Broadband Internet Access

Kevin,

Search this board (and the vacation board) for "internet"- you'll find a lot.

There is no cable here that I'm aware of.

Broadband internet comes in two "flavors" (i.e., methods of delivery) here: wireline (Innovative/Vitelco/PowerNet) and wireless (Ackley Communications/surfVI, Choice/VIAccess, or satellite).

I'm biased, but I personally believe Ackley Communications/surfVI are the most reliable- based on comparative uptimes, customer service and speed guarantees, and Service Level Agreements- Ackley offers it, no one else does.

Best,

LR

As much as I'd love to have some kind of high-speed internet service here, friends and customers alike continuously have problems with what's available here, ranging from prolonged downtime to not recognizing what's spam and what's not and all else inbetween. I had enormous problems with dial-up, going from Choice to ATT and then to something else and having so much angst that I was almost ready to toss everything out and go back to writing letters and sending them via the U.S. Postal Service! Really! But then I got onto Earthlink and my internet life changed. Still dial-up but I'd rather have this kind of good service than the present alternatives.

We have a bit of a problem here with Innovative Communications, owned by one Jeffrey Prosser, who rather insidiously managed to take over the majority of local media. The Daily News, The Island Trader, Innovative Telephone (formerly VITELCO) and St. Thomas-St. John Cable TV (formerly owned by the Knight Corporation) all now fall under the Innovative umbrella. Other companies (including Earthlink) would love to piggyback Innovative's lines for a fair price where telephone service and internet access is concerned, but Innovative continuously rebuffs any other competitive entity and continuously butts heads with the Public Services Commission. Frankly, right now it's a mess.

Sorry, I really haven't answered your questions at all and I'm sure others will do a lot better. Just MHO.

Glad to see this thread, as it's a question I've been wondering about. I'll be down to STX sometime mid-may to look for some construction work, and have been blessed with a sweet house-sitting gig for a good part of June, as well, so I'll be able to cover some ground and hopefully land something.

My question is... are these same companies providing service on STX, too? Hopefully I'll see some replies from you regular STX posters here! Not that I'm absolutely dependant on the net, but I do email quite a bit, so... I'd like to know what I can expect when and if the time comes. Fingers crossed there!

Monopolizing the market and profiteering are hardly "Innovative" (pun intended), but it's usually just a matter of time before someone realizes the market potential, comes in and lays their own lines, and gives someone like your JP a run for his money. Nothing wrong with a little friendly competition, right??

Thanks for all the help here! Someone had mentioned in a previous post regarding broadband internet that some investment companies on St. Thomas may lease space on their T1 lines.

Would anyone have any idea on the names of these companies? Can anyone else comment on their specific experiences with broadband on St. Thomas? Does anyone on island depend on broadband for their business?

Reliability is the most critical issue for me. Any further suggestions?

Hey everyone,
I had similar worries before moving down to STX in January.. as an online college student, getting reliable internet service is a big concern. Luckily I have found that there are numerous wireless signals that you can jump on to use. I can sit in my Gallows Bay apt and have the choice of six or seven wireless signals to choose from. The best part is, there are signals all over the island in C'sted, F'sted..etc. So, if you have a laptop with a wireless card, you can be in business anytime. I have yet to have a time when I couldn't get internet access. Hope this helps some.
Jesse

Do you mean you're at a hotspot, or that you're jumping on someone's private (unsecured) wireless?

Are you getting good upload and download speeds?

Re: competition in the phone market....

While it would be lovely to have an alternative to the "local monopoly" (Innovative/VITELCO), they are just that- a monopoly.

They are the recipients of federal grant money (and are EDC beneficiaries), and are the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC)- there are no competitive local exchange carriers).

That's what the big brouhaha has been between Choice and Innovative lately- see the Daily News article from a few days ago:

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=4304809

Steve, Ackley Communications offers high speed internet in St. Croix. Give them a call at 774-5780 or see more info online at www.surfvi.com/bigsurf

Kevin, a lot of local businesses depend on broadband. It's a great idea to contact local business owners and ask them their experience with broadband.

