High speed internet in Tyler? (Fort Worth, North Richland Hills: houses, live in, cost)

[bpollen]

After doing a little research, it seems like SuddenLink is about it for high speed internet in Tyler?

I looked at some houses in areas I liked. Most weren't able to get AT&T U-verse, but several were. However, one was 3.0 mbps max, one was 6 mbs. Those aren't high speed. Only one had more than 6 mbps; it was 18 mbps. So I'm assuming that any house I choose probably won't have U-verse availability.

I didn't see that AT&T offered DSL, but maybe I have to look for that specifically on the AT&T website.

Are there any others? Any third party regional providers, maybe?

(Note: I saw a lot of complaints about SuddenLink, though not as many as for other larger companies.)

Any info on this would be appreciated.

[KathrynAragon]

My parents live in Tyler and have no issues at all with Suddenlink. However, I live 8 miles outside of Tyler and have had TERRIBLE service, because Suddenlink bought an internet provider, Northland Cable, a year ago and much of the equipment is outdated. They are slowly updating it and after I decided to call every single time my internet went out, they sent some techs out who really seemed to know what they were doing (fourth set of techs - the first three just tinkered around and gave me a new modem and sailed away, accomplishing nothing). The FOURTH set of techs found the problem - errrrr, not on my property but on my street - and they switched the modem out again but to a completely different brand - and I've had zero problems now for the past three days. But my gosh, it was hell getting to this point.

So my advice is this: If you're inside the Tyler city limits you should be fine with Suddenlink. If not, beware.

[bpollen]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

My parents live in Tyler and have no issues at all with Suddenlink. However, I live 8 miles outside of Tyler and have had TERRIBLE service, because Suddenlink bought an internet provider, Northland Cable, a year ago and much of the equipment is outdated. They are slowly updating it and after I decided to call every single time my internet went out, they sent some techs out who really seemed to know what they were doing (fourth set of techs - the first three just tinkered around and gave me a new modem and sailed away, accomplishing nothing). The FOURTH set of techs found the problem - errrrr, not on my property but on my street - and they switched the modem out again but to a completely different brand - and I've had zero problems now for the past three days. But my gosh, it was hell getting to this point.

So my advice is this: If you're inside the Tyler city limits you should be fine with Suddenlink. If not, beware.

Thanks so much. It's extra important for me, since I stream from subscription services, rather than get cable tv. So for me, it's as important as electricity or other utility.

Thanks!

[je2000]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

My parents live in Tyler and have no issues at all with Suddenlink. However, I live 8 miles outside of Tyler and have had TERRIBLE service, because Suddenlink bought an internet provider, Northland Cable, a year ago and much of the equipment is outdated. They are slowly updating it and after I decided to call every single time my internet went out, they sent some techs out who really seemed to know what they were doing (fourth set of techs - the first three just tinkered around and gave me a new modem and sailed away, accomplishing nothing). The FOURTH set of techs found the problem - errrrr, not on my property but on my street - and they switched the modem out again but to a completely different brand - and I've had zero problems now for the past three days. But my gosh, it was hell getting to this point.

So my advice is this: If you're inside the Tyler city limits you should be fine with Suddenlink. If not, beware.

My parents moved there and I was pretty astounded at the poor picture quality of the Suddenlink signal for what they are paying. Then I realized that the box they provide only goes to 720P.


Is this standard? Does SuddenLink provide full 1080P broadcast?

[Mark Senior]

I called Suddenlink on your behalf. Just curious on my behalf, lol, yep, 720 Broadband is what they offer, no plans for updating. Yep, not so good for Blue Ray etc.

I don't download or use Blue Ray etc. so when people walk into my place and compliment the great picture quality I have, I don't or didn't know any better or different and said well, it's not an expensive TV and just Suddenlink provider, I guess ignorance "was bliss". I go to my cousins in Fort Worth and North Richland Hills and brother in Benbrook and don't notice any drop in quality. Cousins use Uverse and complain often, brother uses Dish.

Just shows you can't have it "all" outside of a major metro. Suddenlink is moving into the suburbs of DFW and now in Lubbuck I'm told, so maybe it will upgrade sooner than latter, I guess just have to "ruff it" 'till then.

Good luck, parents like Tyler else wise?

