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This is at 5:30pm!!!

VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Posted 10 months ago
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Steve Frederick-VS1/Beam314, Champion
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Pretty consistent with results since the changes that will drop in an hour or so to 7-8 Mbps. Daytime and free zone hours approach 18 Mbps .Not rubbing it in, just another perspective and waiting for the hammer to drop. Haven't had any Liberty Pass experience yet.
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How does one find out which beam they are on?
Historically, those on Viasat-1 and older birds have eyeballed it using:
https://www.northlc.com/_images/beam_priority_map.png
However NRTC susbscribers, at least on Viasat-1, have access to it (and a lot more) on their account summary tab page (you have to hunt for it and expand some plus signs but there's alot more info that can be relevant including gateway) .
In addition, you might find some indication at:
http://192.168.100.1/messages
Find beamId, my log shows 129 and I suspect the log uses a slightly different numbering convention than that map - mine's 329 on the that map above, and U329DL on the footprint maps for Viasat-1 at https://www.satbeams.com/footprints
Or you could probably call and ask.
But the majority of these speed tests posted are useless for comparison purposes (apples vs. oranges) unless folks use the same test, follow the guidelines for that test on satellite, identify their satellite, beam, plan and current state of data usage threshold.
On testmy, the guidelines have been to do a manual test with a download file size of 13 MB and upload file size of 3 MB - might be greater for those on plans touted as greater than 12 Mbps - in addition, testing with an ethernet (wired) connection is recommended with no other activities other than the speed test in play on the the shared internet connection.
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So which of the following do you disagree with:
- The method of determining one's beam?
- All speed test are not created equally and overall results when comparing two different one's may actually be measuring different things?
- That satellite, beam, plan and current state of data usage don't impact your speed test results and therefore comparison of your results with mine is somehow valid?
- Manually choosing a file size with testmy makes no difference or that a larger file size will yield more test in progress measurements as well as overcome the bias introduced as the test ramps up or down (i.e. a greater sample and more balanced overall test)?
- That an
ethernet connection is full duplex while WiFi is typically half duplex,
not to mention identified issues with Viasat's "built-in wifi"?
- That other activities on internet connection don't eat into your shared shared bandwidth?
Asking for a friend.
Some of us are actually trying to gauge the overall impact of the policy changes on Viasat-1 with regard to Unlimited vs. Freedom vs Liberty vs Liberty Pass rather than simply from our own biased perspectives. Some of us are actually interested in broadening the discussion past the Viasat sucks stage.
But if you have the legacy Unlimited 150GB or Freedom plans, your options are clear now... change plans on Viasat-1, move to a plan on Viasat-2, or cancel without an ETF if applicable.
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Personal experience;). No friends needed.
Wonder if positioning within a particular beam, equipment condition, weather, coaxial length, signal strength, etc. all matter too? Guess not eh?
If someone has been measuring speeds over time and now notices slower speeds and changes in speed patterns (ex: no fast early am speeds now), then that’s honestly good enough. Sometimes trying to look too smart will show the ignorance.
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Sometimes not trying to understand just makes you look ignorant also. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Ignorance can be corrected but as is said, you can't fix stupid.
What's your plan and how much data have you used? I'm guessing you're one who got nailed by the policy change and have yet to digest it. And yeah all those other things make a difference too but am assuming you know how to address those. So there's your reason why your speed suddenly got worse.
But at least we agree - we both can tell when speeds are slow for us without needing a speed test and our personal experiences are just that - personal.
But since you ask and feel it's relevant, very near edge of beam 329 (25 miles or so by the looks), equipment going on 7 years old and the old modem only, coax replaced some 2 years ago, new grounding block complaint with Viasat standards, 140 foot cable run, RxSNR 8.3 after last realignment and for some 6 years every installer kept telling me I'd never get over 7.0, clear weather,.... yada yada, yada
How 'bout those Patriots?
Stephen Rice, Champion
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Hard to go against the GOAT, but he will retire in time.
And yes, I’m moving and canceling by the end of March just as I said.
Doesn’t mean I won’t pop in to make sure you guys don’t get too big for your britches.
ViaSat satellite internet- perfect fit for the old man who lives with three cats.
