EPBFI Service Upgrade

[Randall53]

Just got bumped from 50 to 100 megabaud (is that correct term?) per second for the same price! Is FREAK'N fast! They also dropped the price on 1000 mbs price to something like $70? My better half called them and they said we could upgrade to the 1000 mbs for ten dollars more a month. So, from 50 to 100 was no extra charge, then to 1000 for ten bucks. Suck eggs Comcast!!!!

[GlockSpock]

100 Mbps (Mega bits per second)

 

1MB = 8Mb

1 BYTE = 8 bits

1 bit = One "1" or "0"

 

So...100Mbps (100Mb/s) = 12.5 MBps (12.5 MB/s)

 

I think I typed all that correctly.

 

It's subtle but it could save your life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iubJ-XSL9go

Edited September 18, 2013 by CZ9MM

[MadMarx]

Yea, I called at noon yesterday and said "Gig Me". Gonna be sweet. We have a gig at work and it is really fast

[Randall53]

Yep. wife called about 8pm last night and they called this morning and said they would be here around 1pm. to upgrade us. now that is customer service!

[MadMarx]

Be prepared for a brief power outage. They told me they have to cut the power to swap the ONT's (Optical Network Terminal). They asked if I wanted anyone to be there when they did it and I said nope just do it. Maybe tonight I will have the Gig

[GlockSpock]

To anyone getting the 1000Mb/s speed, run a Speedtest.net test and upload the screenshot here. EPB isn't available where I live, but I'd like to take a look!

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Oh, okay. Electric Power Board. Are you talking about the Lightspeed thing? We have that in Clarksville, but I haven't

heard much good about it. I'd be curious to hear more. My wife was egging me on to change away from Charter, which

seems to be much better than they used to, nowadays.

 

I stayed away from Lightband, or Lightspeed(whatever they call it) because it is government competing with private

business, as far as I'm concerned. But that's just me. EPB is no different than CDE. Both are essentially government

owned. I still have problems because of that, but I am curious to hear more about the service.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Dunno anything about lightspeed, and maybe epb fiberoptic will suck eggs at some point in the future, but for the year I've been using EPB optical, it is that rare unicorn, a solid well-run gov related service.

The service is fast and reliable and the installation and support folk are top notch. Locals answer the phone. Don't have to try to understand Indian or East European in order to make an order or get support. Not that I've needed tech support, except I called tech support with pre-sales questions.

If typical gov services were as good as EPB then it would be much more difficult to justify a libertarian stance.

OTOH, ALL utilities are gov-sanctioned monopolies, so a comcast or a water or gas company that might happen to be privately owned, is at least "joined at the hip" to government. So ditching comcast for EPB ain't exactly selling out private enterprise. :)

[mav]

I am out in East Brainerd and have EPB fiber optic service.  It is much better than Comcast.  I already had the 100 MB/s service, I wonder if I can get the 1GB/s for $10 extra too.

[Guest Keal G Seo]

All of you that live down there can suck eggs. lol j/k I'm jealous with my 20 down 10 up from Comcast.

[Murgatroy]

All of you that live down there can suck eggs. lol j/k I'm jealous with my 20 down 10 up from Comcast.

I remember when I was stoked to get a dedicated phone line to run a 14.4KB/s dial-up.

 

We run 20MB/s up 10MB/s down now with a whole host of other features (including VOIP and HDTV programming.)

 

I would be stoked to have 1GB/s speeds.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I'll be curious how much diff the 1000 mbps makes.

In my speed tests, it matters the distance to the server and maybe speed of the server. Running a speed tester from chatt to atlanta or nashville, it often comes dang near my theoretical 50 mbps up/down. But going into the north west or north east gets slower, and ferinstance testing into victoria bc it gets down to the ballpark of 10 mbps up/down.

So maybe if I had 100 mbps it could do 20 mbps to victoria? Or maybe all the nodes between here and there wouldn't do much better than 10 mbps even if I had the 1000 mbps connection? Would be interesting to know. Edited September 18, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[MacGyver]

 but for the year I've been using EPB optical, it is that rare unicorn, a solid well-run gov related service.

 

Government sponsored monopoly and fiber optic?  Wow!  This is just too good when you reconcile that with stuff like PRISM.  I bet they don't even have to go to court.  They just build the splitter going to the NSA right into the system...

 

Not that you're apparently any better off with your local independent ISP.  The government has clearly shown that they can get that data as well even without the ISP's knowledge.

[mav]

Government sponsored monopoly and fiber optic?  Wow!  This is just too good when you reconcile that with stuff like PRISM.  I bet they don't even have to go to court.  They just build the splitter going to the NSA right into the system...

 

Not that you're apparently any better off with your local independent ISP.  The government has clearly shown that they can get that data as well even without the ISP's knowledge.

 

Well, you know what they say.  If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about.  ;)

[MacGyver]

Well, you know what they say.  If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about.

Y'all are going to get my soapbox out before the day's over. 

 

This is one that gets me riled up, and I wish that we could get people to actually put down their phones long enough to care.  Mind you, if I get going on it, I'll probably wind up having to report myself or something :)

[battleop]

Not that you're apparently any better off with your local independent ISP.  The government has clearly shown that they can get that data as well even without the ISP's knowledge.

 

 

Problem is that EPB has run all of the local ISPs out of business in their effort to crush Comcast.   Now that they have run the last Locally Owned and Operated residential ISP out of business they have set their sights on the Locally Owned and Operated mom and pop IT shops and local shops who sell and service phone systems and PBXs.    I have heard that they will soon attack companies who sell Alarms and monitoring.    

