Just got our power back. So, when do we turn our angst to these clowns? Had it all the way through Tuesday morning- then it craps out. Got it back about an hour ago after a week, and it cuts off again.

They actually hung a generator from a utility pole and used it to power their equipment in my hood. Took me a while to realize that's what it was. And we'd get power back for half a day then lose it again. Realized the generator was running out of gas lol

No help for you.

I will say make sure you request a credit. Pretty easy to do.

They're lucky Centerpoint has been the shtshow they've been- good cover for equal incompetence.

I don't understand how their service stays on for hours after power being out…and then goes out and returns pretty much immediately after neighborhood power is restored.

Sazerac said:

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I don't understand how their service stays on for hours after power being out…and then goes out and returns pretty much immediately after neighborhood power is restored.

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Maybe in your hood they have back up batteries on their equipment?

I don't know enough about the tech and industry to know why their equipment needs power but I guess AT&T doesn't?

We lost power Mon morning and Xfinity held on until after the storm passed Monday afternoon. Power was restored late Wed, but Xfinity wasn't restored until last night. No idea how that works.

This thread reminded me to apply for a refund. Very easy! Not much $$, but it's the principle of the matter for me.

We got our power back Thursday but didn't get xfinity back fully until Saturday. But I know where our little box deal is in the neighborhood and those houses didn't get power back until Saturday.

Obviously could also have issues with the lines and downed trees as well.

And in the meantime ATT was cruising along... imma see what I can get on an new Xfinity deal tomorrow.

I was talking with someone about this the other day.

During Harvey, AT&T crapped out. I was without service for 2 weeks before switched to xfinity. AT&T simply couldn't tell me when services would be restored (all their equipment flooded out).

Xfinity held strong during Harvey and reaped the benefits of it.

Now Xfinity has stumbled, though it came back for me by last Thursday. AT&T did better and I was able to use my neighbors wifi when I was out.

So not sure if either is ever really better.

Tachus has stayed online since day 1. on Monday it randomly went out in my area, they sent a text shortley after that a construction company had cut the line and they were going to repair it, it was back on less than 3hours later.

If they are avaliable in your area i highly recommend them.

These jokers- it was off for a week, came on last night at 7, died at 8, came back at 9... then died at 815 this morning. How does that even happen?

My guess would be using this time to rebuild damaged or outdated sections.

ATT Fiber hasn't gone done for any of the storms yet in our neighborhood. Powering up the generator and getting internet has been awesome.

My parent's have Xfinity a couple of streets over and it seems like it's down as much as it is up.

AgLA06 said:

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ATT Fiber hasn't gone done for any of the storms yet in our neighborhood. Powering up the generator and getting internet has been awesome.

My parent's have Xfinity a couple of streets over and it seems like it's down as much as it is up.

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In general I'd agree AT&T is more reliable. But they did have a pretty widespread outage after the May storm that lasted longer than xfinity.

I'd switch, but the only thing keeping me with xfinity at the moment is their mobile plan is really solid and cheap, but have to have their home internet.

I'm eyeing Starlink. It's expensive, but might be worth it to have in times like this, and it's month to month so I only have to activate when needed.

for a backup situation like this, wouldn't T-Mobile or Verizon 5G make more sense? You can still do month-to-month and should be a lot cheaper.

that's a good question/point.

My 5G was slow the first couple days after the storm, then came back fine. I didn't have power, so that didn't really matter to me at the time.

My wife has Verizon and I have Xfinity mobile. We have a verizon 5g hot spot. None could get service after the hurricane and are barely getting anything now.

got it. T-Mobile wasn't great, but certainly much better than that.

How much do you have to pay for the Starlink equipment up front?

Diggity said:

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got it. T-Mobile wasn't great, but certainly much better than that.

How much do you have to pay for the Starlink equipment up front?

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about $500 ($400 for refurb) for the equipment. I think Best buy has a $200 credit towards service with the purchase right now. Service is $120 a mo.


They have a "mini" easy to travel with device now for around $600 and you can get $50 a month service but with 50gb cap.

Diggity said:

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got it. T-Mobile wasn't great, but certainly much better than that.

How much do you have to pay for the Starlink equipment up front?

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I haven't really looked since they first started launching. I think the answer unfortunately is it depends. And I believe they just went up on their pricing this year.

https://www.starlink.com/us/residential

Depends on what system you get standard residential (stationary), Roam (movable between residences) or RV / Boat (constantly moving)

Depends on where you are and your service area.

Cool.

I read about that "mini" plan, but was under the impression it wasn't available as a standalone. If it is, that would make for a good backup service.

