Blink or Flow?

[halo]

I'm tyring to decide whether to go with Flow broadband or Blink. Flow is the best in terms of pricing but how reliable is their connection and support? I saw an article in today's guradian saying that Flow has connection and support issues. Can any of you who have Flow attest to this?

[Babygirl]

We chose Blink because our experience with Flow in terms of other aspects of their service offerings...namely their cable service...was not desirable. This turned us away.

[deathwinger]

Flow's internet service is nothing like its Cable service. As it runs on different fiber lines, one never interrupts the other.

Blink is more expensive, slower and has more downtime. If you like do to things like throw your money out of a window, then Blink is the answer for you.

[sylvestter]

i have blink at home and flow at the office.

because we're a corporate customer we get good customer service through a dedicated customer rep.

i've had a technical problem recently with blink and i phoned them (and apparently got a callcentre in INDIA!!!!!) but the reps were very good, guided me through what i needed to do and got me resolved.

flow's queries on the other hand are all directed to the same customer service people who deal with cable and now phone issues, and it takes FOREVER to get them on the phone.

i would not mind having flow at home, but my experience with them has always been bad.

sad to say, there IS someone whose service is worse than TSTT and that someone is flow...

[Sirius]

My service with TSTT has gone gravely downhill since the migration from HSIA to Blink. It is slower and less reliable. I'm also only getting 1/3 the speed the competition offers for what I am paying. When I call Blink's helpdesk I get sent to an Indian call center. The people are very friendly, but they do little more than provide textbook answers. On more than one occasion I have been made to review my modem settings and reboot it (I did that before I called, fools) only to later admit that the network had a problem when I asked point-blank about it.

People I know who are on Flow's broadband connection are very happy. They say downtime is few and far between, and when it happens it is quickly resolved. At this point in time, the only reason I haven't switched to Flow is a lack of time/energy to get the task done.



EDIT: Where I work has TSTT's corporate service. the connection is horrific and is even slower and less reliable than my home connection. Their corporate representative is among the most unhelpful and arrogant fellows I have ever had to deal with. Whenever something has to be done, it takes weeks of running around. More than once we even got blanked and kicked all the way down to calling 824-TSTT - excuse me but aren't we paying out the nostrils for corporate service so we don't have to go through the slow public channels? Needless to say it has come up more than once that it is time to give their service the boot.

[sylvestter]

At this point in time, the only reason I haven't switched to Flow is a lack of time/energy to get the task done.i actually am in the same boat. well i have not definitively decided what i'm doing, but what is involved in this exactly? tell me if the steps that i anticipate are correct:

1. phone flow and request broadband service. (no contract to sign so no need to go to the office)

2. write/fax/physically go in to a tstt blink office (park street pos) to inform them that i wish to discontinue the service.

3. blink terminates my account.

4. wait for flow to come to my house to install the modems etc. (it would be nice to have steps 3 and 4 in sync)

i anticipate that step 4 will take a WHILE.
step 2 is what takes the most EFFORT....

[sylvestter]

Where I work has TSTT's corporate service. the connection is horrific and is even slower and less reliable than my home connection. Their corporate representative is among the most unhelpful and arrogant fellows I have ever had to deal with. Whenever something has to be done, it takes weeks of running around. More than once we even got blanked and kicked all the way down to calling 824-TSTT - excuse me but aren't we paying out the nostrils for corporate service so we don't have to go through the slow public channels? Needless to say it has come up more than once that it is time to give their service the boot.we had the same experience. this is what motivated our switch. our tstt corporate rep is Ms. Unreachable. the flow corporate people are SUPER-helpful. i give them that!

