Life with Xplornet: After 5 Months
My last posting on my Xplornet experience was July 3 (see archive), when I had been with Xplornet for 3 weeks following my conversion from Storm. It's now over 4 months later, and the adventure continues. Here's some of the things I've experienced:
So, June through September were pretty good months on Xplornet, except for the email interruptions. October was a very rough month for me and Xplornet. I'm hoping the next few months will be much better, to make up for it.
-Chris
- In August, Xplornet's email servers were unavailable for a couple of days. No email lost... as far as I could tell.
- In September, I had my antenna re-aligned at my own expense, because I had to remove it from my roof in August in order to re-shingle the roof. When I put it back up, it was pretty good, but decided to spend the $100 to get it accurately aligned for the best-possible signal.
- In early October (?), Xplornet's email servers were again unavailable for a couple of days. And again, no email appeared to have been lost.
- During the October 18-19 weekend, my service went down. I called Xplornet's customer support line. A recorded announcement indicated network problems in many areas, including North Gower (i.e. the tower servicing me). The service was eventually restored around 11am Monday, October 20.
- The next day, Tuesday, October 21, my service dropped 6 times during the afternoon, while I was telecommuting. It was still bouncing on Wednesday. I tried calling the custoemr support line, but after ~15 minutes on-hold, I hung-up and sent an email. Long story short, after several email exchanges and phone calls, my writing of a script to repeatedly test my connection using pings and record the results, and three different tier 1 support reps telling me the same thing each time (except for one who also told me the outages were 'momentary' despite the data I had provided), I finally spoke with a tier 2 support rep on the evening of Tuesday, November 4. That rep arranged for a work order to get an on-site visit by a technician; she said someone would call within 4 days to arrange for the visit. On the morning of November 8, the tech called me, dropped by within 3 hours, and replaced my 900 MHz antenna with a 2.5 GHz antenna, which required alignment with a different tower, farther away. (Aside: one thing I've never been clear on is why Xplornet wouldn't point my antenna at the tower, only 2 km up the road, that I used when I was with Storm. Instead, I was originally pointed at a tower 6 km away and now, supposedly off a tower even farther away.) This problem frustrated me because it could have been resolved a lot sooner, but was mishandled by Xplornet's tier 1 support team. Three different people reviewed my case and told me basically the same things, but added little value. They even appeared to have ignored the hours of ping data that I sent them. Since the antenna was replaced, my connection has been stable, even during heavy fog and freezing rain, but the speeds seem slower and appears to stall periodically.
So, June through September were pretty good months on Xplornet, except for the email interruptions. October was a very rough month for me and Xplornet. I'm hoping the next few months will be much better, to make up for it.
-Chris
posted by Chris Spencer at 9:11 pm
8 comments
8 Comments:
I have been Xplornet for about 4 months as well, after being forced to leave Storm. I have had excellent on-site support due to the local Xplornet dealer (R&R Satellite) and have not had to deal with Xplorenet head office. My biggest complaint is the throttling; the advertised 3Mbit connection lasts for a few seconds on a sustained download, after that you get ~0.7Mbit or around 80kbyte/sec. Pretty grim.
Update: Today (Nov 19) I received a courtesy follow-up call from Xplornet concerning the new antenna that I had installed on Nov 8. I told them that the connectivity issues were resolved, but now the speeds were noticeably slower. My recorded tests between Nov 8 and 18 showed an average download speed of 567 Kbps on my 3 Mbps service, and I was expecting sustained rates in the 750 - 1250 Kbps range. I'm not naive to think I should be getting 3 Mbps sustained on a 3 Mbps peak service, although the rep did indicate that 2 Mbps is not uncommon.
The Xplornet rep agreed that the speeds were lower than expected, and indicated that the tower is scheduled to be upgraded around Dec 10. In the meantime, my service was upped to 5 Mbps to help compensate (aside: so far, I've not noticed any difference). She indicated that she would notify me once the tower was upgraded and follow-up a week afterward to see if the speeds had improved. I thought this to be very reasonable.
I also found out that the tower that my new 3.5 GHz radio (not 2.5 GHz as previously thought) is located near Victoria Street and 9th Line in Metcalfe, which is ~19 km straight-line from my house. Seems like a long way away.
I will post again once I here that the tower has been upgraded.
-Chris
Here's an update on my Xplornet service since Nov 19, when Xplornet supposedly increased by service from 3 Mbps to 5 Mbps peak.
I have been taking my own download speed samples. During the tests, no other downloads were in progress on any PCs in my home network. I run the tests at times when I would reasonably expect to access the Internet, i.e. 7am - 10pm ET.
My average download speed was 350 Kbps, which I consider to be quite poor for a 5 Mbps service.
Looking at both individual and daily average download speeds, all measurements have decreased since getting the 5 Mbps service except for the minimum average daily download (which increased slightly from 45 Kbps to 48 Kbps... still lower than dial-up and certainly nothing for Xplornet to brag about).
I have had periods of several hours where I get acceptable download speeds (e.g. 1-2 Mbps). At the same time, I more often get hours of unacceptable speeds (200-500 Kbps).
