Internet Capital? Not Downtown Seattle
After a year in Bothell and living on the Eastside for the last 10 years (remove that two years in Boston), I have finally moved back to Seattle proper, Central District to be more exact. It is amazing to be blocks away from things, being able to walk five minutes to a cool bar or restaurant with actual people is pretty awesome. I have however found out Downtown Seattle’s dark secret. Horrible Internet Service.
The Seattle area is a technology hub. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Valve, Bungie, and others are all located in the Seattle area or have employees that live in Downtown Seattle, but yet Seattle is broken up into different cable/internet franchises. Comcast is the largest franchise in Seattle, but for some reason they cut up the franchise right in the middle of Central District. The Central District is known for being extremely diverse and the center of Seattle’s Black community. Up until the last decade or so, the Central District was known for high crime rate and poverty compared to the rest of Seattle, but the last number of years due to the housing boom and proximity to Downtown more and more people are moving to the neighborhood. Young professionals like myself who want to live in the city are moving into the Central District. 12th Ave has morphed into the place to be for young professionals on any night of the week. Pretty much the areas past, poor decisions by the Seattle City Council, and repeat transfers or bankruptcy has cause the Central District to suffer in the services offered and performance of those services.
Cable and internet were installed to my apartment last week and once it started running my fears of poor service were a little less. Running some tests on Speedtest.net, I was getting 15 mpbs down, which isn’t bad, but about half what I was getting in Bothell from FIOS or Comcast. Since it is my only option, I guess I shouldn’t complain, but then tonight happened. Internet was pretty much dead. I’m surfing forums, nothing really image heavy and nothing is working. I reset my modem, do a release/renew, and nothing improves. I do a quick speed test and this is what I get.
This is what you get if you live in the Central District. This is totally unacceptable. Seattle calls itself a technology hub, yet this is what you get when you live in Downtown Seattle. In a day when everything connects to the internet and when people’s jobs depend on it being fast and consistent, this is what Seattle has to offer? Talk about a joke.
Shame on the City of Seattle which has undeserved the residents of the Central District. Poor policy has led to infrastructure that pales in comparison to other franchises in the Seattle Metro area. My sister lives 10 minutes in Madison Park but has Comcast and gets 30 mpbs constantly. As part of the Broadstripe to WAVE transfer agreement, major upgrades should be included and a clear timeline on when these changes will go into effect. For a major city that sells itself as being the one of the most connected city in the nation, it is sad that they have let part of their city slide into such a state.
If you live in the Central District, I ask you to write to the Office of Cable Communications and file a complaint. The only way to make it better is to tell them that this needs to change.
