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Surewest Fiber Gets Faster, Cheaper
But only for customers who live in Sacramento...
Sacramento-based SureWest Communications today announced that starting June 30, fiber to the home customers in Sacramento will be getting free speed upgrades with a price drop. According to the carrier, current 3Mbps ($31 bundled, $51 unbundled) downstream and 1Mbps upstream customers will be upgraded to a symmetrical 3Mbps. Existing symmetrical 10Mbps customers ($41 bundled, $66 unbundled) will be upgraded to symmetrical 15Mbps. Existing symmetrical 20Mbps customers ($70 bundled, $84 unbundled) will be upgraded to symmetrical 25Mbps. Internet speed upgrades in SureWest’s Kansas City market, which they purchased in 2007 and integrated in 2008, are planned for 2010.
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S_engineer
Premium Member
join:2007-05-16
Chicago, IL

1 recommendation

S_engineer

Premium Member

Good for them...

A company that appears to be planning for the future...what a concept!
cyberbeing
join:2005-02-18
Sacramento, CA

cyberbeing

Member

It is a Speed upgrade + Price drop

In addition to the speed upgrades, there was also a 20-25% price drop. The prices Karl listed are the new prices.
me1212
join:2008-11-20
Lees Summit, MO

me1212

Member

Re: It is a Speed upgrade + Price drop

Do they have a cap?
fredwilson12
join:2005-04-20
Sacramento, CA

1 edit

fredwilson12

Member

Re: It is a Speed upgrade + Price drop

Officially they do, but I think they keep that in the terms and conditions just for people who abuse the service. I've transferred 300, 400, or 500GB in a month and never heard a word from Surewest.

Also I got a letter last Friday regarding the free speed upgrades, and my connection has already been upgraded to 25Mbps.
me1212
join:2008-11-20
Lees Summit, MO
·Google Fiber

me1212

Member

Re: It is a Speed upgrade + Price drop

Cool. but wait.... The are a FTTH ISP with a cap but only for heavy users(are the business packages caped?) they offer symmetric speeds, and are LOWERING the price while upping the speeds to boot!??! Wow... And other ISPs can't to this because why? And they even upping your speeds for you! Wow......

PapaMidnight
join:2009-01-13
Baltimore, MD

PapaMidnight

Member

Re: It is a Speed upgrade + Price drop

said by me1212:

And other ISPs can't to this because why?
And give up profits to help consumers? Why the very thought...
me1212
join:2008-11-20
Lees Summit, MO

me1212

Member

Re: It is a Speed upgrade + Price drop

I know it is juts crazy.........
bigRoN8
Premium Member
join:2004-05-02
Roseville, CA

1 recommendation

bigRoN8 to me1212

Premium Member

to me1212
And other ISPs can't to this because why?
One of the big reasons is the technology behind the SureWest network. Not all fiber networks operate in the same way. Most fiber networks out there, like Verizon, use a passive optical network. While Verizon uses gigabit speed on their network, it is very inefficient. SureWest, on the other hand, uses active Ethernet, providing a dedicated 100 Mbps bidirectional connection to each house in a switched network. While the overall speed is slower, it is much more efficient. Despite them not mentioning doing so, I believe they have changed their video signals from MPEG2 to MPEG4, adding to bandwidth efficiency. So other ISPs can't do this because they don't have the infrastructure behind their network to allow for such efficiency.
me1212
join:2008-11-20
Lees Summit, MO

me1212

Member

Re: It is a Speed upgrade + Price drop

Oh cool.

Boricua
Premium Member
join:2002-01-26
Sacramuerto

Boricua to fredwilson12

Premium Member

to fredwilson12
said by fredwilson12:

Officially they do, but I think they keep that in the terms and conditions just for people who abuse the service. I've transferred 300, 400, or 500GB in a month and never heard a word from Surewest.

Also I got a letter last Friday regarding the free speed upgrades, and my connection has already been upgraded to 25Mbps.
Can you tell me what area (or zip code) you are in Sac? I live near Exit 91 near I-80 and am wondering if they stated service in my area. A friend of mine used to live at 95818 near U and Alhambra and got service through them.
fredwilson12
join:2005-04-20
Sacramento, CA

fredwilson12

Member

Re: It is a Speed upgrade + Price drop

I am in 95819, East Sacramento. Not sure where Exit 91 is. In this immediate area, I believe they are offering service in most of 95819, some of 95816/95817/95818. You should check for availability on their website. Last time I called they said their primary focus for new rollouts was the Roseville area, where they still have some of their original customers on DSL. I have no idea if that's true though, just what I was told.

Boricua
Premium Member
join:2002-01-26
Sacramuerto

Boricua

Premium Member

Re: It is a Speed upgrade + Price drop

You're right, Roseville is where they're deploying . Exit 91 is off I-80 going to Roseville/Reno NOT Business 80 (which takes you to Cal Expo).

sapo
Cruising Down Memory Lane
Premium Member
join:2002-09-16
Sacramento, CA

sapo to Boricua

Premium Member

to Boricua
What sucks for me is that I even have those green boxes in ground with Surewest written on them yet I don't have service. I'm by Elk Grove.

