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Review by skatesprosupport
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 94 days ago
 Saratoga Springs,Utah,UT
 $50 per month "Fast internet for a decent price" "Very spotty connection issues monthly" "Terrible tech support, spotty internet issues that happen consistently every month"
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I regret to post this review, but Rapidwave leaves me no choice. We've been
using Rapidwave for about 3.5 years now. For the first 2 to 2.5 years,
their services have been amazing. I'm not sure what has happened in the
last 12 months, but their internet services have turned from great, to
pathetic.
Since about June of 2012, we started getting outages to our internet, where
powercycling our system and router wouldn't fix anything. We had to go
through a Tier 2 technician, who then adjusted the signal and settings of
our unit, and we were up and running again. Sometime in July, same thing
happens. We get an outage, go through a Tier 2 technician, who does the
same thing, and we're back up and running again. This has happened almost
religiously on a monthly basis in September, October, November and so on.
We now come to February, only this time, not even the Tier 2 technicians
seem to be capable of fixing our internet. We lost internet Friday morning,
it is now Tuesday afternoon and we STILL have no internet. We're currently
up to 4.5 days of no service and NO explanation as to why. Every day they
say they'll have a resolution on the next day by 12pm. That date has been
pushed back 3 times now. We NEVER get calls back, even when we request it!
We only get an email with an update on the status (not to mention their
ticket system is terrible). To this day and the dozens of calls we've made
to them, they've never, ever called back. No follow-up, nothing at all,
ever.
If you want an internet service that gives 60% (that's our current rate
from pinging google.com through command prompts) connection rate, and tech
support that never calls back and isn't available the ENTIRE weekend (and
no, Tier 1 support is a joke, all they can help with is powercycling your
router), then sure, Rapidwave is here for all your spotty needs! What an
absolute joke of a company who started off good, but turned sour.
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Review by scottsama 
member for 3.5 years, 0 visits, last login: 3.5 years ago
updated 3.5 years ago
- American Fork,Utah,UT
- $49 per month
 about 1 days- "Super fast"
- "Outage on my first work day"
- "Jury is still out"
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So today is a Monday. I signed up and got installed last Friday (3 days ago). I need the internet for my work. I have a home office. This morning I could not get connected. I called and they told me they were performing "maintenance". I was irate and asked why they are doing maintenance in the middle of a work day. Apparently it was some issue that needed to be taken care of immediately. I called again and they told me the service was up. I ran through a bunch of steps but not success. A short time later it spontaneously connected. I lost about 3 hours of work. I find it ironic that I switched over from Qwest DSL that I have had for several years and never even had one minute of down time and my first workday with this new company I have a 3 hour outage. They assured me this is a very rare occurrence. I guess I will stick it out a bit longer but I am suspect of the service. I do like the speed. I am getting between 7-8 mbps download and 1+ upload.
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Review by roderickng
member for 3.7 years, 3 visits, last login: 3.7 years ago
updated 3.7 years ago
- Eagle Mountain,Utah,UT
- $49 per month
- "Always on"
- "Inconsistent speed"
- "Acceptable to Good"
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I had a very bad experience with Clearwire in Boise, ID. once and that made me very hesitant about getting involve with wireless Internet. So far after 1.5 month with Rapidwave I rate the experience as 'Acceptable' due to the fact that while the connection is reliable, the speed have been inconsistent from what was advertised. The download speed ranges anywhere from the peak of 6-7mb/sec, which is rare, down to below 1.5mb/sec, which was often. From a support email I was informed that my radio was moved to another 'sector', whatever that means, and for a few days speed was above 2mb/sec. Then over a weekend something happened and speed dropped back to below 2mb/sec again and remained there, with an occassional spike above 2mb/sec according random testings on speedtest.net. Thought it might be my equipments so every time I noticed the speed dropped below 2mb/sec I rebooted the router and the switch but no-joy. Ping latency gone as high as 300-400 ms.
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Update.
