Too many users. Not enough capacity.
Over Christmas, my “high-speed” Internet service, provided by Xplornet, became remarkably slow. Even slower than the ridiculous traffic management policy finally revealed on the Xplornet site.
Download speeds were hitting point 2 to point 4 megabits. Translation? S-L-O-W.
The service prior to Christmas was acceptable. Certainly not consistent with the marketing pitch but good enough for casual browsing. I would get upwards of 5 megabits down although the traffic management would cut in and reduce the speed to 20 percent of the 5 megabit rate after 6 to 8 megabytes of data. So, even though I spend 65 dollars a month for a 5 megabit service, I am only getting a fraction of that service for typical Internet usage.
And now, I am getting a fraction of that fraction.
After measuring the service over the past 24 hours, and after spending a couple of hours with multiple levels of support, I was able to confirm the obvious: an oversubscribed tower.
The third level support conceded that there was a “traffic problem” with the tower and that a request for an upgrade had been received. However, there was no ETA for the upgrade. 3 months? 6 months? A year?
No idea.
I told the support person that it seemed odd that I should be paying 65 dollars a month, or almost 800 dollars a year, for a service level that was not being delivered at the rated speed.
He tried to tell me that the service was achieving at least the 1 megabit down during peak time. Which apparently is acceptable in their usage policy. What a joke. Sure, the first 2 or 3 megabytes of data now come in at the new “high speed” of 1 megabit, or 20 percent of the 5 megabit service. And the remainder comes in at about .2 megabits, or 20 percent of the 20 percent. Which pretty much makes the Internet unusable in our household of geeks. Which means that I am being charged for a service that I am not receiving.
Avoid Xplornet if you possibly can. The service is an absolute rip-off.
It seems you are not alone.
http://www.xplornetsucks.com/forums/
You may find some tweaks / tips / FAQs to squeeze a little more performance out of your connection. Or just knowing this site exists might bring you some comfort!
I had dropped by the site. And I suppose it did bring some degree of comfort… misery loves company
I remember years ago when that was my only option – over the air internet. And you are right, it is slow.
But remember this, there is an option .. dial up. In other words, it could be way worse! There could be no tower.
Just look out that window … remember the great view (smile) .. the country versus Newmarket, a small lot, traffic and fast internet!
No doubt that we enjoy a wonderful life with many blessings. Now, if only I could get fiber to the house
A fraction of a fraction? sounds like the company’s trying to rip some people off.
Like many things in life, it is always a good thing to honor your commitments. In this case, the company is not delivering what it promised.
so pretty much… they are not delivering what they promised? if it’s a yes it still sounds like a rip off.
Speed on these systems is relative, and the fact that this company gets satellite TV installers in the local areas to install these systems should be an indication of what you are about to get. Even Bell isn’t that dumb. Everyone knows that sat tv installers are paid by the job so…like they care. Put it up and …NEXT.
The word on the street in the nations capital is that they are in financialhardship (ya think!), of course no comment when I called to inquire, but I found it funny that the person I was corresponding with on this, suddenly stopped emailing me back.
Came to find out the person who was telling me there were no problems, had just bailed for another opportunity>>>>>HMMMMMMM?????
Xplornet started out as a credible alternative. Today, it is an utter, outright, and deliberate lie!
Richard (nice guitar, by the way) & others, it is nice to know that I am not alone. To make a long story short, I took over a contract from the previous home owner and quickly discovered Xplornet was absolutely useless. I complained to them the first day I used it, and got nowhere fast. I tried a few solutions on my own, and they ended up sending a young kid out to have a look at the antennae and said it’s as good as it gets. So I cancelled and went with Rogers Turbo Hub (which works great for me!). Now, after collecting 4 months’ worth of service I never got, they are demanding, in a heavy-handed manner I might add, a $450 cancellation fee. I have filed a complaint to the “Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services”. The complaint has been accepted and they will follow up with Xplornet. We’ll see how it goes.
If anybody reading this is planning to use Xplornet, I strongly urge you to try anything else first!
I’m welcoming me in the club! xplorenet-speed is really, really slow.
I’m paying $ 1,200 for nothing. FRAUD is another word for it.
Xplornet lied to me then they told me if I pay for the box then I don’t have to pay cancelation fee, I never took the agreement with the installer and so they charged me 450 to cancel then I told them so many time that I am moving at the end of the month, no one called for pick up of the equipment so I have to pay for the equipment.
explornet are crooks beyond believe
Well I am not with x-plornet. I am with rogers rocket hub and it works great till it is a long weekend or busy with cottagers in the area. Thats when all the lines get all messed up and rogers tries to tell me that it must be my computer. I don’t get it, my cell phone works why can’t my internet? I am done with them and am looking to go with X-Plornet as it will be cheaper for me. We can all complain about crappy internet service till the cows come home and it doesn’t matter who you are with. These companies are all protected by the legalised mafia we call our government. Lets all try and go back to the 80′s or 90′s and forget about it!!lol
I can’t cause I am hooked just like everybody else!!
I feel the pain, I have been teh same battle with my ISP. I sent the CRTC an email which I doubt I will here back from them as they do not take quality of service complaints. Can you believe that!!!. My ISP has heard from me many times over the last 5 years, I am on my 3rd router and the first one I gave to a buddy and he is still useing it. But they still say my slow speed which is only at night and on the weekends must be my router….Huh?, all 3 of them?. Like all the wireless ISP’s they over sell and I know this as do you. I have been in the Telecom. world for 30 years as a tech both on the voice and data side and when the long distance was deregulated back in the early 90′s the same thing happened with all the resellers. Someone if not the CRTC has to look at this wireless mess and give use people a something we can use not just pay for because I know in my case dial was faster at night.