Philmatic
Premium Member
join:2000-07-15
Oxnard, CA

1 recommendation

Philmatic to Boricua

Premium Member

to Boricua
I'll be moving to Elk Grove in the next month or so, the house I'm buying is already hooked up the Surewest's Fiber network (It has the telling gray box near the cable/phone demarc point) AND the house is already pre-wired for ethernet in every room.

Suffice it to say, I cannot wait!
bigRoN8
Premium Member
join:2004-05-02
Roseville, CA

bigRoN8 to fredwilson12

Premium Member

to fredwilson12
I have had some legal torrents (Linux distributions) running on my network. For the month of June, up to this moment, I've uploaded 822.26GB and downloaded 74.96GB. I have been stoked about the speed increase and price decrease. If only other businesses would take this approach.
fredwilson12
join:2005-04-20
Sacramento, CA

fredwilson12

Member

Re: It is a Speed upgrade + Price drop

Yes I had Surewest with a roommate at one point, and he did torrents all the time.. probably most not legal. I was running pfSense so was able to look at MRTG. In one month my connection downloaded over 1TB and uploaded about 500GB. I never heard a peep from Surewest, but was still very surprised after seeing that and asked him to cool it down

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536 to me1212

Premium Member

to me1212
said by me1212:

Do they have a cap?
I believe its 30GB/mo.

kilometers3
join:2007-01-24
Sacramento, CA

kilometers3

Member

Nice pricing

With the speed increase and price drops I'm even more angry they skipped my condo when running fiber to the houses around us. ._.

AT&T and Comcast can't compete unless Surewest only offers crappy DSL to your home.

pokesph
It Is Almost Fast
Premium Member
join:2001-06-25
Sacramento, CA

pokesph

Premium Member

OK..

..so the fiber is on the pole outside my house and they still won't run a drop to me.. very frustrating!

sure would be nice to get the 15/15 and drop Comcast.

ninjatutle
Premium
join:2006-01-02
San Ramon, CA

ninjatutle

Member

hmmm

I wonder what their financials looks like, sign of desperation maybe...The city next to them, Stockton is the foreclosure captial of the world.
djeremy
join:2004-07-12
San Francisco, CA

1 recommendation

djeremy

Member

Re: hmmm

nope. they're actually having a pretty good year so far.

»ir.surw.com/phoenix.zhtm ··· ghlight=

we know, you only like AT&T. competition, especially with faster service at a lower price is bad and something must be wrong.
Expand your moderator at work

govonator
@verizon.net

govonator

Anon

.

surprised surewest and any overbuilder is still is business. this announcement is clearly in response to comcast dropping analog channels.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS

MVM

Re: .

Surewest is an "overbuilder"? I thought they were an ILEC (formerly called, "Roseville Telephone Company") which was formed to provide telephone service in a rural region that the original AT&T bypassed.

They were one of the clients of an old moonlight employer I worked for: SCS Security (out of Roseville, California). My favorite gig was the driving patrol, checking the RTC facilities in the wee hours of the morning.
fiberguy2
My views are my own.
Premium Member
join:2005-05-20

fiberguy2

Premium Member

Re: .

Surewest is an overbuilder in Sacramento County... in the areas they serve in Placer County, (and some other areas in Sac County like Citrus Heights) they are an ILEC with the former Roseville Telco territory. What started the "Surewest" brand was when RTC purchased the former bankrupt WinFirst property.. which was one of the first fiber to the home projects of any effort launched back in the late 90's.

spewak
R.I.P Dadkins
Premium Member
join:2001-08-07
Elk Grove, CA
·Consolidated Com..

spewak

Premium Member

Re: .

said by fiberguy2:

What started the "Surewest" brand was when RTC purchased the former bankrupt WinFirst property.. which was one of the first fiber to the home projects of any effort launched back in the late 90's.
And they made that purchase for a pittance.
spewak

1 recommendation

spewak

Premium Member

Speed increase not withstanding

Can we all just agree that what Surewest is doing is a good thing? Please?
I went back down to 10/10 after my initial 1 year contract was up (had promo 20/20), and as soon as I learned they dropped the 20/20 price to $70 from a very high $92, I jumped all over it.
The bonus here is that just days later, I learned that they are increasing channels in HD, and bumping up tier to 25/25.
Wowzers!
Gravy_Dave
join:2006-02-21
Sacramento, CA

Gravy_Dave

Member

Re: Speed increase not withstanding

I still wish they came in so. sac. 95828. And take over Comcast and Frontier.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin

Member

Um...

Why do they have a 3 Mbps tier when they're FTTH?

Their prices seem really high for unbundled services. $25 price differences seems really harsh.

On the other hand, considering they're bumping up speeds and decreasing prices, it's hard to complain. I can understand if they're just trying to recoup the cost of building out all that fiber to the home.

Oh BTW, I curse you AT&T, I curse you.
mob (banned)
On the next level..
join:2000-10-07
San Jose, CA

mob (banned)

Member

KC Market

Is still HFC, not FTTP with Surewest (formerly Everest Cable)

They have been pulling a ton of fiber, starting last year. They are now doing another big push, I just don't know what they are doing this time. The fiber was done out from the plant down the major "artery" streets in the area. AT&T has also started putting more Uverse equipment out as well. TimeWarner has so far done nothing to counter either company in terms of price or service.

However the Surewest coverage is extremely limited in scope, with only a small footprint for service. I currently am not able to receive service from them, even though their lines go directly past my home, and I live about 2 miles from their plant.