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 Review by user17600 
UPDATED: 64 days ago
member for 7.2 years, 83 visits, last login: 35 days ago
 SE CT, USA
 $85 per month
 "Fairly comprehensive channel availability"
 "Pricing, lack of viable bundles"
 "Meh, would look elsewhere if it was possible"
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(ratings match consensus)
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We've had MC (in one form or the other) since mid-2005 since relocating to south eastern CT. Started out with Eastern (now MC) for cable and HSI, but the pricing for HSI was shockingly high compared to SBC (now ATT) DSL. Tried repeatedly to negotiate pricing with them to retain me as a HSI customer, but they had no interest in negotiating. I dropped MC HSI and have been a DSL customer with ATT since end-2005.
When MC started with telephone I called about bundling, because their prices seemed high for the individual services. Turns out they have bundles, but they are not competitive with de-bundled services from ATT combined with MC cable. And again, they seem to have no interest in being competitive.
Cable service with MC is generally acceptable, though the prices have increased nearly 25% since I started in 2005. It seems we get nickled and dimed for everything - what was once free (e.g., cable box for the expanded basic) is now a monthly charge. Occasional pixelation of channels requires "hard-boot" of cable box and/or cable card (about once a month). I will say that they are willing to roll a truck when the issue can't be readily fixed over the phone.
Interestingly, it seems thatI may actually be the last MC cable customer in my neighborhood (or was last year, anyway). Every single other house has a satellite dish, and at a tech call last year, the tech commented that they don't have many customers to service up our way (just outside of Flanders four corners! not off in the woods somewhere), and he'd never been in our cul-de-sac before.
If Uverse ever rolls out in this area, I will be certainly giving a hard look at it. Perhaps then MC will decide to be more competitive on bundles.
Followup comments:  cbemerine
join:2009-10-26
Los Angeles, CA
| Speed tests are almost meaningless...sustained throughput... I know people on this site are smart enough to know that Speed tests only show what your equipment / network is capable of running during that moment in time. After the test ends, the ISP bandwidth shaping, throttling, deep packet inspection, restricting software kicks back in and reduces your bandwidth.
If anyone is using this service and also using the DD-WRT software, please go to your status / bandwidth screen on your router software and see what your sustained bandwidth is for the WAN side. Especially the upstream bandwidth. I have gotten to the point where downstream bandwidth is almost meaningless as my ability to watch streaming content is being limited more by the upstream side than the downstream side; though both my upstream and downstream are being throttled back with new software that was rolled out in my area back in May (2009) by my cable provider. Nothing on my end changed, but all of a sudden instead of seeing sustained 3Mbps to 6Mbps, I was throttled back to between 20Kbps and 100Kbps downstream and less than 40Kbps upstream. My upstream bandwidth varies from 0Kbps (yes they throttle it back to 0Kbps) to 40Kbps.
I am going through the troubleshooting hoops in hopes they will do the right thing and give me more of the bandwidth that I am paying for, but that appears to be out of my hands at the moment. All I know is that I can not stream content without a sustained upstream...the exact amount is unknown to me at this time, all I know is anything less than 100Kbps sustained will not cut it. They keep throttling it back to 0Kbps and leaves the content jumpy, stuttery (sp?) and basically unwatchable.
I sold my TV, so the Internet is my only method of receiving any content. I am not planning to purchase another TV any time soon.
I do see spikes higher, but nothing sustained. All spikes are less than 1 second in duration unless I am downloading a Linux distro. I use Skype VoIP P2P but not bit torrents (though I see the positive side of using less bandwidth by utilizing bit torrents when appropriate.
My Speed tests show over 9000 Kbps down and over 900Kbps up. I am paying over $50 per month for the turbo with powerboost service which is suppose to let me watch IP TV, movies and videos via the Internet, per my providers marketing promises in order to get me to upgrade.
Would I be better off with DSL, with a sustained 384Kbps upstream and 1.5 Kbps downstream? It would be better than what cable is allowing me to have. Heck for the price I am paying for one cable connection, I could afford two DSL connections....an interesting thought.
Thanks to the DD-WRT software I see my bandwidth in real time, 24 X 7. I love that! All the commercial software for residential routers simply does not provide the logging information I need to determine if a service is decent or not.
So, please, if you are using this provider and the DD-WRT software, please play a Hulu TV show, movie, anything and report back what your WAN bandwidth is? Thanks in advance.
