Rise Broadband Reviews 2021
Pricing & Packages | Modem & Router | Features | Customer Service | Final Recommendation
Rise Broadband is a wireless internet provider that covers 19 US states, with the greatest coverage area being Texas, Colorado, and Illinois. The technology they use to offer their services is known as fixed wireless internet and is a good alternative for places where cable doesn’t deliver satisfactory connections or is nonexistent.
While their residential plans are a popular pick among customers who have had enough of slow internet speeds provided by cable, the technology they used to deliver internet services does have its faults too.
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Pros:
- A good alternative to low cable speeds
- It is able to deliver broadband speeds if conditions are met
- Rural coverage for those with no other option
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Cons
- Connection issues if network congestion
- Data caps
- Ridiculous amount of extra fees
How Rise Broadband Internet Works
Essentially, Rise Broadband offers fixed wireless internet. This technology is like LTE in some ways, which is why it’s often mistaken for 4G LTE internet. But, the technology works differently.
Rather than broadcasting the signal in all directions like LTE towers, Rise Broadband uses focused point-to-point wireless technology. This means that the signal is pointed directly towards each subscriber from their terrestrial access points. So, anyone who has a direct line of sight to these access points will enjoy a seamless connection.
Users will need an antenna installed on their home to get the signal from these towers. Therefore, if you live in an area where there are lots of obstructions – trees, hills, or high buildings – you might not get a good enough signal to use their services.
Note: Before you can register for these services, a technician will visit the home to determine whether the location has a clear line of sight to get a clear signal from the tower.
Packages and Pricing
Rise Broadband offers a variety of packages, but it’s difficult to find all of them listed on their website. The only way those interested in their plans can check the available speeds and pricing in their area is by putting in their address.
Once you do so, you’ll be informed that you can choose between two available options:
- Speeds up to 25Mbps for $29.95 (Includes plans with 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25Mbps speeds)
- Speeds up to 50Mbps for $39.95 (Includes plan with 50Mbps speed)
These prices are valid for 12 months. After the 12-month period is over, the price for each deal increases by $10 for the following 12 months.
For more details of each plan, applicable fees, and the actual height of the monthly bill, we advise website visitors to contact Rise Broadband via chat or call them directly to get an accurate price.
Network Management and Performance
Rise broadband advertises speeds up to 50Mbps, but in reality, these sorts of speeds are rarely met, mainly because of the technology they use to deliver their internet services. They state that many of the factors and conditions that affect their internet speeds are “beyond Rise Broadband’s control.” The factors that play a big role in network performance include:
- User hardware – computer, phone, router capabilities
- Type of connection used – Wi-Fi usually has lower speeds than a cable connection
- Number of devices used at the same time – the higher the number of devices, the higher the chance internet will be slower
- They also state that large file downloads can affect the bandwidth they can deliver.
- They also cite the actual website and service as a limiting factor. If only one page or service is slow but other sites/services work fine, it’s not an internet speed issue; it’s a site/service issue.
- Network congestion is also a critical factor. If many customers use the same access point at the same time, the network will slow down.
- Weather is another limiting factor. Severe weather will heavily impact internet performance, as it can damage access points and make them inoperational.
Rise Broadband states that their “Internet packages are advertised as ‘up to’ certain speeds reflecting performance under ideal conditions. Without purchasing an expensive ‘dedicated’ internet connection, no Internet Service Provider can guarantee package speeds at all times.”
Users interested in their services should know “ideal conditions” are rarely met in reality, so you should expect lower speeds as a norm.
Fees
Rise Broadband has quite a number of additional fees that can quickly add to your monthly bill.
Most importantly, they are one of the very few providers that don’t offer anything towards residential installation. Usually, providers will waive the initial installation fee if users order services online, but with Rise Broadband, customers can only expect to get a 50% discount at best.
They only reserve the discount for those customers who sign a two-year contract. The standard installation fee is $149 and can be cut in half with a 2-year contract. That would bring it down to $74.50, which isn’t that affordable either. Also, if existing customers decide to upgrade their service plan, they will have to pay $150 for the upgrade.
The equipment rental fee is $10.99, and each month customers have to pay a recurring carrier cost recovery fee of $4.84. Rise Broadband explains that this fee helps cover the costs associated with building and maintaining their internet network.
Rise Broadband also has data caps that depend on the type of agreement and internet speed available to customers, so it’s important to ask about this before signing your agreement.
The overcharge fee, once you reach the data cap, is charged for each 10GB above the cap and will be $3.50 per 10GB.
Other fees that users have to look out for include:
- Unreturned equipment fee is $300 or the cost of equipment, whichever is greater.
- Early termination fee – $10 per month for each remaining month of the contract
- If users wish to receive a paper statement for the services, they will have to pay $5 per month for this.
- The convenience fee is the most interesting fee listed on their site, and it’s explained as the fee that is applied to any phone payments made by getting assistance from their call center representatives. The fee will be $10 for each use!
Fees Related to Late Payments and Insufficient Funds
Rise Broadband is very detailed about due dates and how much time customers have to cover payments before their service is interrupted or officially disconnected.
