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LIME Enforces Speed Limits On Broadband Highway

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limeThe Barbadian Broadband consumers maybe interested in a recent development in the United Kingdom. A Code of Practice has been implemented which seeks to better inform broadband consumers the line speeds they believe they are subscribing to. We had a look at the list of Net providers in the UK and we don’t see C&W signed on.

What are we missing?

Although there will be no penalties arising from the code of practice, it is commendable that the net providers in the UK sees merit in collaborating on an initiative which places the customer at the centre of the objective. Hopefully the providers in Barbados would adopt the approach of their sister companies in the UK, Barbadians are customers too.

Cable and Wireless has the lion share of the Broadband market in Barbados which makes it difficult to mirror 100% what is happening in the UK, however the desire to be transparent and to put steps in place to fully satisfy customers is a lesson still to be learnt.

LIME tell us what is a realistic broadband speed to expect please!

Thanks to the people over at KoolBarbados.

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114 responses to “LIME Enforces Speed Limits On Broadband Highway”

  1. xenophobe chick Avatar
    xenophobe chick

    I’ve given up hurting my head by trying to get any (ANY) information about anything (ANYTHING) from Cable & Wireless in Barbados.

    But I do remember seeing a BBC programme about education in Africa where the remotest villages had high-speed wireless Internet access.

    If it’s possible there – why not here?

  2. Tell me Why Avatar
    Tell me Why

    First of all, LIME must recall all those Siemens SE587 Wlan inferior modems that might soon become a fire hazard. Sooner rather than later, one of those equipment might cause a house or business to burn, probably, it may have already started. My neighbour’s modem has melted out of shape due to the intense heat. I have to unplug my modem regularly due to the heat, causing it to go off-line.

  3. TheTrashHeap Avatar
    TheTrashHeap

    They are throttling speeds during certain hours. Seems like between 5pm and 12am they throttle you down to less than half the speed you are paying for and this has been happening for weeks now. So if you watch a lot of streaming video then wait til after 12 at night.

  4. Krzysztof Skubiszewski Avatar
    Krzysztof Skubiszewski

    @ TheTrashHeap

    You’re the lucky one. They’ve been throttling me at all times of the day and night for weeks.

    And as xenophobe chick says, you can never get a reasonable explanation from LIME. The only one they gave me was completely unreasonable. They told me they can’t guarantee published speeds because so many factors affect them.

    But they still charge full rates and won’t even discuss reducing their bill for weeks of unacceptable performance.

  5. Tourism Monkey Avatar
    Tourism Monkey

    I just wish that they could connect me at home. Been trying for weeks to get an answer concerning that.

    We need to have another landline/internet provider!

  6. David Avatar
    David

    If the modems LIME is distributing are below par shouldn’t subscribers be able to go online and do some research? It’s time to stop griping and take definitive action!

  7. NO MORE MARINAS EVER AGAIN Avatar
    NO MORE MARINAS EVER AGAIN

    @ David

    Here’s a page discussing DSL broadband.

    http://www.broadbandinfo.com/internet-access/dsl/default.html

    You’ll see buying a modem is not like buying toothpaste. And since C & W have a stranglehold monopoly on our broadband in Barbados there’s almost nothing we can do to get better service.

    Especially since they treat us like lepers.

    In my many years of suffering bad customer service I’ve never seen anything as bad as C & W. They should be ashamed of their perpetual uncooperativeness.

    But of course they aren’t.

  8. The Scout Avatar
    The Scout

    LIME is just a name change but to me the system has gotten worse. We are being taken for a ride because we would just complain. LIME is giving us the worse serviceat the most expensive prices. We continue to support them, so why should they change?

  9. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Surprise Chris hasn’t thrown something into this pool as yet.

    I have a question.

    Has changing of the Corp name got anything to do with clearing the way for making a large number of C&W’s staff redundant? Is it not possible that creating this LIME thing was done solely for this reason?

  10. The Scout Avatar
    The Scout

    BAFBFP
    I agree with you. Now it appears very obvious. This region needs to tell LIME in no uncertain terms to stop raping the caribbean or get out.

  11. David Avatar
    David

    @NO MORE MARINAS EVER AGAIN

    Thanks for the link!

