Reviews:
 ·CDE
| Uploads Throttled to 300kbps I hope the rest of Clarksville finds this post. We're experiencing throttled upload speeds with CDE Lightband. The upload speed has dropped to 300kbps. This company has advertised symmetrical 10Mbps service for several years. I've often recommended this service over Charter and any of the other broadband players here in Clarksville, TN because of this high-bandwidth symmetrical service. Just think of it--you could receive an HD videoconferencing image (the download speeds are still very high), AND you could send an HD videoconferencing image instead of a cheap and stingy low-def image (as long as the upload speeds match your download speeds of 10Mbps). If CDE Lightband is throttling your upload to 300Kbps, forget it--you'll be lucky to send even the stingiest ultra-low-def videoconferencing image to your business associates or friends.
Slow upload speeds also mean long waits to get video content onto youtube, if you have a youtube channel, as well as large volumes of digital photographs to servers (which you might send to Flickr or Snapfish). Generally, most people won't notice, as most people are light internet users, but those of us who rely on the internet to conduct digital business (video, photography, programming with large files) will be disappointed in the upload throttling. Also, we thought this was the deal from the beginning when we let CDE Lightband bring service to our homes in the first place. Their TV service sucks, and they probably wouldn't have any customers if their internet service hadn't been so much better than the competition when they started out a few years ago. Their HD broadcast selection is really stingy, and the picture fizzles out quite a bit of the time. The TV boxes, both low-def and high-def, are prone to freezing, requiring a long reset before the picture is restored.
Also, the customer service is pretty weak. You have to wait for a callback instead of being routed directly to a technician. If your issue doesn't get resolved right away, you have to go through the whole rigamarole again and again. I'm not blaming the workers at the call center, or really anyone at all for that matter. I understand that the new digital technology must be expensive and costly to service and maintain. I admire this company for trying so hard to improve internet service in this town/city over the past few years. Personally, I prefer satellite television (generally has more HD channels, more intellectual programming [BBC, Link Network], and the equipment is less prone to freezing since the signal is streaming instead of a negotiated connection), but I understand that many others prefer land-based cable. Still, I'd like to see this company nail down its technical issues once and for all.
My advice to management--please give all the workers a raise and a decent bonus. They must have a great deal of patience and graciousness to manage the system I'm describing, and therefore must be invaluable employees and sterling members of the community.
Anyone else still using CDE Lightband? I heard they were having serious business/financial issues with their internet and TV service. I wonder if this is the reason behind the cutback in quality. Please post your reply.
One final thing--you can find speed tests for this site by typing "dslreports speed test" into Google's search bar. Should be right at the top of the search listings. I can't find an easy-to-spot speed test button anywhere on this site, but they DO have a page. Check your speed and post your results. |
