Weekend Internet Speeds

[jimm]

Once again at approximately 17:00 yesterday the internet slowed to around 2 MB to the MM server in Kyrenia, this has happened for the previous 4 weeks. I have called on all occasions and sometimes the speed has improved slightly, at other times when not at weekends the service is perfect MM have monitored this. I have also made out a ticket I use the OOKLA app on my Ipad to record the speeds and do understand that a wired connection is slightly quicker but not as much to get the service back to 4 MB. I can only presume that the equipment of MM in this part of Karsiyaka has reached its full capacity or does it go on holiday every Saturday afternoon, at present the service is very good but not many people would be on the internet at this time, how many other people have this problem on the weekends.

[Loobyloo]

Your very lucky if it’s only Saturday for the last month ours deteriorates from 5pm every evening, funnily enough last night was the first time the speed was reasonable for ages.

[jimm]

mine is fine during the week but that could be because I have complained to MM and they monitor my connection for a few days which area are you in

[Loobyloo]

Karsiyaka, last week I got so fed up of it especially as we had only recently renewed Platinum I did phone, and I have to say it could be because of that it has improved. We had been labouring under the assumption it was to do with ttnet but now I wonder, and in future will complain to MM whenever it drops off.

[jimm]

I really think it has to do with MM,s equipment at Karsiyaka not having enough capacity but they do not seem to want to do anything about it

[Keithcaley]

Let's hope that you don't resort to this...

BT Openreach van effigy set alight by frustrated villagers

[Ragged Robin]

My internet has improved considerably over the last three evenings : a little buffering but not too bad, and such a joy to watch a programme right through without having to reset at least twice ::touch wood, inshallah, mashallah and isnt it difficult typing with your fingers crossed

I didnt have time to contact MM, nor do anything to check my own set, so it looks as if ttnet have pulled their socks up at last. Long mayit last/ Now about to switch on to TV , hope I am not tempting fate.

[jimm]

Once again speeds to MM server inKyrenia down to under 2 Mbs what is the use of complaining they just do not do anything to stop this slowdown at weekends, getting extremely fed up with this poor service

[rocking]

My internet not bad but had a blank tv screen since 7.30 now 10.30 and still blank. No message from MM at all. Where’s my kindle.

[tomsteel]

Once again speeds to MM server inKyrenia down to under 2 Mbs what is the use of complaining they just do not do anything to stop this slowdown at weekends, getting extremely fed up with this poor service

Time to vote with your feet and change your ISP.

[jimm]

Once again speeds s**** MMlines busy about time they fixed this problem in Karsiyaka

[SatelliteCyprus]

Sometimes, there are problems in Turkey which can cause a slowness in the Internet in the TRNC/Turkey, but don't however, accept this as the reason why your Internet is running slowly/regularly (running slowly at the same time each day) AND don't allow your ISP to use this as a catchall reason for problems with your Internet connection.

If you are experiencing slowness at the same time(s) each day, then this is almost certainly to do with the contention ratio on the connection/network - the contention ratio, or over-subscription ratio is a ratio that the ISP's set on their network that is based (supposedly) on the amount of users who may want to concurrently access the internet.

In the old days, when customers were using the Internet (mainly) to access web pages and send/receive emails, an ISP could (correctly) assume that not everyone on their network wanted, or needed simultaneous access to the internet so, ISP's could quote a speed to their customers (say, 1Mb maximum achievable speed) and safely allocate say, 20Mb of Internet Bandwidth to 400 customers who would be able to happily use the Internet (most of the time) and who would only experience periodic slowness at times when coincidentally, more than 20 customers wanted/needed simultaneous access to the Internet. With the help of bandwidth management controls which allocate priorities to certain types of traffic, networks worked fine on contention ratios between 20:1 and 50:1

With the introduction of applications which require(d) dedicated bandwidth, such as Skype and later, streaming data applications such as BBC iPlayer, ITV Player etc. - the chance of customers requiring simultaneous access to the Internet is not remote, in fact, it is highly likely and therefore, contention ratios of 20:1 will just not work at busy times on the Internet.

In the same way that, when in the UK, a Spanish, French, Turkish person wants to use the Internet to watch their local language TV stations/programmes, British Internet users outside the UK want to watch UK TV and when they all sit down to watch their favourite TV programmes at say, 6pm in the evening (all at the same time) - problems can occur on networks where the contention ratio is set too high.

The problem of the contention ratio being set to high does not necessarily have to relate to Internet Bandwidth - in fact, in my experience, it is almost certainly more to do with wireless capacity on the ISP's network. In the TRNC, where the majority of us use a (last mile) radio link to connect to the Internet, as well as the capacity of the equipment being maxed out at busy times, there can/may also be problems with noise/interference on the radio frequency (which again, can be worse at busy times on the Internet) and which can affect the quality of your Internet connection. Usually, this problem can be cured with additional investment in additional equipment at the base station(s) and Backhaul links, which in effect creates more 'local' wireless capacity.

