The Federal Communications Commission today released MEASURING BROADBAND AMERICA, the first nationwide performance study of residential wireline broadband service in the United States.  The study examined service offerings from 13 of the largest wireline broadband providers using automated, direct measurements of broadband performance delivered to the homes of thousands of volunteers during March 2011.

Among the key findings:

Providers are being more honest about their advertised speeds: Actual speeds are moving closer to the speeds promised by those providers.  Back in 2009, the FCC found a greater disparity between advertised and delivered speeds.  But the Commission also found that certain providers are more likely to deliver than others, and certain broadband technologies are simply more reliable and consistent.

Fiber-to-the-Home service was the runaway winner, consistently delivering even better speeds than advertised (114%).  Cable broadband delivered 93% of advertised speeds, while DSL only managed to deliver 82 percent of what providers promise.  Fiber broadband speeds are consistent, with just a 0.4 percent decline in speeds during peak usage periods.

Cable companies are still overselling their networks.  The FCC found during peak usage periods (7-11pm), 7.3 percent of cable-based services suffered from speed decreases — generally a sign a provider has piled too many customers onto an overburdened network.  One clear clue of overselling: the FCC found upload speeds largely unaffected.

DSL has capacity and speed issues.  DSL also experienced speed drops, with 5.5 percent of customers witnessing significant speed deterioration, which could come from an overshared D-SLAM, where multiple DSL customers connect with equipment that relays their traffic back to the central office, or from insufficient connectivity to the Internet backbone.

Some providers are much better than others.  The FCC found some remarkable variability in the performance of different ISPs.  Let’s break several down:

• Verizon’s FiOS was the clear winner among the major providers tested, winning top performance marks across the board.  Few providers came close;
• Comcast had the most consistently reliable speeds among cable broadband providers.  Cox beat them at times, but only during hours when few customers were using their network;
• AT&T U-verse was competitive with most cable broadband packages, but is already being outclassed by cable companies offering DOCSIS 3-based premium speed tiers;
• Cablevision has a seriously oversold broadband network.  Their results were disastrous, scoring the worst of all providers for consistent service during peak usage periods.  Their performance was simply unacceptable, incapable of delivering barely more than half of promised speeds during the 10pm-12am window.
• It was strictly middle-of-the-road performance for Time Warner Cable, Insight, and CenturyLink.  They aren’t bad, but they could be better.
• Mediacom continued its tradition of being a mediocre cable provider, delivering consistently below-average results for their customers during peak usage periods.  They are not performing necessary upgrades to keep up with user demand.
• Most major DSL providers — AT&T, Frontier, and Qwest — promise little and deliver as much.  Their ho-hum advertised speeds combined with unimpressive scores for time of day performance variability should make all of these the consumers’ last choice for broadband service if other options are available.

Some conclusions the FCC wants consumers to ponder:

1. For basic web-browsing and Voice-Over-IP, any provider should be adequate.  Shop on price. Consumers should not overspend for faster tiers of service they will simply not benefit from all that much.  Web pages loaded at similar speeds regardless of the speed tier chosen.
2. Video streaming benefits from consistent speeds and network reliability.  Fiber and cable broadband usually deliver faster speeds that can ensure reliable high quality video streaming.  DSL may or may not be able to keep up with our HD video future.
3. Temporary speed-boost technology provided by some cable operators is a useful gimmick.  It can help render web pages and complete small file downloads faster.  It can’t beat fiber’s consistently faster speeds, but can deliver a noticeable improvement over DSL.

More than 78,000 consumers volunteered to participate in the study and a total of approximately 9,000 consumers were selected as potential participants and were supplied with specially configured routers. The data in the report is based on a statistically selected subset of those consumers—approximately 6,800 individuals—and the measurements taken in their homes during March 2011. The participants in the volunteer consumer panel were recruited with the goal of covering ISPs within the U.S. across all broadband technologies, although only results from three major technologies—DSL, cable, and fiber-to-the-home—are reflected in the report.