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Actually it was two dogs - note I said was. That's the problem with rescuing the seniors and hospices. For now I'm having an identity crsis - not that there's anything wrong with that.
And the imperfect fit for anyone wanting to compare it with cable. If I had cable I sure wouldn't be here.
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I’ll try to make life happen faster next time. Like ViaSat classic unlimited plans, I just feel throttled at times and can’t go as fast as I would like to go.
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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Beat's the heck out of HughesNet Gen 5
GabeU, Champion
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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I am pretty sure Gen 5 could out perform my speeds of 250kbps or so. Even Verizon prepaid on my slow tower can.
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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If my speed tests are not evidence of primetime congestion on a stuffed beam (or the results of deprioritation), I don't know what is.
So basically the service is unusable during primetime. That wasn't the case in December. Pretty safe bet whatever data management changes Viasat has made recently, it is adversely impacting a lot of customers. Again, I can deal with speeds as low as 500kbps. But when they get slower than that, that is not acceptable.
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Hardware issues would suggest consistently bad speeds. That is not the case here.
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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I never had issues for the first 3 years of my tie with ViaSat. Now they are ducking people over to try to get an extra $25-50/mo from us. I will be looking at every other possible ISP option. Even DSL is better than this
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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With the Jetpack I have, a USB vs Wifi testing shows USB cable setup is about twice as fast.
I installed a AC1200 Dual-Band MU-MIMO USB 3.0 Adapter tonight on Desktop computer, and its still slower than a USB cable setup.
Direct connections makes a difference....WiFi has decent download speeds, but takes a much larger hit on upload speed.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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#progress
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The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It
was their final, most essential command.--George Orwell, 1984.
If you think the problem is bad now, just wait until we've solved it.
-- Arthur Kasspe
Btw, your upload speed is 3.3x faster than original Wildblue basic plan, 512/128, iirc.
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I suspect your TRIA is history...Tx side has fizzled....Truck Roll
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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You should be ecstatic :).
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https://community.viasat.com/viasat/topics/latest-speed?topic-reply-list[settings][filter_by]=all&topic-reply-list[settings][reply_id]=19997294#reply_19997294
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My hunch:
1. TRIA
2. CPE Equipment
3. SNAFU - Traffic Policy Glitch
I'd fetch a laptop and hook directly with Ethernet cable to Viasat's modem. During non-primetime, run speed tests.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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I have told you how I do speed tests. With all variables the same, during primetime I see south of 500kbps. In the early morning I see speeds north of 8Mbps.
Now, what do you think is the cause of my slow speeds? It isn't the router, it isn't the computer, it isn't the tria. Otherwise, I would see consistently poor speeds.
Viasat has changed the way they are handling traffic management, and it is causing problems for a number of posters on here.
Stephen Rice, Champion
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During Wildblue days...two TRIAs fizzled slowly...slowdowns in speeds...non primetime speeds were better, but primetimes were really bad. Upload speed was the common denominator..which suggests a TX issue...but it could always be receiver or modem circuits....if your cable is intact.
IIRC, I think from forum speak, they can run some speed tests on their end
Do not put surge protection on cables.
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Beam 163 was locked out to new installs for several years...
When aircraft sales gained momentum, yes, those in flight paths got squeezed, and there were beams not opened to new installs.
If @Vet's equipment is fit for duty, I would suspect traffic programming SNAFU, unless VS-2's antenna glitch is related.
@Vet...what is TX value
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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The other thing fighting against me is very low RxSNR. Because I am extremely close to the beam edge (the other beam is less than 10 mile from me), my RxSNR is 5.5 to 6. And before you say that is awful low, a Viasat engineer personally looked at my neighbors' values. All were similar.
A stuffed beam and a low signal are no way to go through life, but that is what I got.
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Each beam has a different polarity....VS-1's SNRs were lower than those seen on augmented beams.
I did ask about Tx Value, like Tx RF Power: 33.1 dBm
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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My Verizon delivered 4.7Mbps on the same device.
It is good to have options.
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Steve Frederick-VS1/Beam314, Champion
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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When I check my account for available plans, it simply says to call to discuss options and that is it. That's a pretty big indication that they want to move everyone from my beam onto Viasat 2.
When I check plans as a new subscriber, every plan that comes up appears to be Viasat 2 plans. I know this because Gold 50 and Platinum 100 are available.
