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Review by IHATESKYBEAM See Profile

  • Location: Bryan, Brazos, TX, USA
  • Cost: $68 per month
The fact that I dumped these bozos and nothing else!
The fact that they took over my previous provider (Texas Communications) who were the best...
Stay away from Skybeam at all costs even if you have to go without internet. You'll be glad you did.
Pre Sales Information:
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Value for money:

Disclaimer up front - I only joined DSLreports to write this review.

Texas communications was my internet provider for 4 years and I absolutely loved their service. Speeds were exactly was I was paying for (10Mbps down/2Mbps up). There was one bad case of downtime in the 4 years that I was with them which lasted several days, but that is because their tower was badly damaged due to storms. They kept posting regular updates on their FB and twitter pages and I could actually call Scott Sewell at Texas Communications and get accurate updates on repair and when service was expected to be restored. Beyond that, I never had any problems with them, EVER.

Then, about a couple months ago, for about a week straight, speeds dropped to 2Mbps down and 0.3Mbps up and connectivity kept dropping several times per day. I tried calling Scott only to be told "We sold our internet service to Skybeam and if you haven't been contacted by them, you will be in due course." The contact came in the form of mail which informed us that we were now Skybeam customers. So I called them up to see why the speeds were down so much and why connectivity was so spotty.

After being on hold for ~45min, the customer service rep basically said "You're getting speeds consistent with our pricing tiers and we show no problems with connectivity to you" just like that. I kept insisting that the connection was dropping several times a day and my speeds weren't what I was paying for. He refused to believe me.

So I told him to cancel service. He said, "ok, hold on, I can get you a really great deal on our 10/2 package and with the promo code, you'll be paying exactly what you are right now for 1 year". I kept insisting that they cancel my service. He kept trying to sell me one of their packages. Finally, I told him "Look, I want to cancel my service. What don't you understand about that?". So, he said, "ok, we're canceling your service."

I came home from work the next evening and to my horror, my antenna that I had bought from Texas communications (when I first established service) with them was gone from the roof and the wire was just dangling from the edging. I called Skybeam up and they said, "do you have any proof that you paid for the equipment?" I said I hadn't kept the receipt and could not therefore prove that it is mine. So he laughed and hung up on me.

My conclusion? Skybeam is a very shady company run by really shady people and staffed by really shady people. Avoid them at all costs!

member for 8.9 years, 1 visits, last login: 8.9 years ago
updated 8.9 years ago


Guest
@texascom.net

Guest

Anon

Rise Broadband "Sinking" to new lows

I just happened to come across this post in regard to how poor Rise Broadband is because I am experiencing the same problem at two ranches we have between Abilene and San Angelo, Texas. We pay (with taxes) nearly $200 per month for service at their "Tier 3" level (which is supposed to be their fastest connect speeds) and basically now I get not much faster than dial-up connect speed.

I talked to one of their technicians (Brian) and he was so confused when he pulled up my account (was;t able to understand I have TWO locations and have one billing address for both ranches in two different counties) I had to explain to him repeatedly... He finally runs a diagnistic check and sees that I am telling the truth about "dial up speeds" and my $200 per month robbery, and advises he can schedule a technician but it will be three weeks before he can come out.

I'll probably dump Rise (because I have a "sinking feeling" about them and just switch to the internet connection that my car has through OnStar using LTE (which is faster, a LOT faster) and go that route.
Good thing cellular is advancing fast out here in the sticks... so I can tell Rise, "Hasta la vista, baby..."

Review by tszefr See Profile

  • Location: Coupland, Williamson, TX, USA
  • Cost: $52 per month
Has been known to work most of the time. Beats any satellite service.
Horrible wait times for support and service, termination of long term customer.
JAB / Skybeam / Rise Broadband / Ruse
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We have had service for a number of years now, initiated with Eccentrix Wireless, a ma-pop operation that got bought by Skybeam a couple of years in. Service with Eccentrix was always professional and reasonably punctual. Equipment in service: Motorola Canopy with yagi antenna atop 50' pole, 900 mHz. D/L speed max 2.0 mbps, supposedly on 5 mbps plan.

