Comcast equipment obsolete

[davidk]

There have been crews from Comcast working in the township, though the trucks are from a contractor.
Anyway, theyw ere here to do some work on our property concerning the cable lines.
They told us that the equipment in use is os old that they cannot get replacement parts!
Yet cable subscribers are geting billed the same rate as other areas, despite receiving fewer channels and other services.
It seems Comcast can't provide the services if they wanted with this obsolete equipment in place.
Yes, the supervisors are working on this issue, to the point of hinting at a class action lawsuit.

[JoeP]

Interesting Dave!  We get 70 channels on Comcast (we do not have the digital tier) and outages and problems have been almost non existent over the years.  The one time when we had an unusual intermittent problem Comcast Repair came in an redid every connection in the house, including on wire I installed.  No charge!  But Comcast does not offer some of the high end options out here like Triple Play because the equipment doesn't support it.  With Comcast Triple Play we could dump the Frontier phone line.

On the other hand, Frontier has promised almost since they bought out Commonwealth to upgrade DSL service in Newton to increase download speeds to 3 Mb.  Ain't happened yet.

Last week we subscribed to Comcast's basic Internet Broadband ($19.99 for 6 months - no contract - 12 MB down, 2 Mb up) and I am running it on one system.  We still have Frontier DSL with it's maximum download speed (on a good day) of 1.3 Mb.  Upload speed about 348 Kb (1/3 of a Mb).  Frontier's late night download speeds are often dismal - about a 1/2 Mb at best.

So far with Comcast, after running multiple speed tests, download speeds have ranged from a rare low of 8 Mb to an almost consistent 12 Mb+ with 20 Mb being hit more often than not.  Last night I clocked a phenomenal 30 Mb download speed but this has to be a rare exception.  Comcast's upload speeds are a consistent 3.2 Mb which, by the way, is 3 times faster than Frontier's download speed.

I just ran another Comcast speed test to Chicago while writing this post and the results below speak for themselves.

Last Result:

Download Speed: 16340 kbps (2042.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 3208 kbps (401 KB/sec transfer rate)

So far no outages or blips.  Our DSL contract expires in November.  For anyone who has Frontier, call their C/S and make sure your DSL contract is NOT set for automatic renewal.  Mine was, I had them remove the auto renewal.  BTW, when I told them I was most likely going to let my DSL contract expire and go with Comcast, Frontier made no effort to offer me a deal to keep me as a customer.  Monthly DSL rate after my contract expires or even if I renew it, will be $54.  I currently pay $29.99 per month for DSL.

The only minor problem so far is that after my computer wakes up from standby or hibernation, the cable modem doesn't always wake up.  Running Troubleshoot Problems fixes that quickly.  I have had the same problem from time to time with the DSL modem too.

I'm not a fan of either Frontier of Comcast but right now Comcast seems to be the lesser of two evil choices.

Actually, someone needs to go after Frontier for monopolizing the phone lines and prohibiting other carriers like Verizon from competing in Newton.  But sooner or later Wi-Fi will sink them all.

[davidk]

Joe,
Thanks for the info. I am getting more and more frustrated with Frontier everyday. Anytime there is a bolt of lightning within 10 miles the dsl goes out and has to be rebooted.

As for Frontier being a monopoly, I agree, but I read soemewhere that it is state law that prohibits larger carriers from competing with the (supposedly) smaller carriers. I don't know if that is true but it sounds likely here in backwards Pa.

[JoeP]

Follow up Report:  We subscribed to Comcast High Speed Internet on Aug. 1st for their 6 months trial @ 19.99.  After that the monthly cost goes to $42.95 + tax.  How did it go?  Did we drop Frontier's DSL?

When Comcast broadband was first turned on, it worked fine for a 2 weeks and then failed solid (cable TV still worked).  Comcast was here the next day and fixed the problem which was outside on the line.  I can only recall one other significant internet outage (3-4 hours) one evening.

Comcast's speed appears to be blazingly fast when running raw download/upload speed tests, even when using Frontier's speed test.  Upload speeds were consistently solid @ 3.1 Mb (about 10X faster than Frontier) but download speeds varied from insanely highs of 20 Mb plus to a low, on their worst day, to 6 Mb (still 6X faster than Frontier).  Cable internet speed will vary since cable is really a wide area network shared by many subscribers so download speeds can vary depending how many other are on your wide area network.

But raw speed doesn't paint the entire picture.  Other factors come into play such as server loads and traffic to a given site, and some sites are just plain slow.  Nevertheless, overall, Comcast was slightly snappier than DSL but we couldn't always tell the difference.  Our game player (World of War Craft) said Comcast was always noticeably better on the game.  But for overall Internet surfing, it was not always noticeable.  But as I said earlier, uploads (e.g. photos) were always considerably faster.  Ditto for receiving large Email attachments, like several photos.

The bad news with Comcast comes in four forms:

1.  When you see the red screen of death on your TV when they test the National Alert System, it takes the Internet down during the test.

We are late nighters and anywhere between 1 and 4 am Comcast suddenly drops the Internet signal for 2 or 3 minutes, every 10 minutes or so.  It comes back only to drop off again.  Doesn't happen every morning but at least 2-3 times a week.  We found this intolerable: my wife plays online games with retired friends in Florida; we often make last second bids on EBay; our World of War Craft guy go berserk; and my streaming music goes off and on to the point of annoyance.

This was a show stopper.  The turtle (DSL) maybe slower but it is always steady.  This is not to say you can't choke the 1.2 Mb DSL line for several seconds by reloading 10 or 12 tabs at once in your browser, while someone else is downloading something but these are self inflicted

2. As EPIX users since day one, my family has one big load of Email addresses to change.  So before undertaking this effort, the carrier we switch too better be rock solid.

3. Frontier really wanted to keep me as a customer and worked with me to that end.  They offered me another one year contract @$29.99 a month (what I am paying now) which I accepted.

4. When I called Comcast to cancel the trial (I didn't tell them I was keeping DSL), they didn't even ask why, or make any offer to have me stay.  I asked if they would match Frontier's monthly rate ($29.99) or discount me some after the trial was over the answer was no - period.  When I told them of the early morning intermittent but ongoing drop outs the customer service person didn't even respond.  I have heard Comcast broadband support sucks - this now confirms it.

We will stay with Frontier for another year.  Too bad we only have two choices in Newton.   I would be curious how others on Comcast Broadband and Frontier DSL are doing, especially the late night folks.