Innovative DSL?

I had Innovative DSL on STX for about 5 years. Worked OK, some outages. Then Hurricane Omar hit the island. We had two telephone lines. Omar wiped out both lines and my DSL. It took Innovative 4 months to get the phone lines and DSL back up. By then I realised that I didn't need Innovative any more. Cell phones and BroadBand VI work better. BBVI as primary and ATT aircard as backup.

with as many outages as innovative has, i would be affraid to use them for internet. one time our phone was out for about 3-4 months NOT due to a storm.

I live right by Sapphire. There are really only two choices for DSL. The first is Innovative which I believe offers two speeds. I have the lower speed. The other is Choice. They provide service by tower only, no direct telephone line.

Either one suffers from too many users at a given time. The have only a certain size pipe and so things can get slow. I have a wireless router on my Innovative DSL for myself as well as my tenants. The support has been good and I have only had one real outage over the past few years. And it took three days to resolve the problem. I have not dealt with the high speed side of the house.

billd

Thanks, everyone, for the advice!

It seems Innovative Power Net would not be the best choice, although they are cheaper than BBVI by $20 per month.

I looked at an AT&T Air Card, and that is $60 a month per device, which is pretty expensive considering we each have 1 laptop.

I guess BBVI it is?

They make routers you can plug your AT&T wire card into and share the the connection. No more difficult than setting up and sharing any other internet connection.

Jim

Jim - thanks!!

If you are looking for reliability nothing beats Innovative on the island for internet. Its a "wired" vs. "wireless" solution. It is still not stateside service but for this island I think its the most reliable. Ive tried a few of the other "wireless" solutions with very bad results. No issues with Innovative and I hear they are upgrading things for more speed. 1 year no outages for me.

If you are looking for reliability nothing beats Innovative on the island for internet.

Wow! the first time I've ever seen reliability used to describe "Enervative"

Sloop

 

Innovative is also the preference of the "technology impaired" like me. You go, they turn it on, they charge you. No muss or fuss.

My service is ok. In the last year it's been off a few times for short bursts, minutes to an hour. Once or twice for longer periods, a couple of hours.

Perhaps service on STJ is worse than on STT or STX?

Sloop

I've actually had very good luck with Innovative at my location. But that is the key, in the VI its all about location. There are places where wireless doesn't work well due to the towers you'd have to point at. There are places where DSL doesn't work well due to distance from the CO (Central Office) or condition of the phone lines in your area/house.

As always with the Virgin Islands, flexibility is key, a backup is necessary if internet is a required part of your business, and patience will be tested from time to time no matter who you go with.

Sean