Google: That's the Wrong Williamsburg
Williamsburg, Virginia, just applied to become the “first permanent Google settlement in America,” as part of the search giant’s new foray into providing communities with super high-speed broadband internet service (over 1 gigabit per second!).
That, Google, would be the wrong Williamsburg!
Here, in Brooklyn, you have a vibrant community of creative types, assholes, and tech enthusiasts suffering under the maniacally slow service that Time Warner Cable “provides.” It’s terrible! I know I’m an asshole for writing this, based on all the problems a community like ours has, but I get really pissed when I can’t play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox Live while my girlfriend is streaming Netflix and uploading photos. It’s ridiculous.
And I know a majority of you out there are with me. I posted a few months back about the slow service affecting Williamsburg and I got a heck of a lot of responses.
I wrote to Time Warner, and was told, “The current issue is something our engineering department is aware of but will take time to resolve. There is nothing our office can do to expedite the situation.” It was a problem with the node, they said, meaning there’s just too much bandwidth being requested by too many people with computers in such a small area.
(Funny anecdote: my wonderful on-the-phone rep was comfortingly named George Lopez.)
Christy wrote: “the internet here is totally unreliable, it’s always going in and out.”
Caralyn wrote: “I’m in greenpoint and our time warner has been out for 2 days doing the same thing. Ach! So frustrating! Any news on a fix soon?”
Michael wrote: “My Time Warner service has been terrible for the last couple months since I moved to my new apartment on S.4th. Really, terribly slow for “high speed” and it kind of goes in and out between decent and nearly nonexistent. Lets go straight to Albany with this one and get us some legislation. Or just ask TW to stop ignoring our downloading and streaming video needs.”
Allen wrote: “My Time Warner internet is so bad that I have to steal other peoples sometimes to check my email. Last night I had no internet at ALL… Im so pissed. And they say nothing is wrong…”
You get the idea. So I dunno, but maybe it’s worth us all nominating our community for Google to at least give it a shot? I’m sure TWC has some dystopian lock-down on all of Brooklyn, but you never know. Click here if “you’d like a Google fiber optic trial in your community.” The company is “asking local governments and residents to express their interest in the fiber optic trial, and to provide information about their community by completing our request for information,” so hey, why not us?
Pass this link along to your friends and get them to sign up too! Viva la Googles!
So, apparently, the total pipe for williamsburg from time warner is 600 megabits per second. There are thousands and thousands of subscribers in williamsburg, who are all paying for at least 2 megabits per second of bandwidth. The math, it sucks.
That “node” excuse is total bullshit, at least the way they tell it. When I moved into my latest apartment, the tech who installed it told us we were on a completely unique and separate node that had to be piped in because someone forgot to connect my building to the network when they were laying the infrastructure. Ours is still slow as shit during peak times. What I’m saying, the problem is larger than nodal (unless they’re just using “node” to describe any subset of the entire network to keep people from thinking there might actually be something that could be done about this)
Why don’t we organize a class action law suit? We’re not getting what we pay for and this is in a problem in all of north Brooklyn.
You have the blog, you have to power to organize, let’s make a “I’m not paying for crappy internet” month out of July. Legally I think we can do that since they are not meeting their contractual obligations with us. But, I am no lawyer so what do I know, all I know is if we stop paying them they’ll get the fucking hint.
Cablevision is much worse. I lose internet for days on an often enough to be noticeable and have a back up plan basis.
i don’t know why i keep calling TWC to complain. instead of trying to make them change when clearly they don’t give a shit about their customers, this Google fiber optics deal would be completely amazing. just use somebody else, that’s the only way to make them change to survive. and fiber optics! oh nicholas negroponte, thank you for prediciting everything.
I think a class action lawsuit is an excellent idea.
Oh nooes. I just signed up for Time Warner today! I had no choice. While there, the installation guy told me that he didn’t even use Time Warner — he uses Dish.
Today with the storm my time warner cable was being awful the screen kept freezing on every channel and the sound kept going it was AWFUL. but also yea the net also blows hard
I think a class action would be great, but remember that only the lawyer will pocket the money. you and me may get 50 bucks.
What to do before that, is to call TW and tell them you are feed up with their service and that you want FULL REFUND from the day you signed up.
Because the service never worked well.
If you are able to talk your reasons (can’t write it here) you will get 3 months free and a lower rate for the same plan (39 -> 32).
They will also tell you they are working on fixing the problem. I think a class action would be great, but remember that only the lawyer will pocket the money. you and me may get 50 bucks.
What to do before that, is to call TW and tell them you are feed up with their service and that you want FULL REFUND from the day you signed up.
Because the service never worked well.
If you are able to talk your reasons (can’t write it here) you will get 3 months free and a lower rate for the same plan (39 -> 32).
They will also tell you they are working on fixing the problem. < <
You were told three months ago that they were fixing the service, and they did not.
Again if you are convincing, they will give you three more months.
Not a solution, but can save some cash.
Suggestions:
Since you had the contract with them, you always contacted support using the chat on their site.
Please show community support here. We have been working on a bid for a few weeks now.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/pages/Greenpoint-Williamsburg-for-Google-Fiber-Optic/362078262231?ref=nf
Cable internet has been unreliable in every residence I’ve had it in, philadelphia, jersey city and several other places. We always had to turn it off and on again and even then it would only work for a short time.