New Choice Internet & Phone Service

called Choice again.

I was told that NOBODY has complained at all, never ever, of losing connection, dropping connection, fluctuating speeds, etc.

I said that was not true. He said 'oh yes it is true, we would have been told if there was a problem'

He even asked his buddy (who sits next to him I presume) and his buddy said that he connects to the Peterborg site and that he NEVER loses connection. Never. Not ever.

I was also told to move the modem of course.

Anyone have Hughesnet ? I have to find an alternative.

We had HughesNet and hated it. It got unbearably slower over the years, and it has high latency. They also have a Fair Access Policy (FAP) which restricts how much you can download per day. If you reach that limit, they choke your speed to about 28Kbps for a day or so.

SkysTheLimit loves HughesNet (and is an installer for them).

Thanks STXBob,
I haven't lost connection since 10:30 this morning, we'll see how tonight and tomorrow goes.
I am seriously hoping that it has been a problem that Choice can FIX.

Bob,
I LOVE Hughesnet for its reliability.
They have a FAP that I never hit and they implemented a few tools to help manage it. One is a download scheduler for updates and huge files since 2am til 7am are not counted towards FAP. The second is FAP tokens that you can use instantly if you hit the limit. First one per month is free and after that about $7 each. I believe you had the Direcway 6000 KU band on residential service, I have a Hughes 7000s KU and the new systems are the Hughesnet 9000 KA band.

Latency yes.
Slow? I run a consistant 1.2 down 200 up. Works for me but that is slow by todays standards. Higher speeds are available but only by a margin and the monthly price goes up of course.
I like knowing that my internet is available when I need it. Speed is a bonus but some applications absolutely need that speed.
I don't download movies or game on the internet.

When people inquire I actually tell them they may be happier with a BroadbandVI connection for a $200 install and $49 a month.
"If they can't get you a signal or it doesn't work out let me know."...................."If you require redundancy and/or super reliability we can help."
"If your kids like real time gaming forget it."

I believe when your system was installed it was your best option at the time for the location. For some locations that's still the case.
It is what it is. Satellite Internet.

After a storm I start the generator and feel confident I'll be emailing and browsing that day. After the recent electrical storms that wreaked havoc on the wireless connections. My Hughenet didn't miss a beat!
And watching Dish TV:D

Returned my Choice WiMax radio/router yesterday. The staff working in the store are quite friendly and I had no problem getting my money back for the device plus credit for the days the service was off air.

While Choice had resolved many of the problems with their service I just didn't want to live with the 256k or slower upload speeds. I usually got 3.5 Mbps downloads which made streaming Netflix videos quite pleasant.

Choice seems confident that they will eventually work out the kinks and be able to deliver 5Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. When they can I will sign up again.

I would not hesitate to recommend their service to anyone. No contract and if in the first thirty days the service doesn't work for you they will refund your money fro the WiMax device. You can then move onto another option. Very little risk in trying Choice. With BBVI you are out $199 for the install if you don't like their service.

Also with choice no wait for an install. You walk into the store, pick up your device and you are online.

Jim

I must say, this has been a real good week. Lost connection only one time, and for just a few minutes.

So far, I will keep my WiMax and hope Choice stabilizes.

Just got Choice today. I was curious to come home and test the speed I'm getting out on Peterborg East on St.Thomas
Looks like we're getting a strong and consistent 4.80mb download with spikes to 5mb. But the upload is way slower, but not a big deal for me right now.

I'm up on Crown Mountain, North Side ... picking up off of Peterborg I believe, and this is what I am at:

I wouldnt sweat the upload speed. Im in San Diego, CA and have the fastest option with fiber optic from Time Warner Cable and my upload is slower than yours and even though my download is 3-4x faster than yours you cant really tell on every day tasks. Maybe just movie downloads etc.

][/url]

I'd be ok with around 1mbps on the upload (and thrilled with 3mbps) but below that and you lose the ability to do certain things like have a skype video call with relatives on the Continent which is important to some of us.

I'm only getting around .25-.5 now on the upload which is not very good here on Mt Welcome East.

