WHT
join:2010-03-26
Rosston, TX

WHT

Member

Not likely as there is no FCC rule obligating them to any commitment, unlike a radio station has to have so many hours of public service programming.
jcims
join:2008-07-07
Marysville, OH

2 edits

jcims

Member

Good luck WHT, I'm going through this in Ohio. I've got a pretty good testing setup that i detail a little bit in this thread:

»[CenturyTel] CenturyLink 'bandwidth exhaust area' in central Ohi

Download the utility from nirsoft.net, replace the config file with the one in the attached .zip and run via the following .cmd script:

c:\temp\downtester /stab report-%RANDOM%.txt

This will create an output file called something like random-23455.txt for each run. When you want to pull stats together, collate the files like this:

foreach %i in (report-*.*) do type %i >> report.txt

Load up into excel and go to town. My 10mbps connection is almost unusable:







GDRobins
join:2011-07-13
Romeo, CO

GDRobins to WHT

Member

to WHT
Perhaps the FTC then?

WHT
join:2010-03-26
Rosston, TX

WHT

Member

Friday afternoon,

CenturyLink FTP speed test site to various servers,

46 Kbps to 140 Kbps.

Tested a "56K" modem and got 44 Kbps.

My 10 Mbps DSL line can't even deliver 1% of the speed I'm paying for.

Tech suggested I change out phone cord to modem, bypass any filters, plug modem directly in NID. OK, I didn't change the brand new six foot phone cord, but it's directly connected to the NID at the 66M punch-down block and no filters. I think he didn't read the "Wednesday bulletin" (what the other tech said just came down on Wednesday), about "bandwidth exhaustion".
WHT

WHT

Member

Friday evening, 10:46.
9.55 Mbps

CS rep set up an appointment for a tech to meet me at premise location to test line tomorrow, Saturday afternoon.
WHT

WHT

Member

Talked to field tech, we agreed it wouldn't be worth the trouble to drive out there to test anything if the line stats looked all right and no one was working in the C.O. today anyway.

Edited to add current stats:

DSL Line

ATM Status
SAR Driver Counters Display:
inPkts = 0x00033bce, inDiscards = 0x00000000
outPkts = 0x00033787, outDiscards = 0x00000026
inF4Pkts = 0x00000000, outF4Pkts = 0x00000000
inF5Pkts = 0x00000000, outF5Pkts = 0x00000000
openChan = 0x00000003, closeChan = 0x00000001
txRate(Bps) = 7940, rxRate(Bps) = 3712

Upstream Noise Margin
noise margin upstream: 9 db
output power downstream: 19 db
attenuation upstream: 5 db

Downstream Noise Margin
noise margin downstream: 16 db
output power upstream: 8 db
attenuation downstream: 9 db
Expand your moderator at work
GDRobins
join:2011-07-13
Romeo, CO

GDRobins

Member

Re: "Bandwidth exhaustion" in Texas

Maybe it's time for a class action lawsuit against all the isp's that are overselling their bandwidth. Sort of like the way the Gov't went after big tobacco. Gov't probably wouldn't do it, but nothing stopping an enterprising lawyer with several million disatisfied consumers behind him. You all know that we're getting treated this way (especially the rural consumers) because the Gov't is allowing these companies to operate monopolies. - My rant for the day.
willzzz
join:2007-05-23
NY

willzzz to WHT

Member

to WHT
The point is CenturyLink is CHEAP.

CenturyLink needs to copy a Tier-1 carriers method of providing bandwidth.

That is what AT&T & Verizon do: Provide direct 10G in metro areas and 1G in rural areas of GigE termination DIRECTLY into EVERY CO with the GigE DSLAM back-haul and aggregation router.

They can solve is ONCE AND FOR ALL.

Aren't you physically close to Dallas anyways!?

WTF CenturyLink!?

billaustin
they call me Mr. Bill
MVM
join:2001-10-13
North Las Vegas, NV

billaustin

MVM

This was on the front page Monday evening. CL has announced some upgrades as a result of the merger with Qwest.

»www.lightwaveonline.com/ ··· 638.html

WHT
join:2010-03-26
Rosston, TX

WHT

Member

»www.lightwaveonline.com/ ··· 638.html
CenturyLink to invest $20 million to improve, expand broadband in New Mexico.

They should fix what's broken first before expanding using an already broken out of the box new product.

