Community Post

Broadstripe

Can’t help hide my disappoinment seeing all of the Broadstripe ads on CD news.  Broadstripe is terrible, they continue to be terrible.  Cancelling my subscription to Broadstripe next week.  Hope the CD residents & CD news continue to stay on top of the ISP issue in our neighborhood.

UPDATE:  Today I received my CLEAR usb modem.  Within 15 minutes of opening the package I had 4G, unlimited internet access.  The difference is palpable.  And $40mo. 

Agreed.  No begrudgement to CD News.  BEST news source in the hood.

0 thoughts on “Broadstripe

  1. Though we have never used Broadstrip, we have found that our QUEST DSL service has met all of our needs. From what we have heard ( and read ), the CD has not always benefited from adequate DSL services. Good luck on your change of service providers.

  2. At least Qwest is rolling out upgraded services in our neighborhood. Up until recently I was stuck with 1.5 mbps, but they’ve recently upgraded service so I have up to 40 mbps available, not that I need or can afford that much bandwidth. Granted, the upgrade was ~6 months later than it was initially advertised, but at least it happened eventually.

  3. I am at 26th and Jackson and have been stuck at 1.5 mbps for the last year, since I rage quit Broadstripe in a somewhat rash decision. My switch is coming from the Jackson side, since two blocks to the North on Yesler, subscribers are getting 40 mbps service.

  4. I get about 3-5 and I’m on the Walgreen’s side of Jackson on 25th. The lucky ones are right next to the CO by the library.

  5. LOL, I am being surrounded by high speed internet! I might have to run my own 300 foot trunk line to the fiber switch – it will be faster than them upgrading the Jackson street junction box. I am assuming that they need to pull out the copper based switch and put in a fiber optic one (though the line from the switch to the house is still copper) to tap into the higher backbone.

  6. So can someone give me the idiot’s guide to why my internet sucks? I’m down by Judkins, where me and the neighbors are all poking along at 1.5, except the one with Clear Wireless, who gets 2.9 except when it drops out—which is like every night.

    Do we have bad wires down here? Are the inter-tubes clogged? Is there any hope of getting decent service, or do we have to beg some conglomerate to upgrade the infrastructure? Or… wtf exactly is the problem? I don’t get it. Thanks in advance for your explanation.

  7. You see, the internet is not a big truck, you can’t just dump things on it . . .

    I can’t speak for Clearwire since I don’t use that service and don’t know what method of delivery they use for service. However, here are the issues with our internet options and why our area is embarrassingly slow:

    Cable – The secret to this sucky internet connection is the company itself, not necessary the infrastructure involved. Broadstripe essentially won the bid to serve our area, and as the adage goes, to the lowest bidder . . . However, this company has changed names and is in perpetual bankruptcy it seems. Their customer service is non-existent and because of their tenuous financial situation they don’t really invest in many needed upgrades to the system like new cable, etc. If your line goes down, then it’s likely to stay down for a long time.

    DSL – Although I’m fairly neutral on Qwest as a company (they were the only company that refused to give out customer information without a subpoena during the whole Patriot Act privacy violation thing so good on them), their problem is a combination of factors. Firstly, DSL is delivered from a central point, called a Central Office or CO, and all the subscribers are on a “loop” that runs from the CO. The further away you are from the CO, the slower your speed will be. For example, the CO they recently put in by the library gives people on that block up to 40 mbps, where as me about 1/4 mile away gets 3-5. The speed potential drops off exponentially the further you get away from the CO. Additionally, you have to be on the “loop” for a CO to receive service from it. Even though MattOnJackson is probably less than 1/4 mile from me, he’s likely attached to a different CO and on a different “loop” from me, thus a much slower speed.

    DSL also distributes it’s signal as equally as possibly among all the subscribers on the loop, so, during peak times such as evenings, you’ll also notice a slow down in service as people steam their movies, play games, etc. The more your neighbors use the internet, the less open signal is available to be distributed. Because most of us won’t go near Broadstipe, Qwest’s lines are overburdened with subscribers so the maximum speed potential is never available to anyone.

    Old wiring that many of our charming Sears kit houses have can cause degradation of the signal as well.

    I hope that info helps you. It’s likely that you have too many subscribers on your line, are kind of far from a CO and your street needs a wiring update.

  8. For Broadstripe–from what I understand, a lot of their problems are old infrastructure, both at the node and in the cable. I’ve heard of issues with rain causing shorts in the wires even when the nodes are more recently upgraded. Can’t speak from personal experience, however.

    For Qwest–Many of the nodes are just your old technology, and you can’t get the higher speeds without the fiber to node. However, old wires from the node to the house can be a problem on a case by case issue.

    Clear-Probably has the least bandwidth (total) to go around, so the more people who are using = more people sharing = slower speeds, especially during peak hours. I’d say they’re clogged tubes.

    You’re pretty much stuck waiting for someone to upgrade your infrastructure. However, it sounds like you’re reasonably close to me, and I just had a Qwest node upgrade about a month ago, so it wouldn’t hurt for you to check to see if something faster is available to you. I’m pretty happy with the new service so far.

  9. Depends entirely on what you want to use the internet for. Everyone seems to hate broadstripe. Qwest is a mixed bag, either you’re lucky and in an area with the recently deployed fiber to node or you’re stuck in an area too far from the central office with 1.5 mbps service. Clear may be a reasonable option if you have good line of sight of a tower and are a fairly casual user, but I would be really reluctant to use them if you have plans to game or stream much in the evenings or other peak times.

    If that’s not really helpful, it’s because we have such a patchwork of ISP options in this neighborhood that you just have to check out all 3 options for your address and see if you’re in a lucky area or not.

  10. I don’t begrudge CDNews taking Broadstripe’s money as it’s obviously not affecting what gets posted on CDNews. Now if this posting were to mysteriously disappear…

  11. This is great. You all rock. And yes indeed I do live in a Sears kit house.
    Haven’t decided what our next move is, but this is very helpful!