[Muslim_Chick]

i've had a technical problem recently with blink and i phoned them (and apparently got a callcentre in INDIA!!!!!) but the reps were very good, guided me through what i needed to do and got me resolved.


o gosh..those indian dudes....they're weird.....ive had probs with my blink service..and had 2 call...and all the technicians are indian..with names like dean...and john......lol :roll:
but they are helpful..patient...and some of them engage in small talk about the weather and ting..lol

[Babygirl]

i've had a technical problem recently with blink and i phoned them (and apparently got a callcentre in INDIA!!!!!) but the reps were very good, guided me through what i needed to do and got me resolved.


o gosh..those indian dudes....they're weird.....ive had probs with my blink service..and had 2 call...and all the technicians are indian..with names like dean...and john......lol :roll:
but they are helpful..patient...and some of them engage in small talk about the weather and ting..lol

LOL, I never asked them their names but they are very patient and helpful. My husband doesn't seem to understand their accent...LOL. Once an Indian woman was talking him through something on the phone and she asked him to disable his firewall and anti-virus...he asked the lady if she was crazy.

[Muslim_Chick]

i've had a technical problem recently with blink and i phoned them (and apparently got a callcentre in INDIA!!!!!) but the reps were very good, guided me through what i needed to do and got me resolved.


o gosh..those indian dudes....they're weird.....ive had probs with my blink service..and had 2 call...and all the technicians are indian..with names like dean...and john......lol :roll:
but they are helpful..patient...and some of them engage in small talk about the weather and ting..lol

LOL, I never asked them their names but they are very patient and helpful. My husband doesn't seem to understand their accent...LOL. Once an Indian woman was talking him through something on the phone and she asked him to disable his firewall and anti-virus...he asked the lady if she was crazy.
well when they answer...they does be like (in their indian accent)..hello my name is john...how can i help you? shouldn't their names be like raj...or sukhwinder or something..lol

[SSDD]

i have flow at home. at first we got alot of dropped service but it's repaired now and i love it.

[halo]

So I guess Flow is the Go...hey I should sell that tag line to them.. :D

Thanks all for your advise and experiences....

[vaio]

well i applied for blink but am still waiting for them to contact me..that was since January 2008.

Flow is not gonna come in my area until the next year or so....

so what do you guys think of me going with greendot for now?

[sylvestter]

well i applied for blink but am still waiting for them to contact me..that was since January 2008.

Flow is not gonna come in my area until the next year or so....

so what do you guys think of me going with greendot for now?i've herad only good things about GD.

[Solachica]

Am seeing many people with Green Dot recently.

No Flow in my area so its Blink.

Vaio they ent come by you yet? I applied in May for my relatives and they went by them last week.
I applied for myself in March and they came today.

The feller tested my line and said signal is weak and not holding a connection and tht the lines from pole to house have to be changed. They told my relatives same thing.
He say he wud make the report tmrw. I asked how long tht may take he said he don't know.
But he set up the modem and said when the lines are changed all I have to do is turn modem on.

Anyone know how long this wud take for the rewiring and how much it wud cost?

[greall]

I've got to wait until they (TSTT) organize the local lines at their leisure apparently... :x

Greendott's not going to be available here until maybe the end of the year... :x

If I had their service available here then I'd have to go with Flow... :!:

Greg

[Kartel]

flow is the best. it's really reliable but the only thing that i hate was waiting almost 5 days for them to finally connect it. i've been hearing rumors about blink with the whole sharing of the speed, now i dont know if thats true or not but everyone i have spoken to says its true. but still if u want great internet get flow ;) :evil:

[Huma]

I've spoken to several people who have constant problems with Flow.
I've spoken to people who have constant problems with Blink.


Blink seems to get an exaggerated bad rap from tech folks (no offense to anyone here) who've had bad experiences with TSTT. But techies are like that; they'll hate a product to the ground and refuse to admit that it works well for some people (see Microsoft Vista) just because of their own grudges.
That said, some of the accusations are founded.

Flow gets a lot of unnecessary props because it's not TSTT. However I've seen plenty of the same fellas who evangelized for Flow cuss and rave because of its inconsistent performance. It's a brand new service provider, and their inexperience shows.
That said, some people swear by Flow, and it does what they need it to do, which is the point. It's also cheaper, it's customer service is supposed to be better and its installation time is much faster.


