USI Wireless

They should be embarrassed. I’ve been hearing about this company for years now, waiting anxiously for them to decide to come down my street. I finally get a flyer on my door that Fiber is coming to my house in Spring 2016. It has the name, email address, and phone number of a guy I can contact to set up installation. I email the guy, and within 10 minutes, he responds that «its too hard to explain over email, please call me». Over the next 7 days, he proceeded to email me 9 more times begging for a phone call.
Newsflash USI, I’m not calling you. You’re a god damn tech company. I fucking can’t believe your service is worse than Comcast, but needless to say I’m sticking with Comcast. I sure as fuck ain’t CALLING you to sign up for service. This is 2016, give me a damn break. Stay away from these fuckers.

Still the best high speed internet in the city. But now I can write about their technicians.
My internet wouldn’t work and that’s more annoying than an endless sea of baby pictures on your Facebook newsfeed. So I call USI and tell them about my issue at noon on Friday, fully expecting to be internet-​less for the entire damn weekend. But oh no… USI ain’t nuttin’ to fuck with and they sent out Colin, the fiber optic whisperer to our house within 3 hours. Colin and the neckbeard worked together to figure out what the issue was for at least 90 minutes…
Does the router work? Yes.
Does the hub in the basement work? Yes.
Are we connected to the main hub on the street? Yes.
So why isn’t our internet working, Colin?
«Let me try one more thing,» he says.
And he goes outside and discovers that a fucking squirrel had been chewing on the line that runs from outside our house to the hub in the basement. That’s some National Lampoon’s type shit right there. So Colin did a quick repair on the exposed line and poof, like some sort of tech geek magician… we’re rocking internet so fast it could burn your eyebrows off. We love you, Colin.
About ten minutes after he left, USI customer support called and set an appointment to replace the entire line this week so we never run into this issue again. Try getting that kind of service from Comcast, I dare you.

It’s been a few months since the horrible install curd we went through and, we haven’t really had any issues since then. Once the service was live, it’s been great.
3 stars for being better than I expected — and the 4^th one because FINALLY — high speed internet that is not attached to Comcast or Ma Bell. :-)

The quality of wifi service really is all about location, location, location… to the nearest wifi node. I mentioned in my previous review about intermittent service. Internet access always seemed to go out every evening. I suspected that a neighbor’s wifi router was interfering. That neighbor was located between me and the nearest node. I did finally contact US Internet support and the technician was able to lock my modem to the nearest wifi node, which helped immensely. In addition, the technician noticed that the firmware in my modem had not been updated, so they updated that and service improved. Granted, it’s not true broadband, but because I sit in front of a computer all day, every day, I don’t often like spending my evenings in front of one. Thus, my internet needs are pretty basic.

Worst most unreliable service for the cheapest rate! If you like battling your neighbors for bandwidth. Watching your streaming movies or Internet tv 15 seconds at a time and waiting while it buffers for 3 minutes in between… Oh and if you enjoy resetting your router constantly! Then USI wireless is for you! Garbage service, garbage quality, garbage reliability.

We spent 1 ½ hours on the phone with a truly amazing customer service rep from US Internet. Scott helped us through resetting our internet at least three times. He was patient, forgiving, and on top of all the things we needed. He continued to apologize, as if it was his fault that things weren’t working. It wasn’t his fault. We would still be floundering around offline if it weren’t for Scott.

