started with 20, free up to 40, now getting 60mbit
started with 20, free up to 40, now getting 60mbit
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Preferred Phone OS: Android*Intelligent people can take hints
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The average Jamaican no longer craves better and higher internet speeds.. Seems like the internet provided to our mobiles now is sufficient enough for most users...
I remember times past when internet was lacking and we all craved more... And I can tell you most users are now mobile who just use social media and WhatsCrap...
Me personally my 100mbps is OK I guess.. could do with faster uploads, but blehhh
Disagree with you here. While some consumers may be okay with the service they get over mobile, it's imperative that FLOW -- at the very least -- provides faster residential speeds. Consumption habits here are becoming more and more needing of higher speeds; online conferencing, streaming video, streaming music (soon to be a purely lossless affair), as well as their soon-coming wireless IPTV boxes. It's within their interest to have their broadband product pass as many homes as possible, with speeds as fast as possible, not just for the profit incentive but also as a means of off-loading traffic from the mobile network. FLOW has, in recent times, lamented the strain on its mobile network, with specific reference to its low band spectrum in a response to the SMA last year -- of which the SMA replied to, contending that FLOW's 10 MHz [5 MHz downlink, 5 MHz uplink] was ample for competition with Digicel 20 MHz [10 Up/10 Down] on 700 MHz.
FLOW's comment to the SMA
The SMA's response to FLOW
With the entrance of Rock Mobile, and the SMA's intransigence, FLOW will need to redouble its efforts to offload mobile traffic with MORE broadband subs and, unfortunately, more heavy-handed traffic management as we move toward 5G SA.
Last edited by Brandysull; May 29, 2021 at 09:11 AM.
Don't get me wrong faster, better and more affordable service is definitely needed, but my point is that some consumers in my opinion is now the majority of customers, people who are constantly asking for more speed I'd say are business and power users...
I'm sure you remember the days when almost everybody use to complain about slow speeds both home and mobile, I remember when mobile users use to constantly bash Flow and Digicel about slow 2G/3G/4G speeds... Residential use to complain the same, speeds were slow and cable service was blah and had 0 features..
Skip to today 4G and LTE seems greatly improved, at home you can get speeds up to 150mbps, Flow cable is OK and offers good features, in essence more affordable service is what would be more needed for the majority...
Without the masses constantly bashing Flow and Digicel I don't see where they will have it as a top priority to offer faster speeds and better service....
I been saying this for years and I will keep saying it until its addressed. FLOW's customers now need upload bandwidth. Even the regular users who were just basically streaming have changed their usage habits. They are in online classes, or online meetings. The ones with their ring lights creating "content" also need.. yep you guessed it U P L O A D. Churches are broadcasting their sermons from usually residential type of broadband, yep again upload.
If you watch TVJ or CVM and they have remote guests, I promise you, the ones that are glitchy are using FLOW and these are users who are safe at their homes within their study as guest panelists on WiFi.
I am genuinely interested in the coverage of their Fibre fast offerings as those ads have completely monopolised Google Ads. Any from New Kingston, Orange Bay or Ewarton can confirm they have service?
I agree with GPRS Internet about the majority needing affordable internet but services cost money and unless the Government is going to subsidize for the less fortunate I don't see a solution in that regard.
I see your point here. I do recall the awful time we all had, collectively, in using 4G HSPA+ networks in the late 2010s. That mobile broadband became instantly more bearable, in my honest opinion, is more of a testament to LTE's ability to have carried data so much more efficiently than HSPA+ than FLOW & Digicel's want/need to carry data faster. Both networks only recently began capitalizing on their investments in LTE just recently, some more than others. On the broadband side, however, neither network had the kind of demand as did exist on mobile until the tail-end of Q1 2020. The unrelenting assault on social media is proof-positive of FLOW having been caught undressed in the broadband department. The extent to which they will bring forward developments and investments is yet to be seen but, if their fibre-fast campaign is to be believed, they've now bought into the Liberty-company mantra of a Gigabit future... without actually saying it.
On the point of upload, it should be noted that FLOW, as far as I've seen, offers symmetric DL/UL speeds on their fibre-to-the-home offering. The unfortunate bit is that those who would stand to gain (even more) immensely from direct fiber are already located in HFC areas. FTTH is replacing their VDSL/ADSL product and the sole basis of their greenfield builds in rural areas. For brownfield developments, however, a few places have seen FTTH conversions such as in New Kingston, in the East, and Bogue in the West. The HFC customer base writ large however will likely never see FTTH in its purest sense. Options like RFoG present as being likely successors but the more likely case is an upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1 which, I presume, has already happened. I do also hope that as their FLOW Business product matures, that it can begin to offer much more in the way of services to MSMEs than could a residential subscription or a C&W Business contract could.
Last edited by Brandysull; May 31, 2021 at 09:38 PM.
So. Without going into detail. Let's try this.
Back before CWJ/Liberty purchased FLOW, I was in talks with the technical teams. This is before everyone left or got "redundant" or whatever between the CWJ/Liberty purchases. It was a heavy burden on me as a gamer. With the previous DSL offerings I was the #5 Jamaican in Counter-Strike: Source based on the worldwide HLSTATS on major servers. Many times you hear that lag saves a lot of persons on lower bandwidth - I counter with lag saves those with higher bandwidth. Many times my reaction time is fine, but my internet can't keep up. Low speed uploads makes gaming on certain platforms unbearable. This was long before the buyouts and other crap - and I was making petitions for getting "gaming packages" available for persons who are upload heavy.
I made a point recently to FLOW supervisors in their technical department. I have remote servers in Europe. I've moved more than 10TB of data in less than a week - think it was like 3 days. I upload a lot. I can't get my backups done. Businesses that need cloud storage access are at the mercy of these speeds. Remote support tools have had to "optimize for low bandwidth" to be able to provide adequate experiences.
It's not NOW that we need upload bandwidth. We've ALWAYS needed it. I think maybe when my grandkids come about there will be better speeds. I'm already an old person telling these "kids" about dial-up days. I'm at a point where I don't care about the technology and the expense for the rollout. The M.O. of CWJ has always been to milk the market. I'm yet to see a difference. The forced move to 10Mbps upload is entirely due to COVID and persons pushing for the higher speeds. Actually. Persons in "high places" pushing for a better experience. Not for speeds. Just that the technical persons involved know darn well what the issue is.
I see and understand some (most?) of the technical things going on here. At times I really don't care. In the end it comes down to corporate BS and the decisions made there. I "expected" Liberty to push more to standardize things across their markets, but why fix a cash cow? Ease the public into better things. Maybe not wait until EOL, but milk it for as darn much as you can. Trust me - I would love to use some more colorful expletives, but I can't for internet etiquette.
John Public - both the educated and uneducated - has half or less the technical know-how of the least technical person on this site. It's tedious to deal with at times. John Public also consists of some of the most retarded, backward and "ignorant" (in both contexts) persons you can imagine. Regardless of what I want to use my bandwidth for - surfing the web - browsing the dark net - filling my drives with pr0n - the ISP should provide and adhere to their own standards. Give good QoS and actually have QoS implemented.
We have decent packages in comparison to other countries now. Our price points aren't bad. But we have suffered and are suffering with the upload bandwidth.
Let me stop. Seriously. Because at the end of the day, we will not see any improvements until they are ready to do so.
Knowing the solution doesn't mean knowing the method. Yet answering correctly and regurgitation are considered "learning" and "knowledge".