Trying to work with no reliable internet was next to impossible. I was about to give up and bum around at WeWork, then we decided on the hotel route.

Diggity said:

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Cool.

I read about that "mini" plan, but was under the impression it wasn't available as a standalone. If it is, that would make for a good backup service.

Trying to work with no reliable internet was next to impossible. I was about to give up and bum around at WeWork, then we decided on the hotel route.

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We did hotels since the 8th. Got power yesterday but still no xfinity. If i could buy starlink today and have it set up today, I'd probably pull the trigger, but everywhere it seems to be on order.

yeah, it's frustrating as hell to have no internet.

You don't realize how much you rely on that service until it's out.

You might try going by a T-Mobile store and picking up a 5G box. It's around $50/month but I think they still have the promo where you get a $200 GC if you keep it for 60 days. They also have a 2 week "test drive" where you can bring it back for no cost if you don't like it.

Diggity said:

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yeah, it's frustrating as hell to have no internet.

You don't realize how much you rely on that service until it's out.

You might try going by a T-Mobile store and picking up a 5G box. It's around $50/month but I think they still have the promo where you get a $200 GC if you keep it for 60 days. They also have a 2 week "test drive" where you can bring it back for no cost if you don't like it.

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I might check that out. I would definitely need to be able to try it first to make sure cell coverage is good. Our neighborhood in Klein just seems to get horrible signal. Doesn't help that we have a radiant barrier roof.


.....scratch that. Put in our home addy in the tmobile site to check availability for 5g and it says not available.

they have a model with an external antenna if you want to get around the barrier.

It may be a no-go for you, but worth a shot. You might ask your neighbors to see if anyone has had luck with it.

...saw your edit. Seems like they have a pretty arbitrary availability. Silly thing is those boxes aren't attached to your address at all. You can use them wherever there is service.

I live in Friendswood and had power back on the evening of the storm but Xfinity didn't come back until last weekend.

My parents live South of Pearland and got power back last Wednesday and their Tmobile home 5G was rocking immediately when we couldn't get any data on our ATT and Verizon phones

I went and bought a T Mobile home 5G Thursday night and it worked great. I am going to keep it as a backup to Xfinity.

This is the actual home 5G router not a portable hot spot.

I was just logged into my Xfinity account to expense my phone bill and noticed they have storm backup WiFi option.

It's $250, has a 4 hour battery, and will automatically switch you network over to cellular if there is an outage.

Anyone have experience with this? I'm afraid, along the lines of my comments above, that my neighborhood cell service sucks after storms so would this by default also suck?

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/storm-ready

I'm not sure how a 4 hour battery is going to help you.

And that seems really expensive. 2 months of that and you've almost paid for Starlink Roam that allows you to pay as you go (only when needed for $50/month). Seems they have a mini version of the equipment that should allow it to be easier to take with you if you choose.

https://www.starlink.com/roam

Edit. I didn't realize you meant a 1 time fee fo $250.

Looking at it, 4G and cell service in general was spotty at best the week after the hurricane. While probably okay for random outages of an hour or 2, probably not really a true backup option for major storms like we've had twice now this summer.

htxag09 said:

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I was just logged into my Xfinity account to expense my phone bill and noticed they have storm backup WiFi option.

It's $250, has a 4 hour battery, and will automatically switch you network over to cellular if there is an outage.

Anyone have experience with this? I'm afraid, along the lines of my comments above, that my neighborhood cell service sucks after storms so would this by default also suck?

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/storm-ready

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I think you'd be better buying a UPS battery backup vs this.

I held on to wifi long after I lost power, and presumably power was lost as the outage grew.

In a normal outage, wifi stays up and the UPS gives you a couple hours of battery backup, which is long enough to either get power back or get your generator up and running.

The battery is kind of a moot point with this. It's a battery if you don't have power, but I have a portable generator so not worried about that aspect.

The highlight of this seems to be if your internet is out than it can use their cell service to still provide internet to your modem. So everything would be working as if you hadn't lost internet, in theory, and on the same network.

But, my concern would be my cell service sucked the first couple days after the storm. So would this really have helped then? Is the antenna stronger or would it have been the exact same as me trying to browse TexAgs on my phone?

It still would have been helpful, though. My cell service was pretty much back to normal by Tuesday night. But didn't have internet restored until Saturday.

And, unlike a hotspot, there is no monthly charge for this.

If your cell service was bad, it would have likely been the same issue with the 5G.

Can't get blood from a turnup and all that.

Xfinity down in the woodlands since 11- anyone else?
Say storm issues , which is kind of silly at this point

Same thing here in Humble. Came back on sometime overnight.