How fast is your connection? (Images inside)

*-)

Hey Cory---

I see you had to edit twice to get it right! 😀 The effort was well worth it. I think you've captured the response of most participants on this board.

From STT to/from Dominican Republic using a *blazing* fast $100/month Choice wireless connection (dripping with sarcasm)

Innovative DSL - Frenchman's Bay - STT

Myrtle Beach
HTC Communications
Ping to Greensboro 150miles

Ping to San Francisco 2450 miles

I don't understand why david wants to know our speed in STT, if he is not moving here? Internet in the USVI is more expensive and slower than the states but i have broadbandvi now i am flying i don't know how to post the picture but i could tell you i am flying for STT Download 4171 kpbs upload 924 kpbs Don't ask me how much i pay please! In Miami with Comcast i had 20 mb download and upload 1.5 mb that was normal all the time.

The server in the DR is a piece of crap test it with the server in Miami and FT lauderdale it will increased your speed also Speakeasy speed test is very good too.

From STX

I will say having the speed is nice8-) I can tell a huge difference between my speed here in Myrtle Beach and when I am on Island using my computer on the East End. The place I live now came wired to the gills and I have a wireless keyboard for the lap top that allows me to surf the net, watch games etc.. on my 60inch LCD in the living room. I did the same thing on St. Thomas but with a lot of buffering issues where now I can watch a football game or whatever other live stream through my laptop on the big screen with no problems.

Roki, I re-did the speed test using the Miami server:

Marginally worse.

David,

I'm sure you understand the layout better than I do... Help me understand the results:
- it sounds like Jules has a wireless connection from the house to "mother" on the island. Then I'm guessing that there is a microwave link from island to PR, then maybe cable (or another microwave link) to mainland. But, it's probably the home-to-islandMother link that's throttling the rate.
- Marty is either using an over-the-phone-line-DSL , or maybe is it also a wireless link from the home? It's a little faster, but probably also throttled by the link from the home section.
- But Dante's connection is getting respectable... could that be cable from home? It also suggests that the link from island to PR/mainland is at least this fast.

EngRMP, I'd actually be interested myself in how the islands get internet access - I've never actually thought about it. I know there are cross continental underseas cables that connect EU to NA - I would assume it's similar there.

If you are in the islands and open a command prompt and type in

tracert google.com

You will see all the servers your request goes through before it actually gets to google. You can also find what country each server is in here.

A lot of .vi websites are actually hosted in the US but I found one that is hosted in PR so if I were to guess there are undersea cables running from the US to PR and from PR to the VI.

Using the Orlando server

URL= http://www.speedtest.net ][/URL]
recheck a moment or two later with Miami and I get this. I don't get it.

Yes, my connection is over the phone line DSL thru Innovative...here's using Miami server....but I don't think I get to choose the server unless I am running this test...
[img][img/]

St. Croix has a Global Crossing POP (Point of Presence) on the west end. There is a TON of bandwidth flowing through there but unfortunately none of it is availabe to residents of the island.

Broadband VI is the only company on the island that has a direct connection into the global crossing pipe that comes through the island. Because of this it will take less "hops" for traffic to get where it needs to go as the routing is much better. Unfortunately if you are using Broadband VI you can't rely on speedtest to tell you what your true speed is. This is because they do a burst trick whereby they burst for 30 seconds or so and then scale back the speed. The idea is that you get your webpage really quick, you read it, then when you get the next one you get another burst and the speed APPEARS to be very fast. The downside to this approach becomes clear though when you go to a streaming video site. The video site will detect that you have a connection that is MUCH faster than what you can sustain and will start sending you a high res, high bitrate feed. Once you get past your 30 seconds or whatever of burst you will then see the video freeze up as you really don't have the bandwidth the streaming media server thought you had. We use BroadbandVI and had them shut off the burst for this very reason. We were ultimately happier with this environment as we do a lot of sustained file transfers that the burst seemed to be wreaking havoc with rather than enhancing.

Broadband VI is a solid company though and they have been very accomodating to our requests to tailor their product to the needs of our business. They are investing in better equipment, and with the Global Crossing pipe providing the bandwidth we need, Broadband VI could eventually get us caught back up with the mainland in terms of our connectivity. We are starting to fall way behind as 5mb pipes to every house becomes the standard across the US and content providers start tailoring their sites to those pipes, using the internet becomes an exercise in frustration at times on island. Hopefully the Broadband folks, and maybe someday even Innovative will be able to get us back to where we need to be to stay competitive with the offerings of the US.

Sean

Thanks Sean... very helpful... so, some summary/follow on:
- Roki was the only one with BroadbandVI (he's getting 4/1 Mbs)... am I interpreting ISPs correctly?
- So, are the other ISPs using a microwave link or satellite link to get off-island? Are they locked out of the global pipe because of full bandwidth, or is it a cost issue that stops them.
- Can BroadbandVI deliver a wired connection to any homes on STX, or is the "last mile" always wireless?
- Can any BroadbandVI subscriber request or toggle burst mode on/off? Would a big file transfer be a better speed measuring approach, given the burst mode?