So for whatever reason, Viasat doesn't seem to be accepting new subscribers on my magic Viasat 1 beam. It doesn't make a bit of sense because on my beam, Liberty 12 works pretty dang good all of the time, even after using up my priority data.
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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I currently have priority data left and my speed is 18.5 mbps. I never had speeds this fast when I was on AT&T dsl out here in the country.

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But I suspect those Liberty Pass speeds won;t hold up once they figure out the bug ;)
Stephen Rice, Champion
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When I originally signed up with Exede I was on a plan that had something like 10 GB of data with a very hard thottle and a late night free zone from 12 am to 5 am.
When you ran out of priority data, there was a hard throttle whether the network was congested or not. My connection ALWAYS slowed down to 256 kbps after I used up my data. There was no such thing as the Liberty Pass with speeds above 1 mbps.
Thanks to the Liberty Pass, I can still use my internet connection for business during the day without any real interruption to service. Up until now, I only experienced slow downs during primetime after using my data.
Whatever hocus pocus is going on with my beam now has me routinely getting speeds above 1 mbps, even when I am on the Liberty Pass.
Providing things don't change and Viasat cheat me out of my contract, I may very well keep the service even if cable comes along. A price lock of $60 a month is pretty hard to beat for "unlimited" service.
Stephen Rice, Champion
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I've had the Hilton card before and have racked up a lot of bonus points. I've since canceled the card. I wouldn't mind getting it again, but I think there is a limit to how many bonuses Amex will allow.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Speaking of perks, can I refer you so I get the referral bonus???
Stephen Rice, Champion
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I try to abuse cards by churning through the sign up bonuses. Right now I've got a Choice credit card which I plan to cancel after I get the sign up bonus.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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But you are right. With the perks it pays itself off pretty good. $200 or so in airline credits for baggage fees, etc., a free weekend night (that alone could be worth $400+ in NYC), and then the points really stack.
Stephen Rice, Champion
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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Back in the DSS satellite television days,the programming on those small satellite dishes were provided by two companies. USSB provided mostly Viacom content and premium channels such as HBO. Directv provided the rest of the cable tv networks.
Eventually Directv bought out USSB and now AT&T owns Directv.
I'd like to think that AT&T will try to buy up the whole Viasat company, but at a minimum the residential business will at least be bought out since it simply isn't profitable compared to the big government contracts.
I don't know why I am rambling about that. I guess the price increases brought it on. With the current Viasat business model you get to pay more money for less service unless you are lucky and grandfathered in on an older plan with a contract that evidently means nothing.
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Analog DBS services existed before DSS, and AT&T was involved in IPPV (Impulse Per Per View), which used a digital means to authorize unscrambling a channel. This digital authorization tech created the underpinnings for cellphones today. Videocipher used digital tech for authorization.
Tidbits - Within the years of the change of signal scrambling from VC II to VCII+, DirecTV began to take on many former C band VideoCipher subscribers and illegal receivers of programming. Many who were involved with providing illegal VideoCipher II programming moved over to hacking and providing users illegal access to the (at the time) new RCA based MPEG-2 digital satellite subscription service.
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https://community.viasat.com/viasat/topics/my-predictions-for-2018-2019-plan-pricing
But Stephen did nail Liberty 12, not all that far off with Unlimited on some beam's still promotional pricing... and Steve Frederick is still the winner of the chicken dinner.
Stephen Rice, Champion
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Their own prediction was a bust.
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Nostradamus pretty much nailed it over there when I asked him last year:
http://www.getodd.com/stuf/nostradamus.html
P.S. I went back to the expert and asked him again this year and got:

This does not bode well for Liberty plan subscribers as Viasat-1 crashes and burns causing a global drought and regardless some people will still water their lawns, but as the last line says... I could be wrong and maybe he's talking about Philly. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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I am pluggin away today at 800kbps.
In the middle of the night I was at 16Mbps+.
I guess that is all about the median speed of 12Mbps. LOL
And apparently my tria knows the time of day because it must be failing to product slower speeds during the day. Couldn't be any other reason could it :)
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I was on 512/128 plan....TRIA was fizzling out, most likely, on uplink
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Yes I can upload faster than I can download. How is that for an oxymoron.