Six of one, half dozen of the other it seems.


For me, Blink gives problems (mostly slowdown periods) once every few weeks, and usually only for a few hours. It's generally very reliable here at my home near Trincity. The biggest problem I've had with TSTT is customer service, and more because they seem swamped than because they're unfriendly or unprofessional. Getting through to one of the CSRs in India is a snap, but they don't always know what's going on.

All in all, I'll stick with Blink unless something terrible happens.

I suggest you just get the one that's easier or faster to get and stick with it unless you think the competition can do better. There really is no clear winner in this quality race.

[Sirius]

Blink keeps blinking more than anything else these days. At home and at work...signal drops off couple times a day, sometimes requiring a modem reboot to get it back up and running.

[greall]

Blink's been giving problems especially in Southern Trinidad so I guess that they're working on something somewhere but it does get overbearing when you NEED broadband to upload and download data.

Greg

[AirFalcon]

No flow in my area so I have to go blink. Hopefully their service will get better. If I had a choice I would probably go with Flow just because they are not TSTT but the customer service from both has never been good in my opinion.

I know a couple people with Blink and they seem to be quite happy with it so far. But I know people in my area who were waiting over six months for TSTT to install it and one went with green dot. He is very happy with the service but they are more expensive and put than antenna thing on your roof (can't wait for a tropical storm to see what happens to those).

[halo]

I've had Flow broadband for two months now and no problems. I live in the Petit Vally area. The 2Mbps package works great for me. I called their support once for some info i needed to setup a wireless router and they were helpful.

[deathwinger]

There's no comparison. Flow is much better than Blink overall. Except for the lower packages pricings. But that's about it.

Then again, Flow is cheap if you consider the fact that Blink used to have 1Mb/s download connections at over 1,000TT a month :shock:

[trinianouk]

There's no comparison. Flow is much better than Blink overall. Except for the lower packages pricings. But that's about it.

Then again, Flow is cheap if you consider the fact that Blink used to have 1Mb/s download connections at over 1,000TT a month :shock:

I agree Flow is better from a service perspective.

Depending on your area generally Flow would have the better choice..

I currently have blink at home since April this year and I am quite happy with my service...probably because my area doesn't tend to have much problems...and at$79.00 a month... :D

[Solachica]

A man for Blink wentto my relatives house ytday to test the lines AGAIN. He say lines not good and tht it ent make sense taking Blink.
He say he also working for Greendot so take Greendot instead of Blink. :lol:

I told them they should have taken down his vehicle # or remembered his name and reported him. :lol:

[sylvestter]

i switched from blin to flow today.
the flow guys were cool enough to set up my linksys wireless router.
let's see how this goes....

[BW]

i switched from blin to flow today.
the flow guys were cool enough to set up my linksys wireless router.
let's see how this goes....

Serious talk: Check your router again, and change the password for wireless access. Never know when them men might want to try a ting and piggyback off your wifi.

I've been on Flow internet for a short while now. Seems to be pretty stable, though I haven't tried torrents or anything demanding like that. Speed is good, though it really depends on what server you are on (for example, Playstation Network Store only gives me 2Mb/s at max, while Apple or Micrsoft software updates run at the full 6Mb/s). Uploads (via Slingbox) run constant at 900Kbps, which I really can't complain about.

[sylvestter]

i switched from blin to flow today.
the flow guys were cool enough to set up my linksys wireless router.
let's see how this goes....

Serious talk: Check your router again, and change the password for wireless access. Never know when them men might want to try a ting and piggyback off your wifi.

I've been on Flow internet for a short while now. Seems to be pretty stable, though I haven't tried torrents or anything demanding like that. Speed is good, though it really depends on what server you are on (for example, Playstation Network Store only gives me 2Mb/s at max, while Apple or Micrsoft software updates run at the full 6Mb/s). Uploads (via Slingbox) run constant at 900Kbps, which I really can't complain about.yuh think they will come outside my house to get free internet? by password you mean the network key fierlds?

