We use Living As One for streaming our weekend message to 7 campuses. It works great 99% of the time. The only real reason we have any issue is either user error or internet error. We have Comast Coax at all campuses and it works great for all but one campus and I can’t get Comcast to tell me why we keep having problems. If anyone knows how to get ahold of someone who can actually fix stuff at Comcast, I’m all ears.
We looked at other options such as AT&T but for some reason they can’t get us u-verse where we are at and the WISP’s that I talked with can’t get us service either. We looked at Fiber but $750 is a big jump from $100 a month.
So we we went with a Verizon Mi-Fi for backup. During the week it gets 40 Mbps / 40 Mbps and has unlimited usage (they supposedly throttle after 25 GB with NASPO). The problem is that when we want to use it on the weekend, we only get about 1 Mbps download speed! Has anyone had issues with bandwidth on Verizon on the weekend? If Verizon can’t do it for us I’m willing to look at other LTE providers. Does anyone have a recommendation for a faster and more consistent provider?
Honestly your congregation is likely overwhelming the tower and the MiFi devices aren’t prioritized very high. You may have better results springing for an M2M plan and trying to point some external antennas at a further tower but it’s all a bit of a crapshoot when using consumer cell service.
Thanks. I wasn’t thinking about the people in the service! There are only maybe 100 at a service at this location so I don’t know that that is why. I’m still investigating. I’m thinking that on a Saturday at 5 PM a lot of people might be using their phones. The church is right at the edge of two large neighborhoods. Mi-Fi shows -96 db for signal strength.
Jeremy I can’t help with the Verizon part of this, but I had success with Comcast by simply coming alongside the Comcast tech and working the problem together. I was very intentional to express interest and appreciation for what the tech was doing for us. Noise in the line was our problem.
Asking him what the noise level was before and after making a change allowed me to recognize the progress being made as well as get him to stick with it until we got the noise out of the line. Working it together I built a relationship with the tech and didn’t give him the opportunity to give up and call it ‘good enough’. Our service has been solid for years after that call.
That is a great approach Mark. Unfortunately I’ve tried that and because the problems are intermittent they always seem better by the time the tech gets there.
Intermittent Comcast issues are usually best solved by calling and opening a case to report the trouble, and having the agent close with no dispatch. If you hit 3 within 30 days they’ll escalate your account to plant engineering who will generally sort out whatever the RF problem is.
