Problem With Quantum Fiber Internet
 

Quantum Fiber recently has been having a problem where download speeds are correct but upload speed are not and sometimes intermittent, and they are not fixing it. For example, if you are subscribed for 1Gbs service you should see up to 940Mbs download and 940Mbs upload speeds or something close to that when hard wired. If using wifi with an iPhone the speeds will be less but in the ballpark. If you have the 500Mbs service you should also see bi-directional speeds, up to 500Mbs.

The problem is the upload speeds Quantum is providing is around 50Mbs, which is totally wrong. This started happening about 2 weeks ago to residents subscribed to Quantum Fiber in Osceola Hills and may be happening in other areas around the Villages. Techs have been out and nothing is wrong with the customer's equipment or connections. Apparently they have a problem in their network and because the download speeds are normal, no one knows that the upload speeds being privided are not. So you are paying for a service that you are not getting.

All this said, to see if you are effected, check your connection by using this speed test Speedtest by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test and use the CentryLink Orlando server. If you are getting very slow upload speeds then call Quantum Fiber on 833-250-6306 and complain. If we don't complain I fear they will never fix this problem.

I've had Quantum Fiber for over three years and never had a problem but this issue is totally unacceptable because they are not providing the service that they are advertising and we are paying for. If you can reply to this thread after you do a speed test, we will be able to see how wide spread or not this problem is and see what options we have to get Quantum Fiber to correct the problem.

I have 500 service and have just about that at my modem both ways. But each of my devices are less and vary by device, which is normal due to numbers of devices connected, and age of the device. I see no problem in my service.

Please tell us what Village you are in.

I would hazard to guess, unless you are a gamer, 98% of the folks do not care about upload speeds. 940mb is way more than needed for streaming. The providers (Quantum, Comcast, Spectrum, etc.) has convinced us we need these speeds. We don’t…

Somewhat true but if you backup your computers to the cloud or work from home or do video conferencing with the family via facetime, zoom or any other service then faster upload speeds are better.

You may not need them, but if you are paying for them then they should provide them

All of my providers over the years have advertised an upload speed considerably less than the download speed, but if Quantum says 940/940 then that should be what you get

We have Spectrum not Quantum, but that speed test was an interesting link, 686/23, abysmal upload speed.

Yep, and a majority can do with a minimal plan since I doubt most are streaming multiple devices and doing zoom calls. If it were me I would call Quantum and tell them you want to go to a cheaper plan vs. complaining to them about what you have now (use that as the reason as you might get further).

I had a similar issue. The problem was that my account was configured incorrectly. It took a visit buy a tech to my house, and his perseverance on the phone with back office personnel to fix my account.

But the point is we should be getting the speeds they publish and we pay for.

I am new to the villages and have centric fiber here is shady brook. It is 1gb service. I am thrilled that I am actually measuring 600 mb/s down load speed and 400 mb/s upload speed.

I’ve always imagined the advertised speed is the maximum if nobody else in the neighborhood is on.

The incredible thing about the villages internet is how cheap it is. $65/mo…. I mean really. Almost Everywhere else in the universe high speed internet is $150 to $200/month….or more.

I’m sure like everyone here I’ve had many different high speed internet services in the past. I’ve always found cable based internet has much lower upload speed than download speed. But it is surprising to hear about a fiber based system with such a big ratio. They have so much more bandwidth.

Unless you're running a server or are a heavy gamer, the upload speeds should never be an issue. Also, the Gb service is for the fiber itself, and hardwired connections. Wifi has its own limitations.

My upload speeds are always faster than my download speeds by a little bit. I've had Quantum for several years now, very few issues. You do know that speeds calculated can be affected by both the speedtest you run and the server you select? If there are issues with the infrastructure at the server end or anywhere in the path to the server it will affect what your speeds are. I always use at least two speedtest apps to compare. This eliminates both the app and the specific server. Fast.com is my normal go to site for testing.

Just used my I phone 12 to test, 38.3 up & 16.8 down. We're in Glenbrook & service is for 500. Had no problem watching football last night. Will check with
Quantum fiber about the problem.

I live in the Village of St. James. My speeds are as follows downloads/uploads: Server in Jacksonville, since my VPN connects to Jacksonville, 120.45/116.56 - Gainesville, 220.45/147.51 - Orlando, 135.09/111.68. I did this test on my laptop. I pay for 500Mbps.

Just to echo what Donfey mentioned. Don't expect to see the advertised speed unless you are testing on a device that is hard wired to your modem/router/switch. The ports on all the devices must also be rated for that speed or higher. There are some old PC's that only have 100mb ethernet so don't expect to get any more than 100mb if you are running the test on that PC. Running on anything wireless introduces latency and other variables so you cannot get a true test on a wireless device ( aka on smartphone )

I have never come even close to the claim speeds that quantum advertises. I just checked right now and I'm getting about 90 upload and 90 download. Usually I'm in the 100-300 range. But that's more than enough for me to work on my VPN (which includes video conferencing) and use streaming services and it's only 50 bucks a month, which includes equipment rental.

