New Choice Internet & Phone Service

www.sbasite.com
owns 15 towers in the USVI
has zero USVI employees
takes a lot of money out of the territory every month....puts nothing back in.

Some towers have SBA owned generators....others have tenant owned generators
BBVI uses chains for portable generators we had to deploy at sites where the on-site generator failed
and we spend a lot of time driving around refueling.....a shout out to our friends at VIAPCO for letting me borrow a pickup truck with a 100 gallon diesel tank with an electric pump.

Any news on the condition of choice's east towers??

The service on the East end of STX came back Saturday evening. though it was very slow at 256Kbps. Speed is now back up to close to where it was before though most tests are closer to 3Mbps than the 5 paid for. Uploads fairly consistent at around 1 Mbps.

The biggest issue I am working on now it to get the modem/router they provide (ZTE 1600 ) to work smoothly with my home network and access points. So far every time I disable the ZTE's DHCP function, preferring to have my router handle the assignment of internal IP addresses everything eventually goes to hell and I have to re initialize not only the ZTE but my router and access points.

Jim

Moving the modem to a higher location gives me 1 bar and works at around 1mb(3 mb plan is paid for). However this is the only location I even receive signal and before the storm passed the ZTE was getting 3 bars in almost every part of my house. This leads me to believe the tower my modem was connecting to is down.

Hi All,
First, I want to say that I work for Choice so no surprises here.

We found that the storm did moved some antennas on St Thomas and a couple of locations on St Croix. Our tower crews are working to correct the condition and if you have not seen an improvement in service you should very soon.

Choice continues to fine tune the network and enhance overall service. If you are having problems, please call Choice Customer Care and report the problem. 340-220-CHOICE (2464)

If we know you are having problems we can fix things more quickly.

West

The service on the East end of STX came back Saturday evening. though it was very slow at 256Kbps. Speed is now back up to close to where it was before though most tests are closer to 3Mbps than the 5 paid for. Uploads fairly consistent at around 1 Mbps.

The biggest issue I am working on now it to get the modem/router they provide (ZTE 1600 ) to work smoothly with my home network and access points. So far every time I disable the ZTE's DHCP function, preferring to have my router handle the assignment of internal IP addresses everything eventually goes to hell and I have to re initialize not only the ZTE but my router and access points.

Jim

Jim,

The ZTE modem need to stay in DHCP mode to acquire an IP address from the Choice network. It refreshes on a regular basis so if DHCP of off the modem cannot communicate with Choice.

If you are having problems with your router or access points please call customer care and they can help you configure it. 340-220-CHOICE (2464)

West

Hey RL

SBA owns most of the towers in the USVI and they provide generator backup for all the carriers at their sites. SBA did let the main generator in STT run out of fuel.

You are correct, they will not let that happen again.

sorry for the inconvenience.

West

Hmmm, out of curiosity I decided to test my internet speed here in Ky (Comcast Cable connection). I ran a speed test called "AuditMyPc.com" and my subject computer is an iMac connected wireless to an airport express, which is actually connected to the cable modem. The results: download = 26.75 MBps Upload = 5.005 MBps

Is this good, bad, or indifferent?

Hmmm, out of curiosity I decided to test my internet speed here in Ky (Comcast Cable connection). I ran a speed test called "AuditMyPc.com" and my subject computer is an iMac connected wireless to an airport express, which is actually connected to the cable modem. The results: download = 26.75 MBps Upload = 5.005 MBps

Is this good, bad, or indifferent?

Right now we could only dream of that in STX. That is more than 10 times what we are actually getting here on STX for download speeds. It is 5X what we are promised with the current fastest offering Choice has which is 5mbps. So it is good 🙂

Sean

Hmmm, out of curiosity I decided to test my internet speed here in Ky (Comcast Cable connection). I ran a speed test called "AuditMyPc.com" and my subject computer is an iMac connected wireless to an airport express, which is actually connected to the cable modem. The results: download = 26.75 MBps Upload = 5.005 MBps

Is this good, bad, or indifferent?

Right now we could only dream of that in STX. That is more than 10 times what we are actually getting here on STX for download speeds. It is 5X what we are promised with the current fastest offering Choice has which is 5mbps. So it is good 🙂

Sean

There could be even more of a difference. stxdreamer gave his speeds in MBps which usually means Mega Bytes per second as opposed to Mbps which usually means Mega bits per second. Another factor of 8 faster.

Is this [speed] good, bad, or indifferent?

It's effin' awesome.

Good point Rotor, I was assuming a typo but if he's getting that in MB that's REALLY awesome!

Sean

If you really want to rub it in you should tell us what you're paying for these blazing fast speeds...

Hmmm, out of curiosity I decided to test my internet speed here in Ky (Comcast Cable connection). I ran a speed test called "AuditMyPc.com" and my subject computer is an iMac connected wireless to an airport express, which is actually connected to the cable modem. The results: download = 26.75 MBps Upload = 5.005 MBps

Is this good, bad, or indifferent?

