USI Wireless in Minneapolis (Lowry, Johnson: apartment, home, to buy)

[MNNative]

I hooked up last week. I haven't had any major complaints. I don't notice much of a difference so far...I do get disconnected or something every blue moon (probably has happened 3 times so far) which I find a little weird. I've also not really done any video or photo upload/download stuff yet...But for e-mail and internet surfing, I can have multiple windows up and it still runs fine...We had to put an antenna thing on the side of our house and could go to the roof if we feel we need more service. Though we have a node on each side of the house (1 block over one way and 2 blocks over the other way) we have a pretty weak signal. Regardless though, it works and once we finally commit to getting a laptop, it'll be neat to get wireless throughout the house & the city.

I will say I'm MUCH more pleased with the customer service from USI than I am from Comcast. I called to disconnect the internet after USI had installed theirs and the Comcast lady I talked to transferred me to some other lady who felt the need to "advise" me of this and that until I finally said I give up and kept the internet hooked up. I called back the next day and talked with a guy with fake sympathy and I said "Look, I don't mean to be rude but I called yesterday and talked to another representative who gave me this big run-around-speech. I know you want to keep my business but I really want to just disconnect my internet." His response, "Oh, it didn't work on you?" LMAO I said forget it and told him I'd call back when my phone was hooked up so I could just disconnect them both and be done with it. My phone went through this morning so I called Comcast and finally received appropriate service. Third times the charm I guess. Do they get docked money every time someone cancels???

From the first time I called to inquire about the service, to the time I called to request service, to the guy who came to install, nothing but good customer service from the USI people.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

I've had service since the beginning of the year and I like it. I agree that the customer service has been very good. I've had trouble connecting a couple times but it's a very minor complaint for the huge cost savings, paying $15.00 per month instead of $42.95 is huge.

[Dave In Minneapolis]

Here in South Minneapolis, Comcast is faster and more stable, but a LOT more expensive. At 60 bucks per month for stand-alone, it was just too much. Qwest, at least in my neighborhood, at this time, offers speeds up to, but not exceeding 1.5 Mbps for 28 bucks plus ISP charges, or you can 'bundle' with MSN for a lower price. My DSL service, though slower, is very stable. My USI Wireless service was very good and very stable at the 3 Mbps level, but at 6, not so good. The customer service at USIW has been very good; I've had nothing but good experiences with them so far. However, it looks like I will have to kick the service level back down to 3 Mbps, as I can't seem to get a stable, consistent 6 - or anywhere near it. So far, they don't seem to have a solution for this problem.

The Ruckus Metro WiFi modem is performing well, though I've had to "lock" it to the radio node closest to my outdoor antenna. The next closest radio node is too far away and doesn't provide an adequate signal.

While I'm happy with USIW, it clearly isn't a service that is going to work well for everyone. House construction, proximity to radio nodes, indoor antenna placement, which must be in or very near a window, optional outdoor antenna placement, with the installation requirements - all these things may be more than an average person will want to deal with. Certainly, it isn't as convenient as plugging into a phone line (DSL) or a cable modem. On the other hand, if you roam around the city with a wireless device, getting a signal almost anywhere in the city can be a distinct advantage.

There's my two cents worth.

[MNNative]

Originally Posted by Dave In Minneapolis

The Ruckus Metro WiFi modem is performing well, though I've had to "lock" it to the radio node closest to my outdoor antenna. The next closest radio node is too far away and doesn't provide an adequate signal.

While I'm happy with USIW, it clearly isn't a service that is going to work well for everyone. House construction, proximity to radio nodes, indoor antenna placement, which must be in or very near a window, optional outdoor antenna placement, with the installation requirements - all these things may be more than an average person will want to deal with. Certainly, it isn't as convenient as plugging into a phone line (DSL) or a cable modem. On the other hand, if you roam around the city with a wireless device, getting a signal almost anywhere in the city can be a distinct advantage.

There's my two cents worth.

I couldn't agree more. We are having a technician come out and stick a thing on the roof to see if that works for us as we also had to "lock" in, which does help in reducing the times our service is dropped, but never the less, it's still unstable. Have you tried that/been offered that alternative?

We're not "average" people as I'm sure the number of times we've been inconvenienced would be enough to send people running elsewhere. I really have no positive passion for Comcast and agree, they are too rich for my blood (but people keep paying so they keep their prices high...), and unfortunately Qwest's DSL isn't available in my area. Fortunately, the USI people are willing to jump over backwards for their customers and that's enough to keep me cooperating with them as they try their best to remedy our signal strength.

