Minneapolis Gamers - USI Wireless??

Hey guys,
Hoping to get some feedback from anyone living in Minneapolis and their experinece with the city wide wireless internet form USI.

I am currently a disgruntled Comcrap customer. (are then any happy ones out there?) So, I moved to a new house not to long ago, and was able to get a promotional discount from Comcast for Cable/Internet. Of course it is only 6 months then they will jack my price way up.

I am interested in the city wide wireless internet from USI. The rates and specified speeds seem alright, but they don't really address lag or ping in any of the info. I think they have a 6Mbps down/1Mbps up service that I was looking at.

Here is what I am worried about though. To get Xbox service I would need to:
connect wirelessly from Xbox to router,
then wired from router to USI moden,
then wirelessly from USI moden to network,
then...??? not sure what else is done on the back end to possibly slow the data more.

I just think that with that much going on, both wired and wirelessly, that the ping would be unacceptable for Xbox Live gaming. I was hoping to hear some feedback from anyone, especially if anyone has some first hand experience with the USI service.

Thanks in advance.
John

So there is really no one from Minneapolis reading this forum?

Maybe just no one with any USI wireless experience?

Anyone else want to take a guess or have experience gaming on a large scale wireless network like they have here?

Ha!! I figured I would either get some answers about USI, or this would turn into a comcast bashing thread. I would still like to hear about USI if anyone knows, but I'm always up for some good comcast hatin.

The only reason I am still with them is because I got a promotional rate. Well, I guess the interenet is actually pretty good (fast and pretty reliable). The cable is what I really hate.

I am on my 3rd DVR and it too is a piece of junk. For a while it was rebooting itself periodically and lately the hard drive seems to spin and "grind" away when it is just sitting idle turned off. Add to that, its looks and performs like its from the 90's. Oh, and the on screen guide is a joke, also circa 1995. And lets not forget about their 1000s of HD "choices"

If it wasn't for the internet service I would have had a satelite put on my new house, but I didn't necessarily want DSL. That is why I am interested in the USI wireless service.

Guess I will bump this one more time and see if anyone has any ideas before it is lost to the back pages forever...

Cool, thanks for the info.
So, if I understand, you are getting USI service for the second time now, and switching from Comcast. A lot of the early reports I read said that reliability was an issue, but they were still putting the network together then. Perhaps this is why you left USI the first time?

So you say that with a good signal, you are basically achieving the advertised data rates. A ping of 53-100 isn't outstanding, but really isn't much worse if at all from what I get out of Comcast.

Is the external antenna actually on the outside of the house similar to a satelite dish? I do have a stucco home, but I can see 2 different transmitters from my house and am able to "see" USI network from my laptop. This is without any extra antennas or moden or anything. Plus I basically have a line of sight out one window to the transmitter on the street.

Bottom line - Is gaming acceptable on the USI network if you are able to get a good signal? I mostly play FPS's online, so I can't be lagging behind too much. Let me know. Thanks for all the help.

John