Not too long before the buyout, problems arose due to local power company (Oncor) implementation of so-called "smart" meters which also operate in the 900 mHz band. Eccentrix correctly and accurately diagnosed the issue and proceeded to work with local Oncor boss who was inclined to make adjustments. After all the "smart" meter usage is totally illegal and a violation of FCC Part 15 rules. Meter says right on its face, "Must not interfere with other users." Service was reasonably restored until after Skybeam took over. Eccentrix did undertake to move customers it could off of 900 mHz.

When more band jamming occurred with Skybeam running the operation, the company could not and/or would not either diagnose nor even attempt to find a cure. It is after all a part of JAB wireless out of Colorado, a big operation that seeks to buy up ma-pop wISP operations so they can cut costs (fire people) and make money. With a little chain pulling, they did move our access point to a closer tower, out of the path of illegal "smart" meter jamming, and it has been reasonably good for a number of months.

Fast forward to 2015: Service down and absolutely deplorable Customer Support. I am not knocking the poor CS people who try hard. Management feeds them baloney which they try to give the customer. That is after you wait over an hour to get one of them on the phone! CS typically knows nothing because tickets do not get timely updated.

Just a few days ago, an email announced "Skybeam is becoming Rise Broadband... same great people... More resources ... Best internet experience at an affordable price no matter where you live!" Sounds great, but two days after that they tell customer they are decommissioning the tower and there is NO alternative! Zero notice. Pay your bill every month for years and they kick you to the curb!

Did you get that! "Service anywhere" but we are ceasing to serve a long term customer who pays bill every month! Likely reason? Skybeam is too cheap to replace their faulty access point. Impossible so far to determine if that is the true reason because we get multiple different stories.

That is why "Sky NO Beam" is now becoming Ruse Broadband! Recommendation: Deal with these people if satellite is your only other alternative.

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member for 13.8 years, 1 visits, last login: 8.9 years ago
updated 8.9 years ago


CHERYL
@skybeam.com

CHERYL

Anon

Horrible Service and nothing but lies

Waxahachie, TX
Been paying for high speed for 2 years. Never been high speed. Past several months called over and over. The same old story. Working on problem. Each time called, Skybeam rep says they just opened up service order yesterday. Basically, they oversold the area and do not have enough wedges to handle it. SO, we have been paying for high speed FOREVER and not getting it. A typical movie download is 7 hours. RUDE CR's. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!

DLow
join:2013-11-16
Waxahachie, TX

DLow

Member

Re: Horrible Service and nothing but lies

Where are you in Waxahachie im over off of farly / 287 im on the 15x5 i constantly download at 2mbits which is very fast. They were over sold for the last two months but that issue was fixed last week

WHT
join:2010-03-26
Rosston, TX

1 recommendation

WHT to CHERYL

Member

to CHERYL
To save you trouble of pursing the thought of the meters being illegal, Part 15 says the opposite - devices must accept interference from other devices. The sign that says what you claim is window dressing. Aside from the most rural deployments, WISP operators have given on on 900 MHz as being trashed with SCADA and smart meter interference.

Review by MrScott See Profile

  • Location: Weatherford, Parker, TX, USA
  • Cost: $70 per month
  • No Cap
Honestly can't think of any.
Service in my area has been poor for 4 years.
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Skybeam has awful service & refused to even attempt to fix my issue or offer me something other than "continue to pay us money while you wait for the trees around your house to have the leafs come off so you can have a better connection" I've been with skybeam for 4 years & have always had bad connection but had no other option other than to deal with it. now i'm leaving them for Nextlink. Hopefully they will treat me better.

member for 9.5 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 9.5 years ago