I have dropped speed below 1mb/s before. Then after whatever that Rapidwave tech support did on their end, now the speed hovers around 2mb/s. The burst above that is a bonus. I was advised to bypass the router and switch and see if either components are the culprits. Instead I left my equipments alone and over the past several days, I monitored through speedtest.net, with screenshots, and see what goes on. The prolonged speed drop to below 2mb/s began to occur around 2000hr and continue to around 0100-0200hr, with spikes up to 3mb/s. Sometimes dropped to below 1mb/s, but that does not stay down there for long. After 0300hr, speed resume to around 2mb/s with spikes above 3mb/s or even 4mb/s. Then during the day speed hovers around 3mb/s with spikes to 5-6mb/s. May be there is something in my router and switch that are triggered by time that slow my speed? Both are standard consumer Linksys units.
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Review by paaronjo
member for 4 years, 0 visits, last login: 4 years ago
lodged 4 years ago
- Lehi,Utah,UT
- $49 per month
- about 2 days
- "Great speeds, realiable, fast responding customer support and no usage limits."
- "Lose connection momentarily when really bad weather hits."
- "Hands down, undisputably the best ISP available in Utah!"
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I have had Rapidwave for since April 2006 with free installation and no contract. These guys don't need to lock you in with a contract because why would you leave when you have the best deal in town!
I have 7-8MB download and 1-2MB upload most of the time. I've used VOIP the whole 3yrs we've had Rapidwave and it works great without affecting speeds. With business ventures we run, we're on the internet 90% of the day and we've had very few problems over 3yrs. On occasion that I have called customer support they are always fast to sort out the issue and I have even had company owners call me back because it's late and no-one else was available.
I really feel that Rapidwave puts me first. Don't pay Comcast's high rates or be restricted by Digis' download limits. My neighbor switched to Comcast and hates their voip, doesn't enjoy their over-inflated rates or modem rental fees and wishes they'd never left the green pastures of Rapidwave!
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Review by paulycus
member for 4 years, 0 visits, last login: 4 years ago
updated 4 years ago
- American Fork,Utah,UT
- $49 per month
- (month by month)
- about 5 days
- "Impressive, friendly service. Blazing fast connection speed."
- "Limited coverage area, website sucks"
- "I love these people"
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I am in the software industry and work often from home, so I have pretty demanding bandwidth requirements. As I've lived in different parts of Utah valley, I've used high-end Comcast packages, high-end Qwest packages, iProvo via Veracity and via MSTAR, and UtahBroadband.
I'm happier with Rapidwave than I was with any of the others- both in terms of speed and service. Install guy was friendly and accommodating. He said Rapidwave makes sure none of its towers are crowded with too many customers, so that the service doesn't get slower over time.
There was one time in the past year when I lost connection for a few hours, but they knew about the issue (support people were helpful and knowledgeable) and had it fixed promptly. Overall service uptime has been as good or better than the landline services, which frankly surprises me.
I've recommended Rapidwave to a few friends, and their experiences have been the same as mine, which gives me even more confidence in extending that recommendation.
One thing I would like to see is a more dynamic and useful website. Let people enter their addresses to see if they can get coverage, maybe, or give users a way to see if there are known issues affecting their service.
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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain byu.edu)
lodged 4 years ago
- Saratoga Springs,Utah,UT
- $54 per month
- about 1 days
- "Great customer service. They even swapped out my radio because it wasn't working before I evennoticed."
- "Nothing more than the normal downtime."
- "Great value. The service comes with one public IP address and the speeds are great."
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I've been using Rapidwave for over two years now and they have been great. The customer service is fantastic and the speeds are as well. I've never had any problem that wasn't fixed very fast.
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Review by saltcity
member for 4 years, 3 visits, last login: 2.4 years ago
updated 4 years ago
- Herriman,Salt Lake,UT
- $49 per month
- (month by month)
- about 6 days
- "Blazing fast speed better than most cable and dsl offerings, no bandwidth caps!"
