dslreports logo
 story category
Windstream Promises VDSL2 Upgrades Will Ease Congestion Woes

If you stop by our Windstream forum or the company's reviews any given month, you'll notice a common refrain: customers say the company's network simply can't handle the load placed upon it, resulting in speeds significantly slower than what the company advertised. Similarly, a series of recent FCC studies using volunteers with custom firmware-embedded routers has repeatedly found that Windstream's among the very worst U.S. ISPs when it comes to delivering advertised DSL speeds.

Click for full size
Those of you impacted may find some solace in new Windstream promises this week that the company intends to improve infrastructure across much of its footprint. According to comments made this week by Windstream CFO Bob Gunderman, the company plans on making a renewed effort on pushing fiber deeper into the network in conjunction with VDSL2:
quote:
"Over the past couple of years, we have deployed fiber to improve capacity and improve the user experience and in 2015 we'll deploy additional electronics to fully realize the value of these fiber investments," Gunderman said. "Specifically, we will improve our high speed Internet capabilities through the enablement and deployment of VDSL2 bonding technology, which provides great speed availability."
The problem, as we to often see in the U.S. broadband industry, is that most of the customers experiencing the worst performance tend to reside in markets where Windstream faces little to no competition. With no competitive pressure, there's no incentive for Windstream to meaningfully improve network performance, resulting in the kinds of complaints we often see in user reviews persisting year after year.

Of course, when your customers are often paying a significant sum for speeds like these, they'll likely be happy with any improvement they can get.

Most recommended from 36 comments


DigitalRain
join:2013-03-16

3 recommendations

DigitalRain

Member

Time for a change.

Once again, the solution is to ignore the idiot conservatives and teatwits who insist that you Americans treat your cable and your copper as a consumer good rather than as an essential part of your infrastructure. Evolve or fail.

coldmoon
Premium Member
join:2002-02-04
Fulton, NY

2 recommendations

coldmoon

Premium Member

I'll believe it when...

It arrives at my door. Until then this is just hot air...