Need Help With Getting High Speed Internet For Community

[eric12401 77]

I live in an area where high speed internet is unavailable. I'm sure some of you have heard of the "See, Click, Fix" on the web, and I started one for this problem. Time Warner's cable line ends less than 1/2 mile from my house, and there's a stretch of 6 houses without high speed. Time Warner quoted us anywhere between $17k-30k to extend the lines to us. We're too far away from Verizon's central office to get DSL, and satellite isn't reliable. We've been in contact with the Town Supervisor since October, and had meetings with TWC a couple times with no result, so I'm hoping this can get the county's attention eventually. All's you have to do is go to the site, click "Vote to Fix", enter your email address (or multiple) and you're done. It would be greatly appreciated if some members could do this! It's 2011 and we're still on dialup, it's pathetic!

http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/80276

[x635 4,066]

Wow, that's ridiculous. I guess 6 customers don't matter to Time Warner and their giant corporation. It should be part of the Town's franchise contract that EVERY residence is covered....but in some areas they have a monopoly. Will definetly add my vote.

Has Verizon strung Fios in nearby areas yet? Also, have you tried services like CLEAR yet?

http://www.clear.com/

[NWFDMedic 58]

The franchise agreements that towns have with the cable companies are ridiculous. In some instances, the competitor (like Verizon FiOS) has to be able provide services to the entire town before they can apply to be allowed into the market. The cable company, however, had years to develop their infrastructure. I can toss a stone (or could when I was in prime baseball shape) from my house to a county highway, yet I still can't get FiOS at my house.

[eric12401 77]

Seth, according to the contract the town has with Time Warner, they're only obligated to extend their cable services if there's 20 homes within a mile radius. We have 6, with 3 major local businesses still using dialup, and they're very, very unhappy with it. If you go about 1/2 mile south of our house, they have TWC, and if you go about 3-4 miles north, they have access to FiOS and DSL.

And with the CLEAR...."Sorry, the CLEAR service plan you have requested isn't currently available at your address." And then it goes on to say none of the plans are available, so that's out of the question!

[x635 4,066]

I feel your pain. When I lived in Hartsdale, a high density neighborhood, we didn't get Cablevision "Optimum Online" high speed internet until years after it was standard in the suburban marketplace. In fact, I was living in Boston at the time and had Comcast, and had high speed internet and digital cable, and when I would visit my mother in Hartsdale, still Cablevision had nothing. When I started this site in 2003, I could only work on it when I was in Boston.

Verizon, AT&T, Sprint don't offer wireless internet plans, with the antenna that plugs into a USB port?

When I go out into rural Texas, and I mean this rural:

With a "City" (every municipality in Texas is a city) with 87 residents and dozens of miles from anywhere, they have high speed....some places have it through their Electric company.

With the new CLEAR service, people are even ditching their fiberoptic connections now. Hopefully they will offer it in NY soon, since the network is nationwide. And Google will soon be rolling out super fast internet boh wired and wireless for free.

[eric12401 77]

We could get the wireless internet plans with those carriers, but they all have bandwidth caps on them, and with 3 people constantly using the internet, we would go over that fairly quick, which is why we ditched Satellite internet. One of my neighbors has the wireless with Verizon, and they say their service is horrible. They can go a week at a time without getting a signal. At the last town meeting we went to, they said that around 90% of the town had access to high speed internet (even the most rural areas have it.) So we're running out of ideas, just gotta keep the pressure up and hope for the best!

Edited February 12, 2011 by eric12401

[shadow12083 17]

You got my vote, but keep the pressure on your local town board especially when it comes time to get that franchise agreement renewed.

You might want to tell the state about this issue and see if they can do anything. I doubt it they can do anything but it can hurt to make some noise at the state level.

NYS Broadband

I would also run the state broadband test and get yourself listed as not having broadband.

NYS Broadband test

[eric12401 77]

The franchise agreement doesn't expire until May 2017.. so I don't think it's a good idea to wait that long! But I'll try those 2 things. Thanks!

[x635 4,066]

Well then, the LEAST Time Warner could do in the meantime is offer you free wireless:

http://www.timewarnercable.com/east/learn/mobile/

[conman 40]

you got my vote

[eric12401 77]

Well then, the LEAST Time Warner could do in the meantime is offer you free wireless:

http://www.timewarnercable.com/east/learn/mobile/

That would be nice, but according to the requirements, you must have at least 1 other Time Warner service in order to get wireless. So you know that would be their excuse for not wanting to give it to us!