Cox alienates their customers.

Six of the 19 ‘Most Hated Companies in America’ are big cable, satellite and phone companies.  The list, published this month by The Atlantic magazine, call out the perpetrators of bad customer service, high prices, and in the case of Time Warner Cable (#3) — Internet Overcharging.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index rates companies based on thousands of surveys. In the latest index, the most-hated companies include large banks, airlines, power and telecom companies.  Especially called out this year was Time Warner Cable, celebrating a decade of public relations blunders ranging from gouging experiments on Internet service pricing, showing pornography on children’s channels, high rates, and downright lousy service in some areas.  And with CEO Glenn Britt entertaining a return to Internet rate gouging, the company’s 59/100 score still has plenty of room to fall.

#3 — Time Warner Cable (59/100) — All of the above, plus sexually harassing a North Carolina customer.

#4 — Comcast (59/100) –Dreadful customer service and poor communications left consumers with dozens of channels gone missing, outrageous rate hikes, their phone service implicated in a Florida woman’s death, and who could forget the technician that set a customer’s house on fire. This one actually lost two score points since last year.

#5 — Charter Communications (59/100) — The usual rate increases were bad enough, but Charter also told their customers they were on the hook for cable boxes lost in fires that were not their fault, was held accountable for faulty billing practices, went bankrupt, introduced its own Internet Overcharging scheme, and worst of all — their infamous PR disaster telling tornado victims in Alabama to go and find their lost cable boxes scattered somewhere in the neighborhood.  The representative on the line will wait.

#14 — AT&T (66/100) — Limited coverage and the introduction of usage pricing for data pl    …   oh sorry, AT&T dropped the call.  All reasons why AT&T wins the ‘you suck’ award among mobile providers this year.

#17 — Cox Cable (67/100) — The home of the $480 early termination fee, Cox alienates customers like few others.  They even use spacemen to harass their customers.  Bemusingly, Cox is considered a customer service success compared with our other bad boys.

#18 — Dish Network (67/100) — Trending downwards, Dish is still giving their customers a bath in bad billing and worse customer service.  They are lovers of big ad splashes with a terrifying excess of fine print which ruins the deal, if you read it.

Click to Enlarge

Frontier Communications’ DSL service delivers abysmal results for customers looking for quality time with Netflix.  For the second quarter running, the independent phone company’s ability to keep up with Netflix’s high quality video is about on par with a garden slug in a triathlon — yes, it may eventually reach the finish line, but you’ll be dead before it happens.  Even more embarrassing for Frontier, their service is occasionally beaten by Clearwire, a wireless ISP with a bandwidth throttler that can reduce your online experience to the painful days of dial-up if deemed to be using “too much.”

“Frontier sucks,” writes Stop the Cap! reader Doug in Charleston, W.V. “After they took over where Verizon fled, my ability to watch Netflix online became a source of endless frustration, so now I limit myself to mailing DVD’s back and forth.”

Remarkably, Charter Cable, which does poorly in customer satisfaction surveys, is again the runaway winner, followed by Comcast, the heavily usage-capped Cable One, Time Warner Cable, and Cox.  Verizon and AT&T only deliver middling performance.

Stop the Cap! reader Cal believes AT&T cannot be reasoned with about Internet Overcharging until you threaten to cancel.

While a significant number of customers have already pulled the plug on AT&T DSL and U-verse service over their recently-introduced Internet Overcharging schemes, some are telling Stop the Cap! they have no plans to actually disconnect service until AT&T threatens to charge them overlimit fees.

For some AT&T customers, there is no suitable alternative to the phone company.  Rural customers without a cable provider, or those who are faced with two bad choices — AT&T or Charter Communications — say they are going to test AT&T’s resolve to actually overbill them.