So stiphy is the Global Crossing pipe an undersea cable to PR or NA?

Get this....

I've been told by two different people now that BroadBand VI could easily sell us much higher broadband but they are restricted to 1 mps because selling the faster speeds would be unfair to their competitors!!! I was skeptical until I found out that BroadBand VI does indeed sell much faster packages to business customers - just can't do it for residential.

I wonder how much it would cost to buy a business license...

The image I posted is from our temporary house with Innovative 512k DSL. I'll try to do a test of the 1m BroadBand VI setup I had installed in the new place tomorrow.

BroadBand VI is a solid company and I have been very satisfied with their service.

They are however using unlicensed and therefore unprotected frequencies to deliver their services. This hasn't been much of a problem on STX, but on STT , where they recently purchased Ackley. they are finding it more difficult to provide service because of interference on the frequencies they use, particularly in the downtown area.

If they want to step up the speed they will need to change their wireless technology and go with WiMax or what ever the next latest and greatest technology is.

It will be interesting to see if the new owners for Innovative rebuild their outside plant and offer a robust DSL or data over cable service. Given that Innovative has a monopoly in the USVI for both CATV and wire line phone there is no reason they could not build fiber to the home and make money offering services such as Verizon does stateside.

Jim

I've been told by two different people now that BroadBand VI could easily sell us much higher broadband but they are restricted to 1 mps because selling the faster speeds would be unfair to their competitors!!! I was skeptical until I found out that BroadBand VI does indeed sell much faster packages to business customers - just can't do it for residential.

I wonder how much it would cost to buy a business license...

This sounds like a conspiracy theory 🙂 My understanding after having lunch with one of their main guys is that they can scale their bandwidth going off the island as high as they would need to give us higher speed connections at the Global Crossing POP. The problem for them is the same problem that anyone would have in a rural area (for much of STX at least), the "last mile." Their wireless equipment to your home will only reliably work at certain speeds. I was also told that they are going to be rolling out new last mile wireless equipment in the near future that will let them ramp it up. Of course if there is no competition then they have no incentive to make this upgrade unless we are willing to pay a lot more for more bandwidth, that is part of the problem. I was also told they were looking at using some licensed spectrum down the road to be able to deliver higher speeds reliably on the lastmile (good point on this front Jim). Also note that the price you pay for business service with Broadband is over 10X what you pay for residential in terms of cost. They will get the presently expensive wireless equipment on your site to go to 2mbps if you are paying $1200+/month 🙂

On where GC connects to, my understanding is (and someone can correct me if I'm wrong), that's the best part, it's not PR or the NA, it's the mainland directly! We are sitting on a bandwidth goldmine in STX, the GC Mac ring goes from STX to Hollywood FL and I believe Long Island NY direct and there is a TON of bandwidth! (source http://www.globalcrossing.com/news/2007/january/31_2.aspx) plus we've been up to the site before and my memory indicates this is the case as well. Note that leveraging GC's pipe to the island is core to the whole UVI research/tech park project.

As for the cost to get a business license you can find that out at http://www.dlca.gov.vi/. I have one for Business and Mgmt consulting and its $390/year plus some other fees for fire inspection etc from what I remember. Its actually kind of amusing to peruse the list of available licenses (a cockfighting license is $600 :)).

Hope this is helpful and please if anyone out there knows of errors in my information correct me!

Sean

Thanks Sean... very helpful... so, some summary/follow on:
- Roki was the only one with BroadbandVI (he's getting 4/1 Mbs)... am I interpreting ISPs correctly?
- So, are the other ISPs using a microwave link or satellite link to get off-island? Are they locked out of the global pipe because of full bandwidth, or is it a cost issue that stops them.
- Can BroadbandVI deliver a wired connection to any homes on STX, or is the "last mile" always wireless?
- Can any BroadbandVI subscriber request or toggle burst mode on/off? Would a big file transfer be a better speed measuring approach, given the burst mode?

Sorry skipped yoru questions.

Roki's numbers with broadband are likely skewed because of the Broadband Burst I described.
You can get Choice which uses a microwave link. Directway uses a Satellite link. For a while you could use a Sprint EVDO card in a router although their unlimited plan now caps at 5GB and their performance has gone to heck. BroadbandVI doesn't do a wired connection, all wierless for last mile. Finally, we were able to request to toggle burst mode off but we've worked with them for years and know the guy in charge 🙂 I don't think they'd have any problem turning it off for you though if you requested it, but I don't know for sure. A big file transfer would definitely be a better speed measuring approach. The speedtest.net test is too short, the whole test runs under the burst in our experience.

Sean

If you go to Broadband VI's web site they list a residential rate of $99.95 for 1024 Kbs for residential. If you call them they will quote a rate for services ranging from 2mbs - 45mbs.

Global Crossings is a mainland US connection.

Jim