    What is confirms is that we need good customer service by the provider to ensure a good ADSL service. Secondly the truth in advertising by C&W concerning ADSL needs to be improved. It is not enough to advertise the levels which the broadband speeds will ‘burst’. Lastly LIME needs to create a, adsl distribution chart which can give subscribers an idea of the kind of service to expect given their location from the switch i.e. denigration

    @BAFBFP

    You probably missed it but LIME is a separately incorporated company, it is not just a name change. Logically what this means is that employees of C&W will have to be reemployed by LIME. If we are wrong we hope to be corrected soon!

  12. TheTrashHeap Avatar
    TheTrashHeap

    I think you are correct with that one. If a trick is in it then they will offer to take you including your years or an option of a pay out. Some companies do this though and automatically transfer workers over to the new entity without the option, like how is done in mergers.

  13. xenophobe chick Avatar
    xenophobe chick

    David

    How’s this for definitive action?

    I accuse C & W and/or LIME of criminal price gouging.

    Right now my Internet speeds are way down. Some websites won’t open and I can’t stream anything without constant breaks.

    So I called the number a C & W employee gave me to use if my broadband problems persist.

    AND I GET A RECORDING SAYING THE NUMBER I’M CALLING ISN’T VALID.

  14. M Avatar
    M

    Tell me Why // December 4, 2008 at 10:30 pm

    First of all, LIME must recall all those Siemens SE587 Wlan inferior modems that might soon become a fire hazard. Sooner rather than later, one of those equipment might cause a house or business to burn, probably, it may have already started. My neighbour’s modem has melted out of shape due to the intense heat. I have to unplug my modem regularly due to the heat, causing it to go off-line

    Take those modems back to LIME and tell the customer service person in no uncertain terms that you aren’t taking that fire hazard back into your home, if your house burns who will replace it certainly not those LIMERS.
    Can’t the Fair Trading Commission or some other government agency be contacted about those fire hazards. Time for us to stop accepting inferior products as the norm from “big” businesses

  15. TheTrashHeap Avatar
    TheTrashHeap

    I bought myself a Dlink DSL modem and it works flawlessly, never crashes etc. No matter how good your modem is, if the pricks are throttling your speeds then it makes no sense. I pay for 2mbs and I get around 512 between 5pm and 12am religiously, the speeds do no vary it is a fixed top speed so it is ISP throttling. Idiots throttle me when I use the net the most.

  16. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    What make and model (exact Model no.) does LIME issue for use with it’s DSL service?

  17. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    David,
    I missed nothing. You are saying exactly the same thing as me. And thanks to Scoute for the afirmation.

  18. David Avatar
    David

    We have been receiving emails from some BU family members that LIME had a nation wide drop in Internet service for about 20 minutes this evening. Would be good to get a confirmation and use this outage to analyze and even find out what caused it.

  19. David Avatar
    David

    Adrian Hinds // December 5, 2008 at 3:18 pm What make and model (exact Model no.) does LIME issue for use with it’s DSL service?

    Adrian check out this link to the Cable & Wireless Website which gives some information on the modem.

  20. .22 Avatar
    .22

    Chris Halsall would be sighing again right? =

  21. twwifos Avatar
    twwifos

    Anyone interested in checking their connection speeds can go to:

    http://www.speedtest.net/mini.php

    Just checked mine…..
    1131 download
    330 upload

    Is this the “high speed” that we keep hearing about?

  22. .22 Avatar
    .22

    @ David “We have been receiving emails from some BU family members that LIME had a nation wide drop in Internet service for about 20 minutes this evening. Would be good to get a confirmation and use this outage to analyze and even find out what caused it.”

    The connection outage for me was lengthy here in Eastern St George. I couldn’t get on for the entire last night and into the next evening when it came back on finally when I got home. I would like to see the bill at the end of Christmas to see if any credit is given to us for lost service.

    Barbados needs to open the Telecommunications Market so that other competitors can come into the island to offer their Internet Services so that we just don’t have to ‘rely’ on them and their mediocre services; we have something to choose from. We may need more than 3 ISPs. 5 ISPs will do for this country in both Residential and Business like.

