OT: C-Spire Fiber TV/Internet

[J-Dawg]

Anyone had it installed yet? Pros? Cons? Just found out they pulled out of our neighborhood due to not enough interest. I'm wondering if it's worth campaigning for support in my neighborhood. I currently have Uverse and have had nothing but problems.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

There wasn't enough interest for C-Spire Fiber in my neighborhood either. A part of me likes it but another part wonders if it's worth it (I rarely watch tv so that style of campaign doesn't work for me).

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

I wish I had access to it. I have slow, slow, slow ATT DSL due to living in rural Hancock County and it being my only option. I know nothing about internet companies and how it all works, but I don't understand how one place can have 100mbps+ speeds while I can barely stream movies at 720p and we have the same provider

 

[patdog]

Looks like my neighborhood is off the list too now. Not surprised. We were stuck at about 180 additional homes needed every time I checked and I no longer see those signs in the neighborhood like I used to.

 

[ababyatemydingo]

Anyone had it installed yet? Pros? Cons? Just found out they pulled out of our neighborhood due to not enough interest. I'm wondering if it's worth campaigning for support in my neighborhood. I currently have Uverse and have had nothing but problems.

We've had it for about a year. Internet is the ****. 935 Mbps download and 985 Mbps upload. No data caps. I have it running on a gigabit Ubiquiti edgerouter lite and a Cisco Meraki gigabit access point. Can stream all you want on as many tv's or other devices as you want with no buffering. 3 milisecond ping times.

TV is meh. Can take it or leave it. Quality of it is great. And pretty much same channels as Directv. Whole home DVR. Hate the IPTV boxes they chose. Menu'ing is terrible. Not fond of the remotes, either. The price is right, though. I have the gigabit internet, 4 rooms of TV with everything on the basic and expanded, plus the hbo channels, and 2 landline phone lines that go through the fiber for $269 / mo, including taxes and fees. Was paying Directv $220 / mo just for tv. And they kept raising prices. And the fiber doesn't go out in bad weather like Directv or dish. My internet hasn't dropped a single time in the year we've had it. And it gets heavy use.

 

[engie]

FTTH is always worth it. There is a reason AT&T is starting to roll out the technology after the initial uVerse was a half-measure.

 

[engie]

I wish I had access to it. I have slow, slow, slow ATT DSL due to living in rural Hancock County and it being my only option. I know nothing about internet companies and how it all works, but I don't understand how one place can have 100mbps+ speeds while I can barely stream movies at 720p and we have the same provider

It basically amounts to copper line degradation over distance. Every 1500 or so feet, ATT employs a box to boost that signal strength to account for the resistance losses in the copper. The pace is unchanged, just the strength. Eventually, it makes it to an ATT Site(the one with all of the boxes on the side of the road). If you have DSL at all, it means you have fiber optics to that Site. If it kept going copper, you would be on dial-up.

UVerse availability is really just the presence of an additional box at that Site(which has to be installed in a painstaking and expensive process, trust me) -- as well as fiber capable of handling the load(most of them are -- as well as enough people being a reasonable distance to that site to justify the expense of the install. Beyond that distance, latency is too great to justify the speed increase. I'm pretty close to the edge on distance -- and they actually have stacked pairs on my home line. Eventually, it will be virtually everywhere, just as DHL is now virtually everywhere. You can just consider a very similar timetable for that actually happen.

Fiber to the home basically eliminates degradation over distance. The reason it's so much faster than typical uVerse is because there is no copper involved anywhere. It's a much more tedious install process -- because they have to bring that all the way to your home, usually very deep (the average Joe can not splice a fiber together how they can copper). I couldn't imagine usual install methods to existing houses @ 24", especially starting in generally bigger/more modern neighborhoods where there are no aerial utilities, and you are at threat of cutting literally everything. I imagine a subcontractor with a noisy cricket boring rig could make a killing however...

 

[seshomoru]

Just got upgraded to that with Uverse. It's not full 1gbps, but I'm getting 400mbps plugged on my laptop and with a simple router plugged into the gateway I've gotten up to 125 over wifi. Got my living room Roku TV and a Roku 3 in the bed room wired and it's ridiculous how quick I can get to anything and start playing. And there is never any picture quality reduction, 4K included.

I haven't had to reset my gateway since the upgrade either.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

Thanks, that actually does help. I believe this 'box' is at the beginning on the road I live on because the guy installing it complained about having to do so and about him not being able to get all the slack out of it from pole to pole. My driveway is probably 200yds down the road and then about 200yds down my driveway and there are no other houses close by.

