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Does anyone have technical details of the internet performance and reliability in St. Croix? Who is the best provider? I'm not terribly concerned about cost, but I'm wondering if a remote office with a respectably low latency connection is possible. I read an article that said there were three main undersea cables connecting into St. Croix, but it was pretty out-of-date and I can't find anything newer. I've heard plenty about the power outages, but when things do work I wonder how well they can work.
If someone on the island with a good connection is willing to do a speed test and report their numbers that would be most helpful. speedtest.xfinity.com is great because in addition to reporting upload and download speeds it also reports Latency, which is important for remote office work (and under advanced settings you can pick the city you are measuring to). I really appreciate anyone's experience!
Posted : August 26, 2019 1:16 pm
I use BroadbandVI which in my opinion is truly the best on St Croix. I ran your speedtest.xfinity this morning (after Dorian) and got 46.4 down, 7.5 up with 84 ms latency.
For my internet business, BBVI is the best and I would never switch.
Posted : August 29, 2019 7:54 am
You cannot rely on any single internet service provider. And depending on where you are (ex. eastend of STX), BBVI is horribly over-subscribed and nearly unuseable for good portions of the day.
Posted : September 1, 2019 4:01 pm
Do you have a specific area of the island in mind?
I'm a semi-retired technology consultant and have a condo at St C (west of Christiansted).
I also have BBVI for when I'm on island and need to work. In February/March, I had a number of online meetings (GoToMeeting, etc.) and it generally performed well, but you could tell when people got home from work and starting turning on their connected devices.
I'll be down again at the end of the week and can run another speed test for you if it will help.
Posted : September 1, 2019 7:59 pm
You cannot rely on any single internet service provider. And depending on where you are (ex. eastend of STX), BBVI is horribly over-subscribed and nearly unuseable for good portions of the day.
Just to provide another perspective, I live in the East End and rarely ever have a problem with BBVI. I stream Netflix, Prime and Hulu every night with no issues.
Posted : September 3, 2019 7:50 am
Topic starter
Thanks for the info. No idea yet where I'd live on the island. Still in the very early stages of exploring with at least a 2 years time horizon. The 84ms latency number is good to know, It's workable, but going to be painful.
Posted : September 4, 2019 11:55 am
Thanks for the info. No idea yet where I'd live on the island. Still in the very early stages of exploring with at least a 2 years time horizon. The 84ms latency number is good to know, It's workable, but going to be painful.
Pretty soon we'll have high speed/low latency internet provided by low orbit satellites if Musk and Bezos keep up with their plans.
Posted : September 4, 2019 3:01 pm
You cannot rely on any single internet service provider. And depending on where you are (ex. eastend of STX), BBVI is horribly over-subscribed and nearly unuseable for good portions of the day.
Just to provide another perspective, I live in the East End and rarely ever have a problem with BBVI. I stream Netflix, Prime and Hulu every night with no issues.
Same here, very little problems (east end). Plus they were the first up and running after the hurricane.
Posted : September 4, 2019 5:35 pm
It depends where you live. If way out East (Slob, Teague Bay) forget BBVI. We pointed to the STX Yacht Club tower, direct line of sight, with a horrible intermittent 2Mbs connection (spring of 2018). Nothing but the lowest residential tier available in this area. Even their own guys complained about their own equipment. I work from home with a thin client setup so need a stable and reasonably fast connection. Switched to VIYA and never looked back.
Posted : September 5, 2019 1:21 pm
When we got back to the island, Dorian had shifted our BBVI antenna and we had pretty poor service (5-10 down and 3-5 up).
After a service call to BBVI, they adjusted my antenna and pointed it at a different antenna, it improved to a steady 18-20 down and 5-7 up.
As a reminder, my condo is at St C (west of Christiansted).
Spend some time deciding which company works best for whichever location you choose. Also ask if you can do a month to month to confirm your selection with the provider you select and then move to a contract to get a lower rate once they prove they can perform for you. If you do this, you may be able to negotiate waiving the installation fee if you move to a contract during the first month.
Posted : September 16, 2019 10:13 pm