    There are 3 major ISPs on this Island one of them is using C&W’s platform (Sunbeach). Freemotion/TeleBarados is using Wireless. Cable & Wireless uses their DSL services and its widely serving nearly every Residential and Buisnesses. All of them are high-priced for less-speed.

    Q: Is the FTC gone silent on the public again? Aren’t they?

    Q: Is the necessity of these high-prices for these packages being questioned? These should be answered by them. Especially approaching to where the economy is at risk of a slowdown.

    —

    @TheTrashHeap
    “They are throttling speeds during certain hours. Seems like between 5pm and 12am they throttle you down to less than half the speed you are paying for and this has been happening for weeks now. So if you watch a lot of streaming video then wait til after 12 at night.”

    C&W is on the blacklist as a bad ISP for what you have mentioned. http://azureuswiki.com/index.php/Bad_ISPs#Barbados

    Bandwidth throttling should be made ‘illegal’ in my Opinion for these kinds of practices. That is ‘depriving the customer’ of his bandwidth and access to the Internet (rights).

    Comcast got busted for that by the FCC and now the U.S cable giant Comcast wanted to sue the FCC and placed a bandwidth cap on their customers. They’ve brought themselves into anti-competitive territory if they upset their own customers since that bandwidth cap. The result: they’ll lose customers in the process to other major competitors.

    Al I think for sure is this question:
    *are there any telecommunication laws to police these kinds of actions made by ISPs that are conducting procedures that will result of deprivation of the customer’s connectivity? (Insert ‘agreed the terms and his/her rights’?)

    —

    @Tell Me Why:
    Its recommended that you buy D-Link or Linksys routers and a Linksys DSL modem from DE Computers. You’ll get near Advertised speeds if the Internet traffic isn’t heavy or the ISP is having technical difficulties.

    The Siemens Router Cable and Wireless recommended for us customers must be a joke.
    * It is, as you said, gets really hot.
    * I get constant Red lights that caused me to restart the router.
    * Still yet again, DSL Line still crackling (yaddah, yaddah that’s C&W’s problem) *sigh*

    —

    twwifos: “Just checked mine…..
    1131 download
    330 upload

    Is this the “high speed” that we keep hearing about?”

    http://barbadosfreepress.wordpress.com/2007/07/16/barbados-internet-no-bargain-compared-with-the-rest-of-the-world-double-and-triple-cost/

    Answer: No, it is not fast not where near Cable or Fiber-Optic which is way faster than what we use. ‘Not even DSL or Wireless is a match for Cable or FiOS.’

    Cable can delivers up to 15-40mbps, FiOS (Fiber Optic) up to 50-100mbps if you use the service. DSL can stretch up to 30mbps (if it is using ADSL2). Our DSL could have gone further to 3mbps or deep into 10mbps range. (If they have the network and equipment worked out)

    Start writing letters to the Minister of Telecommunications and to Consumer Affairs to open up this Telecoms market and get the laws enforced.

    —

    Let us wait now until Mr. Halsall arrives and make his suggestions and comments.

  23. .22 Avatar
    .22

    @Tell Me Why

    It is recommended to Buy ‘Linksys’ or ‘D-Link’ brand routers and Modems. They’d work pretty much better. I’ve never seen C&W for this lackluster recommendation. Gee, so as their Zhone based product right?

    The Siemens Router should be put in a fridge… lol

    Can’t tell for sure if the service is the problem at the moment. But as usual it looks so.

  24. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    I lost internet this evenig too

  25. Chris Halsall Avatar
    Chris Halsall

    Yes — I also lost Internet today. Interestingly, my SSH connections continued, but no new sessions could be initiated.

    This suggests this wasn’t a nominal outage, but rather an issue with some other device, such as a “deep packet inspector”…

    What more is there to say?

    Until we stand up, and take the “risk” of buying services from the available competitors, nothing will change. Our politicians aren’t looking out for us; LIME certainly isn’t.

    Bend over… Think of England…

  26. Krzysztof Skubiszewski Avatar
    Krzysztof Skubiszewski

    It’s Friday 5 December 2008 at 23:38 hr and my Internet connection throughout today has been so erratic I appeal to whoever oversees communications in the government to make a public statement about how long we have to tolerate this scandalous C&W service.