Best,

LR

I've been using Choice satellite DSL on STX for about four months, and have yet to experience any type of service outage. It's line of sight, so not available in all locations. They come to your house and check for signal availability, if it's good they hook you up with a dish and configure your computers to communicate with them. Good speeds.
As far as Innovative- cable tv has been reliable but home phone has been down since mid-February! I'm confident they'll fix it someday...

Cleric,

That option sounds interesting. The only other broadband satellite provider I knew was Starband and their service was horrible. Rolled out way before it was ready for primetime.

When you say you are getting good speeds from Choice could you provide some specifics? Are you routinely receiving 1.5Mbs or higher data flow on the download side? What are you receiving on the upload side?

Have you needed any of their tech support after installation? Would you know who on the island is solid in IT support?

Thanks for the help.

Cleric is using the term 'satellite' when he/she means 'terrestrial wireless'. By 'dish', Cleric is referring to an antenna that is installed to provide wireless line-of-sight service. That's how all the wireless providers (though using different products, and on radically different networks) provide broadband service. Your other options, as I mentioned are wireline DSL through Innovative or satellite. Starband is the only satellite here that I'm aware of, and QoS/latency/upload will kill you if you depend on reliable bandwidth.

Again, if guaranteed speeds are important to you, Kevin, do your research- Choice doesn't guarantee speeds, and they vary from person to person (i.e., servicing location) and time to time, so you're not going to get an accurate portrayal of what you might experience.

Good luck.

Best,

LR

Thanks Loyal Reader. I'm stuck with Innovative DSL for the moment. Our house in Frenchmans Bay is not servicable "line of sight" by either Choice or Ackley. Bummer, although both are "working" on servicing this part of the island and may offer something in the near future. I'm learning the island mentality though and understand that "working on it" may mean a few years time!

If the speeds we receive are not enough, I may just resort to getting a commercial space with T1 access or something similar. I'll just take a wait and see attitude.

Currently I get very good Broadband service using V.I. Broadband. It's only 50.00 a month and my service is great. I'm in STX

cleric,

Have you reported your phone problems? Innovative isn't fast about their service calls, but we have always been given a serviced by date that has been honored (it's usually 10-14 business days after you report your issue), and we get credit on the next bill for every outage -- without asking for it.

My only real frustration with this is that we're in one of those areas that isn't dish DSL friendly, so when the phone is out so is our Internet access. Can't figure out for the life of me why a company that owns the cable service, phone service, and Internet access services can't figure out how to or won't offer cable based DSL.

If you'd like us to call Innovative for you, let me know via a PM. (That's another puzzler -- why a phone company doesn't have a real seven-digit phone number for trouble reports in addition to their 912 number, which can only be used with Innovative phone service!!)

--HC

Ackley has a servicing location at Frenchman's- so you may be able to get service there.

Once you have Ackley broadband, you can get talkVI (voice over IP) and avoid the whole Innovative drama altogether!

Ackley Communications is running a residential special right now, wherein you get reduced install, a free router, guaranteed speeds (256kbps both up and down) and a free voice over IP line (with local 340 area code telephone number) for 99/month.

HipCrip, where on STX do you live?
Cable-based DSL is a long and political story- IM me if you want details. And look around you- not sure if it's the same on STX as it is on STT and STJ, but the wireline infrastructure is so shoddy here, and Innovative can't even maintain dial-tone a lot of the time- do you really trust them to properly design, administer, and maintain cable or DSL?

Innovative does have a 7-digit number to call- but it's the main line, which will keep you on hold for quite a while, in my experience.

I'm surprised that you get credits on your bill without asking. A good friend spent 3 hours (yes! 3 HOURS) on the phone with Innovative trying to get some outage credit, and - for 4 months out of service- they credited her $2.50. She was so mad she switched to Ackley broadband & voice over IP that day, and hasn't had phone troubles since.