Review by rm12577 See Profile

  • Location: Elgin, Bastrop, TX, USA
  • Cost: $47 per month
  • Caps of 160 gigabytes/month
Available in my area
Connection frequently drops for 1-2 minutes
If I had another usable option (for a decent price), I would take it
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I have lived at the same location now for 7 years, in those 7 years I have been through 5 ISPs, the best by far was named PVCO, they got bought out by Skybeam... I started off with a wireless ISP that just couldn't get through the trees, they cancelled my contract after about 6 months of not being able to provide reliable service. Then I got an ISDN connection from AT&T, after about a month they got both links working and it was reliable, but too slow for anything other than checking email, and for the price/speed I was better off with a wireless connect card, so I got one from Verizon. For 6 months it worked fine, I just never did anything but play video games on it because it would burn through my data cap. Then I cancelled everything and switched to PVCO, they were great, good service, speeds were almost always as advertised, the only outage I had was fixed within a day, everything was grand. Then one day I got a piece of mail stating that they were being acquired by Skybeam... then everything went downhill, my 3 meg connection became a 768 connection, when it was working. I would have days of internet not working even after frequent calls, and during this time all of my neighbors cancelled their service because they said it just wasn't worth putting up with... none of them still have internet. I weathered through the storm and eventually the service came back to a somewhat usable form. During the "storm" my internet was down for 3 months straight with frequent calls and eventually it got fixed with some outside intervention. Now the service scales out to be about 3 megs down at 3am and around 1-1.5 up. during peak times it still slows down a lot but usually stays over 1 mbps down. The installers that I have worked with so far have been great, always friendly, always willing to answer questions and test things out, but the service is generally less than adequate and the connection just never stays up. Currently I lose .5 percent of my pings over the course of a month, which should be about 1 percent downtime, but spaced out just perfectly so I can't play any video games or do any voice calls. Luckily I have a backup unlimited 4g connection to rely on when I just cant take it anymore...

member for 14.2 years, 62 visits, last login: 9.5 years ago
lodged 9.6 years ago


Review by TheJabberwok See Profile

  • Location: Greeley, Weld, CO, USA
  • Cost: $55 per month
Human tech support. Speeds as advertised (5 Mb down 2 Mb up)...when it works.
Poor troubleshooting
STAY AWAY!
Pre Sales Information:
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When it works it is great.I have had to change my review a couple times.

The yearly problem is back again... There was a "weather related outage" that started 7/6 and ended 7/9. Despite the outage having ended, I still have intermittent or no connectivity. This happens every year in the summer months. After 4 calls to support and over an hour of hold times, they issued a service call on 7/11. Based on previous years experience, they will issue 2-3 service calls, and then eventually they will realize it is at the AP and finally fix the issue. Last year, I had to contact the BBB before it got fixed. I like the service when it works, but this gets REALLY old. Got the service call (he actually came early, but didn't bother to phone prior to showing up.) First he wanted to replace the power cable, which was suggested and tried at the beginning of my troubles last year. Then he checked some things and finally said the AP was getting interference from another AP, and that I would have to install a pole at my expense to reach a different tower... I know this is BS.

UPDATE 2012:

Iiiiit's baaaaaack. They not only have started a bandwidth limit and implemented some kind of bandwidth allocation snake oil that has turned latency from 10-20 ms pings to 50-60ms pings, but my yearly problem is back. Severely intermittent connectivity. I guess it's back to the BBB. I can no longer recommend this service on ANY level. STAY AWAY!

UPDATE: 2014

They upgraded my antennae and thus I have to pay much more for equipment and my monthly fee. The illegally instituted a fair usage policy despite the service being marketed as unlimited. The upgraded antennae was supposed to solve my yearly issue, yet I have had intermittent connectivity for multiple months now despite the fact that the agriculture equipment that they claimed was causing interference has been long put up for the winter. Despite record of multiple years of intermittent service they have given me NO billing consideration. I have over ten years of supporting LAN/WAN connectivity, and I guarantee this is not my equipment.

6/2014

Radio died. Had a service call. They left the new POE injector lying by my desk. The service tech advised my wife (I had to work) that there is something wrong with my router. He had just opened a browser, but didn't get redirected to their provisioning page. He didn't even try purple.com. Once I easily sorted that out, I'm connected, but still getting intermittent connectivity. Dropping packets for 30-60 seconds at a time, with latency before and after. Just sad.

member for 13.8 years, 20 visits, last login: 9.7 years ago
updated 9.7 years ago


