Author: Warren Redlich

Update 7: All has been relatively quiet now into mid-September. We just got notice that Hotwire representatives will be at our clubhouse “to assist with any chronic technical issues.” That’s heartwarming. And we’ve had our own problem with the Hotwire Insura Security system. The adventure continues.
Update 6: As of May 7th Hotwire continues to fail and we are giving up. Read more at: Hotwire Fails. Also, we’ve been advised that people are having difficulty using their TIVO devices with Hotwire.
Update 5: Hotwire claims to have fixed the problem. Read more at Hotwire Update.
Update 4: The Hotwire problem now appears to be fixed. See More Hotwire Problems in Boca Falls for more details.
Update 3: It’s now 4/28. Despite lengthy efforts to get the problem fixed, we continue to have problems. Hotwire sent contrators here a couple of days ago and they rewired our house. Instead of the digital signal running through coaxial cable in our house, they ran Category 5 Ethernet cable to each TV. It continued to show glitches. I rebooted the box on our main TV and the problems continue. Below is a 30 second video showing how it looks:

–Update 2: It’s now 4/18, and we are having another problem. The video below shows how we have no picture or sound on any channel, even though the box is apparently reporting the channel to our TV:

–Update: As of 4/17, our own problems with Hotwire appear to be resolved. They sent over a couple of higher level people who figured out that the fiber connection to the house was “dirty” and replaced one of the boxes. For now it appears to be better. It is our impression that they are making progress and some of these problems may be inevitable in such a large project.–
Boca Falls is undergoing  a transformation. The Homeowners Association made a deal with Hotwire Communications. Hotwire is installing fiber optic cable throughout the community (roughly 720 homes), and homeowners will now get cable television, internet and telephone service through Hotwire.
The installation is not as smooth as some might hope. We have heard that other families have complained. In our own case, we have experienced significant problems with the television service.
For our main television, the picture is occasionally jerky or shows other flaws. Shortly after the initial installation the set top box stopped working with the TV.
In the master bedroom, we have had frequent problems where the TV doesn’t work. We might get video with no audio, or audio with no video, or we can get some channels but not others. A few times the TV simply stopped working completely, giving us a message on the TV that might say “Unsupported Signal”.
On the bright side, the telephone service works fine and the internet service is actually faster than expected:

And to be fair, we heard many complaints about Comcast and had bad experiences ourselves. Comcast was so bad we switched to DirecTV after only one month. But DirecTV was significantly better than what we’re getting from Hotwire.
We are hopeful that the TV service will improve, but so far customer service has been disappointing. While technicians come to the home and fix the problem, the fixes are temporary and the problems come back. Our requests to have the quality of the line signal tested are met with blank stares or vague excuses.