Comments on: Hawaii’s fastest internet connection

By: Kanekahuna

Kanekahuna — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 05:46:53 +0000

I have used RR for a few years now and have only had a handful of issues. I do use haw tel at work and the speed is terrible. It takes forever to even download a 2mb email file. Also here on Kauai there is no service center for anyone to go to, if you call them it is always an hour and a half wait or longer with a service call always being a week or two away if you are lucky. I am an IT professional and always recommend rr and have had many people switch to rr and they love it. I will admit I hate the way rr shapes traffic on large files but they make up for it with prompt customer service and they have a local office to go to.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:34:40 +0000

Not sure what k4ylr is saying about jumping through hoops, just got Hawaii TelCom’s basic internet service for $29.99/mo, no need to get a phone line. We went to their office to pick up the modem (which is FREE!), they would have shipped it but we wanted it right away. It was a self-install kit, it was easy my wife did it.

Wow it works way better than RoadRunner so far…no more of the annoying downtime everyone else is talking about. RR was a nightmare, virtually unusable all evening from 6-9 when I am home.

By: k4ylr

k4ylr — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:03:36 +0000

The only downside to Hawaii TelCom’s service is that you need to have an already established land line to get their 11Mbps speeds. If, like me, you move into a brand new house which does not have an established phone line, you have to jump through a series of hoops to even work your way up to their internet-only service.

While RR offers an advertised 5Mbit line. My speed tests return a down speed of double if not triple (on occasion) their advertised speed.

I was intrigued by Hawaiian Tel’s 11mbit offer but the near-month waiting period of prorated bills, lesser service and payment for a phone line far outweighed the 2 week wait I had for TWC Oceanic.

So in the end pick and chose since the non power user will not notice a marked difference between the 2 (unless you live at the end if the string for the DSL :[)

PS: I’m in East, BI

By: Rudolf

Rudolf — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:44:44 +0000

I totally concur with the above post by Zach074. I too have measured Oceanic’s Roadrunner speeds and what they mean is that you pay royally for what you don’t get. Their so-called “high-speed” internet resembles an average range between 230 kbs to 1000 Kbs, with surges that rarely if ever go above 2000 kbs, far short of the promised 3 Mbs.

So, while RR speed fluctuates, I have never, never in the 10 years I’ve had Roadrunner (has it been 10 years already?) seen any of the advertised speeds. There are plenty of websites that allow one to measure one’s broadband speeds and I have consulted them all. As of today I have an alternative in the form of Clearwire WIMAX and this is how it compares using different speed tests:
RR download 473 kbs, upload 233 ks VS Clear download 1588 kbs, upload 340 kbs (via speedtest.net);
RR download 509 kbs, upload 62 kbs VS Clear download 1938 kbs, upload 237 kbs;
RR download 2139 kbs, upload 225 kbs VS Clear download 3256 kbs, upload 387 kbs;
RR download 993.7 kbs VS Clear download 1800 kbs

Yesterday and today I did several tests of RR before I went out and got Clearwire with the following motivating results:
RR download 234 kbs, upload 24 kbs
RR download 690 kbs, upload 15 kbs
RR download 570 kbs, upload 70 kbs
RR download 720 kbs, upload 20 kbs
RR download 990 kbs, upload 60 kbs

I also purchased the Clearwire WIMAX USB wireless modem for my laptop to free myself from hotspots for $20 more per month, with the following results:
1812 kbs/221 kbs
1547 kbs/189 kbs
4710 kbs/200 kbs
1660 kbs/110 kbs

It is fair to mention that even Clearwire’s speeds in Hawaii appear to lag compared to mainland speeds, according to the averages posted along the speed tests, but even then Oceanic/Warner Roadrunner looks far worse.
It’s also interesting to note that one test, from Intel, showed RR’s speed between DSL and Cable, while Clearwire sat between T1 and T3, a dramatic difference. So, in conclusion, for an extra $20/mo I more than doubled my internet speed and gained a USB laptop modem with very similar speeds. Most importantly, Roadrunner’s robbery has come to an end.

By: LMaui

LMaui — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 09:29:53 +0000

I have Earthlink Cable and my speeds never drop under 4000 with little lag. I have had Earthlink Cable or RR for 5 or 6 years and have had only 2 outages not counting the earthquake outage. I pay only $41.95 per month.

Oceanic handles both RR and Earthlink Cable.

I have never had speed drops like I hear from some people. I do live in a new subdivision outside Wailuku, maybe I am lucky but wanted to add my support for cable.

I also have helped a lot of people that have Hawaii Telcom and have trouble with their service, both email problems, bandwidth problems and just plain screwups.

I guess there are good and bad stories about each service and in the end when they are working as advertised there is little difference.