BTW Greenlight in Wilson N.C. is running Fiber to people's homes and charging only $100 per month for 100Mbps / 100Mbps synchronous (unlimited, not throttled) service. And yes the telcos are fighting them via the N.C. State legislature, started last session, expected to continue this next session. If you have the politicians ears in your area and it is a small enough community to put people living their first; you have a shot at inviting Greenlight into your community as they did in Wilson N.C. after the telcos and cable companies refused to provide fiber to American homes. FWI. | |
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Review by JMcG in NH
UPDATED: 101 days ago
member for 2.1 years, 23 visits, last login: 162 days ago
Barrington,Strafford,NH
$150 per month
"It's available"
"Internet speed OK, Cable- Picture gets pixelation hiccups ongoing issue"
"If I could get DSL where I am , I would move to satelite"
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I have the 8 meg Internet package. Usually test out around 6500, pretty good I guess. Internet is pretty reliable. The biggest issue I have is Picture Quality. For the monthly price tag I would love to be able to watch TV without the constant hiccups. They just keep coming back and replacing the darn HD/DVR boxes. When I have any other option for Broadband Cable is gone!
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Review by papi4baby
UPDATED: 117 days ago
member for 1.8 years, 231 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Callaway,Saint Marys,MD
$45 per month
"Tech Support is helpful on the phone, up time. NO CAPS or Restrictions."
"Not much, sometimes slowdowns at night. And outage in the early hours."
"I really dont have a choice, but im glad is Metrocast. In my area it seems to be good, but i know alot of users have issues."
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Well, they have come a long way from what it used to be. At least in Callaway is been pretty stable in the past 6 months give or take a few. When i first moved i had issues but somehow they dissapear. Everytime i call tech support they were very helpful and were always available( also they are not overseas). The biggest thing is stable service for now, tech support 24/7 by friendly personel. And my biggest thing is no cap whatsoever and as per their terms of use they dont look into your data at all. So pretty much they provide a service to you and you get just that, no hidden tricks or nothing. I think is something alot of people are loosing with the bigger companies. I like this alot about Metrocast and i hope it never changes.
My speeds are as advertised 6/384 at around $40.00 before fees and i get that ussually. The install went pretty smooth in my part since i had my own modem i just called them to have activated and walla i had broadband the same day.
The bad thing that i can recall is the really bad slowdowns at the begining it was pretty bad, but i kept and calling and somehow it got fix.
The value for the money is just my personal opinion since i think broadband should be priced anywhere from $15 to $35 depending on the speed. So i think $30 bucks would be fair, but hey at least i can get service.
*****Update July 14 2009*****Just an update. Service has been about the same. I did have a storm pass by and nock out the internet a while back. It fried the little green box outside my house. Killed my router and my daughters computer nic card. Metrocast fixed the issue outside. I was left to deal with everything inside the house. Yes i was behind a surge protector for the cable and CAT line where not so i guess the surge reached that way.
Their top tier called a gamer package is way over priced for what you get, but at least is an option. You get a 30% download and 50% upload in speed for about 40% increase in price. So for $43 you get 7/512(i never get close to 500 on test). And for $70 you get 10/1.
Followup comments: 
odog
Cable Centric Vendor Biased
Premium
join:2001-08-05
Norcross, GA
clubs:
1 edit | glad to hear it »Metrocast Communications
If you do have any problems you can contact us on BBR as well. | |
| | papi4baby
join:2008-01-19
Callaway, MD | Re: glas to hear it Thanks. | |
| chess
join:2009-09-03
California, MD | Installation Fee I think its bogus if you have your own modem, all you need to provide is the MAC Addy, and your on. They want to charge 49.95 to do that from there PC.
They are nuts, but i have no other real options :\ | |
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 Review by Opticwonders
UPDATED: 157 days ago
member for 222 days, 60 visits, last login: 68 days ago
Sanbornton,Belknap,NH
$40 per month
 about 5 days
"Nothing."
"Slow speeds. High prices. Old and faulty equipment. Rude customer service reps and technicians."
"Go elsewhere! Look at EVDO, DSL, or even dialup."
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This company is horrible! The prices are high and the speeds are low. Tech support can never help you with anything. Service is unreliable and modems must be swapped frequently. We have had to call support so many times that they are no longer willing to honor their free tech support feature included with this business account.
We have had to swap modems almost every day. They keep blaming us for having bad wiring in our building, etc... We have had a new line installed and had a crew of professional electricians check our lines. They found nothing wrong. Most of the time, speeds aren't that far from dialup. The arrival window is always 9AM to 6PM. The only time they have EVER been on time is when we had the initial installation...