[BW]

^^yea that. The WPA keys.

And there are people who take pride in stealing Wifi. The more hacking/social-engineering they have to do, the more they seem to like it. :|

The Flow setup guys do seem to work hard though. Had some activation and installation troubles myself, but the guy seemed committed.

[hassanvoyeau]

Flow has better pricing and no contract, free modem and you can order internet only. With TSTT you have to get their phone service if you want Blink. I've been using flow for 2 days now and I'm pleased.

[valandil]

I've been on Flow internet for a short while now. Seems to be pretty stable, though I haven't tried torrents or anything demanding like that. Speed is good, though it really depends on what server you are on (for example, Playstation Network Store only gives me 2Mb/s at max, while Apple or Micrsoft software updates run at the full 6Mb/s). Uploads (via Slingbox) run constant at 900Kbps, which I really can't complain about.

I was checking on internet today because I have Flow, and was thinking to change to Blink. now I don't know what to do...
I just have 3 months living here in Trinidad, and the first month I had Blink where I lived. I don't know which package was, but the speed was real good (Torrent downloads around 1MB/s). Then I moved into my place (In the same area) and got Flow because it was easier (It already had Flow cable). I have the 6MB/s, but the max torrent download is 350KB/s. I've tried different speed tests, and depending the type of test, it gives me the full 6MB/s (real time calculations) o as low as 1MB/s (For average speed calculations).

Does somebody have similar experiences with torrent downloads? Your comments will be very helpful...

[BW]

I've been on Flow internet for a short while now. Seems to be pretty stable, though I haven't tried torrents or anything demanding like that. Speed is good, though it really depends on what server you are on (for example, Playstation Network Store only gives me 2Mb/s at max, while Apple or Micrsoft software updates run at the full 6Mb/s). Uploads (via Slingbox) run constant at 900Kbps, which I really can't complain about.

I was checking on internet today because I have Flow, and was thinking to change to Blink. now I don't know what to do...
I just have 3 months living here in Trinidad, and the first month I had Blink where I lived. I don't know which package was, but the speed was real good (Torrent downloads around 1MB/s). Then I moved into my place (In the same area) and got Flow because it was easier (It already had Flow cable). I have the 6MB/s, but the max torrent download is 350KB/s. I've tried different speed tests, and depending the type of test, it gives me the full 6MB/s (real time calculations) o as low as 1MB/s (For average speed calculations).

Does somebody have similar experiences with torrent downloads? Your comments will be very helpful...

I got to torrenting with my Flow connection some time ago. Bad news is that you won't get full speed with most public torrents. That's just because not enough people are seeding (uploading) the file so your connection isn't being strained. Even throwing up two or three simultaneous downloads, couldn't get above 350Kb/s (~3 megabits) combined speed. It might be a different case for private (well seeded) torrents, but I haven't checked that.

[syncrod]

i don't know about Flow but currently with Blink u cant play online games during peak times (5pm ~ 11pm)
your ping moves from 80 ~ 130ms to 300 ~ 500ms (some ppl getting high).
sometimes this tends to leak over into the weekends, last week pings were 400+ for two days.
only thing yuh really do when that happen is to download and browse

[Huma]

i don't know about Flow but currently with Blink u cant play online games during peak times (5pm ~ 11pm)
your ping moves from 80 ~ 130ms to 300 ~ 500ms (some ppl getting high).
sometimes this tends to leak over into the weekends, last week pings were 400+ for two days.
only thing yuh really do when that happen is to download and browse


What game is that?

I get no higher than 100-200ms on Call of Duty 4 no matter what time I play, once I'm on a good server.