- The payment due date is set 15 days after the invoice date.
- The payment late date is set eight days after the bill due date.
If you miss paying the bill, your internet service will be:
- interrupted 25 days after due date
- officially disconnected 35 days after
Finally, the outstanding account balance will be submitted to collections 55 days after the due date and to get services back, you’ll have to pay a reconnect fee.
If the reconnect was requested after the service was interrupted or officially disconnected, customers will have to pay:
- $35 + the first month of service if the equipment wasn’t retrieved
- $100 + the first month of service if the equipment was already retrieved
In case the reconnect was requested after the account balance was submitted to collections, then users will have to pay $149 plus the first month of service and setup of account autopay.
Your Modem and Router
Rise Broadband customers will get a WRT500 wireless router that supports speeds of up to 300Mbps and have the latest encryption protocols alongside a one-year product warranty. Plus, customers can enjoy the managed router service from Rise Broadband that won’t cost anything extra. The router comes with an easy setup and connection so it can be used straight away.
The router comes with tech support that will troubleshoot all internet equipment, and if there are issues with the router or if it breaks, Rise Broadband will ship a new one within 3 to 5 business days.
Features and Benefits
Rise Boradband offers several additional services to their internet plan users:
PC Care service
Rise Broadband offers PC care services to its customers, giving them access to 24/7 support for computers and laptops. For $9.99 per month, customers will get tech coverage for hardware and software errors, PC tuneups, networking issues, and repair up to $500 per year. This package covers 1 PC or 1 mobile device.
If you choose the Premium Technical Support service plan, you will get everything from the PC care service plan, plus:
- support for their operating system
- content backup and share support
- virus/malware/spyware detection and removal
- service for third-party devices like printers and scanners
- setup and troubleshooting services for mobile devices
- TV and video support for smart TVs, game consoles, and Blu-ray devices
Paperless Billing
Customers can enroll in paperless billing and get all their monthly bills to the designated email address, which ensures they will always receive their bills on time and reduce their monthly bill by an additional $5 per month.
Rise Broadband Referral Program
Customers can earn $50 worth of free service for themselves and a friend they refer to Rise Broadband.
Customer Service
Rise Broadband is available via phone, email, and live chat services.
Their tech support is available 24/7 only with the above-mentioned PC Care or Premium Tech Support service. For customers who don’t use these features, they can contact tech support by calling 877-910-6207:
- Monday and Friday between 5 AM to 10 PM MT
- Saturday and Sunday between 7 AM and 8 PM MT
While this makes tech support available for the most part of the day, it falls behind other providers who are available 24/7 to all customers.
Their customer care line is available by calling 844-816-9149:
- Monday and Friday between 6 AM to 8 PM MT
- Saturday and Sunday between 7 AM and 5 PM MT
Customers can also reach them via [email protected]
Depending on the specifics of your request, customers can also reach them via [email protected] and [email protected]
Rise Broadband has a large and extensive FAQ section on their website that users can browse and search through. The section covers everything from technical aspects to plans, pricing, general questions, and billing and payment. Still, it’s very difficult to find actual pricings, and visitors are advised to contact the provider directly with such inquiries.
As for customer reviews, the biggest complaint is that the service seems unreliable at times, with many customers citing that they can’t get maximum advertised package speeds and customer support doesn’t seem to have a resolution for their connectivity issues. On the other hand, positive reviews cite they have great technicians and no issues with connectivity with a good line of sight to the tower, so chances are that many negative reviews might have some line-of-sight issues.
Ways to Save on Rise Broadband
Go for contract deals
In addition to internet services, Rise Broadband offers a home phone service and DIRECTV and DISH Network that allow bundling satellite TV, with partnership agreements depending on location.
Bundle All Services
Users will get better prices for contract deals, and the longer the contract, the more data is included in the plans.
Opt for paperless billing
When users choose only paperless billing, they will save an additional $5 off the monthly bill.
Our Recommendation
Rise Broadband can be an alternative to traditional broadband services and is able to deliver speeds up to 50Mbps. But, the speeds vary by location, and since the technology used for services requires line of sight, the service is heavily impacted by location to the tower among other things.
For those with a clear line of sight, the service usually works great, but take note that Rise have quite a few fees on top of their packages to watch out for! If you have no other options in your area, Rise Broadband can be a valid choice, but if you do, shop around and compare first!
SMD - December 16, 2019 @ 19:16
Rise Broadband is a Terrible Company that treats customers as expendable, provides substandard Internet Service speeds over 30 year old outdated equipment, overbills, locks you into a long term contract, raises rates mid-contract by adding fees, and then drops your service if/when it serves their purpose or increases their bottom line. We were long time customers of SkyBeam/Rise living in the Mountains of Colorado where we have very little options to obtain a good signal for Internet Service. Their speeds were never as advertised, dropped calls/intermittant packet drops were common on pretty much every phone call we ever made or received. They use 30 year old outdated technology and this past summer when they said the were upgrading equipment, their technician never showed up to install it. Then, in November, they dropped our service with no notice nor warning, leaving us with no Internet, Phone nor 911 service. They had a problem on the only Tower we could get a signal from. Instead of fixing the Tower, they decommissioned it, leaving us with nothing. We didn’t find out until the 3rd call to Tech Support when they told us our service had been disconnected.