How does our gov't allow this to happen? Take work away from local people that could service the SBA sites. Since SBA has zero employees from the USVI the people doing maintenance on these towers are coming on island from ???? PR and taking jobs away from Virgin Islanders?

www.sbasite.com
owns 15 towers in the USVI
has zero USVI employees
takes a lot of money out of the territory every month....puts nothing back in.

Some towers have SBA owned generators....others have tenant owned generators
BBVI uses chains for portable generators we had to deploy at sites where the on-site generator failed
and we spend a lot of time driving around refueling.....a shout out to our friends at VIAPCO for letting me borrow a pickup truck with a 100 gallon diesel tank with an electric pump.

we just got the new choice at above the cliff running good on north shore fast so far no problems fyi free wifi to customers at above the cliff on the north shore stx

I believe my area is oversold (to many users) because during times when many people are using the internet the speed is about 30kb/s at best.

Latency is already bad, but latency coupled with barely working service really isn't acceptable.........My ZTE modem has 3/4 bars too......
At this point I'm really fed up with the instability of all of our local ISPs. Gaming isn't even an option.

The last few days my connection has been stable and I have been getting consistent downloads in the 3.5 - 4.5 Mbps range, however the upload speeds are usually less than 500 Kbps.

Connection is stable and I have been able to stream feature length movies without any pauses for re buffering.

Support from their Tier 2 folks in Denver has been good, though nobody can touch BBVI for quick and knowledgeable support.

Jim

I ran a google connection test and apparently my connection is limited by the modems signal 50% of the time....................

My service was no where near what I was paying for an had contacted them through their online form. I received EXCELLENT service from the people in the states. The woman was very diligent and communicative with me. I too am in the spot where I cannot receive 5mb because of poor modem signal strength. End result, a credit and downgrade to the 3mb service. They were still able to make a difference though....I was getting .08mb down, now I can sometimes get 2.6 down.... *sigh* I guess I have to wait to see if more towers go up to get a better signal.

I just got the WIMAX modem yesterday.
,I will hook it up this weekend. (I am not taking down the external antenna until I am sure this will work for me...)

I went with the 5MB, $75.00 / month plan.
I hope this is more reliable than Choice is now. I get dropped a minimum of 6 times during the day. Nights aren't bad, but I WORK during the day so it is very frustrating.

A couple of questions......

I log into work through VPN - has anyone had a problem with that using this new modem?
I also have a laptop, will I still need a router to get a wireless signal ?

I don't have any problem getting my VPN connection to work, but VPN connections can be tricky.

You will need to hook a wireless access point up to your Choice modem/radio/router. The ZTE device Choice uses does the DHCP assignment of internal IP addresses. If you purchase a wireless router instead of an access point you will need to disable its DHCP function.

If you don't know what I am talking about then don't bother asking Choice as their local support people are probably going to be clueless.

Good luck.

Jim

Oh, this is very sad indeed. I spoke to a local support person by phone and really thought my rottweiler knew more about the setup. After describing the dropped connections, sporadic speeds, and high latency I was told to move the antenna around! (Gee, what's next, tell me water is wet.) I had expected to be forwarded to Tech Support but the woman who answered the phone seemed to be all they had and her next step if the antenna doesn't work is to return it!

Jim Dandy, I think you just told me a lot more than Choice will about my setup. If their device is handling DHCP do you know what mode is to be used with a router (PPPoE, Static IP, etc.)? Do I need a Choice-specific DNS address?

Thanks.

I don't have any problem getting my VPN connection to work, but VPN connections can be tricky.

You will need to hook a wireless access point up to your Choice modem/radio/router. The ZTE device Choice uses does the DHCP assignment of internal IP addresses. If you purchase a wireless router instead of an access point you will need to disable its DHCP function.

If you don't know what I am talking about then don't bother asking Choice as their local support people are probably going to be clueless.

Good luck.

Jim

What you need to do to add wireless access to your ZTE is either add a wireless access point or if you end up purchasing a combination wireless access point/router go into the setup screen for your wireless router and un-check the box that has this device serve as DHCP server.

The ethernet cable coming from the ZTE (either of the two ports ) is plugged into one of the four LAN ports on the router not the internet port.

If you have problems getting the VPN connection to work you may have to change some other settings on your ZTE and/or your router. Good luck as the ZTE's functionality is questionable. It can't even get the time right and is constantly resetting itself to January 1, 1970 with no manual way to over ride the default time and then getting the time to synch to the web when you are more than forty years out of synch is difficult.

Jim

I got the Wimax modem. I set it up Saturday evening.
5 solid bars. Great.

All is great, UNTIL SUNDAY. Internet down all night. Called Choice and left vmail, knowing it probably won't do any good, but I felt I had to do SOMETHING.

This morning I finally got connected at 7:25.

All was good, UNTIL 10:30. It went down for about 5 minutes. Doesn't matter if it is just 5 minutes, I lose my work connection, and everything I was doing. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Guess I will call them AGAIN and have them tell me to move the modem.
Isn't there ANYONE at Choice that can help ?

...constantly resetting itself to January 1, 1970...

I know people like that! 😀