[Mark Senior]

Originally Posted by Mark Senior

I called Suddenlink on your behalf. Just curious on my behalf, lol, yep, 720 Broadband is what they offer, no plans for updating. Yep, not so good for Blue Ray etc.

I don't download or use Blue Ray etc. so when people walk into my place and compliment the great picture quality I have, I don't or didn't know any better or different and said well, it's not an expensive TV and just Suddenlink provider, I guess ignorance "was bliss". I go to my cousins in Fort Worth and North Richland Hills and brother in Benbrook and don't notice any drop in quality. Cousins use Uverse and complain often, brother uses Dish.

Just shows you can't have it "all" outside of a major metro. Suddenlink is moving into the suburbs of DFW and now in Lubbuck I'm told, so maybe it will upgrade sooner than latter, I guess just have to "ruff it" 'till then.

Good luck, parents like Tyler else wise?

Elsewise, spell checker said elsewise was wrong, so I thought, ok, then checked it, elsewise good two syllable, one word, word, lol

[RichardPerry]

Coming from a non-Suddenlink market, the one thing that got me on internet was their bandwidth caps. I work from home, and am on the internet all day every day. My kids consume a lot of bandwidth. Christmas brought new gadgets that all required lots of downloads. I have maxed out my plan for the 3rd month in a year, and Suddenlink is going to charge me for the overage. Just something to be aware of since you stream many of your services.

I attempted Suddenlink for TV, but as they haven't worked out a deal with Viacom, and my kids love watching Nickelodeon, we are stuck with DirecTV.

[bpollen]

Originally Posted by RichardPerry

Coming from a non-Suddenlink market, the one thing that got me on internet was their bandwidth caps. I work from home, and am on the internet all day every day. My kids consume a lot of bandwidth. Christmas brought new gadgets that all required lots of downloads. I have maxed out my plan for the 3rd month in a year, and Suddenlink is going to charge me for the overage. Just something to be aware of since you stream many of your services.

I attempted Suddenlink for TV, but as they haven't worked out a deal with Viacom, and my kids love watching Nickelodeon, we are stuck with DirecTV.

Hmmmm. I guess I'll have to figure on overage charges in the cost for the internet.

However, I am checking again on another mid-sized city with better internet services. I don't think my decision will change, but I want to give it another look-see, in case it will do for my retirement years.

High speed internet, its reliability and cost, is like a utility nowadays, to me.

Thanks for your response!

[RichardPerry]

Honestly, I know others that don't have TV at all, and stream 100% of everything they watch. I have not heard of any complaints of overages from them. And most months, my plan goes just fine without an overage. But a new Xbox with 120GB of downloads in one day, a couple of rebuilt computers that re-download everything from Dropbox to the tune of nearly 100GB, those types of activities will destroy your bandwidth allowance. I guess if I planned a little better, I could avoid most of those types of big downloads.

Overall though, I am happy with Suddenlink, with the one single exception. I had an intermittent service issue, and they stayed on it until it was resolved (granted, I did have to stay on top of them too). But they ended up replacing the entire length of cable from the pole to the home. I certainly wouldn't avoid them, and I wouldn't choose to use anything other than cable for internet.

[bpollen]

Originally Posted by RichardPerry

Honestly, I know others that don't have TV at all, and stream 100% of everything they watch. I have not heard of any complaints of overages from them. And most months, my plan goes just fine without an overage. But a new Xbox with 120GB of downloads in one day, a couple of rebuilt computers that re-download everything from Dropbox to the tune of nearly 100GB, those types of activities will destroy your bandwidth allowance. I guess if I planned a little better, I could avoid most of those types of big downloads.

Overall though, I am happy with Suddenlink, with the one single exception. I had an intermittent service issue, and they stayed on it until it was resolved (granted, I did have to stay on top of them too). But they ended up replacing the entire length of cable from the pole to the home. I certainly wouldn't avoid them, and I wouldn't choose to use anything other than cable for internet.

Thanks, Richard. Some good insights about usage. I'm tracking usage now (I found out that my router has a data tracker - who knew?). Seems I'm not using as much as I thought I was, so maybe I'll be safe from overages most of the time. I don't play internet games or have an xbox or anything like that.

Thanks so much!