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Windstream Under Investigation For Awful Speeds
Company's Failure to Upgrade Reaching Critical Mass

Windstream isn't having a very good few weeks in the peach state. First the company's anti-community broadband bill failed after locals noticed Windstream was trying to stop others from expanding broadband -- in areas they refused to. Now the company is under investigation by the Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Protection for making false claims about the company's DSL speeds in the state, after locals noticed that the 6, 12 or 24 Mbps promised in advertisements is often around 1 Mbps in real life:

quote:
A Windstream employee in a company retail office in Dawsonville told an undercover CBS Atlanta photographer that the company can offer Internet speeds up to 24Mbps. He guaranteed service no slower than 6 to 12Mbps. But Mark Creekmore, who lives in Dawsonville, reports his speeds sometimes barely reach 1Mbps during the afternoons. Duane Hartness, a Windstream customer, says Windstream has oversubscribed their service by continuing to sell broadband on a network that is overcrowded as-is, which slows speeds for every customer.
Spend some time in our forums and you'll quickly find that consumer impression of Windstream's current DSL offerings is not particularly favorable. A recent FCC study also rated Windstream dead last among fixed-line ISPs when it comes to actually delivering advertised speeds at peak hours. Windstream is telling customers they'll solve the issue with upgrades, but is telling investors they plan to scale back upgrades because the lack of competition in their markets allows them that luxury.

That Windstream's trying to write state telecommunications law and block others from doing upgrades they won't is the height of comedy. Locals in Georgia with speed issues can file their complaints here.
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AlexNYC
join:2001-06-02
Edwards, CO

AlexNYC

Member

That's exactly what CenturyLink is doing here in Colorado

That's exactly what CenturyLink is doing here in Colorado. Another company that did that was good old Telocity (RIP). Consumers eventually find another way to get their internet and leave and the company dies.
adslguru
join:2011-02-05
Lutz, FL

adslguru

Member

Re: That's exactly what CenturyLink is doing here in Colorado

CenturyLink is working on upgrades, they only completed merger last year

toby
Troy Mcclure
join:2001-11-13
Seattle, WA

toby

Member

Re: That's exactly what CenturyLink is doing here in Colorado

said by adslguru:

CenturyLink is working on upgrades, they only completed merger last year

haha right. Qworst/CenturyUnlink are the same as Windstream, selling a product and not delivering.

AlexNYC
join:2001-06-02
Edwards, CO

AlexNYC to adslguru

Member

to adslguru
West Colorado has been CenturyTel territory for decades, so it has nothing to do with the mergers in the last few years. Oversubscribing the DSLAM is their business model. Sad. :-(
FastLearner
join:2003-09-14
Arvada, CO

FastLearner to AlexNYC

Member

to AlexNYC
I don't have any trouble with Qwest/CenturyLink. I can always get my 20/5. In fact they upgraded my dslam just a few of months ago and I upgraded my upload to 5Mbps.

spewak
R.I.P Dadkins
Premium Member
join:2001-08-07
Elk Grove, CA

spewak

Premium Member

Which company?

Windstream...Frontier...one in the same?
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: Which company?

Frontier is actually trying in some places. Windstream isn't.
athensgator
join:2011-10-17

athensgator

Member

Re: Which company?

Can you hear us yet Windstream?!?!

mattnews22
join:2008-07-16
Fairfield, TX

mattnews22

Member

Too slow in Texas

I live in central/east Texas and have no realistic choice other than Windstream. They used to have a huge line quality problem since everything is so spread out around here. But they have fixed all those issues and now I can see that I have a flawless connection (SNR 18, Atten 18; and the Sagemcom 1704 actually says a full 12M to the CO), but after about 6PM to around 11PM it is nearly unusable. They simply oversubscribed their 12M service for the trunk they have going out of here.

There was a brief window after I worked with the local techs to sort out my issues that I was flying on the 12M speed, but it has slowly gotten more & more congested. Before the 12M was available, I actually got great service on the 6M.

Bodybagger
Premium Member
join:2010-03-30
Saint Matthews, SC

Bodybagger

Premium Member

Well

It's about time this happened.. Just sayin'. This investigation needs to move to all states that Windstream serves. We finally got our DSLAM upgraded in Jan. after we suffered through worse than 56k speeds and constant drops for over 3 years. But it's still hard to say if it is actually fixed or not. We never know when it's going to drop completely for a few hours or reroute us to Kansas and shoot our ping times in the ~600ms range.

They never have a problem charging you for the full amount every month though. Windstream Forum says it all..
dalekinder
join:2009-01-17
Jacksonville, AR

dalekinder

Member

LOL

HAHA only a matter of time. I had them when I lived in AR. Horrible service. Big monopoly. I actually had to move because my job was dependent on a good internet connection. Same as all other users good in the morning crap after 5pm prime time. Had 6mb internet after 6 latency 300+ and horrible download speeds. Hope they go down the drain or get a big ass fine. This company just sucks money and has no interest in the consumer. Hey Jeff Gardner, good luck working at Mickie Ds. Kiss the Porsche goodbye.

AnonPerson
join:2000-08-26
Lexington, KY

AnonPerson

Member

Speeds

I can verify the accuracy of this article. Windstream is one of the duopolies in the area I live, and they are atrocious.

The only way they are able to stay in business out here is by creating contracts with newly built apartment complexes that do not allow Cable internet/TV to be ran to the new buildings (at least for X amount of years). Instead, you have to use Windstream and Satellite; and the speeds are terrible.