 

Unless EPB is going after your job you are going to think that spending 100s of millions of our tax dollars for a super fast internet speed you can't even use yet isn't that bad.

[TripleDigitRide]

I'm not an expert on this subject, but I thought a fellow member who is also in the tech business said that anything over a certain speed (much, much lower than 1gbps ) is useless, for one reason or another. I very well could have misunderstood.

[Guest Keal G Seo]

I'm not an expert on this subject, but I thought a fellow member who is also in the tech business said that anything over a certain speed (much, much lower than 1gbps ) is useless, for one reason or another. I very well could have misunderstood.

Well it is useless to a point. If you only have one computer that is. However, it is great if you have a few things hooked up. Like my house right now, we have 2 computers, 2 smart phones, magicjack phone, satellite reciever and a smart TV that streams connected. There is no way we can run all of them at once on our current service.
So if you only have 1 computer hooked up and nothing else, it might not be worth it to you just yet with the limits on what a computer can do. Although I have read about people in apartments getting together to get Gbps service to one apartment and splitting the bill with sharing over wifi. This is with Google fiber though, I don't know if EPB offers anything to apartments yet.

[pops572]

I HATE you all.

[MadMarx]

I am out in East Brainerd and have EPB fiber optic service.  It is much better than Comcast.  I already had the 100 MB/s service, I wonder if I can get the 1GB/s for $10 extra too.

From the announcement from EPB, if you had the existing 100 or 250 service, they are changing your service to a gig. The 50 went to 100 and the 100/250 went to a gig

[pitt2magic]

Just got bumped from 50 to 100 megabaud (is that correct term?) per second for the same price! Is FREAK'N fast! They also dropped the price on 1000 mbs price to something like $70? My better half called them and they said we could upgrade to the 1000 mbs for ten dollars more a month. So, from 50 to 100 was no extra charge, then to 1000 for ten bucks. Suck eggs Comcast!!!!

I mean this in the nicest possible way:  I hate you!!  I live in the boonies and can't get EPB, Hell I can't even get Comcast.

[Mark A]

I will be the first to stand in line and  tell Comcast to take a flying leap.

 

The Chattanooga fiber is nice. And, it was built with unlimited taxpayer $$$

 

In a few years, when there is no competition and the price goes through the roof and the service falls into the basement please come back and tell us how good life is.

 

 

Please don't forget the real reason EPB put in the fiber system. The power companies are salivating over smart meters. With smart meters comes the opportunity to require smart thermostats and other devices. And then, whenever EPB or TVA feels like it they will change your thermostat settings. Then they will stand up and trumpet how they've eliminated rolling brownouts... Of course, you will be happy about it even if it is 80 degrees inside in the middle of August.

 

This is progress over making them install more (quantity) or more efficient infrastructure. You know, man made global warming and evil coal and all that jazz...

 

Mark

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I may have not received an auto-upgrade announcement from EPB, been neglecting email and don't see anything from the last couple days.

 

Testing with speedtest.net on a mac pro, today I'm getting solid repeatable 57 mbps up/down to chatt, atlanta, and nashville (from chatt). Spot checking Seattle servers, about 30 mbps down, 15 mbps up. Into Victoria CA, about 10 mbps down, 7 mbps up. Didn't check other regions.

Edited September 19, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[MacGyver]

I will be the first to stand in line and  tell Comcast to take a flying leap.

 

The Chattanooga fiber is nice. And, it was built with unlimited taxpayer $$$

 

In a few years, when there is no competition and the price goes through the roof and the service falls into the basement please come back and tell us how good life is.

 

 

Please don't forget the real reason EPB put in the fiber system. The power companies are salivating over smart meters. With smart meters comes the opportunity to require smart thermostats and other devices. And then, whenever EPB or TVA feels like it they will change your thermostat settings. Then they will stand up and trumpet how they've eliminated rolling brownouts... Of course, you will be happy about it even if it is 80 degrees inside in the middle of August.

 

This is progress over making them install more (quantity) or more efficient infrastructure. You know, man made global warming and evil coal and all that jazz...

 

Mark

Are they doing fiber to the house?  Or are they doing fiber to the POP and a couple twisted pairs to the house?  Either way it makes me kind of angry.

 

Fiber is expensive.  In Tennessee, despite the fact that it's come down a lot in recent years, laying last mile subterranean fiber is still just shy of $800/ft. 

[Guest Keal G Seo]

I will be the first to stand in line and  tell Comcast to take a flying leap.

 

The Chattanooga fiber is nice. And, it was built with unlimited taxpayer $$$

 

In a few years, when there is no competition and the price goes through the roof and the service falls into the basement please come back and tell us how good life is.

 

 

Please don't forget the real reason EPB put in the fiber system. The power companies are salivating over smart meters. With smart meters comes the opportunity to require smart thermostats and other devices. And then, whenever EPB or TVA feels like it they will change your thermostat settings. Then they will stand up and trumpet how they've eliminated rolling brownouts... Of course, you will be happy about it even if it is 80 degrees inside in the middle of August.

 

This is progress over making them install more (quantity) or more efficient infrastructure. You know, man made global warming and evil coal and all that jazz...

 

Mark

Hate to tell ya but Fiber is the future. Whether you get it now or not. Eventually Fiber and copper power will be the only things run to houses.

Right now, they have already figured it up and Google Fiber could be run to EVERY home in America for about 140 billion. This includes remote locations. The problem is that it is all the money Google has lol. The Gov would probably step in right after the last house was up and say it was a monopoly. So instead they lay it in a couple of cities, get people excited about it and force existing companies to start providing it.

We are the fiber, resistance is futile.