SkybeamSucks
@tmkopportunity.com

SkybeamSucks

Anon

Unreal

I have been on hold for over an hour now and still no answer from Tech Support. I've tried to reach them by chat and e-mail as well. This company sucks!
Skybeam76014
join:2011-05-05
Arlington, TX

Skybeam76014

Member

Re: Unreal

Please email us, concerns@corp.skybeam.com, with your account number, name on the account, and a great contact number and we will help you ASAP!

unhappy
@aircanopy.net

unhappy

Anon

second time with same prob

this co really has customer service issues this is the second time in as many days being on hold for the same prob am looking for another isp waiting on hold for 1.25 avg each time i call is an issue especially when i do get someone on the line very rude and no help at all 5ybeen with them for 5yrs and this sucks

Abused ex
@sbcglobal.net

Abused ex

Anon

It's REALLY poor. Sucks BIGtime

I got so tired of the service dropping to NONE or a 10 min load of a page after the ISP I signed up with was bought out. All anyone ever does at Skybeam is either tell you that they can't do anything for you or tell you that someone will call you back. Do NOT let anyone off the phone if your issue is unresolved. It NEVER will be.

I banged my head against the wall with them an ungodly number of times... holding or waiting for a call back... No-shows for SET appointments... I even had someone call me once to CANCEL an appointment supposedly scheduled for THAT DAY of which I had never been informed. Try to escalate to a supervisor. HAH! You know what a supervisor told me when I asked "Ok... so if what I have is the best it will get until NEW tower equipment is installed... when is that scheduled?"? The answer I got was "It isn't scheduled but they don't tell us." One supervisor told me that she would PERSONALLY call me back... NEVER did. Two other times I was told that a supervisor would call me the next day... and no one EVER called. Needless to say I finally cancelled with Skybeam (Um....yeah their "5Mbps download" Texas plan) and had ATT install their 1.5Mbps DSL (the best they can offer my area at the moment). I actually kept Skybeam for two months while "testing" the DSL to be sure it was better. OMG! 1.5Mbps is consistent... I can watch Netflix, I can watch a newsclip video without waiting 15 mins for it to load... I can get INTERNET! Sure it's not as fast as cable... but at least you can GET internet all the time. With Skybeam I was lucky to get ANY signal a great deal of the time.

Oh... and just an FYI. When they finally DID come to get the equipment, they took the box and left all their other trash on my roof. Someone is supposed to call me tomorrow to get the rest (after I complained), but I doubt that anyone will ever come. I will have to pay someone to take Skybeam's trash off my roof.

Sad. With all the job outsourcing and with the level of "service" (read: "I'm sorry, there is nothing I can do") they may as well have their call center in India like everyone else.

Anyway, if you currently HAVE Skybeam or ANY of the JAB Wireless companies and are having issues... take it from me, 1.5Mbps DSL from ATT is FAR superior and you actually GET service from ATT.

Review by xexx See Profile

  • Location: Aledo, Parker, TX, USA
  • Cost: $62 per month
Pre Sales Information:
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Dumped Skybeam back in December 2012 after I was getting like 1Mbps on my 5Mbps plan, went to Nextlink (NxLink.com) and am currently getting 29/20 Mbps and only paying for 15/5Mbps... WITH 4ms PING.. yes, FOUR... single digit pings! Superior in every single way to Skybeam

member for 19.5 years, 960 visits, last login: 122 days ago
updated 9.9 years ago


Tubajj
@direcway.com

Tubajj

Anon

cancelled skybeam today,had enough.

Since 2nd week of October, down 1 day each week during regular work hours for the next 6 weeks. Phone calls not returned. They are just too busy to take a call from a nearly 4 year customer.
Things were fine to the merger. Unresponsive to customer needs. Seldom amit they have a problem. When I called with one last effort to avoid the heartburn changing ISP creates, unresponsive......OK. Make an appointment to come pick up your equiptment.....

mr bob
@spcsdns.net

mr bob

Anon

Service

Talked with them numerous time over several months. Had to always initiate calls to them to get information even when the said they would call me back. Called the other day to order service and said I had some questions. Never received a call back -- Hummmm. If they are not responsive in the beginning when I said I want to order service what is to be expected after I am on contract? Good to learn this early.

mdw970
@63.225.114.x

mdw970

Anon

Finally cancelled...