I do not have Windstream, but I have had ample opportunities to see it in action, and know many people that have no choice but to use it.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Verizon should be investigated

Verizon should be investigated for charging the same price that they do for FiOS in areas that lack FiOS upgrades.

I suspect FiOS might be coming to Springfield (MA) because I have been seeing a lot of work being done throughout the city by Verizon and various telecom contractors. I ride the bus around town and I have been seeing a lot of Veriozn trucks and telecom contractors along with their police details to direct traffic. I think right now they are focusing on the back haul (network backbone), but FiOS might become a reality here. I am not 100 percent sure if FiOS is coming (as Verizon won't say until its here) but from the amount of work I've been seeing it might be in the cards.

I asked one of the workers and he confirmed its a fiber line they're pulling. He said it was for a data center but I think he really can't disclose due to non-disclosure agreements. I am not aware of any new data centers in town and the Central Business District has plenty of fiber available. Considering some of the work is outside the CBD I suspect FiOS.

It would be even better if VZ could shut down copper networks in areas where fiber has been deployed.

Getting back to the article, I think Verizon settled a few years ago with the AG of Mass over shoddy quality service in Western Mass.

cableties
Premium Member
join:2005-01-27

cableties

Premium Member

Re: Verizon should be investigated

"Verizon should be investigated for charging the same price that they do for FiOS in areas that lack FiOS upgrades."

Charging the same price for DSL, you mean, right?

When I was in Philly, several companies solicited my company for DSL upgrades over 6Mbps. Back them, 6Mbps was great since we had bonded phone and T1 or T3 was $1K/month. It seemed that Verizon would not update its data that a CO was within 1000ft of our building. So all these DSL resellers would contact me, promise DSL, tech would show and realize, Verizon moved the CO 3 miles away. It was too far for the loop to give us guaranteed 3Mbps let alone 6Mbps. This happened 4 x with 4 different outfits (all gone or bought out).
Verizon would get $$$ from each DSL Loopback test. And they gathered the data (from each competitor) to solicit later for marketing and other "services" like DSL or FIOS.
Makes you wonder why they were never sued...or investigated.

Eventually, a provider could give us DSL (NextLink, Concentric now XO...).
But don't even get me started on the nightmare that is XO....
(I no longer work in Philly and before I left company, I had them moved to Business Fios... what a dream to have SFTP server only to see bandwidth sapped by employees watching YouTube and I wasn't allowed to block...)

Truth b told
@comcast.net

Truth b told

Anon

Dsl

And on top of that Windstream.

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

KrK

Premium Member

I don't have Windstream, but many locals here do....

Windstream is famous for selling the 3.0mbps down DSL plan and then delivering 1.0mbps or less and saying it's a best effort.

The bill however is always full price!

Okie kid
@comcast.net

Okie kid

Anon

Re: I don't have Windstream, but many locals here do....

I hear they are also closing down complete departments and outsourcing the jobs to India to a company called Prodapt.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

while your at it..

Add CenturyTel and AT&T to the list. print the subpoenas in RED ink

LittleRock1
@comcast.net

LittleRock1

Anon

Windstream actions raises questions.

Interesting that both CenturyLink and Windstream both employee the services of Prodapt , outsourcing to them , could one be about to buy the other ? Say CenturyLink buy out Windstream ? I also hear Windstream is letting employees go, outsourcing to Prodapt, hiring contractors etc.
DawsonvilleG
join:2010-08-01
Dawsonville, GA

DawsonvilleG

Member

We are not letting up...

Just because WS promised to upgrade 2/3 of our state as a result of the media scrutiny does not mean we believe them. We will no let up until we get fixed.

Are you reading this Windstream? Time to do what you have actually been saying you would for the last few years.

Tower
@cox.net

Tower

Anon

Complain

Fill out Complains against Wind-stream for the people that live in Georgia.

You have the power.
DawsonvilleG
join:2010-08-01
Dawsonville, GA

DawsonvilleG

Member

Re: Complain

said by Tower :

Fill out Complains against Wind-stream for the people that live in Georgia.

You have the power.

Fill out complaints in every state affected. »How to fight to get what you are paying for
Gpickard
join:2013-03-14
Springfield, GA

Gpickard

Member

Its just sad at this point

I've been living with windstream being the only ISP my family and whole road is available to have, Lately its just stupid how terrible they really are. We pay for the basic package and get nearly a fifth of the dl speeds and uploads. We have to deal with 500-1500 latency problems every day and have no choice but to just grin and bear it. Please if anyone has any suggestions of what we could do to have better internet. PLEASE HELP.
DawsonvilleG
join:2010-08-01
Dawsonville, GA

DawsonvilleG

Member

Re: Its just sad at this point

said by Gpickard:

I've been living with windstream being the only ISP my family and whole road is available to have, Lately its just stupid how terrible they really are. We pay for the basic package and get nearly a fifth of the dl speeds and uploads. We have to deal with 500-1500 latency problems every day and have no choice but to just grin and bear it. Please if anyone has any suggestions of what we could do to have better internet. PLEASE HELP.

Read my post: »How to fight to get what you are paying for

Dryvlyne
Far Beyond Driven
Premium Member
join:2004-08-30
Newark, OH

Dryvlyne

Premium Member

This is my alternative

And this is my alternative to TWC broadband in my city. No wonder TWC can get away with offering such crappy service when this is the "competition" they have