I have no idea if the tower upgrades which were reportedly scheduled to occur in mid December have taken place. I never got the promised follow-up call from Xplornet, and the voicemail that I left on Dec 17 has yet to be returned.
At this point, my opinion is that if these are the best speeds that I can get with a 3 or 5 Mbps service, I might as well just go with the 1.5 Mbps service and save $20 a month. Unless things significantly improve in the next couple of weeks, I will be exploring this option.
Since my last posting, I've received follow-up responses from Xplornet, and I've since provided them with my download test data (over 1000 samples) showing that my service is slower than acceptable; my 5 Mbps service has a daily average less than 500 Kbps, and can peak above 2 Mbps but has also dropped below 56 Kbps, in equal measure.
The Xplornet rep informed me that the Metcalfe (Victoria St @ 9th Line) tower was upgraded over the holidays, and further work is to be done around January 30.
Since the beginning of the year, I have seen an upward trend in the download speeds that I am getting, from ~350 Kbps daily average up to ~550 Kbps daily average.
For any service, I expect a sustained/average rate of 25-33% of the peak/burst/max rate.
Okay, I'm glad that's over.
Starting around January 23, my Xplornet speeds shot waaaay up, from less than 500 Kbps to over 2 Mbps average on my 5 Mbps service. I'm even seeing rates above 4 Mbps on occasion. Prior to January 23, my average daily download speed was ~340 Kbps; since January 23, it has jumped to ~2800 Kbps. My average speed for yesterday (February 16) was 3500 Kbps.
Empirical data aside, my experience as an end-user has improved. Webpages load faster. Emails are downloaded faster, and are sent with fewer if any timeouts. My VoIP calls are clearer and less 'hiccupy'. Netmeeting updates faster. And my VNC sessions don't have delays nearly as bad as previously.
From talking with Xplornet, it seems that my tower upgrades were completed around January 23.
So far, so good.
Chris, I'm literally a few houses down the road from you (#1731) and my speeds with Xplornet are brutal. They pale in comparison with Storm. I also have the 5mb service and have peaked once at 1.5mb down, usually averaging about 750kb. I have referenced a site called www.xplornetsucks.com which told me everything that would happen, including for former Storm clients, including what would happen when I complained and how they would respond. It has happened exactly as stated. I'm frustrated and evaluating alternative options. Perhaps you could share your success, or suggest alternative providers? I'm wondering if you are a case of the squeaky wheel gets the oil. For example, I clearly see boosts in speed for a day or two when I complain (xplornetsucks.com said I would - so that my speed tests would improve when I reported back to Xplornet on the status of my connection) but then they throttle back. I never had streaming video delays when I was on Storm but now get them regularly. I cannot use VoIP at all, and Skype is highly questionable. I am also on the 3.5 Ghz antenna but am nearing the end of my patience. So - with that said - any suggestions?
I am pleased to find this blog as I am also an Xplornet user who is very unsatisfied. I switched to Xplornet from Bell as they were no longer able to provide me with high speed (given location of tower trees in distance kept growing and now no signal). I was really pleased with having good internet again for about the first month or so (the free chance to get out of your contract)and then it got really bad. A lot of trouble sending emails...sometimes having to send them repeatedly (regardless of size). Our internet often times out when we are using it and it is very difficult to open videos, etc. I have been on the phone with tech support since December and still no technician has ever come out to my house to check the equipment. After months of completing all the speed tests, being bounced from level 1 techs to level 3 techs, I finally received a call back from a supervisor. Of course they call outside of the hours I'd given them which were supposed to be noted on my file three times. After 5 attempts to call back the supervisor at the number left we have still had no success. This number ALWAYS goes to voicemail and nobody calls back. I am so frustrated and now currently writing a letter to fax directly to head office. I don't know if this will get us results or not, but I don't know what else to try. Since I signed a 3 year contract I would be required to pay a minimum of $450 to cancel it. OUCH! I certainly cannot afford that! I just can't seem to wrap my head around this poor customer support/service. And after searching the internet I have seen many complaints. How do they still get away with it?? I see this blog has not been updated recently but am wondering if you have any advice to give. And perhaps an idea of where to go from here. Thanks!
My 3Mbps Xplornet service has been pretty good for the past year or so, since they upgraded my radio to 3.5 GHz and pointed me at a different tower (although much farther away).
If you feel your service is crappy, then you may be able to cancel the contract and not pay any fines. Good luck if you choose to go that route.
If you decide to stick with Xplornet, I would recommend that you continue doing what you're doing. I know it's a PITA. I wouldn't be surprised if Xplornet's customer base has been growing faster that its customer service organization.
The reason that my blog hasn't been updated much lately is mainly because I haven't seen much 'news' about rural Internet in the Ottawa area (or anywhere) lately. Ever since Xplornet arrived, and Bell and Rogers came out with their portable internet and mobile internet sticks, high-speed Internet coverage in rural Ottawa and beyond is light-years ahead of where it was when I first started my rural Internet crusade over 5 years ago.
We've come a long way, baby.
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