Tired of repeated outages/downtime with no apparent explanation or cause. Used to love my service from Sopris Surfers, they had local presence, super responsive, friendly techs, you name it. Things really went downhill fast when Skybeam bought them out. Poor service, infinite hold times, no call backs, rude techs, you name it. I'm done.

dfritchman
@aircanopy.net

dfritchman

Anon

Most Terrible Service

We live in Venus Texas, we've had Skybeam since July 2008; well actually it started out as Air Canopy then changed to Skybeam. Beginning in February this year our service has plunged into the depths of oblivion. I have been working with the Technical Manager in the Mansfield office since March 11th; have spent over 300 hours on the phone (all calls initiated by me) as returned calls when promised do not happen. Have had a technician to our house over 7 times which never amounts to anything happening. We are less than 1.3 miles from the tower, we have line of site from our drive-way with no blockage, there are no trees here what so ever. Have been being told that they are working on upgrading the network which will take until the end of summer but this has been happening since February.

We pay for the Power Surfer 5MB service. We have had no speed over .5 - 1MB now for the last 3 months. I have asked repeatedly for the General Manager to call us regarding this problem but that phone call never takes place.

I have referred 3 customers to Skybeam since April and now feel like a fool for praising Skybeam as some wonderful company. They have been giving us total credit since April but I would prefer service as I need/want the internet so I could not ever refer this company to someone again.
kernelpanic9
join:2010-07-06
Crowley, TX

kernelpanic9

Member

Ping Test

Dang that would suck.

One question - why does your ping test show your ISP as SBC Internet Svc?

Mine shows up as AirCanopy

»www.pingtest.net/result/ ··· 0461.png
xexx
join:2004-09-03
Aledo, TX

2 edits

xexx

Member

Re: Ping Test

said by kernelpanic9:

Dang that would suck.

One question - why does your ping test show your ISP as SBC Internet Svc?

Mine shows up as AirCanopy

»www.pingtest.net/result/ ··· 0461.png
It's always shown up as SBC internet services for me, I suppose that's just who they resell the service from (bandwidth has to come from somewhere). My ISP was originally UniteWireless when it was taken over by Skybeam.

Even now it's better, but still crappy: »www.pingtest.net/result/ ··· 0014.png
kernelpanic9
join:2010-07-06
Crowley, TX

kernelpanic9

Member

Re: Ping Test

yeah, better but not great. Hopefully the service tech can help tomorrow - keep us posted please.
dprobkw
join:2010-10-07
Azle, TX

dprobkw

Member

Re: Ping Test

Yes agreed, And I miss UniteWireless. So much better Service overall. Customer Care was and sounded like (Care). Now its just like a call center in INDIA. Let us try this and let us try that and Well you get the point. Then we have to send it to our Network Admin. You know I got something like this with SKY-WI!. The name may have something... (Sky-Beam... Sky-Wi)) ??? But yes, I've Had the same thing since they Bought UniteWireless last Year. I've voice my opinion about every 2 months. They fix me or open the Pipe and I work great for about 2 months then back to the same thing. SLOW speed again. And I am calling them again Today. Good Luck to everyone!

Smithy
@att.net

Smithy

Anon

Oh god, I hope this isnt signs of things to come............

Yeah, this company just bought out our local w/isp. And from the look of things, it wasn't an upgrade. We do online gaming a lot and it isn't going to work if the service stays like this. Have a tech coming out soon, but from some of the post above. Doesn't sound like they did anything. I'll repost after the tech comes. As of right now though, it's not no were near a service provider for online gaming.
kernelpanic9
join:2010-07-06
Crowley, TX

kernelpanic9

Member

been there, done that

quote:
tech came and gone, supposedly a realignment issue... no real change
survived by DIY
xexx
join:2004-09-03
Aledo, TX

xexx

Member

Re: been there, done that

said by kernelpanic9:

quote:
tech came and gone, supposedly a realignment issue... no real change
survived by DIY
I would do some DIY work if I thought it would help. Unfortunately the jitter appears to be in the network beyond the tower. My dish is only getting a max of 11 jitter with 2 average.
kernelpanic9
join:2010-07-06
Crowley, TX

kernelpanic9

Member

Re: been there, done that

I understand - mine was clearly a LOS issue so moving the receiver was the only solution and easy enough to do. It was that or pay someone else an "install fee" to accomplish the same thing.

