Fast Internet

[DieselnHooters]

A few months ago I signed up with Frontier and the only thing available was DSL with 20down 1up speed but it was easy to install since I already had a phone line installed 30 years ago. Looks like they are going to run more fiber down my road (and it seems every road in my area) so I assume there may be more options in the future. Can I assume to get higher speeds a cable would need to be run from the main line to my house? If so, Do they charge for that? My biggest issue with what I have is not speed but reliability. Not sure if the occasional outages are from them hooking more up to the system or they just have crappy service. I know their service support is poor.

Fiber doesnt run on phone lines, at least in my area it is underground. They then solder up a connection to your house, they may charge if your house is a certain distance from the road and their fiber line

 

[sd455dan]

Most people don't need the blazing speed for regular home use, the speed you have is fine. If you get a bunch of people at your house using the internet simultaneously, things might be different.

making due with 14 down and 4 up on the now ancient Mobley, but at $22 a month not complaining

 

[JasperFrank]

How much speed do you need?
Our Century Link DSL, gives 10 Megabit downloads and .6 Megabit up loads.
And we do Zooms and watch Youtubes and Stream Content just fine. Not at 4K, but who needs 4K? $107 a month with local phone included. Upload IS slow, but we are not content creators, so it isn't a problem. Upload and get a cup of coffee.

Unfortunately internet providers are trying their best to kill off DSL. You can't even buy a new DSL modem at any brick and mortar store in my area.

 

[ultrarunner]

Fiber doesnt run on phone lines, at least in my area it is underground. They then solder up a connection to your house, they may charge if your house is a certain distance from the road and their fiber line

600 feet underground bore 24" deep with 3 pedestals along the way was under 15k to get fiber from nearest aerial to house in Washington.

 

[hosspuller]

While ATT fiber is faster than our Spectrum service, the key difference is reliable connection. The cable modem would lose connection and have to reboot several times per day. It was improved a bit after a lot of complaints to Spectrum. Tech came out and replaced several outside connections. Even after the service, reliable service was poor and most aggravating. In the 18 months of ATT fiber, have only lost connection when the power went out.

 

[Oaktree]

Fiber doesnt run on phone lines, at least in my area it is underground. They then solder up a connection to your house, they may charge if your house is a certain distance from the road and their fiber line

All above ground here. Very few utility lines buried...soil is waaay too rocky. Maybe some developments in/near cities, but not in rural areas. There is a support cable that the fiber bundle is bound to.

 

[Rebeldad1]

Not sure you could use Hughesnet and fast in the same sentence

 

[ponytug]

Not sure you could use Hughesnet and fast in the same sentence

 

[EddieWalker]

My only option for years was either dial-up or Hughesnet. Hughesnet Gen5 worked pretty good until covid hit and then I was lucky to get 2 mbps and no upload. I put a deposit down on Starlink in February '21 but even now it's still not in my area. Last November I was able to get T Mobil 5G home internet with speeds over 150mbps. In June they upgraded the tower and my speeds doubled to over 300mbps. The county I live in has made a push to get fiber optic cable available to anyone who wants it and a month ago they ran a line down my road. Yesterday I had Frontier Gig service installed, 1000mbps. Never thought I'd be able to get fiber optic. Quite a difference in a year's time.

That's amazing!!!! A couple years ago somebody installed a fiber optic line along the road in front of my place, next to my property line. We've sort of been waiting for somebody to contact us about connecting to it, but so far, nothing. I don't even know who to contact.

I searched my address to see if Frontier was in my area, but it isn't.

I'm using Skynet Country, out of Gladewater, which is fast enough for us to watch TV, YouTube and Amazon Prime. My wife works from home and she has a lot of Zoom meetings. For the Zoom to work, she has to unplug the ROKU and turn off everything else that uses the internet. The fastest speed available with Skynet is 12mbps for $99 a month.

I really need to figure out how to connect to that fiber optic line!!!!!

 

[ultrarunner]

That's amazing!!!! A couple years ago somebody installed a fiber optic line along the road in front of my place, next to my property line. We've sort of been waiting for somebody to contact us about connecting to it, but so far, nothing. I don't even know who to contact.

I searched my address to see if Frontier was in my area, but it isn't.

I'm using Skynet Country, out of Gladewater, which is fast enough for us to watch TV, YouTube and Amazon Prime. My wife works from home and she has a lot of Zoom meetings. For the Zoom to work, she has to unplug the ROKU and turn off everything else that uses the internet. The fastest speed available with Skynet is 12mbps for $99 a month.

I really need to figure out how to connect to that fiber optic line!!!!!

I managed a 4-plex where the tenants were told the cable would have to be underground to hookup.

The adjoining apartment building on a zero lot line had cable and kicker is the feed for that building ran the full length of the building I managed and could not get cable.

“Somehow” that feed cable was damaged replacing facia trim on my building knocking out cable to adjoining 8 units.

I refused to allow anything to be attached to my building unless my tenants benefited.

Let’s just say it all got worked out between the city, provider, tenants and building owners very quickly.

Months of wrangling resolved in a morning as city and provider faced lots of upset tenants.

 

[JESSE1]

That's amazing!!!! A couple years ago somebody installed a fiber optic line along the road in front of my place, next to my property line. We've sort of been waiting for somebody to contact us about connecting to it, but so far, nothing. I don't even know who to contact.