Also the high latency is a problem if you like to play online games and even for skype calls. 38ms is 10x better than the 330ms some of these readings are showing. My readins are generally in the 150ms rate.

Sean

I went in Thursday and exchanged my antenna after talking to tech support (someone in the US in area code 732 who actually knew what he was talking about!) Turns out my antenna was faulty. I now have better service (closer to 3mbps than the 5 mbps I bought) but I am still loosing the connection at times and the latency is still too high (typically at least 150 ms and up to about 330 ms.)

I was looking forward to dropping my dependable BBVI connection for $100/month but now I'm not so sure when that will be feasible...

Service is dropping twice an hour or more, what the hell is going on?

I have 4 bars signal as well.

Ill make sure I find one of your guys if I am playing BF2! Ill have the drop on you. lol

same here ... getting dropped and 4 or 5 SOLID bars ...............

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I won't hazard trying to play any games............the type I play online penalize you for dropping out of a match.

The latency just continues getting worse.

I wish we had internet service that was reliable, fast, and had decent latency.

4/4 bars of signal, moving my modem around clearly isn't going to help.

Same here... very frustrating.

We just moved to Frenchman's Bay just above Antilles,(and right around the corner from Choice's office here on STT) and now barely get 1 bar and an intermittent signal with consistent download speeds of LESS than 1mb. What a difference from when we were out on Peterborg.

I'm curious if the antenna would work or help us?...hmmm..

disappointed. 🙁

Anybody have any success in improving the latency with an external antenna, I don't know if I should spend more money o Choice or just go back to the more expensive BBVI

Tried Choice 3 mb service on east end stx ..speedtest says my average download was 2.04. average upload was .48. But, download was as low as .36, upload as low as .05. Latency all over as well. Also had no service at all Saturday night and one other day during the week's trial. Returned the equipment. Liked it when it worked, but need it to perform better to keep it.

Its been horrible all week this week, I've had to go back to my Innovative line and its slow but reliable 1mbps speed.

They dropped the 5mb service because they couldn't deliver. They scaled everyone with 5mb service back to 3mb service. You would think doing so would make the service more reliable but it hasn't, it's worse than ever. I am on a free month now since they gave all 5mb customers a free month as an apology.

My guess is that the Chinese engineers they had on island for the install left and they don't have enough people on island to keep the network up and running. I noticed they had ads for WiMax tower engineers in the Avis a few weeks ago, and honestly looking at the job requirements I can't imagine they had much luck finding anyone in the VI with the skills they were looking for. Wimax is a very new technology and they were looking for people with specific experience with it which would be hard to find anywhere I would imagine.

Very dissapointing.

Sean

Yep with you on slowness.

My speeds have been terrible. I have the 3mb service, which is a downgrade from the 5mb which I signed up for. Never got anywhere near that. Since I downgraded to the 3mb service, I haven't gotten even 1mb yet. Friday my service went out completely. Have the "flashing" light on the modem. I begged, pleaded, and yelled at the modem to work. That didn't seem to help 😀 I called tech support, left message, that were not returned. Finally got a person and they were incredibly not helpful. They said there are no know issues.

They also said to me, "OH, you have two modems, one in Havensight, one on St. John, which one are you having trouble with?" Ummmm, I only have one modem, have always had just one modem, and it's on St. John, where it's always been. That has me worried. But it didn't seem to concern them at all.

Thinking it was a problem with my modem, I borrowed one from someone else. Well, same issue...so it's not the modem. Still no internet, still no idea what is going on. And still another day away from being able to get a hold of anyone to try and get the issue resolved. I broke down this morning and came to work so I could use the internet.

If anyone here has a clue as to what might be going on with my service, I am all ears!

I was looking at Sobongo and thinking about Hughsnet. I know folks here in the islands that get the service. Right now Hughsnet is running a special $39.99 a month free installation and free equipment.

http://www.sobongo.com/electronics/computers-office/hughesnet/hughesnet-packages-and-pricing.html

Hughesnet has high latency but the main killer is their FAP, you won't be streaming video.