The problem that Internet users face is getting their ISP's to accept this fact and to do something about it. The base station and backhaul link equipment is expensive to install and ISP's have to carefully manage their resources. The advantage that our customers have is that as an independent agent who understands these things, we can canvass the ISP to recognize the problem and to do something about it - sometimes quickly and efficiently and at other times, more slowly. Customers who arrange their Internet connection through us do not pay any extra, but they do get an extra level of customer support - someone with a sympathetic ear who understand their problem(s) and who will do something about it. We represent hundreds of customers and the collective pressure that this puts on the ISP means that they have to listen to us.

A customer who telephones first line support to report these problems will usually get the same stock answer(s) - actually getting the decision maker to allocate additional resources is an almost impossible task for a customer to complete.

If your not happy with your current Internet provider's service, give us a call - just like Laura B did and whose Internet and TV problems we solved - message 32 in the following thread :-

http://www.kibkomnorthcyprusforum.com/v ... 83#p191483

[Laura B]

Yes SatelliteCyprus certainly resolved our problems. We can both watch different TV in different rooms with no trouble at all. Another bonus is having someone to call in the event of any problem arising. The other day our internet went down in the morning. We didn't worry about that...it obviously happens from time to time and we had to go out anyway. However when we returned a couple of hours later it was still down so we called SC. I have no idea what the problem was as within a few minutes all was sorted, so it was something peculiar to us not the whole system. As said above, give them a call and see if they can help you.

[Mowgli597]

Here we go again

[Laura B]

Yes I agree Mowgli. But what I don't understand is why people keep coming on here complaining about a service but don't seem to actually want to do something positive about it. Maybe I'm wrong in that assumption but it does seem odd to come to a forum that really can't help directly when there are things that can be done to try to resolve their issues.

[erol]

The problem that Internet users face is getting their ISP's to accept this fact and to do something about it.

With Multimax if the cause of your internet problem is 'congestion', or anything else for that matter, in the part of the network we control, tell us and we will acknowledge that and fix as quickly as we can. You can tell if the problem is in the part of the network we control by correctly doing a speedtest to our sever. If it is slow to there then it almost certainly is something under our control and we will acknowledge that and make every effort to rectify the issue. That is what we do, that is our job as an ISP. No need for a 'independent agent' to lobby us on your behalf, tell us and we will do all we can to rectify the issue as quickly as possible. If however you are going to blame us every time your streaming TV buffers, regardless of whether the cause is something under our control or not and are convinced that we will just knowingly lie to you because we are greedy and lazy then you probably are better off going to an 'independent' agent like Paul.

The advantage that our customers have is that as an independent agent who understands these things, we can canvass the ISP to recognize the problem and to do something about it - sometimes quickly and efficiently and at other times, more slowly.

Yet when you were the ISP yourselves with total and direct control of your own network within the TRNC and not just an 'independent' agent for a singular ISP, you sold out to the competition stating at the time that you could not make sufficient profit as an ISP but as just an agent with no direct control over the network yourselves you can seemingly solve peoples problems more effectively than when you were the ISP itself. Strange.

Customers who arrange their Internet connection through us do not pay any extra, but they do get an extra level of customer support - someone with a sympathetic ear who understand their problem(s) and who will do something about it. We represent hundreds of customers and the collective pressure that this puts on the ISP means that they have to listen to us.

The suggestion that companies like MM or even Extend for that matter do not have any sympathy for their customers and do not or will not do anything when their problems are caused by something that the ISP can fix or rectify, unless bullied to do so by an 'independent' agent' like yourselves is just the kind of self serving pernicious propaganda your specialise in and have done for all the years I have watched you operate, as far as I am concerned.

I have to wonder is the owners of Extend internet are aware that this is now how you market the reselling of their service for them. Aware that you are in essence saying 'go to extend directly and they will give you poor customers service, no sympathy and actively lie about problems you may have in order to avoid having to bother fixing them but buy that same service via us as an 'independent' agent that previously failed themselves as an ISP and you will get premier service, sympathy and we will force the no good ISP to do their job on your behalf and fix all your issues quick smart.

[SatelliteCyprus]

Erol, the member who started this thread says that his internet slows to around 2Mbps to the server in Kyrenia and that this has happened for the last four weeks. Are you saying that this is not the case ? If it is the case, the advice that I have offered to them is relevant.