my remaining problem now is inconsistency - works great sometimes, two hours later it sucks - and it's not minor - I'm talking by a factor of 4 or 5 in both down/up speeds. I know that's not LOS, so has to be their network.
kernelpanic9

kernelpanic9

Member

Re: been there, done that

I might add that the slow downs seem to be worse during the day so it may be "business traffic"

Texan
@unitewireless.com

Texan

Anon

Terrible service

Every time a tech comes out they say "I made some adjustments" which usually means they reset my router. Almost everytime they come out they cannot figure out why the ping is so terrible and leave. I have actually had customer service reps tell me that the bad ping is just "tough ****" and hung up on me.






Review by cshaw See Profile

  • Location: Longmont, Weld, CO, USA
  • Cost: $89 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 4 days
Quick Install
Spotty connectivity. Was told I was less than 1 block from tower.
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Performance varies widely. Inclement weather (lightening and high wind) take out my surge protected router; I suspect this is from signal spikes, I am on my 6th replacement (Thank goodness for warranties). Some days, service is so spotty it is unusable..today is one of those. On days like today I have spent over an hour trying to get back online, with rebooting routers and the skybeam connection. Phone service is also troublesome. After a long hold time decided to choose the call back option. within 2 minutes of hanging up I was called back and not given an agent, but put on hold again. Limited ISP options here.

member for 10 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 10 years ago


Bobo89
@spcsdns.net

Bobo89

Anon

Skybeam service

I would really recommend not getting this service I literally live 500yrd frm the tower and my service suck.. PleAse save your money and go else where
twiddledee
join:2014-03-19
Black Hawk, CO

twiddledee

Member

skybeam service

Terrible customer service. They have basically fallen off the earth & no longer respond to my complaints. I can see the tower from my house and there are no obstructions. I had better service when they were Wispertel. This gobble up little companies with bigger companies have created themselves to be an awful IP provider, sure the service is up over 95% of the time but slow so very slow. It's just getting worse and it seems they've a fair amount of turnover. I've read reviews of other possible providers and it seems you're damned w/ any of them. Does anyone know how to report this to Colorado State Government regulatory agencies as I have read the FCC/PUC does not regulate these services/companies. Who will hear our complaints and do something to fix the problems we all experience?
»www.theskybeam.com/utili ··· ults.php
28.8 kbps Dial-up
33.6 kbps Dial-up
56 kbps Dial-up
75 kbps The SkyBeam (Starter Plan)
92.6 kbps YOU The current average.
150 kbps The SkyBeam (Basic Plan)
300 kbps The SkyBeam (Standard) What they bill me
500 kbps The SkyBeam (Advanced) wonder who actually gets this speed!

Review by seminat0r See Profile

  • Location: Cedar Creek, Bastrop, TX, USA
  • Cost: $60 per month
  • Caps of 150 gigabytes/month
They provide service to an area nobody else does
The service is borderline unusable
Don't get it if you have ANY other choice. At all.
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I was originally using a small mom & pop ISP known as PVCO -- The service wasnt amazing, but it was honest. The owner even warned you that low latency applications might not work well and if thats what you need, his service isnt for you. And, well, it did spike a little bit. More often than not though it was downright usable.

I move away for a few years, come back, and I find out skybeam has bought them out.

Price has gone up quite a bit. Service has gone down even more.

They claim 5/1 is their lowest plan, but I'm lucky if I even get 1 megabit down.

The bandwidth isnt even the problem though, its the latency. Throughout the day you'll have anywhere from 200-300ms ping TO THE SECOND HOP. By the time you get outside of their network its usually 500-800 minimum. And thats not counting the spikes.

The spikes are between 2-3 seconds, with 20-50% packet loss..and they last for 30+ minutes at a time. I once left a multi-traceroute running and came back to find out that one of the packets managed to take over 60 seconds to come back. Thats right, 60,000 ping. Brutal.