Best,

LR

LR,

Our house sits in a little dip on the side of a hill in the Tan Tan Terrace area of Estate Sion Farm. We're situated in such a way that all of our immediate neighbors homes overlook our house and yard.

When I moved to STX, I was working as the director of online commiunications for a DC advocacy group, and we tried nine ways from Sunday to get broadband. Innovative supposedly did their survey and told us it was a go, only to tell us eight weeks later that they had made an error and our local 'switching station" (the the closest phrase my addled and aging brain can come up with right now for the read terminology) wasn't capable of handling data transmissions. We've called every other WDSL provider, who have told us that we are either out of the sight line for their towers and/or out of the range for which they would guarantee a signal. One told us that if we were willing to invest in a 100' tower in our back yard, might (yes, MIGHT) be able to work something out.

If you or anyone else has ideas for broadband that won't cost us a grand to install or hundreds a month to pay for, please please please bring them on. The Hip Hubby and I are total geeks, and so far our marriage has survived the sharing agreement in which I get to use the dialup connection during the day, and he gets it from sun down until we go to bed (we don't get enough speed to try and make use of a network connection to piggyback usage).

As far as Innovative telephone, and for that matter, any of the utility services go, we seem to be blessed. We got our two WAPA accounts (our home was once a duplex and still had two meters when we moved in) and our cable and phone services set up in less than 2 hours -- and even more amazing is that all of these services were turned on within 48 hours later. I have since learned what a freakish turn of events that was!

Even though we hear (and understand) a lot of snarking about WAPA, Innoivative, etc. we've had nothing but excellent service from them, the whole DSLsnafu notwithstanding. In fact, they're so much better than what we dealt with in DC that I've been known to call them to tell them good job when someone is really on the ball -- maybe that's why we continue to have such positive experiences.

--HC

P.S. to the Gods and Fates -- please don't take the act of me speaking publ,icly about my good fortune as boasting and evidence that I need to be taught a lesson -- it's really just good old gratitude, honestly!

The don't offer cable internet service because their plant can't support it.

You need to have two way capable plant and Innovative's plant is barely one way capable.

For them to offer any advanced services; interactive pay per view, VOD, cable internet, VOIP Innovative would have tp spend millions of dollars rebuilding their outside plant.

The owners of Innovative spend their money on corporate jets and defending law suits.

Jim

One note regarding LRs post above, the monthly fee does not include long distance charged on the VoIP telephone.

Long distance rates right now are 4c/min to US/CA/Mexico and 6-8c to most of Europe. 15c to China and Hong Kong and most of Pacific Rim.

cheers,
Jason Ackley

It all depends on the area you are in. I use Broadband V.I. with some great up & down speeds for $49 a month.

Broadband VI? never heard of them. Can you supply more info please...thanks!

There is a new wireless DSL serive called Comtek, that I am signing up for. I hope they do a good job. I have had Innovatives service, and it was terrible! Choice (VI Access) is good, but spotty. so we will see about Comtek.

I have had their service since Decembers. Works great and the speede I am getting is faster than other providers. Aout 1.2mbs download.

Contact Mike at

Jim

An interesting side note: AT&T has a major confluence of fiber optics on St. Thomas. Two lines to the States, one to Mexico, two to South America, and one to Southern Europe. You would think that broadband would be cheap there. I do wonder if AT&T will ever plant a server farm there...

Dear noone,

AT&T and Global Crossing both have big "hubs" here- but being here and being connected to them are two different things!

They have been here many years, and tapping into "big big" broadband is very, very expensive.

Therefore, broadband is NOT cheap here. ISPs here pay (I am quite serious and literal here) 100x what an ISP in Florida would pay.

If you'd like more information, please feel free to PM me.

Best,

LR

Peter De Blanc was my mentor, some interesting info about him here: http://www.ccwhois.org/inmemoriam/PdB-obituary.html

Ah, if it hadn't been for the Freenet, I wouldn't have had no 'net at all!