Also, they have left our work area a mess. They had to drill several holes for a wall outlet, only to learn that they were unusable. The aren't even kind enough to fill in the holes or to install a wall plate. The current cable outlet is about 5 inches in diameter and has no wall plate covering it.
Another thing - there is only a single person that can upgrade/downgrade/cancel our account in the entire company. Trying to get a hold of this person is like finding a needle in a haystack. You have to bombard their answering machine with messages until they finally call back.
You should avoid this provider at all cost! You will save time and money doing so. You should seriously consider using dial-up, EVDO, or a satellite connection instead.
UPDATE: Early May 2009
Still horrible. We haven't had to swap modems anymore but the connection is dropping out every few minutes and the internet has been really slow. I still stand by my original review. Avoid Metrocast at all costs.
UPDATE: May 18, 2009
Yep, still terrible. Go elsewhere.
UPDATE: June, 2009
See ya later, Metrocast. =)
Followup comments: 
ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium
join:2005-03-14
Putnam, CT
clubs: | Take some pictures of the installs... And whatever you can and post them in the Metrocast forum. The guys there can really help out. | |
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Opticwonders
Premium
join:2009-03-31
united state | Re: Take some pictures of the installs... Okay. I've added some pictures in the Metrocast forum. | |
| 
Fluke
join:2008-06-24
Plainfield, CT
2 edits | Welcome to the forums Welcome to the forums. Sorry about the trouble you are having.
Join us in the forum for metrocast and maybe one of us techs that work for metrocast can help you
--
Get cape... wear cape... fly! | |
| |
Opticwonders
Premium
join:2009-03-31
united state
 ·Metrocast Communic..
·Comcast
| Re: Welcome to the forums Comcast is the ISP where I live and I am very happy with it. Metrocast is at a different location here at the non-profit school.
Also, any time I ask to upgrade/change etc. my account, they insist that only one person can do that and I will have to leave a message, etc... | |
| jmccarvill
join:2009-07-07
Tilton, NH
| Metrocast has problems I live in Tilton, NH and have the 7MB cable modem package from Metrocast. The speed is great during afternoon hours while everyone is at work (including me), but between 7 pm and around 10:30 pm the download speed is almost unbearable.
I clock speeds using speakeasy.net to NY or Chicago at around 1MB ev ery night. I have contacted their tech support people by phone 4 times in the last couple of weeks and by email 3 times. They tell me it has been elevated to "Tier 2", but I think they are just waiting for me to go away. The people I have spoken with seem sympathetic and polite, but do not appear to be getting anything done.
I am very disappointed because I would like to be able to watch some streaming video and actually use the internet at home without becoming completely frustrated.
I also have a Metrocast business line at my office in Northfield, NH and I am able to clock high download speeds there at all hours.
I think they are just skimping on their main pipe and need to provide more bandwidth for their customers or stop offering 7MB service. Call it 1MB download service and I would not be angry (I also would not be paying for it). | |
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 Review by veloct
UPDATED: 172 days ago
member for 6.8 years, 2242 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Moosup,Windham,CT
$43 per month (month by month)
about 3 days
"Only speed upgrade over low- and mid-tier DSL in my area."
"Service is spotty at best, not a good thing if you need to have your net service. Tech support by phone is very poor."
"Go with DSL, Fios or U-Verse if available to you."
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Signed up on the 2nd of April after many conversations vial IM with odog, he was very helpful and straight forward. After some issues with SBC (billing problem, loss of speed, lackluster support) I decided to switch to cable. So far is great, time will tell but so far I'm happy with myeastern.com.
April 13, 2004:
Today we got a nice surprise from ECC and we got upgraded to 2500/256, at least for now. They are going to test it and see how it goes, it may go up or down but it's nice still to get upgraded. Kudos to Owen and the staff at myeastern.com
February 24, 2005
I upgraded last night to the new Ultra package ( 6.0/512 with DHCP) with a new 60 Gb cap for only $20 more per month. The service has been good (seems we have one outage per month but it's not for too long and i was taken care off when i complained) and the service you get is the best in the broadband game, no doubt. The staff at myeastern.com is great.
May 2005
Moving to Moosup in a week and I'm glad to find out that ECC is my cable provider here so I'm going with Digital Basic and the 3.0/256 DHCP tier. I just wasn't really using the 6.0/512 but I'm still happy to be able to stay with ECC. They just plain kick ass.
