Broadband Internet

There's Broadband VI which offers wireless Internet service (they install a small antenna your house) and Huges Net which is via satellite.

We had Huges Net a few years ago and I was very happy with it. I especially liked that it wasn't susceptible to local power outages or risk of the local network being damaged by hurricanes. As long as you had power in your house (via generator during outages) and the dish was intact you had service.

We now have Broadband VI which has repeaters all over the island. As long as you live within line of sight of one you're OK. But because they run off WAPA they're at risk of loosing power and going off line. Plus there's the risk one of the towers could be struck by lightening. That hasn't happened yet to us. But we only signed up with them a couple of months ago.

DON'T expect stateside speed down here. Visions of cable modem performance are dreams.

I concur. Broadband VI is about 1.5 Mps. You've also got to worry about your power supply and wiring in the house. We were paying for the top speed, but only getting about half that. It fluctuated throughout the day because we had "dirty" power in the house--i.e., the wiring was old and outdate and, thus, we were getting peaks and valleys in the electrical current, which affected the speed of the Internet connection.

Bernie

The reason I ask is because I have an xbox360 and it's hooked up to xbox live and netflix. I realize I wont spend nearly as much time indoors in STX, just wondering if I'd be able to run it for those days where I'm feeling lazy.

This is going to be a big problem going forward down here. We had a few year stretch where we were pretty much up to speed with the mainland when it came to internet connectivity. When I first came down here in 2003 I had 768k DSL there and 512k here, close enough.

Now everyone in the states is expecting 6mbps on up to 45mbps via fiber optics/cable modems. We simply don't have that infrastructure in place. Unlike DSL which could leverage copper and the wireless technologies that we have, I'm not sure there is anything that will be available here in the near future that can hit those speeds.

Unfortunately this will become a problem as when higher speeds become the norm the "web" and other internet technologies begin to assume you have these higher speeds. Back in the dialup days we would wrangle with an image to shrink it by a few k to make it download faster to users, now people are posting HD video at high bitrates embedded into web pages assuming you can support a 1mb stream while downloading the rest of the page without a problem.

We can largely thank Jeffrey Prosser for putting the money he was getting from Innovative into his 727 rather than into the cable infrastructure on the island. With Innovative in bankruptcy I'd be surprised if we were able to catch up anytime soon.

Sean

You can't view any Netflix movies online down here anyway.

My son plays 360 online sometimes (only when one of us can watch him) and it works fine with either BroadBand VI or Innovative DSL connected to our wireless router. In other words the bandwidth here is sufficient for a wireless connection to 360Live.

As someone else said you won't be able to do downloads/streaming of movies from Netflix or Blockbuster because they limit it to the continental U.S..

The reason I ask is because I have an xbox360 and it's hooked up to xbox live and netflix. I realize I wont spend nearly as much time indoors in STX, just wondering if I'd be able to run it for those days where I'm feeling lazy.

The irony here is that we have a major trans-oceanic fiber trunk line coming right into the West end of the island with Global Crossing. No business here has found a profitable proposition for distributing it around the island...
I bet if they did all the other phone, cable, and internet options would disappear.

...We can largely thank Jeffrey Prosser for putting the money he was getting from Innovative into his 727 rather than into the cable infrastructure on the island. With Innovative in bankruptcy I'd be surprised if we were able to catch up anytime soon.

Sean

The irony here is that we have a major trans-oceanic fiber trunk line coming right into the West end of the island with Global Crossing. No business here has found a profitable proposition for distributing it around the island...
I bet if they did all the other phone, cable, and internet options would disappear.
]

Broadband VI has been getting its bandwidth from Global Crossing for over 4 years. We are distributing bandwidth from Butler Bay to Grapetree on STX, Fortuna to Red Hook on STT, and Cruz Bay to Coral Bay on STJ.

Didn't know that. Does this mean you've run fiber lines from the west end to each of the towers (or from the west end to a distribution point where the towers tie-in?) If so is there any prospect you can run branches to some of the more populated communities/complexes and offer phone/internet/cable via fiber connection? (Maybe you can sub to Verizon Fios?!?! I can dream can't I?)

Didn't know that. Does this mean you've run fiber lines from the west end to each of the towers (or from the west end to a distribution point where the towers tie-in?) If so is there any prospect you can run branches to some of the more populated communities/complexes and offer phone/internet/cable via fiber connection? (Maybe you can sub to Verizon Fios?!?! I can dream can't I?)