I hear great things about USI, but it’s been nearly two months, and we just can’t seem to get hooked up. USI is overwhelmingly nonchalant about the urgency of the situation. Story time…
I moved cross-​country, and since I work from home, internet was the first thing I needed to get set up. My lease started on Oct. 1^st, so I called USI in early Sept. to start the process. I got landlord approval for USI internet on Sept. 16^th, 2015. My landlord was really excited about the process and booked the soonest available appointment. They came and installed cables that week — but they didn’t finish the process. They still had to install the router box inside the house. They booked the appointment for… get ready… OCTOBER 23^rd.
I moved in on the 1^st of October. I had assumed that by contacting them half a month in advance, things would be ready to go by the time we got there. MAN, was I wrong!!!
I called USI nearly daily explaining that I work from home, and I NEED internet. They were totally unwilling to bump up the appointment and got really rude and snotty with me for asking. Meanwhile, I’m LOSING CLIENTS. I’m shelling out a small fortune every day at coffee shops. I would’ve just done something temporary with Comcast but they have an installation fee and contracts, and I really do want these promised fiber speeds.
Well… Friday, Oct. 23^rd FINALLY rolls around. They come and install the box and say they’ll call when internet is live. I ask how long, they say 24 – 48 hours.
Sunday comes, no internet. I call, they say they had a problem getting light to go through the fibers but they’re working on it. They say, Monday at the latest.
Monday comes and goes. The sun is setting. No internet.
I call and ask what’s up, they say they emailed the building manager yesterday and are waiting for a response — they say they need someone to check to make sure the box is receiving power (you’d think they would’ve noticed whether or not it was blinking when they installed it, but oh well…). I say, «I’m home right now, can I check?» They seem surprised that I, the person LIVING in the house, would be able to check if a box is blinking or not. You could’ve CALLED ME, but okay!!! I go downstairs, tell them that yes, it’s receiving power. They say they’ll need to IM tech support. I’m on hold for nearly an HOUR waiting for them to reply to this IM. When they finally do, they have me unplug and plug it back in. When that doesn’t work, they say they need to schedule ANOTHER appointment for another service rep to come take a look. Their earliest is a 4-​hour window on Wednesday. And so… we wait…
It’s been nearly two months, and no friggen internet. Through this process they’ve offered no condolences, no freebies, and an overwhelming sense of, «meh!». I’ve emphasized over and over that this is an absolute necessity for me, but they’re in NO hurry to get us hooked up. At this point, I’ve just given up and resigned myself to living in coffee shops. I don’t know that we’re ever going to get this stupid internet to work.

I am reviewing USI fiber optic. It is amazing and costs far less than the competition. I can’t understand why if it is available to you, you wouldn’t get it. I won’t ever move to an area that doesn’t have it. …it is that amazing!!!

I really want the Minneapolis wifi to work; I want the internet to be a public good, a utility that is part of the basics that is built as a commonality. Sadly what we have is not a great system. I was a customer for more than 3 years. In summary, my home location in NE was too far from the node signal with too many competing other signals. I kept hoping they could resolve something for me but after multiple very friendly tech visits I gave up. I doubt we will ever see fiber in nordeast, that seems to be destined for the money bags by the lakes in South Minneapolis. And N Minneapolis will be last to fiber without a doubt.
i jumped over to dsl and Century link. In 9 months I have reset the modem one time. It just works. But i know the price promotion is ending and the price will double. CL know I will probably pay up.

Internet times out ALL THE TIME (computers, tablets, roku). It’s cheap, but honestly not worth it.

Connection reliability has been hit or miss but the customer service has been great both times I’ve called. DeAngelo was super helpful today and fixed my issue with patience.

internet cuts out every day at 10:20 am. every. day.
and now 10:20 pm too
YOU HAVE ONE JOB

Copying over my google review. LOVE USINTERNET!
I began talking to USInternet Support on May 3^rd enquiring about their service. A support person replied to me within the hour and explained the process. There would be an agreement that needed to be signed by my Condo Association, then a field service operator would come out to show them where equipment would go, after that they would schedule a day for cabling the building and a day for drilling a line from the boulevard fiber to our building. I kept in direct contact with this support person the whole time. She replied to emails very quickly and even on weekends (I felt bad I kinda bothered her a lot). I proposed the installation of USInternet FIber to the board on May 4^th and they approved it the next week probably the 12^th or something. The Field service operator came out on June 1^st so they were booked out a few weeks. Everything went well with suggested placement of the NID (Network Interface Device) that is a little 1×1 box that sits outside the building like a gas meter, and a switch box inside the building that spreads ethernet to each unit. The intallers were nice they took about 10 minutes to come drill the hole and install the plate. The next day they tested all the jacks worked to the switch. June 8^th and 9^th the Building was cabled and the line was connected to the boulevard. The support lady had bumped us up on the list so instead of waiting the expected 2 – 3 weeks for service we got service the day after installation! I was so amazed!!! I pay $ 70/​month for 1Gbps. I have a TP-​Link C7 AC1750 and I am getting consistent 800−900Mbps Download and 600−700Mbps Upload. Now you won’t see exact 1Gbps but it’s very close. I live alone and only have 4 or 5 devices connected so it’s a bit of overkill, but in a house with 3 – 4 people and 12 – 20 devices you’ll be happy you got the massive bandwidth. I can download a 5.5gb demo on my Sony Playstation 3 in about 10 minutes. A 3gb movie took me about 3 minutes on my desktop and wifi 3gb movies take a little longer maybe 10 – 15 minutes. Not terrible but you have to remember your source comes into play as well as the route between you and them. Until the entire country is on 1Gbps fiber optic, don’t expect insane 5 second 5gb downloads. Overall very happy with the future proofing of my condo. The price and the speed is just incredible. I hope it brings good competition/​pressure on the big dogs in Minneapolis Comcast/​CenturyLink