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When VS-1 arrived, I believe 12Mbps/3Mbps throughput was typical. I'm not aware of uploads being throttled, but its possible Viasat shifted frequencies so upload frequencies were narrower.
If all VS-1 users are seeing 1Mbps or less, then no issue with your TRIA on uplink side. But, if at any time 3Mbps upload is not possible, then a Truck Roll might be relevant. From my experiences with a failing TRIA, primetime suck badly...in non-primetimes, speeds were up again, on download side.
My uploads, on augmented beam, are higher, but I may be sharing upload bandwidth with aircraft.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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It seems like a number of customers are finding the unlimited wireless mifi plans a reasonable alternative. This of course was triggered by the plan changes. If Viasat left well enough alone, this wouldn't have happened. Maybe they want to get customers off the "unlimited" and Freedom plans, IDK, but how often does a company try to drive subscribers away. Weird.
I have looked at the wireless alternative myself. I already have a mifi device. Just not "unlimited". Unfortuantely, I can't financially justify it unless I drop Viasat, and even then I would only save about $30/month. While I would love to test the unlimited wireless plan, I just dont think it will work for me. Oh well. There is always Hughesnet.
Shout out to Andy. Hope you are doing well with your testing on alternatives!
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Ah, they have problems too:
Disconnect / no internet after ~925 MB combined DL/UL
But, one solution: "As recommended by ddennis and VZW support I went to a corporate store today and had them disconnect/reconnect the mifi account (w a new SIM)."
Stephen Rice, Champion
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Chicks dig it too.

VeteranSatUser, Champion
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High speed, low latency, low cost, unlimited.
GabeU, Champion
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It is cool though to have the ability to stream, download Xbox games and play them, and do it all without latency and fear of caps. I really hope LEOs save the day for people who won’t/can’t move and have no other options.
Heck Gabe, I might have saved building a house if HN could deliver that for me.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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I am sure a Viasat-2 high density spot beam can achieve those speeds and more. Finding those beams can be a challenge though!
GabeU, Champion
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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Every time I share my speed, the Veteran blows a fuse in his head. Can't get that with Hughesnet!
GabeU, Champion
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GabeU, Champion
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WiFi
Ethernet Up
WiFi
Ethernet
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GabeU, Champion
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Sorry, I couldn't resist. :)
I'm actually surprised that GetSat didn't time out with 25Kbps. SMH.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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From time to time, Viasat makes updates to policies that impact our customers' service. We recently updated our Network Management Policy and the terms of service for your Freedom 150 GB - Boost 25 + WiFi service plan and we want to explain what these mean to you.
Network Management Policy
Bandwith Usage Policy
What do the updated policies mean for you?
Your current service plan (Freedom 150 GB - Boost 25 + WiFi) offers download speeds up to 25 Mbps. This update clarifies that this is the median speed you should expect, when measured across all 24 hours in a day for these service plans. This means you should expect that half the time you see speeds that are faster than 25 Mbps, and half the time speeds that are slower than 25 Mbps.The monthly price on your current service plan will not change.Speeds during busy periods (typically in evening hours of each day) may be well below 25 Mbps, regardless of how much data you use. Your service plan does not have a strict data allowance. When you use more than 150 GB in your monthly billing period, your service speeds will be slower than what you experienced when using less than 150 GB.
What are your options?
Do nothing: You can continue receiving the service as described above and you don’t need to do anything.Change your service plan: If you would like to switch to a new monthly service plan, you may do so at any time. We don’t charge any fees to switch your service plan and we will not require a new two-year minimum service term to change plans. Simply login to your account athttps://account.viasat.com and select the plan you wish to switch to. When you switch, your new plan may have different terms of service than the plan you are currently on. Please read the plan details closely before you make your choice.
Sincerely,
Viasat Internet
The difference between the old agreement and this one is the median (average) speed in 24 hours.
Now in the evening I'm lucky to get over 1mbps and this is because of so many people using data at the same time, that is a bunch of BS.
I've done my speed tests around 4:30pm and I get between 45 and 50 mbps. Then I do it again around 5:00pm and it's less than 1mbps.
The $1308.00 this company gets from me a year is over.
NET NEUTRALITY NOW!!!!
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