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Re: OMGfast.... Looking for review

I just got OMGfast today in Boca Raton. I'm getting between 30 Mbps and 45 Mbps download speed but the upload speed is only around 0.85 Mbps (less than 1 Mbps). It has gone as fast as 63 Mbps download and 1.05 Mbps upload. It also has gone to as slow as 8 Mbps download and 0.44 Mbps upload. The installation took about 4 hours and the installer was prompt, very nice and knowledgeable. I guess the main problem is the slow upload. I was getting around 5 Mbps upload from Comcast but only about 25 Mbps download.

Boy I'm not impressed with that installation at all. One good real CAT 1 or better hurricane and that will be ripped from the side of the eve and do all kinds of damage to the home could let wind and water in. Do they even have it grounded with anything to a real ground rod or cold water pipe? I would hate to have their installation be the path for lightning to take out other electronic items in the house.

The service cuts out a couple times per hour and then can take between one to five minutes to respond to clicking on a web link.
Makes it pretty much unusable. I'd rather have a slow connection than an inconsistent one. It's my first day so maybe it's an install problem. I'll call them and give them a chance to fix it and if they can't it has to go. Also my upload is only 0.85 Mbps average and never been above 1.1 Mbps.

Sounds like you may not have a good uplink...

Had them since July. Service is better recently. Used to lose the signal during thunderstorms. Had more outages over the Summer as well. They replaced my modem a couple of months ago. Since then, I can''t download torrent files. It took weeks for them to admit they block torrents. Looks like I will be going back to Comcast. OMG just lost BIG money on me. Between the $hundreds the Dish is worth, and the Full day's labor of the installer and the other two times a tech person came out.The Installer took ALL DAY to install me. I am not having them take the Dish off my chimney. So- they can have their modem and Cisco Router. I was not a Huge downloader. No throttling or warning or anything. Just 100% Blocking of Torrents!! Clearband is like a Bunch of COMMUNISTS!!

10.4 Upon termination, all equipment installed at Users premises (which equipment is the property of OMGFAST) must be returned to OMGFAST within ten (10) business days. User authorizes the entry of the premises for such removal. If any equipment is not returned within ten (10) business days, or if damaged by User, the full amount for replacement will be charged to Users account and become immediately due. Failure to pay any past due amount will be turned over to a credit agency chosen by OMGFAST!.

This place is a waste of time and money! I had service for maybe a week and a half and it was up and down constantly. I had made many calls with them telling me someone will call back and no one ever would. 2 weeks ago I called to cancel it and for them to just come get their crap and refund me. Its been a month now with no service! I was told each time I called someone would call me back. I asked to speak to a manager and again "someone will call you back" but they will put in a request for cancellation. 2 weeks of calling over 10 times no one called me back. Today I called again after no one calling me back and after them charging another $50 when I don't even have service and put in a cancel request 2 weeks ago! The only way I got them to cancel it today and put in for 2 refunds now is because I threatened to call local news, file a complaint with the police for scamming and stolen money. I also told them I was calling the BBB today which I still will because this place is horrible!! The rep who came to my house to get me to sign up BSed me and nothing he said I would get was true.
Do not waste your time with this company! Comcast may suck but they are far better then these people!

I am glad I read this thread. It sounds like they are still in beta testing. Hard to believe they block torrent files or that you can't run voip on it . . I won't be ordering this because I rely on my broadband connection for phone service.

The guy came out at 10:30 on 12/31, left at almost 7pm... Yes, New Years Eve!!!. Speed is consistently 35+, have topped 54.65 a couple of times. Typical up is 2.4, although I have hit 3.14 a few times.
Much faster than my U-Verse and about 10 dollars less expensive. I will keep both for the month, then decide. So far, so good....

What are all of the expenses for install and modem, etc.? Do you think that it's reliable enough for VOIP?

A rep. stopped by my house yesterday, promising to beat the 30Mbps I get from my ISP now and for 1/3 the price. Sounds too good to be true, right? All of these posts were very helpful in my realizing why that is. OMG is not for me.