June 2005
Been here for almost two weeks and ECC has been rock solid. I decided to upgrade to the DVR box instead of the basic digital box, glad we did. We love it. And as usual the internet connection is great and the support Owen and Rob provide is beyond great, ECC is as good as it can get.
Dec 2005
I have nothing bad to say about ECC, they are great. A little pricey but that's not due to the broadband but the cable service for what we pay is not worth it to me. I am going back to SBC and use their bundle service which will save me quite a bit and I'll have a reliable phone line and still enjoy broadband and digital TV service.
March 2009
Back to Metrocast (myeastern). Their 7/512 service is great. Everything is working as intended.
March 2009 part 2
Been connected for a little over a week and have had to call tech support twice (30 mins. total phone time each time), one for TV (cable box decided to stop working) and now for internet (no connection at all). I called and I'm being told it may be Monday before a tech is even able to come out to our apartment. Now I remember why I left in the first place. Not happy at all. Lucky that our neighbor has been kind enough to let us connect through their DSL line.
April 2009
About a month and a half in and I've had 1 outage and 2 minor hiccups so far. I think I've downloaded a file once in that time where I actually had a higher download rate than with my old DSL line. Jury is still out though, I won't go back to DSL just yet, we'll see how things go in May.
May 2009
Still getting the odd connection drop here and there. Makes no sense at all, anything happens and I have to unplug everything to the modem and reconnect everything just to reset it. I'm probably going to go back to DSL in June, seems that cable is still subpar in CT.
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Review by tony_s_fan
Posted: 178 days ago
member for 181 days, 10 visits, last login: 148 days ago
Putnam,Windham,CT
$121 per month
about 2 days
"F-A-S-T Internet service. Pretty good channel lineup"
"Putnam CT isn't updated yet. Don't have the channels others have."
"Good internet service, tv is good. Need more channels, tho!"
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Dropped AT&T landline/dsl and DirecTV to save $'s. The southern part of the state has more channels. Putnam isn't upgraded yet. Tech was ho-hum about the service. Putnam's current installation is 70's vintage. The internet is BLAZINGLY fast. Getting around 7mbps. I've only been w/Metrocast for a couple days, so if anything changes, I'll update.
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Review by quickdraw117
UPDATED: 223 days ago
member for 6.4 years, 111 visits, last login: 20 days ago
Weatherly,Carbon,PA
$95 per month
"none"
"big bucks for basic crap"
"shop elsewhere if you can"
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if you can get dsl thru verizon you might want to seriously check them out for as little as 75.00 a month for tv, the net, and phone it is a bargain. metrocast speeds for cable are erratic at best. during the day I test around 2 mbps advertised speed is 6 they have no reason why other than to call me a liar. and we pay a hundred bucks a month for the net and basic cable.not a good buy but that is all I have available other than dial-up or satellite.
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Review by alanmoss
UPDATED: 224 days ago
member for 2.2 years, 22 visits, last login: 178 days ago
King George,King George,VA
$52 per month
"The only highspeed internet I can get where I live in King George"
"Cyclic speeds and pings because of user growth"
"The only highspeed internet I can get where I live in King George"
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About 2 years ago they were leasing a T3 line (45Mbit/s) from Verizon for their backend connection to the internet backbone for about 1000 6Mbit customers. At peak times in the evening it was about as slow as dialup. Since then they have switched over to Cox as their backbone provider. Things have been quite a bit better. Unfortunately to start 2009 they upgraded our service to 7Mbit/s download and introduced some new issues. They are currently depriortizing UDP traffic per their tech support. This causes ping times to be quite erratic in the evening making gaming in first person shooters tough at peak times. Their tech support seems to think this is a proper thing to do and has no intent of changing their traffic prioritization scheme. Oh well, this is what I get for living in the boonies!
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 Review by fauzt0
UPDATED: 229 days ago
member for 8.5 years, 2101 visits, last login: 18 days ago
Groton,New London,CT
$52 per month
about 1 days
"Great Speed, Low Ping, Farely good support."
"Connection drops atleast 3 times a month."
"Good speeds...Sometimes a neusance...But overall, good service."
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It's Comcast so its going to be fast but it has its issues at times. If you live in Groton get Comcast and not Groton utilities!