We are seeing more and more complaints of this type on Kibkom and I am sure that not all the complaints are as you say, customers who are simply blaming you every time their TV buffers which is not a very sympathetic view of the situation.

I could, but I am not going to address the rest of the points that you make, except to say that having focused your attention on your customers problems I think that it may have been better to spend the time that you wasted compiling your post, on investigating the problems that are causing customer dissatisfaction with your service.

[erol]

Erol, the member who started this thread says that his internet slows to around 2Mbps to the server in Kyrenia and that this has happened for the last four weeks. Are you saying that this is not the case ? If it is the case, the advice that I have offered to them is relevant.

If a customer sees a given speed when testing via a device in their house that is significantly different and lower than the speed we see at that time from the device on their roof testing to the same server then as you should know given your vast technical expertise, what that means is that the problem is between the device on their roof and the device they are testing via and not in the part of the network we control. The original poster was contacted by me personally last night on a Sunday when I was not officially working, long before you popped up to offer your 'words of wisdom' (meaning trying to exploit the situation for your own benefit) and following testing by me and work by other staff also on a Sunday night also out of their normal working hours we were able to improve their connection somewhat and arrange for an engineer visit to check the alignment of their dish which would seem to have moved slightly from its optimum position. All this from a company in a sector you would have us believe does not care about their customers and shows no sympathy to their customer, unless they are an agent. Unlike you I have no interest in self serving homilies and waffle, my concern is actual results.

People are not stupid Paul. They can see that you only ever post here to big up yourself and your own products and services, what ever they may be this year, and denigrate anyone in competition with yourself. You just can not help yourself. It is what you do and have done consistently now for 10 plus years, here and on cyprus44 before.

I could, but I am not going to address the rest of the points that you make, except to say that having focused your attention on your customers problems I think that it may have been better to spend the time that you wasted compiling your post, on investigating the problems that are causing customer dissatisfaction with your service.

Of course you, having nothing but entirely satisfied customers, do not need to heed your own advise that you so generously offer to me and thus have plenty of time to waste posting here to try big yourself up and denigrate competitors as is the norm for you.

[SatelliteCyprus]

Erol... you seem so upset.

Bigging up my products and services (as you say) believe it or not, is part of my job.

When I spend time offering helpful advice, am I not also entitled to tell people if I can help them ?

Here is my personal telephone number which I answer til 8pm every night (unless I'm asleep) 0533 869 4372

Save people the bother of having to post a complaint on Kibkom to get a satisfactory response from you - post your personal number then they can contact you directly to get help with their problems

[Poppy+1]

We had our first internet provider for a significant period, we experienced reception problems from day one, constant buffering,and sticking only way to reset was turn everything off, constant loss of wi fi, viewing was hit and miss. Having had no run through on the system we were just left to work it out for ourselves, we had no idea what the problems were, leaving the whole system down from minutes to hours. Trying to raise anyone on the phone was a major issue, text or e-mail response was extremely minimal.



Many times an engineer was requested to come and check the system, when we were eventually given a visit time and date, the agreed time passed, as did the day, we phoned, either no reply or told they would be there later, no one arrived. We had the waiting game a number of times, waiting all day only for the engineer never to arrive, phones calls went unanswered. One occasion we did get hold of the engineer way past the time he was due, only to be told he was the other end of the Island and wouldn't be coming, we never did get anyone to come out.
They certainly didn't live up to the promise of a visit that day or next working day, or the 24 hour service they claim.


We remained with this supplier as we had made them aware that we were eventually going to move closer to Girne and were told we would experience a significantly improved service, sadly when we moved we didn't have the promised reception in fact things were worse, as was the
appalling Customer care. Constant text’s, numerous e-mails, all had limited if any response, when eventually getting through on the phone it seemed you were told what you wanted to hear, “someone will phone you back” they rarely did “we’re fixing it” no they didn't the problems continued.

Even when “fixed” the service was beyond bad, leaving us with unreliable, unstable viewing and wi fi, there was no warning that a problem was likely to be experienced, just everything going down, even more frustrating no explanation as to why there was an on going issue.

We endured this but after a particularly frustrating couple of weeks we researched other options, reading comments on here of which most were not favourable, other than one which stood out from the others.

Being apprehensive we took the plunge to move, some weeks on our new system is, well, all we can say is we wished we had done it SOONER !!!!!!!!! we had a run through of the system and its ability, of course we have had the odd bit of buffering, does it spoil our viewing NO, are we happy YES, do we pay 12 months up front and forgotten about NO.

Who is our new supplier it’s Satellite Cyprus.

Thank you Paul for checking everything and going through the system with us and all it has to offer also for the call to advise there might be a bit of buffering, how reassuring we have someone who care’s about their customers. Great customer service. We cannot recommend them highly enough!