Complaint Review: White County Cable - searcy Arkansas

We have endured ridiculously low speeds for over three years at just over a hundred dollars a month. The Cable service is acceptable and I have no complaints regarding that side of the service package. What I consider Bogus is that for the entire time we have lived in the people’s republic of Searcy, White County Cable has repeatedly claimed someone here was downloading (aka pirating) movies. We have changed passwords; endured having our files searched (presumably for the "stolen" movies) and cooperated in every way we could.

I have five kids and a grandchild and we have searched tablets, phones and laptops countless times trying to determine who is downloading what.... With no luck. And no surcease of accusations from the local monopoly.

So, in an effort to find out what neighbor (mostly Harding students) was hacking our Wi-Fi and downloading movies and music my wife and I had never before heard of, I bought a series of programs to track Wi-Fi usage. Wire Shark found nobody. Who’s on My Wi-Fi program caught nobody. I was convinced I was dealing with a hacker.

I have a web site designing business and (for obvious reasons) do very little of my work at home; that said, five days ago when White County Cable informed us that they were sending another tech (number 20-something) out to reset the modem and If the downloading continued we would have our service discontinued and possibly be prosecuted, my ire spiked. I was at work when the young man came and treated my wife and children like a den of thieves.

My wife, after politely suffering nearly fifteen minutes of pedantic condescension, began to inquire after how things get downloaded…. That’s when the interesting part came to light. It turns out that, according to White County Cable, streaming video is downloading; saving pics in any way (including reposting to Facebook) is downloading; listening to audiobooks, using the homeschool site (in any way), video chatting (sorry Skype you are at fault too it seems) is all downloading.

Now, the Tech did say that “some” of this downloading is allowed, but that “keeping” anything on any computer in the house is illegal. So: if I allow a webisode to buffer so that I don’t have to watch it in thirty second increments, I am breaking a law? And anything contained in your cashe files would be evidence of this crime?

I believe my household has paid very well for the most pitiful service imaginable (top speed for the package is 3 mbs but average speed is 7 kbs and multiple techs have told me getting 10 is “really good”). One person in this house can use the internet at any given time or you spend the entire time resetting the modem. I am baffled by the duration, and intensity of what I now know to be ridiculous accusations of Pirating.

Lastly, I would like to advise anyone moving to Searcy to consider this: Almost no other ISPs can serve you here! World Of Warcraft requires a commercial account (I am wondering how that isn’t pirating at this point) if you want any decent refresh rate. My family is left with considering U-verse ($120 a month for intermittent satellite service) and wishing I knew we have been (and have catered to other) pirates for as long as we have had internet!