Rise Broadband is a Terrible Company that treats customers as expendable, provides substandard Internet Service speeds over 30 year old outdated equipment, overbills, locks you into a long term contract, raises rates mid-contract by adding fees, and
Harry - January 14, 2020 @ 03:50
Run away. Terrible company. Internet drops out regularly, can’t reliably stream tv. Some days can’t even use email!
Don’t use them, even if your only choice is to not have internet!
Kelly Rhoads - April 13, 2020 @ 04:59
In the last month I have had roughly 3 outages. The first outage took 8 days to resolve, the second one was just a week after the resolution of that one, but they resolved it in 3 days (though they did not come to my house to do it) and then now, I have been without internet since April 8 and the soonest they can get someone out to fix the issue that has obviously not been fixed the last two visits is April 22, 2 weeks out. They seem to not care that I have several online subscriptions that are now going to waste as well. I pay for Netflix, Hulu, PS+, Disney+, Crunchyroll and HiDive and have no access to them as well. I am very upset and seem to just constantly be given the run around. I don’t understand either because their service was so much more stable until like January of this year.
In the last month I have had roughly 3 outages. The first outage took 8 days to resolve, the second one was just a week after the resolution of that one, but they resolved it in 3 days (though they did not come to my house to do it) and then now, I
Laletta Benner - May 8, 2020 @ 17:23
Service was great in the beginning, but fell off over time. The bill got higher every few months, and service got poorer. God forbid if you called their “customer care” line! Their customer service reps do NOT listen, and are rude if you don’t fall all over yourself thanking them, for NOTHING!!
Finally decided to cancel our account, why pay over $100/month for no service?? THEN they wanted to lower my bill and find out what’s wrong!
They wanted to get their dish back, which was fine – EXCEPT they took JUST the dish! They left the frame half on, half off with holes exposed in the roof, and left the cable dangling off the roof!!
I will tell ANYONE who asks about them to stay away!!
Service was great in the beginning, but fell off over time. The bill got higher every few months, and service got poorer. God forbid if you called their “customer care” line! Their customer service reps do NOT listen, and are rude if you
Jordan robinson - May 31, 2020 @ 18:33
This company does not perform drug tests or background checks before hiring employees currently the have supervisors who do drugs in their cars on lunch breaks and an employee who was previously convicted of embezzlement(google Diana Lewis embezzlement for articles)as a sales lead. I have notified the BBB about the potential security threat she poses… like look at the thousands of people’s information she had access to.. social security numbers.. credit card information… bank information… like cell phones were a regular thing on the call floor she could have recorded so much Info … that kind of a security threat honestly could be a valid lawsuit. This company has posed a threat to hundreds of thousands of people.
Employees regularly have pens.. paper.. cellphones with recording capabilities.. anyone can copy sensitive customer information and do as they please. Supervisors regularly force early termination fees even when the recording was lost or deleted or never even recorded by saying the contracts are legally binding due to being verbally agreed upon.
They weasel as much as they can from customers who do not receive service at all. They make receiving credit nearly impossible.
They have allowed agents to make/take supervisor calls and pretend to be a supervisor when the queue gets filled with supervisor requests. Now last time I checked upper management allowing floor agents to falsely make calls as a supervisor is illegal. They have those agents only do outbound calls as outbound calls are not recorded. Do not use this company unless you absolutely have to. Good luck
This company does not perform drug tests or background checks before hiring employees currently the have supervisors who do drugs in their cars on lunch breaks and an employee who was previously convicted of embezzlement(google Diana Lewis embezzleme
Mark Stella - August 8, 2020 @ 14:55
Company failed to resolve line of sight issue. The issue was easily fixed by simply the dish on the tower at our residence. Shame on you. We have a new internet service provider.
bri kon - October 16, 2020 @ 00:38
Working to get credited for lost service, I’ll let you know…
We had reasonable service from Rise for the past many years. In March of this year, our Rise Broadband service went down. We contacted them regularly, and were told that the service would be back up soon. Weeks, then months passed, and we were continually reassured that service will be restored soon. Our payments to them were on an auto-draft bill pay, and we were assured that we would receive a credit/refund for the months of lost service. Our service was finally restored on Oct. 3rd, and I am trying to get them to honor their word and credit us for our payments during the 6 down months. I will be back and let you know what happens…..
Working to get credited for lost service, I’ll let you know…
We had reasonable service from Rise for the past many years. In March of this year, our Rise Broadband service went down. We contacted them regularly, and were told that the ser
Mr_Mars - December 5, 2020 @ 04:08
Poor connection.
Over sold the network.
Peak times is unusable.
Luis Lopez - January 16, 2021 @ 16:39
They not even install my service after 2 visits the tech doesn’t know his job they make me take days off work twice don’t order this service you will waste your time and the will make holes in you house everywhere to try to install the antenna
They not even install my service after 2 visits the tech doesn’t know his job they make me take days off work twice don’t order this service you will waste your time and the will make holes in you house everywhere to try to install the antenna