[syncrod]

Call Of Duty 4
pass two days the pings only jump after 7pm til 11pm
{TAMS} Crash 24/7 (72.5.86.154:28960) usually around 89 ~ 110 ms in the day, goes up to about 200 ~ 500ms
(the server above is just an example, the problem affect every game)

[Huma]

That's that specific server then. You're always going to get servers that perform worse at certain hours.

That doesn't mean "you can't play online games during peak hours." What kinda crazy jump in logic is that?

[syncrod]

That's that specific server then. You're always going to get servers that perform worse at certain hours.

That doesn't mean "you can't play online games during peak hours." What kinda crazy jump in logic is that?
ok u dont understand what i'm saying
peak times = lag on all server every game
this has nothing to do with the server.
that server was used as an example

here are some links to the problem
http://tsttproblems.com/index.php?showtopic=1501&st=0
and
http://tsttproblems.com/index.php?showtopic=1525
and here is a tracert taken @ 9:44PM




Tracing route to google.com [209.85.171.99]

over a maximum of 30 hops:



1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms Felsic [192.168.0.1]

2 30 ms 29 ms 29 ms cuscon121309.tstt.net.tt [190.59.96.1]

3 23 ms 21 ms 21 ms cuscon29736.tstt.net.tt [201.238.123.65]

4 23 ms 24 ms 22 ms 201.238.77.22.business.static.tstt.net.tt [201.238.77.22]

5 22 ms 24 ms 22 ms 201.238.77.21.business.static.tstt.net.tt [201.238.77.21]

6 443 ms 441 ms 441 ms POS0-1-1.GW10.MIA4.ALTER.NET [206.113.89.5]

7 426 ms 427 ms 444 ms 0.so-1-2-0.XL3.MIA4.ALTER.NET [152.63.81.54]

8 427 ms 428 ms 444 ms 0.so-6-0-0.XT1.ATL4.ALTER.NET [152.63.80.37]

9 419 ms 420 ms 427 ms 0.so-6-0-0.BR2.ATL4.ALTER.NET [152.63.81.145]

10 426 ms 445 ms 447 ms 204.255.169.74

11 522 ms 531 ms 533 ms tbr2.attga.ip.att.net [12.123.20.206]

12 481 ms 501 ms 524 ms cr2.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.17.21]

13 493 ms 479 ms 495 ms cr1.cl2oh.ip.att.net [12.122.28.194]

14 488 ms 470 ms 494 ms cr1.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.2.205]

15 516 ms 527 ms 544 ms cr1.st6wa.ip.att.net [12.122.31.162]

16 513 ms 515 ms 522 ms tbr1.st6wa.ip.att.net [12.122.23.170]

17 507 ms 498 ms 513 ms gar8.st6wa.ip.att.net [12.122.111.13]

18 467 ms 463 ms 470 ms 12.89.209.14

19 487 ms 493 ms 503 ms 209.85.249.32

20 510 ms 510 ms 553 ms 66.249.95.208

21 540 ms 466 ms 478 ms 209.85.250.144

22 531 ms 555 ms 500 ms 64.233.174.125

23 525 ms 508 ms 556 ms 209.85.251.141

24 521 ms 552 ms 546 ms 74.125.31.134

25 489 ms 473 ms 492 ms cg-in-f99.google.com [209.85.171.99]



Trace complete.
notice that the problem starts at "POS0-1-1.GW10.MIA4.ALTER.NET"
playing games online with 400+ms ping is not fun
depending on what games and what server u may or maynot be able to get into an online game
i'll do another later tonight or tomorrow

[BW]

^^^^ any chance you might have violated TSTT's FUP (ie, transferred more than 4GBs/day? That's including download AND upload

The high ping and slow speed would fit in that case.

[syncrod]

i thought that was the problem, but my neighbour has the same problem and he doesnt download more than 4GB
plus i dont get any slow speed just the latency increases.

[quietgirl]

flow... definately. Frien... my blink gave problems for weeks. :cry: .. till i switched! :D