The vast majority of people don't need one gigabit Internet connection. I get that it's false advertising though.

Edit: after power cycling my modem and my Google mesh network I'm now getting 300, download, 150 upload. I don't know how long I've been running at 90 but I really didn't even notice it.

Folks, I understand the variance when doing a speed test, I'm an electrical engineer and worked in IT my whole career.

To clarify, download speeds are good, the problem is upload speeds are about 50Mbs and the connection is intermittent. If you are paying for 500Mbs or 1Gbs speeds, 50Mbs is totally unacceptable when wired directly to the router.

The purpose of this post is to make subscribers of Quantum Fiber aware. If they are not getting the speeds they are paying for they need to consider calling them to either reduce their monthly bill or fix the problem. As noted, I've had Quantum Fiber for over three years and service and speeds have been excellent without any issue. This problem is something new. Quantum Fiber is owned by Lumen and service should be excellent.

My download speed with Spectrum is 101 Mbps, upload is 11 Mbps. The speed is adequate for my needs. Not sure why you need superfast upload speed there. I have always seen upload speed at about 10% of download speed with comcast or spectrum or any other provider that I had.
According to speedtest:
Your Internet connection should be able to handle multiple devices streaming HD videos, video conferencing, and gaming at the same time.

With cable or DSL you will always see very slow upload speeds. They only have so much bandwidth and most is allocated to download. With fiber, upload speed is nearly always equal to download speed. There are no bandwidth issues for fiber.

Understood, but this isn't the issue of this thread. The issue is Quantum in some areas here un the Villages may be delivering slower internet speeds than they are advertising and having customers pay for.

In response to your post:
For cable sysems, there is a bandwidth limit with the physical cable so they use most of the bandwidth for download which is most important and then the remander for upload. This is why with cable internet you get very slow upload speeds no matter which company you subscribe to. Traditionally, this has not been an issue but with cloud backups, video conferencing and other work at home services utilizing upload more, and because of competition with Fiber Internet, cable companies have been recently comming out with faster upload speeds. Unfortunately, these newer systems are not yet available to us here in the Villages.

With fiber internet, there is plenty of bandwidth for bi-directional speeds meaning same speeds download and upload.

I live in the northern part of the Villages and have Quantum Fiber. I did note yesterday that my internet speeds, both up and down, were abysmal. I have 1 Gb service and I was getting variances in the range of 10-50 Mbs. I rebooted the Quantum modem twice, as well as my WiFi network. After that I was back to receiving normal speeds on my devices. Don't know if Quantum was the issue or my Wifi (which had done a software update). But you may want to reboot the modem and your network device and see if that helps.

only a gamer? try again. You can certainly look at network speeds like that however that's a pretty uninformed view of how this all works. It doesn't take all that much, noting OP upload speed, to mess with xmit times.

As for the OP - Did they scan the glass? typically with all that goes on, the glass can get a crack aka fracture that will require a patch to replace the section.

Yes, they changed all the equipment, measured the light, cleaned all the contacts.

But we found many of my neighbors with Quantum Fiber have the same problem so it's some issue in their network.

Fiber
 

Former life was VP engineering for a major broadcasting company. Have had fiber for several years in TV. I see more than 500 up/down at the router on Cat 5. Just posting a reminder that Wi-Fi tests will not show that speed. It will vary depending on where you test. I have not experienced any major outages and found them to be responsive to calls and good about sending out info about the network. Good luck!

About a year ago we experienced a decrease in the upload bandwidth with QuantumFiber as measured by Speedtest. A neighbor brought it my attention. QuantumFiber was notified and they resolved the problem within a few days.

In agree. This is tangential to the original post but may be worth stating. Unless you are moving large files around, say 50 gigabyte tarballs like I used to do when I was working, the required nominal bandwidth is probably fairly low. For many, video streaming will be the most demanding application. For example, 1080p streaming uses about 5 megabits per second per stream. 2160p (aka 4K) uses about 20 megabits per second per stream but there isn’t a lot of 4K material out there. We have 200 megabits per second up and down and this is probably 10x what we use. We have 200 megabits per second because it is their lowest tier of service.

Current offer is $35/month for 950. Can't get much cheaper than that. I've never seen upload speeds matching download speeds, no matter the provider. The number is a "speeds up to" number, not a guaranteed speed. Upload speeds always come in lower than download speeds in my experience.

Right but the upload speeds should be 900Mbs or so and NOT 50Mbs.

