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In late February, following an article I released on Feb. 18 about Access Media 3, also known as AM3, Melissa Mercado, marketing director of AM3 sent a press release to my inbox. The title read “Access Media 3 Announces Blacksburg Network Upgrades, Improves Internet Service to Area Residents.”
A read through offered that AM3 “recognized a need for updated infrastructure and quickly moved to make necessary changes to improve service in the area” when it acquired properties from Shentel last year.
Vito Caraguilo, senior vice president of technology and product development, noted in the release, “We have seen an increase in recent years of Internet usage due to the age of streaming video and owning multiple computing devices that require Internet connection.”
He went on to say AM3 needed to upgrade to a more capable infrastructure to meet consumer demands, and so with months of work, it has “increased bandwidth delivery to individual properties and a more reliable internet product overall.”
Even addressing the fact that Blacksburg has an abundance of student housing, the release noted that students no longer have to log-in to their accounts daily to access the Internet.
It continued with the CEO citing AM3’s belief in consistency and quality, and that the improvements will be ongoing in Blacksburg.
This prompted a second conversation with Mercado, one that lasted three times longer than our first. My intentions were to uncover more specific information about the release and the upgrades, so as to publicize the press release for student customers of AM3.
What came from it instead was the illumination of misperceptions that students may have about AM3, and the service it provides.
How does Access Media 3 operate in Blacksburg?
First, I must clarify my misunderstandings of AM3’s operations. In my previous article, I state that AM3, located out of Oak Brook, Ill., did not have representatives or technicians in the Blacksburg areas. In fact, Mercado assures me it does, saying, “We have many service technicians in the area. We also have a property relationship coordinator that is there regularly.”
She went on to say that these technicians can monitor the bandwidth in the area, and most importantly, “AM3 is always responsible for the services it provides, 100 percent.”
Mercado would not give me the location of these workers, saying the actual location was irrelevant, but she assured me that AM3 is very much in Blacksburg.
At this point in our conversation, I left the role of the questionnaire. The topic of the press release was swept aside, as Mercado began asking me about my experience with AM3.
My role as a customer was trivial, but I gave my take on their service honestly; it wasn’t a stretch from what other students have said before. Complaints of slow service speeds intrigued Mercado, and before long, she gave me a view of AM3’s Internet speeds that I hadn’t understood before.
A version of this article appeared in the Mar 20 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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The author is naive if he thinks that bandwidth is the only issue with the internet provided by AM3. You've been mislead by their public relations person. Yes, you could hit a bandwidth cap if everything is needing bandwidth.
However, that doesn't explain it not working or connecting at all in afternoons. That does not explain when you isolate it so the only connection is a single laptop hooked directly to a non-wireless router, how you still cannot connect to the router.
Your lack of insight and background research into a topic you're reporting on is disappointing to say the least. It's embarrassing that one of us students had the opportunity to speak with AM3 directly and it was wasted by someone who didn't understand the basic of how connecting to the internet works.
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Your basic point is valid -- not all of the problems encountered by students using AM3 are due to bandwidth caps and fluctuations. But if you really can isolate your network so that the only connection you're trying to make is a laptop hardwired into a router, and you can't connect to the ROUTER (not the Internet, but the router itself), the problem is not with Access Media 3 (unless they sold/leased you a router). An ISP has no skin in the game, so to speak, in the connection from a user device to the router. An ISP's working domain is everything upstream from your router (and, presumably, downstream from a Tier 3 network).
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“give everybody 100MB/s, and for there not to be any issues.”
Is that supposed to be a lowercase b for Bits
not capital B for Bytes. This can sometimes be confusing when dealing with download speeds and internet connections because of different measurements and notations.
Ex. Mbps MBps MB/s KBps Kbps KB/s kB/s KiB/s Kb/s
data transfer rate; data storage; download speed; upload speed internet speed
Already lost?
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This is absolutely disgusting. No one has 15 devices pulling data at the same time, even in a 4 bedroom apartment. An internet connection is and has always been since the dawn of high speed, a household service. The service is terrible, the customer support even worse. 5 MBPS would be fine if we actually received that much at any given time.
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looks like this writer got hosed. I lived in Terrace View when NTC was acquired by AM3 and I was excited about the supposed "upgrades". The internet never got any better that year. Now this year my girlfriend lives in TV and the internet is just as bad, sometimes being entirely blacked out. AM3 charges ridiculous prices just like NTC did and provide very subpar service.
I have comcast now and while not perfect I am 1000x more satisfied than I ever was with NTC/AM3
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The issue isn't with the number of devices nor accounts, nor is it with the users personal router or even wireless service. Any router built in the past 10 years can EASILY sustain dozens of devices and a single user can easily hit 30mbps (that's megabits). Wireless speeds do drop by 1/2 each time a new user starts to stream but the congestion control and mimo and other features of current day wirelss routers should allow at least 3 users to stream at ~5mbps easily.