 

[LuckyTownDawg]

Had Cspire Fiber for around a few months now, the internet is blazing fast but you may have to upgrade routers and computers to take full advantage of it. I have my Smart TV and appleTV on ethernet cable to the router and can stream Netflix 4K with zero issues.

I did not get the TV because I have heard mixed reviews. I have a friend that works at Cspire, and she told me it has been fairly problematic and would be best to allow them to work the kinks out. I instead got SlingTV which gives me every sports channel in the nation and besides it has a delay from actual TV (much like Watchespn), its been great.

 

[yjnkdawg]

Anyone had it installed yet? Pros? Cons? Just found out they pulled out of our neighborhood due to not enough interest. I'm wondering if it's worth campaigning for support in my neighborhood. I currently have Uverse and have had nothing but problems.

Same thing happened in our neighborhood, but AT&T Uverse came into our neighborhood about the same time. I was able to sign up for it over a month ago. It is the Gigabit Home to the Fiber. I got the 100 mbps internet and the tv picture clarity is as good as Directv was in my opinion. I had previously had Directv for about 19 years. A one year discounted contract on a bundled package where the price is good for 2 years , with additional gift cards ($300) seemed like a no-brainer to me.

 

[Shmuley]

The best thing I can say about these C-Spire asshats is that, at least, they've forced AT&T to **** or get off the pot.

 

[yjnkdawg]

It basically amounts to copper line degradation over distance. Every 1500 or so feet, ATT employs a box to boost that signal strength to account for the resistance losses in the copper. The pace is unchanged, just the strength. Eventually, it makes it to an ATT Site(the one with all of the boxes on the side of the road). If you have DSL at all, it means you have fiber optics to that Site. If it kept going copper, you would be on dial-up.

UVerse availability is really just the presence of an additional box at that Site(which has to be installed in a painstaking and expensive process, trust me) -- as well as fiber capable of handling the load(most of them are -- as well as enough people being a reasonable distance to that site to justify the expense of the install. Beyond that distance, latency is too great to justify the speed increase. I'm pretty close to the edge on distance -- and they actually have stacked pairs on my home line. Eventually, it will be virtually everywhere, just as DHL is now virtually everywhere. You can just consider a very similar timetable for that actually happen.

Fiber to the home basically eliminates degradation over distance. The reason it's so much faster than typical uVerse is because there is no copper involved anywhere. It's a much more tedious install process -- because they have to bring that all the way to your home, usually very deep (the average Joe can not splice a fiber together how they can copper). I couldn't imagine usual install methods to existing houses @ 24", especially starting in generally bigger/more modern neighborhoods where there are no aerial utilities, and you are at threat of cutting literally everything. I imagine a subcontractor with a noisy cricket boring rig could make a killing however...

I couldn't believe how fragile that fiber was on AT&T Uverse. once it was out of the cable. As you said it is a very tedious job, and not easy to splice that cable. It took my installler 2 to 3 times to get it. That splicer they have is a cool tool. I just wonder how somebody ever came up with that design.

 

[yjnkdawg]

The best thing I can say about these C-Spire asshats is that, at least, they've forced AT&T to **** or get off the pot.

Ha ha! I think that's how I was able to get Uverse Fiber To The Home.

 

[RocketDawg]

We've had it for about a year. Internet is the ****. 935 Mbps download and 985 Mbps upload. No data caps. I have it running on a gigabit Ubiquiti edgerouter lite and a Cisco Meraki gigabit access point. Can stream all you want on as many tv's or other devices as you want with no buffering. 3 milisecond ping times.

TV is meh. Can take it or leave it. Quality of it is great. And pretty much same channels as Directv. Whole home DVR. Hate the IPTV boxes they chose. Menu'ing is terrible. Not fond of the remotes, either. The price is right, though. I have the gigabit internet, 4 rooms of TV with everything on the basic and expanded, plus the hbo channels, and 2 landline phone lines that go through the fiber for $269 / mo, including taxes and fees. Was paying Directv $220 / mo just for tv. And they kept raising prices. And the fiber doesn't go out in bad weather like Directv or dish. My internet hasn't dropped a single time in the year we've had it. And it gets heavy use.