What concerns me is the reliability factor. I don't have wireline phone service, so I rely on my broadband link for VOIP.

I am pretty certain this would go out during the heavy rain storms that we get here in South Florida.

I can't risk it for the purpose of saving $10 a month.

I have some questions. I'm in Margate, gotten flyers from OMGFast, and with my ISP currently giving me problems, this is sounding better and better.

For the same price it's 15x faster than my dsl.

I know there was a law put in that prevents home owner associations, local ordinances, etc. from disallowing mini dishes for TV, does that apply to what OMG fast uses? Seems like the same tech. I think the dish has to be less than 39 inches.

I live in a condo (and not on the top floor), would I be allowed to get this service installed?

The other thing is, does OMGFast provide backup access via dialup? I know it's stone age, but it beats a complete blackout.

Google OTARD

Spoke with a nice sales rep today (aren't they always?).
Things I learned:

They intend to roll out 40 towers in south Florida from West Palm Beach to Homestead. They will probably move south first because of the high number of condos going north. (More on that later).

He also copped to being a division of Cablevision, but a separate internet provider only. So they may add services later that Cablevision has.

Q & A
Back up dialup - No, just back up WiMax which is very slow, like 5-6 mbps slow. (I love their definition of slow.) With the addition of antennas, service can be redirected to other antennas if one goes down. 24/7 tech support.

Usenets - Nope (I don't think he knew what that was.) Anyone know if Cablevision usually provides it?

Price - $29.95/mo. + $10 proprietary modem and router rental.
No contract. Current special includes a lifetime guarantee on that price!

IPV6 - "What's that?"

Condos - He is sending me paper work to petition the condo association for permission as well as paper work on OTARD.

Basically by law you do not have to ask permission and cannot be prevented from having a mini dish device installed. BUT since they are a new company they aren't looking to make any enemies so they want you to have permission first.

If I can pull this together, I think I'll be giving them a go. I pay the same amount for middling quality DSL @ 3mbps as it is.

Re: OMGfast.... Looking for review

I have it getting installed tomorrow here in Oakland Park(Fort Lauderdale). I have uverse now but figured I'd see what the hype is about. I did see someone mentioned torrents are blocked, which if that's still true I will just send the installer packing lol.

Okay so scratch that, the installer came out and said he didn't have a clear line of site. I find it funny that a rep came out walking our entire neighborhood but we can't even get it lol. Oh well I will stick with uverse.

We signed up for OMGFast this past January. While initially the service was fast, it was even quicker to slow down. Not sure if this was due to the physical environment or what, but twice (and only after being fed up with having slower service than I had with AT&T DSL) I called to see what could be done. Once I left my number for a Tier II tech but got no response (although the service did pick back up after I called), and the second time I was asked to do a power cycle. Okay, so that worked. But short of having to do that every couple of days, no one ever offered to have a tech come out and try to reposition the dish. I called last week to cancel the service, was hung up on abruptly without provocation, and just got off the phone with someone who was willing to refund my service fees if I allowed a tech to come out and reposition the dish. My husband simply wasn't happy with the service and that's why I called to cancel.

When I called last week to follow up with an appointment on when to get this stuff out of my house, I was told we were being credited a month's worth of charges for March, yet March's billing date hadn't even been reached (this is where I was hung up on). I immediately called my bank, put a stop payment on all OMGFast charges that attempted to come in, and called a second time to find out when a technician would be out to pick up the equipment. I was told one had already tried twice to contact me (not true) and that the ticket number (not a confirmation number) would be re-queued so I was at the top of the list again. I have yet to hear from a tech, and that was two days ago.

In the mean time, I just got off the phone with someone who was willing to refund me all the charges I have paid and to have the dish recalibrated/repositioned. I told him that all I wanted was someone to come out and pick up the equipment. Again I was hung up on.

While the service might be great for some (both internet and customer), I advise to reconsider. You have to sign up for auto debit (as it was put to me by my salesman) and there is no way that I found to change that information. To cancel, you have to call in. It's been over a week since I cancelled and I can't seem to get someone to call me back regarding coming to get the equipment.

