On Sat, 2 Jan 2016 08:16:25 -0400, Leon Fisk
wrote:
On Fri, 01 Jan 2016 21:13:21 -0500
Ed Huntress wrote:
Is there something wrong with one of these?
http://broadbandnow.com/Michigan/Grand-Rapids
Read Steve W's reply, much the same thing here.
Well, this stuff is the lifeblood of my business, so it's worth it to
do some checking. I'll have to look into Steve's situation but I
checked yours first.
First, I took your "Grand Rapids" address literally. And the reason I
worded my question the way I did is that everyone who is actually in
Grand Rapids has access to at least *one* of those high-speed
services.
But you're 12 miles out, in a mostly rural area, right? (It looks very
pretty, BTW.) Assuming I have your address right, here's the story.
Your ZIP code actually overlaps TWO COUNTIES! g And both AT&T and
Xfinity confirm that at least SOME people in that ZIP have access to
high speed. Xfinity (Comcast) offers 150 Mbps in some parts of your
ZIP. Just not you. g
In fact, in Ottawa County, fewer than 3% of the people who live there
do not have high-speed Internet access. Almost all of the population
in your county is concentrated in three areas, and you aren't in one
of them.
And that's the common situation around the country. Where there are
concentrations of people, there is high-speed Internet. And that's
most of the country, population-wise. It's one of the things you give
up for living in nice rural and semi-rural areas.
From a business point of view, we have to go with the numbers. So we
build Web sites for the mass of the market.
BTW, AT&T says they can offer you 3 Mbps download. You might want to
ask.
Cable service doesn't quite make it this far. DSL is limited by what
AT&T is offering, which is the ADSL 1.5Mbps. All the DSL providers are
basically reselling the AT&T service. If you read the small print you
have to have an AT&T phone to qualify for their plans.
The over-the-air stuff (microwave, whatever), last time I checked around
a year ago is the same speed and about the same cost as current ADSL. Of
course this has its own unique set of problems/headaches too.
Only thing faster would be a cellphone data package which has its own
set of headaches and costs associated with such...
The wireless and satellite service in your area is expensive and not
all that fast. Personally, I wouldn't bother unless I really needed it
for some business reason. None of it appears to be over 25 Mbps, so it
doesn't qualify as "high-speed." So your area isn't counted in the
national figures for high-speed service.
--
Ed Huntress