title: TWC Internet just keeps getting worse link: https://onemoretech.wordpress.com/2015/07/15/twc-internet-just-keeps-getting-worse/ author: phil2nc description: post_id: 9919 created: 2015/07/15 09:48:16 created_gmt: 2015/07/15 13:48:16 comment_status: closed post_name: twc-internet-just-keeps-getting-worse status: publish post_type: post

TWC Internet just keeps getting worse

See the live national outage map below the fold to see why I say that.

At my house it started a bit after midnight, I think. Download bandwidth dropped below 1 Mb/s and then the modem went into seek mode looking for signal from the network. That went on for about an hour before it finally reconnected, only to lose signal again and start all over again.

My Mikrotik 750GL router did its thing admirably, putting us back on line each time, albeit with severely reduced bandwidth. Final check I made before leaving for work had download speed back up north of 10 Mb/s, but still not even close to the 50 Mb/s "Ultimate" I pay for[1].

Google is in the process of building out its infrastructure to bring 1 Gb/s fiber to my area, but there's no guarantee it will reach my house (Google has typically limited the scope of its broadband projects to date). The only real hope is that local municipalities will wake up and start building out their own networks for public use, now that the FCC has pre-empted restrictions on that kind of initiative previously put in place by the state government. Of course the problem there is that many local leaders in each party will likely try to turn those efforts into patronage opportunities (Wake Forest just announced its own "public-private partnership" with a fly-by-night local firm has collapsed and are now looking for someone to buy the substantially incomplete network left behind).

[1] The amount I pay fluctuates each month, even though I'm supposed to be on a fixed price Internet-only subscription -- how the NC state government lets them get away with that is nothing short of amazing, until you realize that all 3 branches of government are held by a single party and that party was bought and paid for by our local broadband providers (Time Warner and AT&T) long ago. More evidence, as if we needed any, that we really can't afford the levels of rank corruption our "representatives" have saddled us with.

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