4:33 in the afternoon and the plague has moved in early today. Getting 1.13 Mbps. Down from 2.8 an hour ago. Looks like no DSL for me tonight.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx to willzzz

Member

to willzzz
Hate to break it to you, but in some areas AT&T and Verizon aren't running that kind of capacity into town, let alone to the DSLAM. I'm not complaining about my 1.5M VZ DSL connection (it's all the line will allow) and Verizon only sells 3M DSL in the area anyway, but rumor has it that they're running the town's bandwidth off of two DS-3s (90 Mbps total). Then again, most people are on Time Warner Cable, who has their own fiber running into town and probably pushes a gigabit or two of capacity over it.

WHT
join:2010-03-26
Rosston, TX

WHT

Member

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I have a 10 Mbps business account. My demarc is three or four telephone poles from the C.O.

It's been bad all week.

From Friday evening around 10 PM.
zevus
join:2010-11-29
Chandler, TX

zevus to WHT

Member

to WHT
Basically the same as:

»Slow speeds in N. Texas?

Right?... or are you not in N/NE Texas? I seem to recall some posts from you in that thread..

Anyhow... I resubscribed about 45 days ago and was told that this was some known problem and it was going to be resolved by some day in July I forgot (it would have already passed, though)... To me, it's not too bad since as long as you don't download over 1Mbps or so you still have decent latency, unlike how it was about 6mo ago (where even when idling you'd be getting 500ms latency)..

Right now @ 11:00PM central, I can do about 2.5Mbps or so, in an hour or two, it'll be 4-5Mbps, then around 2 or 3AM, I'll be able to get the 10Mbps. Then the reverse will happen starting between 8-10AM. Except it'll generally stay around the 4Mbps area until 5-6PM.

I think the day-time issues will resolve themselves here shortly (August), w/ school being back in session. The 5PM-midnight will still be slow though.

I filed an informal complaint with the FCC and got a response. If you're not happy with that, you'd need to pay $200 to file a formal complaint & likely would want to hire representation and what not.

WHT
join:2010-03-26
Rosston, TX

WHT

Member

Yeah...north by northwest North Texas, or far northeast of Central Texas, or south of Upper Baha Oklahoma.
WHT

WHT

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Monday afternoon, Aug 1, 2:45 in the afternoon.

Pathetic.
WHT

WHT

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TUESDAY afternoon, Aug 1, 2:45 in the afternoon.

Worse than pathetic.
WHT

WHT

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An hour later and it's worse.
WHT

WHT

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Tuesday night at 11 PM.

I can't even get 1 Mbps on my 10 Mbps line.
WHT

WHT

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Late Tuesday night (Wednesday morning), 12:15 AM
WHT

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WHT

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Clearly more than a "prime time" 7 PM to 11 PM problem.

Called CL Friday and they gave me a $50 credit. Will call back Monday and tell them that's not enough credit as that is only a 50% credit and and they are delivering less than 10% of what they are charging me.

$99 for 10 Mbps HSI versus $9 for 1 Mbps "HSI" would be acceptable.
WHT

WHT

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Tuesday morning, 11:15 Aug. 11
Not even 1 Mbps.
WHT

WHT

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Tuesday evening, around 10 PM.
WHT

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Wednesday Aug. 10th

acityinruins
@embarqhsd.net

acityinruins

Anon

WHT, I am also having the same issue, so I assume you are in east texas. I have talked to several reps, they knowingly let me open an account for 10mb services when they knew this was an issue. It is complete BS. I have contacted them several times via phone, email and chat. Two of the customer service reps set up appointments at two different times and a tech never showed up and I never received a call. I told centurylink today that I refuse to pay for these services until I receive my correct bandwidth. I agree though, it looks like no end in site. I should have stayed on Northland... too bad there are only two providers here.
acityinruins

acityinruins

Anon

I had another chat session with a csr and I got the same answer, that they have no idea when it will be solved. I guess its better than the guy that lied to me and told me it would be all settled 3 weeks ago. However, my connection has been running around 9.7mb all morning, but I'm assuming it will drop around 3 or so. Anyway, glad to see someone actually speaking their mind. I hear a lot of people complaining around here about it, but they're not complaining to CL.

WHT
join:2010-03-26
Rosston, TX

1 edit

WHT

Member

Wednesday afternoon, spoke with CS. She conferenced me with tech support and he confirmed there was a bandwidth exhaustion problem. That's what she needed to confirm, i.e. it is was not unique to my line.

I was transferred to a supervisor and she said I could downgrade to 1.5 Mbps, and it would be "only" $99 per month. WTF? $99 for 1.5 Mbps business line?
WHT

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WHT

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