What can I say? I am with Ripnet who provided a decent service ( albeit expensive) until this summer when the download dropped to a fifth of what I was getting. Guess what? Xplornet bought them out in June and although tech pretended to address the problem they finally admitted that this is what I can expect – Xplornet. What a sellout, leaving clients high and dry without even a howdy-do. And in their press release they even had the gall to say that the service would improve. Avoid Ripnet and Xplornet if there is any alternative. They are dishonest.
I have to agree and empathize with you Richard. We are paying 135 (after taxes)/mo. and were told that we would definately get faster internet. LOLOLOL big joke. We are on “Time-sharing”. Well, I timed it. For the first hour we are on we are alloted 15 minutes at peak time which should be up to at least 1 GB of download speed hah!! We should be so lucky to even see that much, try 254 kbs and therein after right down to 4-9 kbs which made downloading ANYTHING virtually impossible. What did they tell me at customer support? Free time is from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. riiiiiiight. Still didn’t get anywhere near 1gbs and never did get my program downloaded. You are right, the componay is definately not delivering what it promises!!!
like you all say it sucks the big one slow service and lousy customer service
Received a call that they want to change my expornet service to the 4g service. I paid $ 600.00 to get the Everest service hooked up (they were purchased by Explornet). I paid $ 49.99 for 1.5 G band width no limit on down load. Now they want to offer me 10 G limit on down load and $ 3.50 for each extra Gig I use with a 3 year contract. Do I have any recourse, suggestions please.
db
As an ex-Everus customer Dave, I don’t believe you. Everus did not have an unlimited wireless service.
I was switched to the new 4G WiMax service about a month ago. It’s much more reliable than the old sh-tty Vecima system. There have been two outages so far of more than 12 hours each.
With the 3Mb service I see FTP speeds of ~366KB/sec, which is acceptable. They throttle torrents pretty hard with their FAP; avg daytime speed is ~35KB/sec. From around 1:30am to 7am torrenting runs full speed.
If you don’t really need much bandwidth, look into the Bell TurboHub service from BMTS. $45/mth for 3GB, $75 for 10GB. I bought the hub ($299) so as to go no-contract and it works reasonably well, about 2Mb/sec in my sticks location.
I’ve been reading through a lot of the complaints on here and do sympathize. Until DSL was available in my area, I was an Xplornet client. I’m what you would call a “power-internet-user” and so in the end DSL was more cost effective for me. With that said, I was well aquainted with their “FAP” Policy.
Fast forward 3 years and I’m now working pretty closely with an Xplornet dealer. I’m in sales and so I am on the front line. I’ve been selling their Wimax service for a few months now and from the feedback i’ve received, clients have been pleased with the service. I’ve also heard that their “FAP” policy on the new 4G network has been greatly improved to eliminante daily limits, but rather charge for overages on your monthly bandwidth allocation. Something I’m a huge supporter of. What can I say, in my opion it is the lesser of the two evils.
Now, before you decide to send me hate mail, please recognize that I’m just pointing out some improvements that may interest their existing and/or former customer base.
Has anybody had any luck getting out of a contract with xplornet (without paying the cancellation fee) when consistently experiencing poor performance? I’m currently exploring my options. With my 3Mbps “enhanced” service, I’ve been getting download speeds between 100-400 Kbps (on a good day) for the entire first year of my contract. They openly admit that what I’m measuring is accurate and blame the problem on heavy users on my tower. How is that my problem?
I hooked up with xplorenet last November and it has been a nightmare (live in northern BC). It took over 4 hours to download a 30second video. I have been calling the support team regularly. I have only been subject to Fair Use Policy on 2 occassions, but I seriously had to get up in the middle of the night to do any work. Ten years ago, I was on dial-up and the service was better! (no dial-up here!) I just cancelled with xplorenet and they billed me $300 plus for early cancellation fees, even though I bought the equipment and told them I did not want a contract. I don’t see how it can be right, that a company can lock you into a contract when you own the equipment?? I am a business person and the internet is crucial to my business. Xplorenet did not
provide the service (everytime I phoned in, they would say that my speed was fine and I would say, it doesn’t matter how much speed I have, when there is no bandwidth available) that they promised and it has seriously cost me thousands of dollars in cash and also thousands of dollars in time and uncalculable stress! I have complained to the local company that set me up and have also told them that they are just as bad as Xplorenet and I will not be doing any business with their company. Has anybody had any luck in re-couping any $$$ from xplorenet??? or are we just “b….ing” and in the end…we have still be taken??
yes indeed xplorente sucks.
Always low speed, always full price as if it was an excellent, premium, high speed service. And zero service. Really the worst deal out there. Bob Collin
We have been abused by xplornet for over 6 years. For the first 4 years with the old system with the blue modem and the hourly FAPing. Now at the tail end of a 3 year contract with the BS new and improveved hughsnet system.
Whats with the newest 4g BS system, its faster and cheaper, oh and for existing xplornet customers you get a big $50 off over new customers, what a slap min the face. Oh and while still under a contract they have now taken away options I had when I signed up, Like being able to upgrade durung the holidays, not that it was worth the $120 for the month! XPLORNET SUCKS!!!!!
I had Xplornet satellite for years and eventually sold my house and now have DSL.
Xplornet is an horrible company with very bad technical support and they don’t are about customers since they have a virtual monopoly in areas not serviced by rogers/bell.
Make sure to avoid them at all costs.
I felt I was living in the former Soviet Union when I was an Xplornet slave.
Never again !!