- "Web site isn't current with residential digital phone service available in some areas"
- "Not the cheapest service, but the extra quality far outweighs any extra costs"
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At different addresses, I have used Qwest DSL, Comcast Cable, and two different fixed wireless companies, now part of Digis. Moving to a semi rural / new development area in Southern Salt Lake County, Comcast and Qwest haven't invested into the infrastructure to provide internet service to these areas. Utopia is still only available in limited areas and hasn't had the funding to expand to as many areas as previously proposed. As a result, all of my research has found that Digis (»digis.net) and RapidWave (»www.rapidwave.net) were my best options with both offering fixed wireless service. Unfortunately Digis didn't look like a truly viable option with their extreme bandwidth caps (hidden in the fine print). I almost went with them, but asked the sales person if they can lift their bandwidth caps... she talked to her manager who said that they only option is to sign me up for a commercial contract... at a significantly higher price! After checking out the numerous other bad reviews on this site about Digis, I went with RapidWave.
For those not familiar with fixed wireless, it can offer speeds comparable to DSL and Cable but works through a dish antenna installed on your roof similar to DirectTV or Dish Network. Instead of pointing the dish towards a satellite, it is pointed to an antenna mounted on a cell tower or similar location. This requires direct line-of-sight, so any obstructions can block service.
In my case, the technician came out on a Monday to confirm that I could have service. Lucky for me, they had an antenna mounted on a water tank on the nearby foothills with no obstructions to block service. When I moved in on Saturday morning, the RapidWave technician was there on Saturday afternoon to install the roof mounted antenna and the service was up in minutes with 5Mb down and 2Mb up. I have run tests that got over 7Mb down. (This is different from other ISPs who promise a speed that you will rarely actually see ... and then cap your bandwidth so that you only get decent speeds for a short time!)
In the past month since it was installed, I have had great service with no notable downtime. I have also signed up for their residential VOIP service which is not listed on their web site (call their number on their web site if you are interested). The VOIP is $29 and offers Quality Of Service (QOS) to ensure high quality in your calls, which isn't available if you go with a traditional internet phone service like Vonage.
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Review by amycjgrace
member for 7.6 years, 4 visits, last login: 4.6 years ago
updated 4.7 years ago
- Lehi,Utah,UT
- $50 per month
- about 4 days
- "Everything."
- "Occasionally slow (but very infrequent)"
- "Great Deal and Performacne (Digis Who)"
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I'd suffered with Digis for almost 5 years (what was I thinking) and when they started throttling their connection beginning at 500 mb per month (sometimes the size of a large batch of Windows updates) I finally got the motivation to look elsewhere. I had to look hard, but finally found Rapidwave. Thank heavens!! What a difference. Plus, I was told by Rapidwave that I was quite far from their antenna, and my connection may be slower than if I was closer. I was a bit skeptical when they told me this, but after a couple of days, I was hooked. If this is slow for their network, I would really like to see what those closer to the tower get. Their routers must be on fire.
No bandwidth limits. Speed generally at 5 Mb download and 1 Mb upload (occasionally slower upload, but rarely ever slower download). I also appreciate the fact that they offer 1 free static I.P. address so I can continue running my home based web server.
I don't really have many other options for broadband in my area, but at this point, even if something else became available, I don't think I change (unless FTTH became available at my place). The order and install was painless and easy. Everything great. My only complaint is the occasional slowing of upload speeds (sometimes to 256k) which is really tough when running a web server (my upload speed equals the other person's download speed). However, I believe Rapidwave is going to deploy an antenna closer to my residence soon which will greatly increase both up and down speeds (I might not be remembering this correctly, but I could swear they told me this).
My suggestion to anyone still using Digis anywhere within Rapidwave's service area, switch ASAP, you won't regret it. My only concern is that Digis has been buying up every WISP in the area, and I hope Rapdiwave can withstand. I also hope Rapidwave doesn't start imposing silly bandwidth limits or throttling.
The only other complaint I have with Rapidwave, is that they're hard to find for people looking to switch. I don't know how to get them better coverage other than I tell people about them any chance I get.
