ISP Review: enTouch Communications

After using enTouch Communications for the past 3 years, I thought I would publish my review of the services provided by enTouch. As a daily reader of the local neighborhood social app, I wanted to set the record strait to ensure future customers that enTouch is actually a great internet service provider company and that they are definitely worth the money. This ISP review is only touching on the Internet Provided Services; I do not use Cable or Phone as I just don’t need it.

Being that I have 10+ years of I.T. experience, I in no way work for enTouch. Using my experience and expertise, I know exactly what to look for when searching for an Internet Service Provider (ISP). I have compared different plans from other ISP’s and each time I keep coming back to enTouch. I was able to come up with the following Pros & Cons for the enTouch ISP:

Pros:

• 24/7 Tech Support: Each time I have faced an outage, the tech support team is available when you give them a call. They will assist with the basic things to check before they escalate your issue to the next tier.
• Fiber-To-The-Home: Fiber to the home was a big thing for me, this was definitely a deal maker as this is about the best way to get blazing internet to your house.
• 1 Gbps Synchronous:This is the highest plan that is offered, this is what I use for my home network setup. I have several servers that are either sending / receiving large amounts of data. Also, being that I don’t use cable, there are a lot of media streaming apps that are used and no buffering issues have been experienced.
• Static IP’s: Depending on what plan is purchased, the top 2 or 3 packages come with a bundled static IP Assignment. For those who may not know the reason for this static IP, it’s great for a multitude of services that are being provided from your home network (Media Servers, File Servers, Web Servers, Database Servers, CCTV Servers, and etc.…). Each additional static IP can be purchased at $9.99; this is a great deal!
• No Data Caps: This has become a very popular topic amongst ISP’s as they are wanting to limit the total amount of monthly bandwidth traffic used and once the data cap is reached the connection is either throttled back or charged to bill. enTouch has already advised that they will not be doing this to their customers!
• Fastest Speeds in Houston / Comparable to Google Fiber: As everyone awaits’ for Google Fiber to become a ISP contender for the Houston Area, enTouch is definitely the leading ISP with 1 Gbps Fiber Speeds!
• Services Remain Online during Power Outages:My home network configuration has a backup power supply for anything that deals with the communications. As my neighborhood is prone to power outages, the use of UPS definitely allows my home network to remain online and stable. During this outages, the Internet connection remains online which would indicate that the local junction box also is either out of reach during the effected power outage or they have a generator keeping their communications online.

Cons:

• Part of HOA Contact: It would appear enTouch entered into an agreement with the HOA / Community that they would provide fiber to the house as long as they were the primary ISP for each house within the community. As time went on, additional residents moved in and found out that enTouch had to be their primary means of communications there were some disagreements, and I get that. We are all human and some of us just hate change; we prefer to use something that we feel very comfortable with. After reading the many comments from the neighbor social app, it would appear that everyone within the community is stuck paying the mandatory amount until the year 2017 or 2020. I have also read that there is a way to buy out of the said contract, not sure how much that would cost. After sometime, it would also appear that the residents have been able to get Xfinity services at the location, however residents are still expected to pay the basic amount for the basic enTouch Services.
• Areas of Serviceability: It would appear that they have handful of select locations of where their services are being provided. However, from what I read, they are constantly improving their reach to ensure everyone is able to take an advantage of the fiber speeds!

Resident Reported Issues

With regards to the outages that have been reported by residents, it would appear that they most common reason for the internet to go out is due to improper router configuration / bandwidth speeds / hardware or just not knowing the difference of what is actually causing the end user to not be able to reach the internet. Instead, the end user(s) are quick to blame enTouch’s services being down and then make a big stink about it! I will admit, I have had outages at my home, however I was able to perform step by step troubleshooting steps and found each time that I had something within my home network that was causing my services to seize; this was no fault to enTouch. After living in the community for about 3 years, there has only been 1-2 actual outages that ended up being a fault within enTouch. 1-2 actual outages over a 3-year span is not bad at all and not to mention that their network / dispatch teams are quick to get services back online.

Another issue often reported is that the end user(s) report slow data; the end user doesn’t think about all the network devices connected to their home network such as Xbox, Media Streaming Services, Downloads, CCTV Feeds, and etc… and still they blame goes to enTouch only because they are the service provider that provides services to the them.

Final Thoughts & Recommendations

enTouch is a ISP that continues to lead the way in the ISP Community by providing 1 Gbps Synchronous speeds. Compared to other ISP’s such as Xfinity or AT&T, enTouch is an excellent option for your wallet! I would most definitely recommend enTouch as a cutting edge Internet Service Provider if they are available in your area.

enTouch Links:
http://www.entouch.net/

http://speedtest.entouch.net/

Entouch Logo Credit – www.entouch.net

Thanks | Regards,

John Saldana – I.T. Director & I.T. Service Tech

I.T. Monkee