OptimumOnline → [OOL] How can I get resolution with sloooow boost speeds?

Here is my timeline as a new Boost customer:
01/11/10 Sign up for boost and experience slow download speeds of 14mbps-18mbps. My up is 5mbps.Called CV and they suggested I'd do a modem swap. I did so. Still slow speeds they schedule for tech to come out next day 11am-2pm.
1/12/10 Two techs come out and find that the tap is water damaged and that they would need to call it in.
01/13/10 OSP comes out and changes tap.
Still sloooow DL speeds but I'm still getting a great UP of 5mbps
01/19/10 Call CV again to advise of slow DL speeds. They schedule a tech for next day 11am-2pm AGAIN. Paperwork is stamped VIP REPEAT CALL
1/20/10 Tech swaps out modem and states he would have to call in to have the tap checked AGAIN.
1/21/10 Called CV to confirm truck is coming and they stated that it is a 24hour and that a truck could be here at anytime even at 2 in the morning.
If this does not resolve my problem what other steps should I do? Switching to FIOS is not an option!!!!

1. Post in the direct forum.
2. Try regular OOL and see what your speeds are.
3. Cancel and get your money back.

»Optimum Direct

18 isn't slow for boost. How often does it drop to 14? Does it go lower? You spell out slow like your getting 5 meg downloads. There are soooo many people with boost with speeds under 7 meg and even lower than that.

Techs are coming out and working on your problem. I always wonder what people expect. Do customers think the tech is coming out seeing the cause of a problem and not fixing it, then leaving and laughing "around the water cooler" with other techs?

Chances are there is some kind of noise getting into the sytem and they need to track it down. Radio frequency noice comes and goes and you can't track it when it's not there.

See the techs come here and tell me that 18mbps is slow for boost. My friend who lives in a building in the bronx which is congested hovers at an average of 24mbps. He's usually at 28mbps. Thats why I'm saying for the suburbs where there is competition and my neighbors have FIOS its hard to believe that with boost that I should be between 14-18mbps. At peek times as in tonight I was able to get up to 22mbps WIRELESS. In the morning time I'm getting extremely slow between 4-8mbps.

Get FiOS, I got it installed today and probably NEVER go back to OOL....

FIOS is not an option. Their customer service is the worse. I rather stick with CV because you can at least get through to them on the phone and they are ALWAYS pleasant.

It is indeed slow for Boost, just over HALF (approx. 60%) of the advertised download speed. If it were a spurious test result that would be one thing, but if it is the norm, it is something certainly worthy of customer dissatisfaction and should be remedied by CV.

I never have issues with Verizon customer service. I read about some people having issues and hope I don't get them but for over 2 years of having Fios I had 2 problems with billing and both were fixed after 1 phone call. If there was anything else I had questions with I still never had an issue with Verizon.

I also never had an issues with OOL with customer service either but Verizon has way better and more consistent internet speeds in my area and my OOL Boost is worse than yours is on upload and download but they think its fine and the techs say anything over 15 mb down and 2 mb up is Boost so 16/3 is ok in their book LOL.

CV's customer service is better? I avergaed 40 minutes on hold in the 20 years I had service compared to the 1 call to FIOS I made so far to cancel my 30 day promotion of all channels when it ended, and I got right through where the CS rep lowerd my bill even further to see what else she could do without me asking.

Furthermore, I was talking to a human and not a clueless scripted robot that go through the same routine regardless of your issue and usually ends with a truck roll as the answer to everything. Besides, you will rarely have to call FIOS CS support compared to CV because the service is that much better, so its a pretty lame excuse not to switch.

While the issues i had were not as drmatic as i would like to share what helped me out alot.

I had some sparatic slow downs in speed especially when trying to do a few things at once. Im not sure of your network at home but i run what some would consider alot of hardware at home and it was causing some ill affects.

When seemed to be the issue for me more than anything was that my router just couldn't handle the work load causing dips in speed and all sorts of weird issues. I ended up taking an older computer i had laying around and installed smooth wall on it and cant be happier since.

»www.speedtest.net/result ··· 5568.png
»www.speedtest.net/result ··· 6290.png
»www.speedtest.net/result ··· 5568.png
»www.speedtest.net/result ··· 1526.png

Are you serious. Once I get past the prompts with CV I get someone on the phone within 10 seconds. Maybe its the call center that your calling

dead serious, don't we all end up at a call center eventually? The better question is, how long before your issue is actually resolved from start to finish from initial call. I, and the tennants at my co-op waitied over 7 years of false promises and callbacks that never came to re-wire the building, and it still isn't done.
They just expected us to keep paying our bills while watching a deplorable picture and degrading Internet speeds. Being the building is old, if their was a TV off more than 1 split because of the RG-59u wiring, you had crappy service. When you requested a truck roll, they just kept swapping out the connections with your neighbor at the junction box until that person called and the issue kept repeating itself, now thats great service and typical of how the company is run.