    Forced to pay outrageous fees for such intermittent performance it borders on government-sanctioned extortion.

    The government must make its position clear.

  27. David Avatar
    David

    We are sure that Chris will repeat that what C&W is doing is what other providers around the world do. But we know that C&W aka LIME’s broadband infrastructure is woefully inadequate to quell the demand. Isn’t this something the FTC would be receptive to hearing about Chris/ROK?

  28. Chris Halsall Avatar
    Chris Halsall

    @David et al…

    With respect, the FTC doesn’t care. LIME aren’t breaking the law in this particular case…

    Hell, even when LIME does break the law, the FTC doesn’t *really* care…

  29. General Lee Avatar
    General Lee

    In spite of all that has been said about LIME (C&W), hundreds if not thousands are eagerly awaiting installation of LIME’s “broadband”services.

    At least we can say they are very good at marketing. The other providers need to match this.

  30. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    I get a couple posts on BFP hah. Had to, the topic for a change was relevent. But dey catch me. (Of course I know that dey really can’ keep yah out)

    But again I will say with conviction, the name change has more to do with the mass layoff than any real attempt at an improvement in service or image or anything but the bottom line.

  31. me Avatar
    me

    A letter in today Nation complaining about sour LIME call center caught my eye. The letter writer is on the ball and one has to ask apart from gas stations is there any worse customer service than at sour LIME.

    With the call center firing Bajans and moving to St.Lucia we are in for a rough time. Anyone who travels to OECS islands knows those folk are not keen on Barbados and would love to see us taken down several pegs. The envy effect is in full effect. As the letter writer indicates calls for info to the call center will be exercises in futility.

    The writer said the woman at the St. Lucia call center not only could not find a number for Harrisons Cave she had never heard of the Cave. Stupzzz!

  32. David Avatar
    David

    C&W sending home people at the start of an economic downturn will not generate good PR for sure. Julien Rodgers will have his work cut our. Imagine all the years they would have soaked profits up from Barbados and the other islands and not demonstrate no loyalty to the market.

    But this is the beast, the company must fulfill its master, the shareholders. It will be hard for the union to stop the move.

  33. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    The masters of the company are the “Principal Shareholders” and senior high priced executives; not the share holders (ask anyone from BS&T)

  34. Bitter Limer Avatar
    Bitter Limer

    @ All

    The worst thing to do is piss off the people who know all your dirty secrets and the LIME workers know nuff a dem.

    Yes those modems you are being issued with are not the best. The zhone modems which LIME flooded the market with after the their technicians advised them not to was a disaster. A technician explained to me that customers will always get problmes while those modems are connected to the network, for some reason those zhone modems issued caused a myriad of problems for them. The have now switched to siemens SE 587 or 204, these too are inferior and we are now wondering why LIME has decided to replace an inferior product with another one.

    Many of you when taking home these modems will be greeted with a modem registration page, this does not work and it has not been working for a while so you go through the entire process only to be greeted by an error message.

    When you get the new SE 587 don’t be surprised when you get countless error messages stating that “this user is logged on already” or your DSL light may be on steady green while your online light is red and you have constant problems browsing. Or maybe your protocol has been updated to PPOE and now you have countless issues with your service. For weeks the technicians have not been able to get these problems resolved. .

    Now the market is being flooded with what appears to me to be flawed equipment yet again have you noticed a drop in service? Over the past few weeks have you noticed slower speeds, frequent outages or more frequent dropped connections?….I have, even though I do not have one of these new modems.

    From what I understand it is not only the modems that are causing the problem but the new equipment being rolled out @ all the exchanges which will allow more DSL capacity and more money. The technicians also have great problems with this.

    What is wrong with LIME? why do they keep cutting cost in this way? Fixing problems constantly is only damaging their image and ending up being more costly in the end. These people can’t be that foolish it must be something deliberate.

  35. Bitter Limer Avatar
    Bitter Limer

    Could it be that cutting cost by purchasing inferior equipment = meeting end of year results = big bonuses for execs? By the time the problems get out of hand these big ups are rich and gone…on to another job wid a whole wash a money. leaving the C&W issues behind. Recently none of them have stayed for more than 3 years. It is quite interesting.

