I understand that cable broadband Internet providers work on what they prefer to call a “best effort” system. They try to provide you service “up to” a specific speed. Therefore, if you subscribe to a specific tier of service, you are not guaranteed to get anymore bandwidth than someone on a lower tier. This is acceptable when the companies actually care enough about their customers to take care of their network and ensure that they really are giving their “best effort”. However, in the case of a company who uses this terminology to escape their responsibility to the consumer, this phrase can become quite a thorn. My three options for broadband Internet are Bellsouth, Knology cable, and Charter Communications. I was with Knology for a while and was off and on their highest tier a couple of different times as I fought with them over their inability to provide me with anything close to the speeds advertised for the tier I was subscribed to. After a month of arguing with them, I was finally told that they were in need of upgrades in my town and were not ready to put the money down. Well, I was not prepared to put the money into their service any longer and I switched to the other cable broadband provider in my area. Charter Communications offers speeds up to 10MB. When I called in to order my service on December 6, 2006 I was told that the highest tier was available in my neighborhood. I have since discovered that Charter is in the same boat as Knology. My local Charter office told me that the nodes in my town are over capacity and that I will never see 10MB service at my home. I asked if upgrades were being planned and I was told no. How can that be? How can you offer a service and not even plan to make the necessary arrangements to support the plan your company offers? I am glad that the local office was honest enough to explain the problem to me, but that doesn’t make things better. I am without any recourse as the cable companies are not as tightly regulated as other telecommunications companies. So, what do I do now? I have one other option in my neighborhood for broadband service and that is Bellsouth DSL. However, due to distance from the CO, I am not able to get more than 1.5MB down. So, I will not even consider that option. What can be done to require these companies to upgrade? I have reported them to the Better Business Bureau for false advertisement. I have reported the local offices to the Chambers of Commerce in the respective cities. Now, I am forced to live in a location where I am barraged with advertisements of 7 - 10MB down speeds and I am unable to get one of those companies to meet their customers’ expectations. This is extremely frustrating to me.

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Filed under: Personal, Politics, Technology by Philip Williams