High Latency and Packet loss 1.5GB - City permits required for fix.

[jared426]

I have bad latency, jitter and packet loss with Rogers internet 1.5gb, hard wired to computer. I have had two techs come out to confirm everything from my unit is ok but both techs have also confirmed the problem is between the box in my yard and the box across the street. I have been dealing with this for almost a year now. When I call, I am told rogers needs permits from the city of London to dig up the street to fix the lines. Nobody is able to provide anytime line or any further help. Rogers has yet to even bury the new lines they ran a couple of months ago from my unit.

It's ridiculous that I am paying for a "Premium" internet service and cannot even play my game without stuttering around. Has anyone else ran into this issue? If so, how long did it take to resolve? Should I call back and try to speak to a supervisor? The techs have confirmed the problem will only get worse and start effecting other units. Currently it effects roughly 6 of my Neighbours.

I am not sure what to do, considering rogers owns the infrastructure so anyone I switch to will have the same issue and I am under contract for a service I'm not really getting.

Rogers is not taking this seriously and I am getting nowhere with support. Should I start offering to help my Neighbours draft CCTS complaints? I'm at that point. I don't know what to do.

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@jared426  From what you describe, it's probably something more than burying a replacement cable.

Rogers can run temporary RG-11 cables across a street, which requires a catenary/messanger wire and a special crew but no permits. and run temporary cables along a street, which is routine.  It may not be pretty and, if municipalities are slow in approving permits, can months or even years to bury temporary cables, but it does address cabling-related issues.

If you are getting inconsistent speeds, high latency and packet loss, Rogers probably needs to do a node split, and that usually also requires getting permits as crews will need to excavate to install new upgraded infrastructure and may also need to trench if they need to run power and fibre to where they will be installing new equipment.

Rogers does take this stuff seriously, but it requires planning, and can be a slow endeavour if factors outside of their control slow things down.  You can file a CCTS complaint but it won't go anywhere if entities other than Rogers are dragging their heels.

[jared426]

I don't know what the actual problem is because every time a tech comes out, they escalate to senior techs who then show up typically when I am not home, look at the box in my yard and leave with no follow up or any kind of explanation. They already wired my unit to another Neighbours box and I'm still having problems. All of this occurred prior to the ground being frozen in early October.

I can't even get an answer about what's goings on or what the next steps will be. Nothing but radio silence. They only thing they confirmed is they issue is between the box in my yard and the box across the street. I'm guessing it's a CMTS across the street? Nobody offered to run a temp line across the street the last two times I called. Once it gets escalated to the "senior techs" the communication completely stops, and I'm left in the wind until I call back and start all over again.

I am here asking for help because I don't know what to do. Should I call and ask them to run a temp line across the street? Should I be speaking to a supervisor when I call? What do I do?

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@jared426 One thing that you can do is log into your Gateway with a web browser, go to "Gateway > Connection > Rogers Network", scroll to the bottom of the page and check your error stats.  If the uncorrectable codewords errors are zeros across all channels, or close to zero and not increasing at a high rate, then replacing your line probably will not fix the problems that you are seeing.  If you are seeing a ton of uncorrectables, that's packet loss.  It might be due to a bad cable leading up to your home.  It could also be due to noise ingress or some other issue affecting the neighbourhood.  Regardless, its indicative of a problem somewhere that needs to be fixed.

The only infrastructure that Rogers puts into a neighbourhood are fibre nodes (the transition point between incoming fibre and coax legs going to homes) and taps (which can be in pedestals at ground level or on poles), which are connections points at the edge for coax going to homes.  If the node is far away from the tap, there can also be one or more amplifiers that boost upstream and downstream signals on that leg.

If the fibre node is overloaded, Rogers will perform a "node split", where they install a new fibre node and shed some of the load from the old node to the new.  An overloaded node can cause latency spikes, packet loss, and other network performance issues.  (Node splits are often contracted out to specialized crews.)

If tickets have already been escalated to Maintenance, there is not much more that you can do.  There may not be much that they can do if they are waiting on permits or waiting for new equipment to arrive.