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Review by ski93
UPDATED: 255 days ago
member for 4.7 years, 137 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Northwood,Rockingham,NH
$160 per month
about 5 days
"Speeds Are OK"
"Don't Offer True High Speed Teirs"
"Bundle Deal Is No Deal"
| Pre Sales information:
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Came from a town serviced by Comcast Corp...Speeds were great..years ago started at 1.5 down and 256 up...my price had never gone up 42.95 since mid to late 1990's up to just before I moved I had 6mb down and 1.5 to 2 mb up...solid...never had many reasons to call so service was fine...I moved to Northwood NH where the broadband plant (cable wire system) was rebuilt from the ground up...I called Metrocast and 3 days later they sent Sub Contractor...eeeeeee noooooo BUT WAIT this guy was good ...ran new service to my home and set my modem up on my rack system and was done in about 1.5 hrs...I have had only 2 outages in my area since moving here...both were during late night snow storms...they were quick to respond and quick to get services back up and running...slower tier speed services but the price also matches..no real complaints..only that I don't have their tv..too expensive..I have dish network...lol
Update as of 7/17/08
made the switch from dish satv to metrocast dtv and my cheap voip service to metrocast phone now bundling..price went waaaaaaayyyyy up. triple play with 2 dtv/std converters 160.00 month...lost lots of channels i had with dish 2 dual tuner converters and 300 + channels to 2 dtv converters single tuner and got std/dtv recption....yuk pictures look like s**t...over priced for what you get..if the ondemand service with metrocast had some decent content or content at all it might alllllmost be worth it...but sadly its not...will prob drop their tv service 6/8 months and go back to dish network...sorry metrocast...you video service is just not worth the money...no content...no pic quality...no thanks
Update as of 8/10/08 (Sooner Than I thought)
Sigh...I miss my 100% digital quality...I thought I could wait 6/8 months to dump the Metrocast video service to return to Dish Network...I just came in from the pooring rain..Worth it though.. I just remounted the LNBs to the Dish antennas and hooked up my two dual tuner receivers and disconnected the video from Metrocast in the basement...I didnt even have the Metrocast service long enough to return the Dish components...Sooooo much better...even the locals....Im calling this week to drop their video service, it just is not worth the cost...no on demand content...poor pic quality...I like the guide thats it...not worth the added expense..I gave them a chance and it just isnt worth keeping...
UPDATE 2/22/09
Completed dump of all Metrocast services except High Speed Internet...Dropped their phone for Via Talk Voip service...Quality was pretty good and price was not pretty good..Not all Metrocast channels are simocast in digital..not great channel lineups..poor digital tiering....poor on demand content..damn the price was way to much for way too little...My Dish network is far better on price, on content, on picture quality...no on demand but thats ok..oh my god the HD service and DVR big step up from Metrocast...I'll take three seperate bills and get a deal than bundle with Metrocast and spend 160 dollars a month...
Metrocast was 160.00 per month with bundle
Metrocast Internet 44 dollars a month
Via Talk Voip Phone 16 dollars a month
Dish 250 w/hd 60 dollars a month
Sorry Metrocast your just not worth it
Followup comments: 
tenpin784
I Went To The Dark Side?
join:2001-03-30
New Durham, NH
| ahh my hometown That's where I am from 
Haven't had to many issues over there.
Don't forget to hop on over to »Metrocast Communications if you do experience anything odd, or just to come on over and chat.
--John
--
Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.
Disclaimer: These are MY comments, my employer cant be held responsible. | |
| ultatryon
join:2002-04-10
Waterford, CT
| Missing channels? What channels are we missing that you had that you wish to view? I mean, yes, Dish has 300+ channels, but how many of those are crapy shopping channels?
Unfortunately, I cannot say much about the PQ up there, as I have never seen it myself, but I do know changes are in the works.. | |
| | ski93
join:2005-02-14
Northwood, NH
·Metrocast Communic..
1 edit | Re: Missing channels? Metrocast digital basic only gives me 47 channels above the std 78 channels of exp basic cable 2 dtv converters only some of the channels over ch 78 are in a digital format 60.00
Dish digital service gave me 300+ channels 2 dual tuners (4 tv's) all digital even my locals from nh/ma markets 57.00
metrocast gives me some maine channels which is kinda nice for news and weather and some on demand service not much though | |
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tenpin784
I Went To The Dark Side?
join:2001-03-30
New Durham, NH | Simulcast All of the channels are simulcasted in digital.
That was done before the first of the year rolled around. | |
| | ski93
join:2005-02-14
Northwood, NH | Re: Simulcast You would never know it from the picture quality with the DCT200 series | |
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