[jrref]

It's nice to see all the responses in this thread.

So this is what I know about Quantum as of this mornng.

1) Last June, Quantum had to start replacing the old WiFi pods becasue of an issue with the equipment supplier. When Quantum first started offering the WiFi5 and 6 pods they used equipment and software from an existing manufacturer. Quantum then made the decision to have a company design and supply WiFi7 equipment exclusively for them. This is very typical with companies such as Verizon, TMobile and others. Since then, Quantum has been replacing the older WiFi5&6 pods with their new WiFi7 equipment. This is why the newer WiFi7 equipment is used with new installations and mailed to existing customers.

2) Many companies such as Netgear, TP-link, Amazon, Google and others make WiFi7 mesh systems. Although these systems are available at various price points, in general, this newer WiFi equipment is expensive becasue they now use three radios, 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz and 6Ghz along with all the new WiFi7 protocols and better antennas.

3) Because these new WiFi7 devices use more sophisticated antennas, effectively when you use these devices, the signal will be stronger to more areas of your home eventhough the power output is roughly the same. What this means is, the need for extender pods or additional mesh nodes may not be necessary in a typical size home here in the Villages. And in some cases, installing additional pods can cause interference and worse performance than without them. Again, as mentioned, this problem is not exclusive to Quantum since I've seen this with Netgear, TP-Link and other WiFi7 mesh equipment.

4) As these WiFi7 devices are installed by Quantum, they are finding many of the complaints are caused by using too many extender pods so the Techs have been instructed to install the main pod then survey the WiFi coverage throughout the home and only install remote pods if needed. This saves them money on pods that are not necessary and reduces the trouble rate and simplifies the installation.

5) I've signed-up and monitored the installations of four of my neighbors here in Osceola Hills in the past month and they all went well and the service is running great.

All this said, Quantum and Centric Fiber are not cable companies so they don't have the constant upward pressure to increase prices becasue of the ever increasing content fees that need to be paid to the content providers such as ESPN, ABC, CBS, and others because they only provide internet and no TV content services. This is why they can keep prices more stable and low even without any contracts, taxes and fees.

Most of us here in the Villages can get Fiber internet service and we are very lucky to have this option over traditional cable.

Also remember, the fiber internet companies offer bi-directional service meaning the download and upload speeds are the same. With cable, they give you the advertised download speed but the upload speed is 20-30 Mbs at best because of the physical bandwidth limitations of the copper cable. So when you call them you have to keep this in mind because they will never tell you this. The cable companies are starting to offer bi-directional service but only in highly competitive areas of the country. We probably won't see this here in the Villages for a very long time.

Fiber internet is also a dedicated service to you home so you are not sharing the bandwidth with all your neighbors resulting in varying speeds that can cause buffering at peak times.

Finally, as many have reported the technical suppor for all these companies is not that great all the time so you want to go with a technology such as fiber, when you have this choice, becasue its more reliable and you will have a smaller chance of ever needing to contacting them. Again, some of the cable companies here in the Villages are reliable but the cable technology is old technology and has a lot more complexity than with fiber.

Hope this all helps everyone have a better understanding of whats going on with internet services here in the Villages.

And if you have a complaint to report, please give some details of where you live, the service you have and how the equipment is installed so we can try and help.