I've had Mediacom service for a long time now for the high speed Internet service. I've got a bit of a dilemma on my hands though, and I'd like someone from Mediacom to actually take the time of day to do some research for me. I seem to hit this brick wall every time with carriers or providers, utility or wireless, etc.
The general consensus is that Mediacom and CenturyLink are eager to provide services where their customers want the service. So if there's a high demand for a particular service, maybe they will consider placing that market or sub-market on a priority list for service deployment, because the demand is there.
So naturally, I tried to express my interest in a higher tier of service (keep in mind, I do NOT expect this for free, I expect to pay probably DOUBLE what I'm paying right now). This is OK! I will go on record saying that I'm perfectly happy with DOUBLING my rate that I pay every month (currently $60/mo for the 150Mbps tier with Mediacom).
Here's my story:
I live in Dubuque, Iowa, which has been a market that's been monopolized by Mediacom for a LONG time if someone wants high performance Internet service. I'm guessing it's been close to 10 years that they have been the leader in Internet service in Dubuque.
I attacked this from 3 different angles, all of which came to a screeching halt, and my patience has worn extremely thin with this. I contacted the City of Dubuque, they practically just ignore my requests, emails, and form submissions. I contacted Mediacom, which got me nowhere. I contacted CenturyLink, and I was just sent into an endless loop where people didn't know what was going on.
It's common that I work from home, and I also use several personal devices at home for Internet browsing or network activity. I'm an IT fella, and I have a lot of home test lab equipment for IT stuff on Windows and VMware. I am a heavy network user, both locally and via the Internet. I'm also a tech geek, so I want the latest and greatest of everything.
1. There isn't much to my City of Dubuque story, they just ignore me. Good for them.
2. When I contacted Mediacom, asking for a higher tier of Internet service, or if I could inquire about getting fiber service deployed to my home, I was told that I currently have the highest available package in the area, and that in order to get fiber service deployed to my home, it would have to be a business account, and one of the business reps contacted me. I told him that I desired fiber service with a higher tier of bandwidth, and I was told that it would be somewhere between 500 and 1,500 dollars a month for 100Mbps. Now I understand, it's business support, probably has a static IP, and probably has a premier support contract with SLA's.
The part that really grinds my gears though, is that when I asked about residential fiber service, I was told that "nobody needs that", and that the local hospitals and schools didn't even need gigabit service. First of all, as a sales person, do not tell me what I need, and secondly, if the company that you work for as a sales person offers gigabit service in a residential market somewhere else (Jefferson City for example here) - do not tell your customers that it's unnecessary and that they don't need it. Jefferson City has a shiny new Internet package that Mediacom is going to pitch to them as the greatest thing since sliced bread, yet a state or two away, someone's telling another customer it's unnecessary and not needed.
The above is kind of a rant, and I apologize for that, but when I asked about when it would be generally available, I was told he didn't know, and that he can't find out. All of you work for the same company. For the customer, be willing to take a few minutes out of your day to at least find out, and if you don't know who to ask, find out who does.
If you guys are truly deploying markets based on demand, you sure as hell make it near impossible for the customers to express the demand. Can someone from Mediacom please help me figure this out? I'd like to chat with someone about the future of Dubuque's service, with the potential of being a beta tester for new services and/or fiber. My home is in a very popular part of the city for business traffic, and it's not an apartment, so I don't think I'm asking for you guys to run miles and miles of fiber or new service. I'm about 3 blocks from one of the busiest intersections in the city.
3. My experience with CenturyLink was about the same. I talked to someone in customer service, they said talk to business support for fiber. Business support said they wouldn't know about availability in the future, but their technical team would. She transferred me to their technical team, and their technical guy told me he doesn't have access to that information, and he wasn't willing to go look for it. Once again, good luck trying to express your interest in their services.
The part that gets me on this one, is that CenturyLink has an entire city (albeit small) less than 30 minutes from here that's a full gigabit deployment.
I'm just tired of the front line associates wanting to sell me a home phone, then when I ask them a question about data services, they glaze over and wonder what the hell I'm talking about.
Someone from Mediacom please help me. I would respectfully request that you don't give me an out-of-the-box answer like "it's coming soon!"
I was told Cedar Rapids is testing 305/405Mbps. That was announced TWO YEARS AGO. Stop telling people that. Where is it? Where's the progress? Beta testing for a higher tier of broadband service doesn't take two years.
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