Thursday, January 2, 2025

Altice Optimum fiber: where does it end before reaching a customer's apartment.

It doesn't end in my apartment. Optimum provides a "gateway" box that supposedly combines two functions:

modem

router.

Since Optimum claims that it has fast fiber-optic internet service, it would make sense that the fiber wire reach its gateway and that the gateway modem actually be an optical network terminal (ONT). For years Verizon FIOS did a lot to provide its ONT into individual apartments.

Here's a mess in a hall closet in my apartment:


There doesn't seem to be any optical fiber wires.

Here's the back of the gateway that Optimum provides:


The only input is for coaxial cable (white wire). The thing below the coax is for RJ11 telephone output, i.e., regular home telephone. It looks similar to fast Ethernet for data but it's not for data. The red and black output wires at the top are Ethernet. Are those Ethernet outputs faster than 100 Mbps (megabits per second, a unit of measurement for internet bandwidth and network speed)?

Or is Altice Optimum blowing smoke about speeds that it delivers?

To run a speed test, put those two words in a browser address space where the URL goes. It will bring up a page with a button to run the speed test. When I run it, download speeds generally are around 550 Mbps with lows at 350 Mbps and one high a little over 600 Mbps. I'm paying for 1,000 Mbps, also known as one Gig (gigabytes): one billion bytes.

Oh, and there's this latest from Altice Optimum as of New Years Day 2025:


Altice Optimum has no options other than to withhold service for MSG Networks.

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