Are you directly connected to the cable modem or are you using a router? I had to replace what I thought was a decent router for a more capable one. I was seeing boost speeds of 7M when I should have been seeing 30M. Once I upgraded my router to one that can handle 30+M of bandwidth, it made a significant difference.

I've never had an issue getting through either (not that I have to call that often, everything just works over 12 years in four different locations). One or two minute wait, tops.

To everyone in this forum OOL has come through. Received a call from a supervisor telling me that a tech was being sent here today. I was not expecting them at all. The tech that did the work was VERY good. He for one changed my modem to the new Docsis 3.0 Motorola surfboard. After that he checked all the wiring in the house and changed out 99% of the wires. I was getting alot of noise from my existing cables and he said my wires just as anyone elses can leak back out and affect everyone else on the node. Final outcome was 32MBPS download and 5.1mbps up. Once I set my router up I'm now getting 24.04mbps down and 5.04mbps up....WIRELESS. Thank you Cablevision you guys are great.

That alone, was your solution, not the wires, etc. They should just change everyone over to D3 and end the nightmare.

I was swapped to a DOCSIS 3 modem recently after 2 1/2 years o speed issues due to saturated node. In the course of 2 1/2 years they split my node twice which helped alleviate the congestion but never really solved it 100%.

All I can say is I now get full speed 24x7. (at least until everyone else is on DOCSIS 3 and the 3 downstream bonded channels get saturated).

Did they bond your modem to all 3 channels?

Should be able to check here:

»192.168.100.1/

Yes, 3 downstream channels are bonded but only one upstream

THis is what I get all the time now

How would I know if I'm bonded by logging into the modem? I mean I see 3 different bonding channels with 3 different freqs. Says I'm on Freqs 605,609 and 621.

Is that your boost speeds or are those your regular OOL speeds?

Yep. That means you're using 3-channel bonding. Nice to see that this is becoming more common place.

That's regular OOL (note the 2Mb/sec upload speed. Boost upload speed is rarely below 3-4Mb/sec).

That's interesting. I'm currently having problems that are clearly from a saturated node. I don't have boost. Can/will they make that switch for non-Boost customers?

Tom

Isn't that what regular OOL promises? 15/2. Wouldn't you consider that to be very good. at least your getting what you pay for. I don't know what exactly was he problem here but my down with boost was between 14-18 and sometimes dip to as low as 5. The strange thing is that my up stayed at a constant 5. Does anyone know how much it cost the company to split the node?

Upgrading users to DOCSIS 3.0, when considering OOL/Boost only, is similar to splitting a node. Each node at present has 2 channels available, one for OOL and one for Boost. Each of these channels has a downstream capacity of 38mbps (603MHz and 609MHz). CVs implementation of DOCSIS 3.0, at this point adds 2 additional channels. (615MHZ and 621MHZ).

From what I have read DOCSIS 3.0 is more cost effective at least for adding Bandwidth for DATA then splitting nodes. For adding overall capacity, including VOD SDV etc, you need to split nodes.

I believe the low end for splitting a node is around $2500 and that is if they can just add lasers. A channel has only 38mbps of capacity CVs present DOCSIS 3.0 implementation uses 3 Channels bonded together.

Thanks for clarifying that up. Great info.

We're in a commercial neighborhood and we've had the same Boost slowdown (11901, Riverhead, Long Island) during peak business hrs like many users have complained about.
We've had many service calls, even the outside plant guys here three times in three months. They've replaced everything from the pole to modem, including the modem twice. During peak times in our commercial area (9am-6pm) we dipped as low as 4Mbps down, during off peak times (9pm-7:30am) we averaged 25+Mbps down. After complaining yesterday about the 4Mbps speeds at 10:30am I pretty much demanded a DOCIS 3 modem or we go off service. Well, to my great surprise- this morning a Cablevision tech came out this morning- didn't even pretend to check the lines (because every component has been replaced in the last three months) and held up a Motorola DOCIS 3 modem- saying "this will solve all your problems". So, half an hour later- with all three channels bonded on the new modem- we're getting 32Mbps down... at 10:30am!!
All I can say is DOCIS 3 .... wow!!!

so if they know what the fix is, why waste all the time, money, and resources, doing everything else? further frustrating the customer, having their tech support deal with the stress of non-stop irates, etc, etc.....I guess some things will never change