An update. After doing more speed tests at friends homes around the Villages with Quantum Fiber, most homes are provided the correct speeds. The problems mostly appear in Osceola Hills. After yet another technician came by my home the other day, they again verified the incorrect, super slow upload speeds of 10-40 Mbs all the time and conceeded it was a Central Office problem on their end. While all this is good, there is no feedback on, if or ever the problem will be fixed.

Quantum Fiber's, which is owned by Lumen, residential support and call center are actually very good. Meaning if there is a problem with the equipment in your home and or the fiber connection, they are usually very responsive and knowledgable in fixing the problem. The issue is when there is a problem in their network. These fixes usually take forever to get resolved.

When I worked for Verizon, we never had these issues becasue Verizon is a regulated company. So, if service wasn't provided, the Public Service Commission would get involved. They also have a "president's hot-line" that you can call to get an advocate to resolve the issue.

With Quantum, the FCC regulates them so if issues are not resolved in a timely fashion you can submit a complaint on-line to get resolution. This is an option when the company is not resolving the issue and shouldn't be used lightly but at least it's an option of last resort.

Interestingly, although we have some internet competition here in the Villages with Quantum, Spectrum and Xfinity, there are considerations to understand.

Xfinity has data caps so if you use too much data per month you will be charged for the extra usage. In my opinion, in today's world this is unacceptable. If you live up north for example where there is fierce competition, Xfinity has no data caps.

Spectrum is the best of the cable companies becasue there is no data cap and the service is relatively reliable and cheap but they don't offer any of the newer more modern plans here in the Villages. If you want to pay for it, they provide 1Gbs download speeds but you get a maximum of 45 Mbs upload. Why is this significant? Because with doorbell and other security cameras used by homeowners today, that speed is a little too slow to get a crisp response to see the video when somone rings your front door bell for example. The video has to be uploaded to the server then down to your viewing device. Some people have a local video hub which gets around this problem. Also, if you backup your computers to the cloud, it can take a very long time at these upload speeds to do a full backup. If you are a YouTuber, again, you need faster upload speeds to upload your video. For everyone else, speed doesn't matter.

Fiber Internet is the "sweet spot". Whether its provided by Quantum or Centric, it offers the best bi-directional speeds for the lowest cost. Both Quantum and Centric also provide top-of-the-line in-home wifi equipment included in the price.

The final leg of internet competition is wireless internet provided by T-Mobile and Verison. This wireless service's performance will depend on how close your home is located to one of their wireless towers so you need to try the service and see how it works in your specific home. But even at best, expect 200-300 Mbs download speeds which is probably more than enough for most Villagers but upload speeds will be terrible in the range of 10-20Mbs at best. The other issue is, like cable, this is a shared system so you performance will vary, sometimes wildly depending on the overall usage at any given time of the day.

So all this said, although fiber internet companies have cable companies as competition here in the Villages, there really is no competition because Cable internet is OK for most but not competitive with Fiber internet.

For cable subscribers, who likes Xfinity? Spectrum? Which do you feel is better?

We had Xfinity initially, switched to Spectrum once the special deal with Comcast expired, Spectrum has been more relaible.

Spectrum is offering a Black Friday deal where you get a reduced price if you use their mobile service. Xfinity, no deals. Interesting.

Quantum Fiber is offerint $35 for 1GBs service. Can't beat that price.

When you look at the cable internet offers from Xfinity and Spectrum, especially with Xfinity, they want to bundle telephone, streaming services and other stuff in order to get a "deal" but when you add it all up, you are not really saving too much. Also, for their fastest speed on Xfinity, they want to lock you into a contract. I wonder how many more customers the cable companies need to loose before offering competitive service?

Has anyone ordered the Quantum Fiber 1Gbs service for $35 recently? It say's price for life meaning as long as they provide that tier of service. Seems unfair for their existing customers. I called and they gave me a promotion for a month but nothing more. Cable companies, unless you are willing to bundle internet with something else they offer, no discounts.

I am in a Village very close to you (north of 44, south of 466A, but west of Morse) & I have Quantum at the 500 rate & I have the same problem as Osceola Hills. 48.55 download & 45.97 upload. Thanks for the alert.

Yes, there is a diff between the speed into your router and the speed you get to your devices. My current Xfinity megabit plus says I get 108% of capacity (over 1000), to my house. A speed test to my phone on wifi gives me 620ish download and 600ish upload.

Call the support # and have them fix your provisioning information.

More people are discovering and reporting that their upload speeds are terribly slow and not what they are paying for.

Quantum Fiber - Sanibel
 

I am considering signing up for Quantum Fiber. Are there any problems with upload speed, as mentioned above, in Sanibel? Any other issues I should be aware of before signing up? TIA