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Review by chillami
member for 5.3 years, 1 visits, last login: 5 years ago
lodged 5 years ago
- Eagle Mountain,Utah,UT
- $50 per month
- "Good Customer service"
- "Unreliable for wireless"
- "I'm hoping to find another service"
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Our primary connection in our home is wireless. When we first had RapidWave set up it was going out all the time, the tech guy who had come to our home to install it had recommended we get another router as the one we had was a couple of years old. He told us what to get and so we bought that one. We still have problems, when I called they told me it was our router. I explained that I bought a new one at the suggestion of the tech who had been to our home and that I had purchased the one he suggested. I was then told I'd been given bad advice and the router I'd purchased was crappy. So, when this is directly connected it's okay (only goes out about once a week that way). We had this installed for like 200.00, we moved 2 months later and they charged another 100.00 for us to move it, that on top of a new router and we're into this service for a lot of money. I think they carry their own hardware, that's probably the best route to go.
We had EM city service for about 18 months. We used our old, out of date router. It went out maybe 5 times in 18 months. The only reason we didn't stick with it is we thought RapidWave would be faster (it doesn't seem to be) and we didn't want to sign a contract. I wish we had stuck with that one. If you're just using the Internet for fun, RapidWave will be fine. I do video editing and I upload large files to my server and for me, this hasn't been a good service.
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Review by Beau6183
member for 5.3 years, 5 visits, last login: 4.9 years ago
updated 5.2 years ago
- Eagle Mountain,Utah,UT
- $50 per month
- (month by month)
- about 1 days
- "Actually deliver what they promise, have the infrastructure to back it up"
- "A little spendy, weird hardware ownership assumption policy"
- "So far the best option for my location"
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I just switched from Digis (avoid! nightmare galore!) to RapidWave (»www.rapidwave.net), and the difference so far is night and day.
The sales person was VERY well informed and friendly. He explained in detail their infrastructure, which by the way sounds very robust and NOT oversold. I signed up for the residential service ($49.99/mo). 5 down, 1 up.
Install was a little steep at $199, and that doesn't include hardware if you opt to buy it. They use the Motorola Canopy line. If you happen to have you're own equipment, you can use it. However they have this funky policy that if you connect it to their network, they have to take ownership of it (read: they don't offer buy it from you). However, when they do take ownership they do take over full maintenance, troubleshooting and full replacement if needed.
The installer came out less than a day after ordering and took only a couple hours to set the equipment up.
After the installation was done, I immediately came to dslreports and ran the flash speed test on the Palo Alto server. I got the exact speeds they were selling: 5 down, 1 up.
Other than the steep prices and weird equipment ownership policy, I can't say anything negative about this service. Granted, I've only had it for a day so I'll update on reliability after having it for a month or two.
1-MONTH UPDATE
I've been up and running with RapidWave now for about 1 1/2 months and it's still a night and day difference compared to Digis. Speed is blazing! I run a few websites and do offsite backups to my home network on a weekly basis. These backups are around 2 gb in size and I've been downloading them at a consistent 650 kiloBYTES per second (so 650 * 8 = 5200 kiloBITS per second or 5.07 megabits p/s). No bandwidth throttling (except for BitTorrent/multi-threaded p2p traffic). I've been watching a lot of streaming movies on netflix with very little buffer time and full quality video. Digis would cause me to buffer 20-30 minutes and still only get medium quality video.
The connection does seem to hiccup every once in a while for about 20 seconds, though, and I'm not sure why. I have yet to call customer service on it though.
The accounting team generates monthly PDF-formatted account statements and payment receipts that are emailed to you -- makes it really easy to print out and file for tax write offs. They also do monthly referral credits and email you receipts for those too so you know exactly how many referral credits you have.
All in all I haven't been this satisfied with an ISP in a VERY long time. I highly recommend RapidWave. Yes, they're a little more expensive, but in my area you DEFINITELY get what you pay for.
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