Atlantic Broadband Internet
 

About 2 years I got rid of the VIP package and signed up for just internet at 50 Mbps. That has been enough for YouTube TV and whatever else we do.

In early Dec I received the following from ABB:

Our current service is 255 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up and "so far" the price has not gone up. The $63.24 Jan bill was the same as in Dec. Will wait and see.
At this point we are pretty happy with the bump in service.

Alan

Speed Boost.
 

I notice the speed boost long before I got the notice. The network appears to be more reliable.

I had to update my old wireless router to take advantage of the boost though. Not a problem as I notice the new routers are pretty cheap on sale compared to the older router's price.

I also notice that you must restart devices that share the internet to reset to the new speed!

Have fun!

Let’s see what happens when Comcast moves in.

About a month prior to receiving the same notice from AAB, I was frustrated with my internet speed. At the advice of the ABB rep I spoke to, I purchased an ABB approve Netgear cable modem and a complimentary Netgear WiFi router; prior to that, I had an ABB approved combo cable/WiFi modem. The ABB tech was indifferent regarding the cable modem/wireless router combination, though recommended going with Netgear products given their reliability and ease of troubleshooting. Nothing but great performance since. Hope this helps.
https://www.netgear.com/home/wifi/routers/r7000

Two Questions
 

Regarding Atlantic Broadband:

1. How in the heck do you get hold of them? I've tried calling and on-line chat. In each case and on multiple occasions I get put on indefinite hold. And I mean INDEFINITE HOLD. As in an hour or more followed by me hanging up in frustration. This goes well beyond 'we are extra busy due to COVID' and is firmly entrenched in 'we are a rude and inconsiderate company that doesn't care how long you are on hold for'. I never experienced this issue with Metrocast. I have a (hopefully) simple billing issue.

2. I currently have their standard issue combo modem/router that I use for Internet only. I'm being charged $5.00/month for the off season plan and have been doing that for the past five years. I recall it was cheaper to do that than have them come out each spring to restart my Internet (which was the only other choice). Therefore, I assume I'm paying $5.00 to simply keep their modem/router at the cottage since I can't imagine they need to come out in the spring for any other reason if I were to purchase my own modem. So if I buy my own modem, will they discontinue the monthly seasonal fee and not need to come out in the spring to get things going again?

Thanks!!!

Vote for the R7000
 

I'm about to start service with Charter Spectrum (only game in town for me). I'm also looking at the R7000 router paired with a Motorola MB7550 modem. My neighbor is a former IT manager and I'm following his recommendation.

Are they supposed to or are you just making a comment?

Like the change
 

I like the change. On my desktop, I'm getting 188 Mbps down and 20 up. My phone and my tablet are at just over 50 and just under 50, but I can't remember which was better. Doesn't really matter, just that both are extremely faster than in the past.

We had a problem last summer with using 2 Roku sticks to receive YouTubeTV on two different TVs. Lots of buffering, especially on the living room unit. Finally gave up on the Roku and direct wired the LR TV to the router. Cured the buffering.

Around Christmas, just for giggles, we decided to try the Roku again. First day, no buffering, 2nd day no buffering, 3rd day..... now I know why.

So, we're happy with ABB now (Shhhhhhh, don't tell them! )

Dave

Competition?
 

At home, I have Comcast as the only game in town for internet, so I use it for TV and landline phones too. Expensive, but pretty reliable even when electric wires are down.
Been using Roku for years--my latest Xfinity box includes Roku. On the remote, I hit Xfinity, then Apps, and I get the same screen and streaming choices as from Roku. No need to keep swapping remotes.
I'd love to have an internet choice with an expectation that there would be some price or bundling competition. This service is getting expensive no matter who the provider is.

We have two ROKU units at home and one at camp, all work well. In Dec, out of boredom, I got the new Chromecast with Google TV:
https://www.cnet.com/news/chromecast...eaming-sticks/
It can be programed to operate your TV and sound system so only one remote is required. Also you can voice search across all installed apps. In our case: YouTube TV, YouTube, Prime Video and PBS.

Alan

Faster is better, although at a few sites I have gotten some strange errors that didn't used to happen. I'm wondering if, for those sites, data is being now pulled at a rate faster than they can handle it? It's hard to be sure. I notice that if I scroll slowly, no errors. Scroll quickly and it errors out.

However, that is an aberration. Most sites respond very well.

My speed went from 80 down/10 up on a projected 100 Mb service to 160 down/22 up on a projected 250 Mb service. It's very nicely faster but only 64% of the potential vs. 80% of the potential previously. I am, of course, splitting technical hairs. The increased speed has stabilized our zoom sessions and downloads happen in the blink of an eye (metaphorically), so I am very pleased.

As my bill has creeped up over the years I have wondered what I was getting for my money. The BIG thing for me was the high speed internet. I went from a DSL service that COULD NOT be improved because of my distance from the CO and would have barely supported zoom, to very capable 100Mb service. We backup photos from all our devices (Android & iPhone, and iPad) to Google. When we got back to the house after taking, say 50 photos, we could count on it taking over a half hour to upload on DSL. After, the upgrade to cable, it took less than 5 minutes. Now, with the boosted service, a couple minutes. By the time we are in the house and I get to the computer, it's already done. That "already doneness" is a nice gift.

The TV content, blah. I only have the "Value service" but there is not much I watch. I do have ROKU but, so far, have found it to be an "embarrassment of riches", too much to sort through to find something interesting and a LOT of free content garbage although I DO ENJOY the free TED Talks. The interesting stuff is mostly paid content. I may get Netflix at some point but with an ABB bill of $193 for internet and basic TV, I don't want to be spending MORE for stuff I don't watch.

For now I am happy with the very competent 160 MB download speed which has almost eliminated delays in any activities that use the internet.

Speed testing:

If you have several devices on your WiFi, the speed test results will vary by device. Factors such as distance from the router and the specific WiFi adapter on each device will limit performance.

Some routers allow for speed tests at the input to the router (i.e. output of the cable modem) which is where I see 255/20. Some of our newest devices show numbers like 220/18 over WiFI while others may be as low as 50/10.

Your internet provider is responsible for the speed at your router input, your own choice of router make, location and devices will determine the rest. I have a Google router/WiFi 3 unit mesh.