[MNNative]

Just posting an update.

The USI technicians came this afternoon and installed the roof antenna thing (it's called a Rhino or something like that...). The speed test performed before they left showed us getting 9kbps. Before we had this installed, we were lucky to receive 3kbps!

[moving123456]

Originally Posted by MNNative

Just posting an update.

The USI technicians came this afternoon and installed the roof antenna thing (it's called a Rhino or something like that...). The speed test performed before they left showed us getting 9kbps. Before we had this installed, we were lucky to receive 3kbps!

I hope you either mean mbps or forgot to add some zeros.

[MNNative]

Originally Posted by moving123456

I hope you either mean mbps or forgot to add some zeros.

lol
it was 97_ _ kbps...
Good call.

[Dave In Minneapolis]

Originally Posted by MNNative

I couldn't agree more. We are having a technician come out and stick a thing on the roof to see if that works for us as we also had to "lock" in, which does help in reducing the times our service is dropped, but never the less, it's still unstable. Have you tried that/been offered that alternative?

We're not "average" people as I'm sure the number of times we've been inconvenienced would be enough to send people running elsewhere. I really have no positive passion for Comcast and agree, they are too rich for my blood (but people keep paying so they keep their prices high...), and unfortunately Qwest's DSL isn't available in my area. Fortunately, the USI people are willing to jump over backwards for their customers and that's enough to keep me cooperating with them as they try their best to remedy our signal strength.

It's been awhile since I've visited this forum and an update is long overdue.

I canceled my USI Wireless service. It finally got to be too much to deal with. The people were great and really did try everything in their bag of tricks. We started with Ruckus, went to and outdoor Omni stick antenna, then to Rhino roof mount and finally the Ubiquity Networks NanoSystem2. Each step improved the service; the speed continually got better, but the signal stability never improved. The gateway IP continued to drop for about 21 and 52 second intervals about every one to two hours. While this wasn't a big issue for 'net surfing, it really did cause problems with VoIP service.

The last straw came when everything went down on the night of the 22nd of June. No phone, no internet, no e-mail, and some bone-head at their customer service facility in Indiana insisted that I do the "single cable from the Nano to your computer" shuffle thing - again. I was running network monitoring software and *knew* it was their IP that was down; my network was fine. Also, this was after 4 visits, three pieces of equipment, holes in my roof and about the 10th phone call. It proved to be just too much 'fiddling' around.

I'm back to my slow but steady DSL. Qwest keeps saying that a fiber to node upgrade is due in my neighborhood by late October. We'll see....

MNNative, I really hope you're having better luck with USI Wireless than I did.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Dave In Minneapolis

It's been awhile since I've visited this forum and an update is long overdue.

I canceled my USI Wireless service. It finally got to be too much to deal with. The people were great and really did try everything in their bag of tricks. We started with Ruckus, went to and outdoor Omni stick antenna, then to Rhino roof mount and finally the Ubiquity Networks NanoSystem2. Each step improved the service; the speed continually got better, but the signal stability never improved. The gateway IP continued to drop for about 21 and 52 second intervals about every one to two hours. While this wasn't a big issue for 'net surfing, it really did cause problems with VoIP service.

The last straw came when everything went down on the night of the 22nd of June. No phone, no internet, no e-mail, and some bone-head at their customer service facility in Indiana insisted that I do the "single cable from the Nano to your computer" shuffle thing - again. I was running network monitoring software and *knew* it was their IP that was down; my network was fine. Also, this was after 4 visits, three pieces of equipment, holes in my roof and about the 10th phone call. It proved to be just too much 'fiddling' around.

I'm back to my slow but steady DSL. Qwest keeps saying that a fiber to node upgrade is due in my neighborhood by late October. We'll see....

MNNative, I really hope you're having better luck with USI Wireless than I did.

Hopefully the new node will help. We went from cable Internet after a horrible experience with Charter to DSL with Frontier. We were concerned about the speed and reliability but after the fiasco with Charter I didn't really care all that much. They have a node very close to our house and our speed is faster then it was with Charter. At first we dropped the signal quite frequently but the did some upgrade and now almost 2 years later have no issues. Occasionally in the morning we have to reset the box for the wireless but our PC never has issues.

[whoopsie goldburg]

i'm looking very seriously at going with USI, and i noticed that most of these complaints are from 2008 and early 2009....have most of these issues been resolved since then? currently i'm connecting through someone elses unsecured network, and if USI is going to be flaky, i'd rather just keep stealing it. i live at 34th and emerson if that makes a difference.