AM3 is clearly blowing sunshine in the hopes that students will bite the hook of needing "additional accounts". The issue is their back end network is massively oversubscribed and they are milking the cash cow to avoid having to upgrade their back haul connections to handle the volume of data. Their issue is that from August to May they are crushed but from mid may to mid august is a desert. SO for 8 months they need the extra volume to cope with students use who actually in town but not those extra 4 months when no one is on.
So they stall. The issue clearly on their end and their massive over subscription of the bburg circuits to where ever they hand off to either verizon, level3 or other major provider.
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http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/21429/service-unavailable-students-remain-unhappy-with-access-media-3
Dean's previous article
Quotes & Comments:
"Customers can sign up to have their emails notified when outages do occur."
"Does this Access Media 3 spokeswoman have any knowledge about how email works? How am I supposed to be notified of an outage when my internet isn't working to check my email? There are still people without smartphones or phones with email access. Furthermore, why would I need an email to tell me my service is out? Wouldn't I know about it? That is the most asinine comment I have ever seen from a spokesperson for a company."
"LoL. I agree, cant send an OUTAGE report by email is there is an internet OUTAGE!"
Are we to believe anything Mercado says?
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I find Mercado's claims a little bit lacking. I am using a Cisco 802.11n router on the most open channel in the area to reduce interference, this isn't some piece of junk. The wlan speeds far outmatch the bandwidth I am paying for so there really is no reason to use a lan connection in my townhouse in Maple Ridge.
She claims that with everyone in the house using the network, the bandwidth will drop. This is obvious and easily noticed by my roommates and me. It's when no one else is home and the speeds still are awful is when its an issue. I pay for a 10Mb/s connection. I pull around a 5-6Mb/s when no one else is home. This is especially awful for online classes that have you watch videos that you have to download off of scholar. I will generally just drive over to campus in the evening/weekends and use the internet there since I can get better speeds when not many people are in class. I honestly can't wait until Google Fiber starts to expand and puts the old dinosaurs like AM3 either out of business or forces them to better their quality.
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This is just a rumor, but I've heard that AM3 is still using CAT4 cables on their local network hubs. This would mean, essentially, that not only are customers having to provision bandwidth on their own connection, but they are also competing with nearby residents too. Keep in mind, I don't know whether that's true or not, but it would explain why a lot of people can't get advertised speeds even when they are the sole user on their connection.
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Mercado is an incredibly naive person if she thinks students who shell out enough money trying to attend college should have to INDIVIDUALLY SUBSCRIBE to 'alleviate bandwidth.'
And please. Don't act all surprised that people aren't using desktops anymore. Wireless has been around for a decade. And Blacksburg is home to those 'Inventing the Future.' How did you not see this coming Mercado? What's next? Are you going to put data plans on like cell phone companies with data usage limits?
This article should have been more critical with more background work done. I double any student will be satisfied with Mercado's explanation. Mercado should have been grilled with more hard-hitting questions. It's intolerable to live in such a high-tech community and be bogged down with silly contracts that monopolize such a horrendous service to students.
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Actually, if look at the terms for the internet plans they provide, you will notice they do have a monthly data use limit. 250GB per month, if I am not mistaken.
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Could a third article go ahead and be done where Mercado is hit with some actual questions? Maybe by someone who knows a bit more about internet connection? Y'all already created a second, might as well go for a third with some actual answers.
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This person thinks they can call themselves a reporter? They were duped by a marketing person! If AM3 hopes to survive they had better get their ancient service working. Comcast will run them out of town...and then we'll all be stuck under one monopoly.
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So while Melissa Mercado is whining to the collegiate times about how AM3 cannot afford expensive upgrades...
HERE IS A MEMO DETAILING HOW MUCH AM3 IS MAKING:
"AM3’s aggressive growth approach has produced an annual run rate of revenues and EBITDA of approximately $41,000,000 and $8,000,000 respectively."
http://www.petracapital.com/display_news.php?id=198
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She says "abusing the service" by connecting multiple devices. Are they just so stupid that they didn't expect a 4 bedroom apartment with 4 college roommates in it to use 4 computers all connected to the internet? Come on... especially when it is absolute HELL to try to get any other internet service provider in most of the apartment complexes.... this is an obvious attempt at getting individuals to pay for individual accounts while in contract with complexes to exclusively provide their service. Pretty transparent.
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All you need to do is Google Access Media 3, and check out the fact they don't have a single review that didn't rate them the lowest possible grade. And the comments left by other dissatisfied customers nowhere near Blacksburg also mention that they have a contract with their leasing companies. They don't care at all about improving their services because they don't have to.
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My son who lives in Maple Ridge had to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in Illinois because of their billing fraud. In addition, their customer service is the WORST I've ever experienced. For the record, Access Media 3 had 77 complaints to the Better Business Bureau. Read it for yourself here: http://www.bbb.org/chicago/business-reviews/cable-tv-internet-and-telephone-installation-service/access-media-3-in-oak-brook-il-88364552
If a "family" lived in Maple Ridge (let's say parents and two children), would they need to pay for 4 accounts for Internet access? Ridiculous!!!
Access Media should be "run out of town"...as we say in the south!
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