Cal is an AT&T customer is Missouri.  His alternative?  Charter Cable, which has an Internet Overcharging scheme of its own and delivers what he calls “third world service” in his community.  Given a choice, he intends to stay with AT&T as long as possible, pulling the plug only after his third warning of exceeding the phone company’s new broadband usage limits.  He thinks AT&T’s customer service won’t ultimately let it come to that.

“My sister works for an AT&T call center where she lives, and there was some training on the subject of handling the company’s usage caps,” Cal reports. “Get the right representative or supervisor and they can make virtually anything go away with a few keystrokes, especially if you are prepared to cancel your service over the issue.  While they may not cancel the caps, they very well may credit back any overcharges.”

Cal says his family does not intend to change their usage habits one bit.  He’ll change providers before he rations his Internet usage.

“I maintain control over our Internet access here, they don’t and sure as hell won’t,” he said.  “We do not do illegal downloads and we don’t allow torrenting or anything else that can get my kids into trouble, but we do use a Roku box and watch Netflix instead of buying pay movie channels with programming not suitable for my family to watch.”

Cal says his five children are home-schooled, which makes daily Internet access an essential part of the education process.  Many companies that provide home-schooling materials increasingly require a broadband connection.  While not as bandwidth hungry as Netflix video streaming, with five children in the home, usage adds up fast.

“It is not hard to do 260GB of usage a month, which puts us just over their U-verse limit, and I’ll be damned if I am going to pay AT&T another $10 for 10GB over,” Cal says.  “This is another reason why the Obama Administration is no better than the last one — they are all masters of big corporations who will rob us blind and use the money to pay off Congress to look the other way.”

Cal used to be a Charter Cable customer, but left when that company implemented its own Internet Overcharging scheme.

“I told Charter with their lousy service they were lucky I was a customer, but after putting usage limits on, I left,” he reports.

Cal’s neighbor thinks he has an even better way to battle AT&T.

“My neighbor will cancel service under his name and sign up under his wife’s and bounce between them whenever AT&T threatens to send him a bigger bill; he has already been doing that for years back and forth between AT&T and Charter on new customer deals,” Cal says.

Cal, and many other readers touching base with us, believe AT&T is not very responsive to customer complaints unless customers threaten to cancel service, and they believe AT&T will only change its mind when shareholders see the usage limits as counterproductive.

“AT&T can buy enough people in Washington to make street protests irrelevant, but their shareholders sure won’t like it when they see customers and revenue dropping,” Cal notes.  “If you can’t get cable, you are stuck with AT&T, so you have to keep the pressure on — file complaints with the Better Business Bureau, the FCC, and Congress.  Make them spend more money defending their policy than they earn from its proceeds.”

Storm Damage (WBRC)

A firestorm of criticism over reports of Alabama cable companies trying to charge customers for equipment lost or destroyed during April’s devastating tornadoes has forced some companies to rethink their policies, at least for this storm.

As Stop the Cap! reported earlier this week, some Alabama customers of Charter Cable and Bright House Networks were asked to pay the full value of cable boxes lost, damaged, or destroyed by the massive storms that struck last month.  Some customers complained about fees in excess of $200 for the set top boxes.  Fees for lost, stolen or damaged equipment are common at cable companies and customers are routinely asked to file insurance claims to cover the loss or damage.

But when tornadoes devastated several Alabama communities, several upset customers began taking their stories to the media, and now those policies are changing, at least for this storm.

Customers of Charter Cable have shared their stories with reporters at local newspapers and television stations, and a few are sharing them with Stop the Cap! Kelly, who requested we not publish her last name for privacy reasons, lost her home last month and is now living in Georgia.  When she called to suspend service shortly after the storm, she was told she would either have to pay for her cable box or make an insurance claim on behalf of Charter Cable.

But Charter Cable tells Stop the Cap! that policy has now been changed.

“Charter will not charge customers for missing, destroyed, or damaged equipment as a result of the recent tornadoes,” said Dylan Hall, one of Charter’s communications specialists. “We adjusted our policy shortly after the tornado in response to the large-scale and catastrophic nature of this storm. This was the right thing to do for our customers. We understand that this is a difficult time for many in Alabama.”