  36. Equity Avatar
    Equity

    BU, that should be “Enforces” not “Inforces”.

  37. David Avatar
    David

    Thanks Equity!

  38. JC Avatar
    JC

    hear~! hear!
    ————————————————————–
    Krzysztof Skubiszewski // December 6, 2008 at 12:45 am

    It’s Friday 5 December 2008 at 23:38 hr and my Internet connection throughout today has been so erratic I appeal to whoever oversees communications in the government to make a public statement about how long we have to tolerate this scandalous C&W service.

    Forced to pay outrageous fees for such intermittent performance it borders on government-sanctioned extortion.

    The government must make its position clear.

  39. Straight talk Avatar
    Straight talk

    Is everyone experiencing this on-off crappy internet connection i have had for the last week.

    WTF am I paying through the nose for?

    Ringing “your service has been disabled” LIME gets you, after half an hour wait, some clueless operative (literal not figurative, no offence intended ) saying they have a general problem and they don’t know exactly when it will be fixed.

    Well, you know what, I agree with them, but I think it will only be fixed when the GoB through FTC or some other entity says smarten your act up or go take tour expensive piss poor service back to England and see if you can make money there, LOL, and we’ll try a proper telecom outfit.

    As for laying off 250 staff, I’d say the reverse is necessary, double the call centre staff merely to deal promptly with the genuine concerns of customers complaining of the diabolical service.

  40. trouble tree Avatar
    trouble tree

    JC
    I think that static from your locks and big bottom is affecting your internet service………..murder!

  41. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    I have rebooted my modem a million times, and my pc half a million times, circumvented the telephone line filter about a quarter of a million times and complained to the company once. It’s good now that I know that I am not the only one experiencing this crap.

  42. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    trouble tree
    JC got a big bottom?

  43. David Avatar
    David

    A question to the Limers aka former C&W employees. The fact that you would have known about the decision by C&W to rollout inferior equipment what does this say about the employees? Didn’t you think you had a responsibility to alert your union or FTC?

    To C&W aka LIME, if you know that there is a project to upgrade or build out infrastructure which would impact service quality shouldn’t you have don’t the ethical thing by issuing a full public disclosure?

  44. Chris Halsall Avatar
    Chris Halsall

    @BU.David… With respect…

    You are asking too much…

    Everyone today is only out for themselves… No one is (or, at least, *very* few are) prepared to stand up…

    (To quote Gilliam’s Brazil: “…it could affect your credit rating…”.)

    What part of this don’t you get? (And we are all doomed to hell because of it….)

  45. Krzysztof Skubiszewski Avatar
    Krzysztof Skubiszewski

    It’s Monday 8 December at 21:27 hr and my download NON-SPEED is even less than my ‘half of what I’m paying for” upload speed.

    And has been around this nonsense all day.

    Imagine waiting an hour to fill a cup with water trickling in from the BWA.

    It’s the same thing and it sucks.

  46. Chris Halsall Avatar
    Chris Halsall

    @Skubiszewski…

    And what are *you* going to do about it?

    This is a serious question….

  47. Krzysztof Skubiszewski Avatar
    Krzysztof Skubiszewski

    I’m gonna’ watch NFL Football in Spanish.

    Seriously THERE IS NOTHING TO BE DONE!!!!

    I’ve spoken to C&W legal people and they have pages of small print to flummox us.

    C&W will do nothing unless they’re forced to by law.

    Any suggestions?

  48. Technician Avatar
    Technician

    @ Bitter Limer…..

    To use Bush Tea’s words…what technicians what????

    Most of them dont even have T1 from City & Guild or any piece of papers from SJPP !!

  49. .22 Avatar
    .22

    @Krzysztof Skubiszewski

    Try FreeMotion Internet services if its available in your area. At least that is an alternative.

    @Krzysztof Skubiszewski: “C&W will do nothing unless they’re forced to by law.”

    I’ll make a minor quote and I did hear it: “The FTC has gone silent” as Tony Marshall indicated on Brasstacks a month or 2 ago.

    As Mr. Halsall said earlier and it is true they were and are Silent on the Public.

  50. JC Avatar
    JC

    Trouble tree wha you know bout me ha haha haha

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