Broadband VI has installed Microwave links covering the vast majority of all three islands.
We are growing, investing, upgrading, expanding, etc.
Is it fiber? no, but its pretty darn close.
We provide Internet to thousands of Virgin Islanders.
Some of our customers use Skype/Vonage/Magic Jack.
Some of our customers watch video over the Internet.

I do want to add that Broadband VI has outstanding customer service. When we were having our surge problems (which made it impossible for us to use Skype), they were extremely responsive and did all they could to help us find a solution. Unfortunately, the culprit (bad electrical wiring in the condo) was out of their control.

Bernie

I have both Innovative DSL (PowerNet) and BroadbandVI in my house and will also testify that BroadBandVI has stellar customer service. To be frank my customer service with Innovative hasn't been bad either (it's particularly good if you go in person to their office in Sunny Isle as opposed to by phone which is still above average.)

I do want to add that Broadband VI has outstanding customer service. When we were having our surge problems (which made it impossible for us to use Skype), they were extremely responsive and did all they could to help us find a solution. Unfortunately, the culprit (bad electrical wiring in the condo) was out of their control.

Bernie

So, is there a Broadband.vi option for 1.5Mbit as a residential service? The website shows 1Mbit as the highest bandwidth for residential use.
Also - is this a symmetric or asymmetric link - what's the upload bandwidth?

I have the 1Mbps service from BBVI and it usually runs 1.5-2.0Mbps for download and 800-900kbps upload.

Innovative's DSL customer service is surprisingly good. Unfortunately, so many times the problem will be with your phone line (or at least that is what they will conclude), so they have no way to help. The infrastructure isn't there.

Bernie help me understand please. I may have to deal with this one day.
I is your connection is wireless?
If that is so what does the condo wiring have to do with it?
If it's dirty power a Belkin or other UPS with power conditioning should give you clean power for computer and wireless. I wouldn't operate any computer w/o a UPS/power line conditioner..

I have the 1Mbps service from BBVI and it usually runs 1.5-2.0Mbps for download and 800-900kbps upload.

So they call it 1Mbps but give you more? That's always good to know though I wish they'd advertise it that way too.

That's faster than my current cable internet, incidentally 🙂 I get the same download but only 256Kbit uplink. Of course I pay a lot less for that. 🙂

It is a bit pricey at $99 a month but it is the best available at the moment. They actually burst up to 3Mbps at the beginning of the connection. I used to have Innovative DSL at 512k and BBVI at 512k feeding into a dual wan router which does load leveling. But when Omar hit last year I lost my telephone for 4 months and decided that Innovative wasn't worth the effort.

I plan to have both anyway and do a bit of policy routing, though perhaps if I were to lose phone for 4 months, I'd go your route too 🙂

I do pretty well here with 1.5Mbit anyway - I use this for work, which needs relatively low latency but not so much actual data (and I don't download movies, music or any other large media, don't have time for that).

Innovative DSL also has 1Mbit plans, don't they?

Innovative DSL also has 1Mbit plans, don't they?

I think that they do, but it depends on where you live, how close to the switching center and quality of the lines. You have to go in and fill out an application with your address they will then contact you to tell you what service is available in your area.

John

Michael: I was using a wireless router. However, the radio receiving the Internet feed is plugged into the condo outlet, so when the electricity current would fluctuate, so would the Internet connection.

You're right that a UPS with power conditioning would have solved the problem. In fact, that was the advice we got from Broadband VI. We just didn't get around to buying one.

Bernie

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Bernie help me understand please. I may have to deal with this one day.
I is your connection is wireless?
If that is so what does the condo wiring have to do with it?
If it's dirty power a Belkin or other UPS with power conditioning should give you clean power for computer and wireless. I wouldn't operate any computer w/o a UPS/power line conditioner..

Michael

Thanks Bernie!

Is there a way to know if Broadband.VI is available at specific location? I am ready to rent a place, but can't really be sure - don't see any obvious microwave repeater towers around (but then again, I don't necessarily know where to look).

They use WiFi for access so just take a laptop with you and scan for available networks. If you can see a network whose name starts BroadbandVI_ or BBVI_ then you should be ok. Do the scan outdoors. They will install a radio with directional antenna so don't worry about the signal strength.