Hey all, thanks for the feedback! Anonymous2 we sincerely apologize that you've had these issues! If you'll send us a PM with your phone number we'll have someone call you ASAP.

-OMGFAST! Web Team

The service sounds ok, but I have a VOIP service with almost 2 years left on the contract. What is the worst-case JITTER I can expect from both the uplink and downlink?

Is it true that you block torrents, as I use this technology to publish and distribute very large genetic databases for research, as this cuts down on server bandwidth for me???

Also, I just happen to have a couple 50 ghz spectrum analyzers and a 60' tower in the back yard with 35 sq ft windload, with 21 sq ft not presently used. I also have a 1st Class FCC lic hanging in the back room, and have several microwave links at this location. Just for kicks, I manufacture Nitrogen cooled LNAs for deep space use.

Based on the quality of techs/installers mentioned in previous posts, how about a DIY or self-install provision. Since I already have some 10 to 18 Ghz broadband horns, I already observed some traffic on the old CARS band to the Northeast of my West Davie, FL location, but at -92 dbm with a 10 db gain horn. I would like to see a 30 db (rain/scatter) fade margin, or at least a shorter path from an upcoming tower, before considering your service. I also do Proof Of Performance for FCC compliance or documentation purposes.

Now, about that DIY install provision, as I would have no patience for a roofer trying to learn how to adjust azimuth and elevation by using an AGC or QOS reading on a remote laptop.

.... Also is there a MINIMUM guaranteed speed, or at least a typical "rush hour" uplink and downlink speed??

On the 1st page of this thread, someone posted a speedtest that showed a 7% packet loss, 65 ms latency, and a 31 millisecond jitter. Is this the best or typical of what the system can do???

Will today's equipment/base stations do better????

Re: OMGfast.... Looking for service

I would like to have this service installed in my home in Sunrise. When will this service be in this area?

So I ended up getting omgfast setup here in Oakland Park and so far so good. The tech was very knowledgeable and even ran a pingtest before I had a chance, which I thought was cool. I def didn't think the installer would do that. It came back as a "B" same as uverse. I've had it about a month now and it hasn't gone down once. I do wish upload was around 10megs but I know it's due to a limit of the technology. I've played xbox live non stop for and not one disconnect. If anyone has any questions or wants me to run any test lmk.

Re: OMGfast.... Looking for review

We have OMG Fast for over a month now and here is our review:

OMG Fast is a new wireless ISP provider in Florida. They have very fast download link (40-60Mb/s) and upload link (3Mb/s). There is no contract to sign up and the price is about $40/month. We switched our service from Advance Cable to OMG because of the high speed offer. However, to our surprise our ObiTalk VOIP call has so much jitter and delay to the point of unusable.

We can hear the other person on the call well (we are on the down link) but the other person on the up link cannot hear us well. There would be missing words and the sound is more like from a robot than of a natural person.

We complained about this problem to OMG using our VOIP phone so that they can hear the problem for themselves. They acknowledged the sound quality problem but they wouldn't fix it. Their suggestion to us was to use their VOIP phone instead which cost $15/month. Having no choice we ordered their VOIP phone and then everything is fine. The sound quality became perfect. This really tell us that OMG is not as transparent as they should be. Their network must be programmed to treat their own VOIP service to a higher quality of service than other VOIP traffics. Worse, we think that they could be purposely messing around with other VOIP service so that we cannot use other VOIP service but OMG.

Another thing that we found is that after a month of service they started to block all the ports (80-http, 21-ftp, 22-ssh, 443-https) so that we cannot reach our own server away from home. When we called them they told us that for "security" reason they have to block those ports. Our server is now as good as dead because our friends and family cannot access it anymore.

We want to log our problem here for the benefit of others. If you want to switch to OMG please consider these problems first.

Sounds horrible. I won't be signing up. I will stick with ATT DSL.

Is it true they block torrents and ports? What is the point of this service?

How do they market a product that's not even available in all areas, and not have a clue as to when it will be. I currently live in the Miami-Dade area where I keep hearing and seeing the commercials for the service and its clearly not in my area "yet" so the claim.

Not blocked for me.