After Kelly reached out to Charter once again earlier today, the company not only waived the box fee, it also credited her account for an entire month of service, resulting in a substantial refund she says will be a big help for her family.

“I greatly appreciate your website bringing this more attention,” Kelly says.  “Earlier today, one of your readers who claims to work for Charter said I was making the story up, and it felt like being abused all over again.”

But after Kelly called Charter directly, things had changed.

“It was like a whole different company, and the representative I spoke with apologized at least six times and felt very bad about everything,” Kelly reports.  “I want to go back to Alabama in the summer, and the fewer bad memories I have of the last several weeks, the better.  This helps.”

Hall believes customers like Kelly likely encountered the lost or damaged cable box fee because they called right after the storm, before the company adjusted its policy.

“Unfortunately, some time elapsed before our Care agents got word to adapt our equipment policy, as we have in the past during other disastrous storms,” Hall says. “So customers who called immediately following the storm were misinformed. The policy changed to reflect the need and Care agents conveyed that to customers. Our employees continued to delivered water, tarps and other supplies to storm victims and help the Red Cross out with financial aid. The policy was changed because it was the right thing to do.”

Bright House Networks has also changed their policies in light of the horrific storm damage.

Karen Broach, regional vice president of operations for Bright House, reports the cable company has sent crews to assess damage and has automatically suspended billing for all customers it can identify were blown out of their homes by the storm:

• Bright House Networks has proactively credited accounts of customers who experienced a loss of service(s) due to the storms.
• Bright House Networks took the initiative and completed a detailed walk out of the area to identify all known destroyed homes and we suspended their billing.
• This is important for two reasons, one is financial and the second is customer convenience.  For example, if a customer subscribes to Bright House Networks Home Phone or High Speed Internet Service, this will preserve the customer’s phone number and email address so they can transfer it to their new residence.
• Suspended customer bills include suspension of equipment charges so customers can make contact with us at a time convenient to them to address their individual needs.
• Bright House Networks will not charge customers for equipment damaged or lost as a result of the storm.
• Bright House Networks never charges a disconnect fee – no matter what the reason.

Bright House customers with questions or problems can call 1-866-876-1872.

Comcast, which delivers cable service in certain parts of Tuscaloosa and Huntsville, normally requires a police report or copy of an insurance claim for lost, stolen, or damaged cable boxes.  But they too have changed their minds after noting the extent of storm damage.

Comcast has notified customers in the Tuscaloosa and Huntsville areas of the following policies:

• For consumers displaced from their homes due to the storms, their service may be placed on a temporary six-month “hold” status at no cost, which enables those with voice and data services to save their telephone numbers and email addresses.
• Equipment (such as converter boxes and cable modems) that was damaged by the storm may be exchanged at the local Comcast offices at no charge. Consumers should notify Comcast if equipment was lost in the storm and cannot be recovered.  Although routine policy requires that a police report or insurance claim be filed on lost equipment, that requirement is waived for six months due to the extreme nature of the extensive storm damage. Customers will not be charged for the exchange or replacement of equipment under these circumstances.
• Customers who lost service will be automatically credited for that period of time.  It is not necessary to notify Comcast for this credit, which will appear automatically on customers’ next bills.  Customers who still do not have service after their power was restored should contact Comcast.

Stop the Cap! notes these are ongoing issues with some cable companies, and we’ve covered similar stories in other states where customers faced demands for payment of cable equipment lost in fires.  We continue to urge cable companies to abandon lost/damaged box fees for incidents involving natural disasters or fires that are not the fault of customers.  It’s good public relations and it is the right thing to do.

[flv width=”480″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WBRC Birmingham Charter Cable Boxes 5-17-11.flv[/flv]

WBRC-TV in Birmingham shares the story of Cleon Spain, a Charter customer who was requested to pay more than $200 for his lost cable box before Charter changed its policies.  (2 minutes)