Sprint Broadband Direct Goes Offline July 31 - Service you thought died long ago finally does… - dslreports.com
Sprint Broadband Direct Goes Offline July 31 - Service you thought died long ago finally does… - dslreports.com
Sprint Broadband Direct Goes Offline July 31
Service you thought died long ago finally does…
02:17PM Monday May 19 2008 by Karl
tags: business · wireless · alternatives · trouble · Sprint Broadband Direct
Remember Sprint Broadband Direct? Sprint is e-mailing the remaining customers of their line-of-sight-based wireless broadband service to inform them that they’ll be terminating the service starting July 31. Made painfully irrelevant by the combination of Sprint EVDO and WiMAX, the 1.5Mbps service, which required a 13.5″ diamond-shaped dish, saw mixed reviews over the years from our users. In the e-mail to customers, it looks like they’re blaming the FCC and a spectrum policy decision for the closure:
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As the result of a recent FCC action, Sprint will no longer have access to the spectrum used to operate our Sprint Broadband Direct Service in your area. Due to this FCC mandate, Sprint will discontinue your service by 6/30/2008. This discontinuance of service will also affect your EarthLink email account. Please contact EarthLink directly if you choose to continue with their service.
One user who pays $45.00 a month now for 1.5Mbps service, tells me that despite the added mobility, he’s not thrilled about being nudged toward EVDO for $59.95. Many users have had this service (and the same IP address) since as early as 2000. But the service, which blocked ICMP (pinging) and suffered from high-latency, was more than ready to be put out to pasture in the face of mobile WiMax.Given limited Sprint deployment and promotion, I had almost forgotten that the service still existed. Sprint stopped offering the SBBD to new customers back in 2001 during a rough patch, then started taking new subscribers again in 2005.
I have been using this service since around 1999 or 2000 and have in the past two years had NOTHING but problems with the service. As an online gamer I’ve experienced major latency, lag and what we like to call “Lag Death” often due to the crappy service. I stayed with them because they were the only thing I could get.
Now, I’ve received a letter from them stating they are shutting down. Nice, interesting. Forces me to go to cable modems and a local cable company which is probably faster and better, but not cheaper. That’s the plus side.
The down side is something kind of unrelated to internet technology. It has to do with Customer service, and simply being “straight” with people.
I tried, and failed in the last few days to locate ANY mandate or information from the FCC. I have spent 5 days on the telephone with the FCC, in emails and filing complaints now, with both the FCC and with Sprint broadband Direct.
I now accuse, outright, the SBBD personnel of lying, obfuscating and hiding information as to why they are doing this.
Not that I care if they do it now, I’m signing up with someone else, which will be faster, and I’ve saved my ancient Earthlink addresses as well. Nice for me.
BAD for Sprint though.
Sold my stock in them. Getting rid of cellular telephones through them and I plan on reviewing every single aspect of their business and writing about it - as much BAD crap as I can find.
I can’t stand liars, and I certainly do not appreciate people like “Jason” who utterly REFUSE to pass me to a shift supervisor or manager when requested. He not only refused, but stated “I’m not going to do that!”
What sort of Customer Service training did this young man have? None. Apparently Sprint hires assholes to do their dirty work.
Ok… well, lots of us can behave that way, and they just hit my “Assholier-than-Thou” buttons. We’ll see.
For starters I’ve filed an FCC complaint against these people for their apparent obfuscation, misdirection and misrepresentation.
Secondly, I plan on filing a large lawsuit to recover the last two years worth of monies I’ve sent these bastards.
Let me give you the rest of the story.
About eighteen months ago I was having major problems with connections and drop outs on the services. I contacted them repeatedly and was told over and over “We can’t see a problem from here”.
Being that I AM a computer professional, someone familiar with networks, and able to run network scans, and actually determine causes of problems on networks, I ran my own checks and discovered some issues.
My modem was “acting up” to some extent, but the BIG problem was at the “Head End”, a place that sits high up on Cheyenne Mountain outside the Colorado Springs area - AKA NORAD to most of you.
I confirmed my findings by contacting a friend in the industry, and having him bring hardware to the house, connect it up and we located the exact systems on the analyzers to tell us where the problem was.
I then contacted, with my network engineering friend the customer service persons there, while the gear was still connected.
Not only could they NOT see our equipment, they couldn’t tell me there was a problem. I sent, by email data to the technical support people and remained ignored.
I stayed with the system because DSL at my house can only go at 512K MAX (and much less than that, I might as well go with a dial up line for that price and the problems it causes)… I didn’t have access to cable without fees to have the cabling put in at the house and simply put, I didn’t have other choices at the time.
So - essentially, service has sucked, the people who provide that service suck, and I was stuck with a sucky service.
Now that they are LYING to the public about this alleged “FCC mandate” (which the FCC can’t seem to find themselves!!!!!!) I’m planning on showing precisely what these people are made of.
Starting now.
Enjoy the message, and by the way, DON’T USE SPRINT until they get their act together!
