Forum Discussion
Business vs residential service
I can relate. My date for service has changed at least 4 time over the past 2 years but I'm getting more hopeful. There have been sections up my street on the utility poles where the fiber cable has been installed and the ground/road has been marked where the buried runs are. The section from my house to the street is up on utility poles so maybe easier to get connected once service is started. Right now I've been given a November date which I don't believe but maybe.
Everything is done here, except for the micro-trenches and dropping the line to the house. Absolutely everything else is done; the electric company worked very diligently, but the fiber ISP is taking its sweet time. I hope your November date is correct! Here things are moving very slowly for two of the areas. Everyone else already has fiber service. It was also practically impossible to get information from these companies. I ended up contacted the electric company, and someone involved in the fiber project there was very kind to provide information, plus evidence that their part of the project was done and now it was up to the fiber ISP. After getting no replies from them for over a year, I eventually heard from them and they said they expected to be done with everything by the end of 2025. I'll believe it when I see it. 🤣🤣🤣
I have to wonder how reliable they are, which is one of the several reasons I'm holding on to Hughesnet for a while (provided I can actually have both the satellite and fiber at the house; I don't know if that's possible). Hughesnet (IME) has been reliable and responsive.
Hope you see the work completed soon. Its great that the federal gov't provides money to local providers to install/upgrade substandard service but the limited profit potential from rural service due to the low density of customers and any competition kind of eliminates any incentive to providers to work fast.
Are they using a local ISP? Where I'm at, the fiber provider is local, so I imagine they have incentive to increase their customer base by expanding their reach. When all this started, they asked people who were interested to "sign up" for the upcoming service, and those of us who did will allegedly get fiber installed ahead of others in the county. Doesn't mean they're fast, of course. I've heard from people who have the service that they're good and responsive once you're receiving their customer. Seeing is believing, though. 🤣🤣
Best of luck to you! Fingers crossed for a November install!
There is only one wired ISP covering the whole county and along the loop run/road I live on there are only a limited number of houses so not too much incentive for them. I’m guessing without the federal grant money, there would be very little if any cost justification for the fiber installation given the number of customers they can service. The copper pairs are maxed out and I can’t get any wired service until the fiber is up, hence the Hughesnet service. I initially started with Viasat and their service was very poor here. Hughes is only slight better but the only option right now. Verizon has approval (2 years ago) for a tower nearby but no construction has started yet. That could be another ISP option down the road.