You can not game with this connection.
You can not stream video with this connection (netflix, hulu, or even watching a youtube video).
All you can really do is check your email, and hope nobody sent you any attachments.

One time I was playing WoW on a server located in Dallas. I found out that my friend playing on a 3g connection from the middle east had about 1/10th the ping I have. It's that bad.

I sent an email complaining and asking about this awful latency to their "24/7 support" email. 4 days later, no reply yet..

Honestly at this point I think I'll just swallow the cost of the microwave tower I had to buy and just get a 3g service. I hate bandwidth caps, but I'd rather have a capped usable connection than this.

member for 18.4 years, 8 visits, last login: 10.1 years ago
updated 10.1 years ago


Review by cr 2618 See Profile

  • Location: Caddo Mills, Hunt, TX, USA
  • Cost: $60 per month
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Area of service, Caddo Mills, Tx. Service 5 dwn/1 up, price around 60 dollars. Average hold time for phone calls to Skybeam, 40 mins concerning issues that eventually ended service agreement. I perceive this as a lack of "agents" as they put it in their "for my convenience" automated messages between the repetitive melody played while on hold. Which also leads me to believe they are reaching past their capabilities of an ISP. The tower that our service was connected to has been in "SOS" status since Aug of 2012; they knew this when they installed our service initially which seems to highlight their priorities. We called to cancel service in the first 30 days of service to recoup set up fee, they baited us in past that allowed time frame with a free month of service. I would not recommend their service to anyone. The actual internet service is too inconsistent for the price they charge and the customer service is inexcusable.

member for 10.8 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 10.8 years ago


Review by wilbarger See Profile

  • Location: Quinlan, Hunt, TX, USA
  • Cost: $60 per month
Good speeds when no one else is at home
Overloaded equipment and they are obviously not going to upgrade
I give up!!!
Pre Sales Information:
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Services:
Value for money:

Like many others, I was changed from Partnership Broadband to Skybeam several months ago. The move was HORRIBLE for me. No notice and service went to hell quickly. No Tech Support, constant drops of service for days at a time and unreliable speed when it was working. I now am pretty satisfied with the service. Speeds are consistent and the service seems to be much more reliable. My speeds are 5 Meg down and 2 Meg up. Tech support now either answers directly or will return a call the same day. Per their techs, their towers where I live are overcrowded, but they have upgrades ongoing. Overall, I am now recommending their service where I live over USB modems or other wireless services.

UPDATE 12/31/12

I have finally found another provider that I am going to try. Skywave-TX. They have been around for a couple of years, but I just learned about them. I will have an install on 1/2/13 and will give a full review after a few weeks.

It is obvious that Skybeam is just sucking the profits out of all the companies that they have bought out the last few years. I don't blame their workers for their crappy service as it is a management issue. Their tech support has worked with me and they are exasperated with having to make excuses for the company they work for.

member for 22.8 years, 5204 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 11.2 years ago


wilbarger
join:2001-06-06
Quinlan, TX

wilbarger

Member

Skywave-TX

Well, I have had Skywave-TX for a couple of weeks now and am VERY happy with their service. I have an 8/2 service and below is a typical speedtest for me. I never see a slow down in the evenings and plan on staying with these guys as long as they deliver service and good results. I am HAPPY!

8.3Mbs down
2.93 Mbs up
45 ms Ping

I cannot figure out how to add the ISP to DSL Reports and no one has answered my email asking for them to be added.
SoftStorm
join:2003-02-24
Denton, TX

SoftStorm

Member

Re: Skywave-TX

Those are good stats for wireless. Years ago we had Partnership Wireless (now Skybeam) in Argyle and it was pretty bad. We now have DSL in Valley View on a long'ish loop.

The one thing I would really like is faster upload speed. I think we already got most of what we can out of the technology though. On ADSL2+ AnnexM, fast path, 15/1 plan with Nortex Comm.:

13.72Mbps
1.38Mbps
19ms

I'm wary to switch back to something like wireless because of the high pings I encountered before and the terrible speed (at the time). It's hard to go from 35/35 FiOS to DSL.