That's pretty cheap. I think gigabit here is about $300/month for internet alone, from the only supplier available to me. If you're a new customer, you can get it for $75. Doesn't seem fair to punish the loyal customers. Needless to say I don't have it. Things are changing pretty soon though. They're stringing fiber all over town and there will be lots of competition before long (hopefully).

 

[yjnkdawg]

I wish I had access to it. I have slow, slow, slow ATT DSL due to living in rural Hancock County and it being my only option. I know nothing about internet companies and how it all works, but I don't understand how one place can have 100mbps+ speeds while I can barely stream movies at 720p and we have the same provider

I can relate to your misery on that slow AT&T DSL. Mine was 1.5 mbps and the speed tests usually showed 1.0 to 1.4 mbps. THey told me that was the best I could get in my area. About a month ago, I was able to have AT&T Uverse Gigabit Fiber To The Home installed and got the 100 mbps. package. With an upgrade on my wifi to 5g, with a USB dual wifi stick I can usually get 115 mbps + download and usually 120+ on uploads.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

I'm at 6mpbs most of the time. How did you manage find out you were able to get Uverse and how many times did you call to complain about it? I've had it for 1.5 years and I've called probably 6 times to vent my frustration

 

[Digging dog]

C-Spire is in my neighborhood now. I put my deposit for service. I currently have AT&T. I'll give you a review in a few months.

 

[MeridianDog]

We have it (in Clinton - which explains the MeridianDog ID I have). Love the service. TV never shuts down. Internet runs fast-fast. Quality is great. When the kids all come home, we might have 7 or 8 devices running at the same time with no loss of speed. Perhaps the most important thing to me is that the Cspire people are very nice to work with.

 

[ababyatemydingo]

That's pretty cheap. I think gigabit here is about $300/month for internet alone, from the only supplier available to me. If you're a new customer, you can get it for $75. Doesn't seem fair to punish the loyal customers. Needless to say I don't have it. Things are changing pretty soon though. They're stringing fiber all over town and there will be lots of competition before long (hopefully).

If you just get the gigabit internet, it's $80, plus the standard gubment taxes and fees. a lot here are just getting the fast internet, and using sling, netflix, hulu, etc... for tv. we splurged, cause i couldn't get my wife to see that she could still see her damn switched at birth, and bs shows like that with hulu.

 

[ababyatemydingo]

as bad as c spire cell service has become, the home services are actually quite good. the internet is rock solid. the tv is a take or leave, but we've had zero problems since our install. at&t got butt hurt in our area, and haven't upgraded their services at all to try to compete and gain customers back. in fact, their infrastructure is crumbling, a and they aren't really concerned about it around here. hurts a lot of business customers, who can't afford the fiber ( c spire jacks up the fiber prices a **** ton for businesses)

 

[[email protected]]

Have Cspire internet and TV in Starkville. Love it do not have any problems. Internet is fast and speed doesn't drop off. TV is great. Doesn't go out like Direct TV in bad weather. Like the DVR. I don't use their remotes as I have Logitech remotes to control all devices.

 

[yjnkdawg]

@Uncle Ruckus. I waited on AT&T Uverse for over 4 years, and duriing that time I threatened to go to Comcast several times if I could not get a faster internet speed. Which I couldn't get. About 9 to 10 months ago, CSPIRE sent out a notice that they were looking at our neighborhood, but we didn't have enough to sign up. So they abandoned our neighborhood. During that time that CSpire was considering our neighborhood, some in my subdivision got a notice that AT&T Uverse was going to install Uverse Gigabit Home to the Fiber. It took me about a month after these first notices for me to get one in my area of the subdivision. Sometime about the first of Januuary, I was notified that the UVerse Gigabit Home to the Fiber was available and I contacted them I got a good promo I believe, and had it installed. I understand now why it took so long to get Uverse, and I had no idea that the Fiber to the Home would be available. Just icing on the cake, as some consider the Fiber to the Home , as the cadillac version for tv, internet, and home phone. I can't argue, as I have been very happy with it so far. Uverse had been in our city for over 5 years, but I know at least some if not all had not been the Fiber to the Home. It took over (estimated) 3 months for the AT&T contractors to install the underground conduits in our subdivision (about 100 homes). Then about 6 months or so later I received the it is available to you letter. Sorry for rambling, but I hope this info is of some help.

 

[corndawg85]

For those of you who have C-Spire Fiber Internet, what do the taxes usually run? I just have Comcast internet at my place but have been looking into upgrading. I don't use c-spire cell service either so I wouldn't get the discount.