[SOLVED] Is my ISP trying to get money out of me by claiming my hardware is faulty?

[b.eggersglusz]

Hello there,



I live in South Africa in the middle of nowhere and rely off of wirless radio internet to get any form of outside world connection. I recently switched suppliers for a better line. And they're claiming I have a faulty dish



So I have a 30dBm dish, Connecting to a tower of theirs not too far, there was trees in the way but we cleared it up. The signal statistics are as follows
Tx/Rx Signal Strength -65/50 dBm (average)

Tx/Rx Signal Strength channel 0 -70/50 dBm

Tx/Rx Signal Strength channel 1 -60/50 dBm



Originally they stated that the signal was too strong, so they slightly detuned my radio so that signal wouldn't bounce back from the tower, slowly the connection has been made better, but im still getting latency spikes with no usage down the line. Or when 6mbps is being using out of 15mbps (max bandwidth) im getting latency spikes of nearly 300-500ms. And on idle there is the occasional spike of 300-500ms.

I've been running latency tests and trace routes and all the spikes are within their network, they've tuned and realigned the dish and i've spent alot of money on parts and labor. Now the last they're pushing is saying my Radio is Faulty and may need to be replace. However, im only experiencing the latency spikes during peak times of around 5pm - 11pm, then some jitter from 6am - 5pm.

During early morning hours 12am - 6am. There is near to no problems. But they're pushing that my dish/radio is faulty. Are they taking me for a ride? or are they being genuine that even though I have no problems in the morning but alot at night, it could still be my radio?

 

[bill001g]

In theory it could be if it was heat related but it is far more likely it is other customers causing the issue. Very few ISP will admit that they have over sold the network.

It depends on the system they use. If they are using simple wifi then they will have all kinds of problems. The more advanced systems have much more control over the end user radios to prevent them from transmitting at the same time. Some of the most modern ones are actually using the same LTE that phone providers use but on the unlicensed bands.

But just like cell phone data you will still get latency spikes here and there. There is only so much total bandwidth on each tower and your data must wait its turn when there are multiple people using it.

.....and they did not turn down your power to prevent it from bouncing off the tower, they did it so that your radio did not overpower other customers further from the tower.

 

[b.eggersglusz]

In theory it could be if it was heat related but it is far more likely it is other customers causing the issue. Very few ISP will admit that they have over sold the network.

It depends on the system they use. If they are using simple wifi then they will have all kinds of problems. The more advanced systems have much more control over the end user radios to prevent them from transmitting at the same time. Some of the most modern ones are actually using the same LTE that phone providers use but on the unlicensed bands.

But just like cell phone data you will still get latency spikes here and there. There is only so much total bandwidth on each tower and your data must wait its turn when there are multiple people using it.

.....and they did not turn down your power to prevent it from bouncing off the tower they did it so that your radio did not overpower other customers farther from the tower.

The thing is, right now in South Africa, temps daily are reaching 30c + at least. So i'd expect if it were heat related for it to have issues throughout the day between around 10am - 6pm, But it starts to cool down and the problems only really fully come in during peak hours. I had the feeling they're trying to push me to buy a new Radio/Dish from them, but with my Previous supplier we used the same dish and didn't have this issue at all.

Im going to let them know we probably are going to switch providers.

 

[bill001g]

You are very lucky you have a option. Many people that have to use a radio solution for internet have few options. Maybe when Musk's starlink satellites are all up these companies will do a better job when they have real competition.

 

[b.eggersglusz]

You are very lucky you have a option. Many people that have to use a radio solution for internet have few options. Maybe when Musk's starlink satellites are all up these companies will do a better job when they have real competition.

Wish we had fibre lines where i am to be honest, just costs about $60 for 15mbps down for wireless