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The Monkey
@sbcglobal.net

The Monkey

Anon

[Southwest] Am I stuck with AT&T?

I live in a semi-rural area with AT&T DSL as my only option for wireline Internet. I'm a bit concerned that if the AT&T/DirecTV merger goes through my neighbors and I will be forced into wireless "broadband" by AT&T. I would really prefer to stick with a wireline connection (of course).

Time Warner Cable service stops at a house about 650-750' from my house with a house and a yard between us.

A local telco (VTX Communications who offer 50/25 "Fiber to the Home" in some places) has a fiber optic cable running along my street buried in my front yard but my neighbor who worked for them for 30+ years (and gets 6 megabit wireless for free as part of his retirement) says it's just some sort of backup transport line.

I live at the corner of two streets intersecting perpendicularly and I know the population density isn't what an ISP would want (6 homes within 1/2 mile to the west, 4 homes within 1/2 mile to the east) but I we live near a large over 55 community (only 800' from my house) and a large neighborhood is only 1/2 to the south.

Would TWC or VTX be willing to serve us if AT&T drops DSL in our area?
tabernak93
join:2015-02-16
Oklahoma City, OK

tabernak93

Member

Sounds like you've already researched out your options. To find out about VTX and TWC, you'd simply have to contact them. My guess would be no for VTX and a small chance with TWC since they are that close, especially if you could get proof lots of your neighbors are also interested.

Is U-verse available at either of the 2 communities close to you? At&t isn't done expanding U-verse, you still have a chance that it'll be available eventually. As far as legacy DSL going away, I've yet to hear any stories of that, although I've read plenty of stories around here about them not letting new users on it.

The Monkey
@sbcglobal.net

The Monkey

Anon

AT&T U-verse isn't available in either community. The over 55 community is only full during the late fall and winter months when the "Winter Texans" come down from the Midwest and Canada to escape the cold and the other neighborhood is somewhat poor with about 3/4 of the homes in it being mobile homes so I wouldn't be surprised if AT&T doesn't do upgrades in this area for quite a while.

Would TWC extend their service to us for free? My dad (and probably my neighbor as well) don't want to have to spend $5,000+ just for Internet service.

If we can't get anything better I think we will (my family at least) will be okay with 5-6 mbit/s until TWC goes to 16x4 in the RGV division or someone else comes along.

rtfm
join:2005-07-09
Washington, DC

rtfm to The Monkey

Member

to The Monkey
said by The Monkey :

Time Warner Cable service stops at a house about 650-750' from my house with a house and a yard between us.

Make a deal and share.... It's an easy directional WiFi hop...

The Monkey
@sbcglobal.net

The Monkey

Anon

I forgot to mention that there are quite a few mature trees and bushes between us so I don't think that would work.

rtfm
join:2005-07-09
Washington, DC

rtfm

Member

Make a deal to hang/bury fiber. If your direct neighbor is also in the connectivity desert, they may well jump at the chance.

The Monkey
@sbcglobal.net

The Monkey

Anon

Make a deal with who? I'm guessing that this means TWC probably wouldn't extend their coverage to our corner for free or less than $1000.
brad152
join:2006-07-27
Chicago, IL

brad152 to The Monkey

Member

to The Monkey
I say just have the one person that can get TWC pick up a "business class" line, then run a fiber or ethernet (if it's close enough) to 2-3 houses and share it.

a 50-100Mbps line should be fine for 2-3 houses to do some Netflix.

Or just do what we did in Ohio and get a 2nd TWC residential line installed in the shed out back (of the neighbor's house), then ethernet it over if it's not too long, we told TWC it was going to the RV parked out back that was "rented" and they gladly put it in my sister's name, it was about 700ft from the corner of their lot where the shed was to where my sister's shed was in her yard, so i was able to just do patch ethernet with a few dumb switches in between to make it work.

So her setup is as such - Neighbor's shed (Motorola SB6121) -> Ethernet -> Sister's Shed (just dumb switch) -> Sister's House (hooked to WiFi router)

She gets the full 50/5 on the line, and it's been working perfectly and cost about $100 or so for me to do instead of the 5,000 that TWC wanted to extend the line around the corner.

I would have just ran Coax but the signal on the line at the shed was -3dBm, so instead of just fussing with amps, i decided to go the ethernet route and it's been solid for a year like that.

The Monkey
@sbcglobal.net

The Monkey

Anon

Thanks for your suggestions everyone, I appreciate it. I don't know much about networking, although I do know what a VRAD is and a little bit about DOCSIS. If you have any more ideas go ahead and post them.

rtfm
join:2005-07-09
Washington, DC

rtfm to The Monkey

Member

to The Monkey
Make a deal with who?
Your neighbors. You want to transit Neighbor A to reach B, and make a deal to get a service drop at B's.

The Monkey
@sbcglobal.net

The Monkey

Anon

Well... I just checked our DSL data usage and we've already used ~108 GB out of the 150 GB we're allowed only halfway through our billing period. I know a $10 overage charge for an extra 50 GB isn't much, but if we end up paying for it month after month it'll quickly add up.

Will AT&T charge us or will they not enforce it like they have been doing with U-Verse? And does Time Warner Cable have data caps? We're only going to do the work to switch to TWC if our DSL becomes insufficient for our usage.
tabernak93
join:2015-02-16
Oklahoma City, OK

1 recommendation

tabernak93

Member

I can't swear to it personally, but a quick google search appears TWC has no caps. As far as At&t enforcing caps, it seems to vary by region, some DSL users are certainly being charged for overages. You could potentially switch to a pricier business plan that doesn't have caps.

I'd really suggest you simply call TWC and see where you stand, knowledge is power.

The Monkey
@rr.com

The Monkey

Anon

We're probably going to switch to DSL Extreme since they don't have data caps and won't have to pay for TWC to install cable. We switched to the "Pro" DSL plan in late February but have been AT&T DSL customers for 3 1/2 years. Will we be charged with an early termination fee? Having a cap isn't good for heavy Netflix users like us.