I am considering switching to Cablecom broadband service. Some time ago I heard that their broadband is not very reliable with lots of downtime. Is this still the case?

That's not my experience.

Have you had 100% uptime?

I have been with Cablecom /Hispeed since 1998 when it was called 'Swiss Online' and was dial up. There service has become much more reliable over the years. 10 years ago you'd expect a drop out for a few minutes most days.

Now the only problems they have are rare, but big. Having gone for about 5 years without a single problem the last few months have seen three extended loss of service in my area (TV, Internet and Digital phone). Each time supposedly caused by a digger cutting trough cables and each time running to some hours, the longest was 10 hours with service some 4 weeks ago.

If you kick up enough fuss on the phone (only mobile worked) they will give some sort of rebate. I got CHF15 off by August bill and now have the next 6 months at half price for the long break. But I'd rather have no break at all...

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There seems to be a DNS issue a few times a week just after 1am, this is probably their maintenance slot and delays are just failover delays. It lasts for one or two minutes. Not really an outage , just a noticeable delay/freeze... It's LAN wide so I can rule out local tasks etc.

Other than that, I believe Cablecom to be utterly reliable, consistent and dependable. I am able to achieve the full 100Mb/s at all times.

I notice the DNS issue from time to time, usually during the late afternoon. Fairly rare to be honest though.

I do about 400Gb of traffic per month - Cablecom Internet is solid in my opinion. And faster than the same DSL package from someone else.

Getting it set up can be a bit of a joke sometimes but once it's up, it's pretty good.

I have Cablecom since 2008. There was 2 days during these 3 years which I didn't have internet. As soon as I contacted them by phone, they were very polite, gave me useful information on the reason for the downtime and provided a good estimate on when internet would be back.

Internet speed is great, price quite ok, telephone quality and the special prices for calls back home also good, support great. Until now I have no reason to complain.

^^^This...

But you're solid for PSN gaming...

i just switched last month and have had one downtime already - last Sat. for about an hour. Unfortunately, since I couldn't connect to internet I didn't know what number to call to find out what happened and how long it would be down for. Hopefully this was a one time thing but it's good to know about the kicking up a fuss and getting a reduction.

It is writen in the contract. Just check the papers you signed and got with the modem to know which number to call.



*fighting the urge to go grandma style "In my time there was no internet and the world still worked out"*

No problems on the whole, the wireless router they gave me was a bit rubbish and needed resetting all the time, I replaced it last year and everything's been running smoothly since.

[QUOTE=Helm;1353974]It is writen in the contract. Just check the papers you signed and got with the modem to know which number to call.


Did you actually get a contract? I've never received a contract, nothing in writing about my monthly fees or how long my contract lasts.

OI oi oi Yes I did, otherwise I wouldn't have the proof I need to cancel the contract after 12 months.

Maybe you get it with the first bill? If you do, remember to go to their site and unsubscribe from receiving the bills in paper form, if you don't want to pay the 1-2CHF per bill.


P.S.: They did change a lot of their policies in the last months (big company change). Maybe that explains it.

I've had cablecom since I arrived in Switzerland 3 years ago. Never had a problem.

you can get the contract done by phone. I don't recall getting one.^(although maybe it did with the router papers, I'd have to check)

I've had two outages. One was due to my infrastructure (the cable they supplied isn't the best, but after a bit of wriggling and removing all the sharp bends I got reconencted) and the other was a major problem their end.

They do list the issues somewhere on their website, but usually after the event. In other words, when I did lose connection, after bouncing around and finding some unsecured wireless I checked their homepage and it said everything was OK.

I had similar issues with broadband suppliers in the UK. I imagine they're all the same. However, in 1.5 years I've only had that one outage (around 4 hours, and overnight, but it just happened I was doing some work then).

work..right....

Bookmark this page
http://www.upc-cablecom.ch/en/b2c/su...ngsmeldung.htm

They may not update it when the outage is actually occurring, and obviously if you have no other way to get online you won't be able to reach it ...

And these are the numbers to call (assuming you have telephone access!). Unlike most UK providers, Cablecom have FREE calls to their tecnical helpdesk, albeit Swiss style (not 24x7).
http://www.upc-cablecom.ch/en/b2c/support/kontakt.htm

I don't remember how I did the contract, but I did receive the contract itself in paper form by post, with all the rules, the date I am allowed to cancel the contract, phone numbers and company information. I seem to remember doing the whole process in a shop though.

I already received 3 updates on the contract by post too. Hmm...

I can check it at home today in the evening.