I had fiber installed at my house and as a former customer of the other two large ISP companies, I can’t say enough good things about USI. Representatives based here in MN always answer my emails promptly, the people who installed the lines were very courteous and helpful, and the internet service has been fantastic with zero issues at all. I went with 1 gig and I’m so happy that I did. You can’t beat the prices and for once in the past decade I actually LIKE my internet service provider!

I’ve been a customer since 2008. I’ve put up with crappy service because I don’t really do a lot of important internet stuff at home. I worked at computer all day at work.
When I moved into my current home, the service was MUCH better till about 6months ago when, according to USI, someone near me is blocking my signal. They suggested I go ask my neighbors if their router name is Steven and could they change the settings!
It’s back to multiple calls and fiddling with the modem, then the settings and finally getting it to work again. I am a consultant now and work from my home office more. Yesterday was the nail in the coffin.
Internet went dead about 2 in the afternoon. When I called, they said they had been working on the node by me since ¹²⁄₁₁. The response is the same; 24 — 48 hours, or maybe longer depending on what it is. No, they don’t know what it is, I just reported it. Even though whatever is wrong someone has been working on for 7 days already.
24 hours later, still no service. But that’s okay because they will credit my account for the time. So what! Restore my service. I’ll pay you extra!
To me, Comcast is everything that is wrong with customer service and pushing your weight around. However, USI is doing the same thing, but with really, really bad internet service. Comcast is showing up next week.
I feel a little like I’m selling my soul, but girl’s gotta work!

Installer found several locations for wireless access point. Said he’d have no problem coming back out to move it to another spot if I found the spot the AP was installed at wasn’t working out.
Called after a 24 hour outage to ask to have the installer back out to move it. Support refused to have it moved, and ultimately hung up on me after being extremely rude. I kept my calm the entire time. I also emailed in and asked to have the recording of this support call reviewed and to contact me. Ultimately I was never contacted, and returned all equipment for a full refund.

Absolutely the worst internet service you can pay for.
Service was incredibly slow at best and non-​existant at worst. When it rained, no service. Between the hours of 4pm and 8pm, almost no service. Want to watch a 5-​minute YouTube video? Better set aside 30 minutes to account for the buffering time needed. Want to watch a full-​length film? Are you f*^#*@(! nuts?
Canceling our subscription was a ridiculously difficult process. Although we returned the modem directly to them more than 2 weeks before it was due, USI wireless failed to record the return of our modem and sent emails threatening to submit our account to debt collection if it wasn’t returned prior to its due date. (Yes, they threatened to turn us over to collections a full week PRIOR to the date the modem was due to their offices.) If I hadn’t kept the receipt for returning our modem, I’d still be paying for the internet service I never got to begin with.
Stay away from USI wireless. Consider yourself warned.

I tried this company for my internet because it was cheap. I was hoping to permanently get rid of Comcast because of how expensive they are. What a mistake! I’ve never seen a worse internet company. Their internet itself is slow, and it kept freezing on me. At first, I thought it was my computer. I called their hot lines. Their hot lines, I might as well call them non-​existent because of how bad they are. They kept telling me different things every time. They were no help. Then I got rid of the service.
Now I’m back to expensive but reliable Comcast.

I’ve had USI fiber optic for 2 months. Most of the time the internet is fast. It’s cheap. But two times in the last two weeks the internet has dropped and then because the hold times are AWFUL it takes me an hour to get back on. The second time it took me three calls with painful hold times because the guy kept blaming it on my Apple router and saying «everything was fine on his end». Really, they seem to hate Apple (although I got the Apple router since it gets the signal up to the third floor, and their router didn’t at all).

I have had such a difficult time trying to get them to help me out. Their customer service has been incredibly poor. In an era where most companies are priding themselves on their customer satisfaction, USI seems to be bucking that trend and opting to let their customers fend for themselves.
It’s been a frustrating few weeks with USI. I would NOT recommend them over any of the other options (Comcast, Centurylink).