I searched my address to see if Frontier was in my area, but it isn't.

I'm using Skynet Country, out of Gladewater, which is fast enough for us to watch TV, YouTube and Amazon Prime. My wife works from home and she has a lot of Zoom meetings. For the Zoom to work, she has to unplug the ROKU and turn off everything else that uses the internet. The fastest speed available with Skynet is 12mbps for $99 a month.

I really need to figure out how to connect to that fiber optic line!!!!!

Check to see if there's junction box close by. Should be a sunken box that looks like a valve box. The one in front of my house has Frontier on it. I talked to a contractor that was burying the cable and he told me it was for Frontier. Gave them a call, set up an installation appointment. Only thing now is waiting for another crew to come and bury the cable to the house, probably this next week. Frontier had two options for fiber, the 500/500 or the Gig service which was $15/month more. I plan on installing several security cameras so I went with the Gig service. Still much cheaper than I paid for Hughesnet which was basically useless.

 

[ponytug]

That's amazing!!!! A couple years ago somebody installed a fiber optic line along the road in front of my place, next to my property line. We've sort of been waiting for somebody to contact us about connecting to it, but so far, nothing. I don't even know who to contact.

I searched my address to see if Frontier was in my area, but it isn't.

I'm using Skynet Country, out of Gladewater, which is fast enough for us to watch TV, YouTube and Amazon Prime. My wife works from home and she has a lot of Zoom meetings. For the Zoom to work, she has to unplug the ROKU and turn off everything else that uses the internet. The fastest speed available with Skynet is 12mbps for $99 a month.

I really need to figure out how to connect to that fiber optic line!!!!!

I have a bunch of state of the art fiber buried in the road here. It is a private run to a big facility eight or ten miles west of us. I got to know one of the folks over there and he told me that they had a bunch of dark (unused) fiber in the street, just in case.

Tantalizing, but zero chance at accessing it.

My bet is that if you haven't heard from anyone, it is a private run for somebody else.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ultrarunner]

Just for fun I ran a couple of Fast.com this morning.

2.5 Mbps Home Hot Spot T-Mobile and Verizon

Same 5G at work is interesting with two different phones.

200 Mbps Apple 6s

40 Mbps Moto

No idea why it varies so much but I know at home sometimes I got nothin…

 

[Jstpssng]

Just for fun I ran a couple of Fast.com this morning.

2.5 Mbps Home Hot Spot T-Mobile and Verizon

Same 5G at work is interesting with two different phones.

200 Mbps Apple 6s

40 Mbps Moto

No idea why it varies so much but I know at home sometimes I got nothin…

Your post prompted me to do the same...




Unloaded
42 ms

Loaded
148 ms

Upload
Speed
710 Kbps

 

[RB5]

My only option for years was either dial-up or Hughesnet. Hughesnet Gen5 worked pretty good until covid hit and then I was lucky to get 2 mbps and no upload. I put a deposit down on Starlink in February '21 but even now it's still not in my area. Last November I was able to get T Mobil 5G home internet with speeds over 150mbps. In June they upgraded the tower and my speeds doubled to over 300mbps. The county I live in has made a push to get fiber optic cable available to anyone who wants it and a month ago they ran a line down my road. Yesterday I had Frontier Gig service installed, 1000mbps. Never thought I'd be able to get fiber optic. Quite a difference in a year's time.

Damn you are lucky. I live 45 minutes from downtown Dallas and have been trying to get faster than 10MB for more than 10 years. I am considering trying T Mobile Business plan that is wireless. They have a free trial period. They guy says he thinks it will work, but they can't garauntee speeds where I live. Starlink came here, and I was busy when I got the "you have a week to respond" email and missed it. I got my deposit back. With all the oversold talk I've heard I am no longer looking at Starlink.

 

[oosik]

Out here it's satellite internet service or nothing. I started out with a service called Starband. It went kaput and I moved on to HughesNet. It's not the fastest but is sufficient for my needs.

 

[RB5]

My only option for years was either dial-up or Hughesnet. Hughesnet Gen5 worked pretty good until covid hit and then I was lucky to get 2 mbps and no upload. I put a deposit down on Starlink in February '21 but even now it's still not in my area. Last November I was able to get T Mobil 5G home internet with speeds over 150mbps. In June they upgraded the tower and my speeds doubled to over 300mbps. The county I live in has made a push to get fiber optic cable available to anyone who wants it and a month ago they ran a line down my road. Yesterday I had Frontier Gig service installed, 1000mbps. Never thought I'd be able to get fiber optic. Quite a difference in a year's time.

I live in Kaufman County southeast of Dallas. How in the heck did the county decide to invest in that? We are in a growing area, and I've been stuck at sub 10MB DSL for over 10 years. You would think we lived in a wilderness area when it comes to Internet service.

 

[Fixastuff]

If you city or provider isn't getting you fiber now it's because they don't care. Federal government is paying for it if they apply for the grants.

 

[RB5]

If you city or provider isn't getting you fiber now it's because they don't care. Federal government is paying for it if they apply for the grants.

Thanks. I'll look into that.

 

[Fixastuff]

Thanks. I'll look into that.

I put in 20k feet of conduit for it last month. One run was a mile long driveway with just two houses at the end. That would have been crazy $$ if the homeowners had to pay for it.