Universal Broadband deployments

[mrknowitall526]

I know it's not super Sprint-related, but I thought this might be an interesting topic.

 

I live in PA and am set to get DSL next week per the state's universal broadband law. I happened to write this article that got posted on DSLReports today... http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Filling-in-the-Broadband-Gaps-Your-Tales-of-Connection-130871'> http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Filling-in-the-Broadband-Gaps-Your-Tales-of-Connection-130871

 

Anyone have a similar experience where you live?

[JossMan]

Before 2001 we had two incumbent ISP providers here in Bristol, VA, Charter Communications and Embarq which is now called CenturyLink.  Both companies offered sub-par service at a high premium at the time; city residents were fed up with price hikes from both companies creating stale competition.  It was time for a new competitor to come to the plate in the form of BVU OptiNet. During the late 90s BVU was busy stringing up fiber to create there own network that would be used between local city government buildings, city schools, and telemetry for BVU owned electric substations.  Between 1999 and 2001 BVU actively pursued other ways to utilize this infrastructure to benefit the community. In early 2001, broadband and PCX telephone applications were introduced to local schools and government offices. As local businesses learned of BVU’s broadband capabilities, they began expressing interest, surveys confirmed that there was significant public interest, by local consumers, in BVU providing competitive telecom and information.

 

In order for BVU to offer telecommunication and information services, it would take over 2 years working with lobbyist to change Virginia’s laws and to complete necessary regulatory compliance to obtain state approvals. In addition, just weeks prior to OptiNet’s planned launch, the incumbent CATV provider (Charter Communications) filed an injunction against BVU’s deployment of cable television services.  In the end BVU succeeded against the injunction and was able to launch their FTTH services toward the end of 2003.  Here recently a poll was conducted and BVU has a 90% penetration rate in the City of Bristol, VA against Charter Communications.  

 

BVU was the first municipality in the United States to offer the full triple-play of services (telephone, cable and Internet) over a fiber-to-the-home network; therefore, many entities, both public and private, and from the U.S. and abroad, have sought knowledge and direction from the seasoned professionals at BVU.   

 

[mrknowitall526]

Before 2001 we had two incumbent ISP providers here in Bristol, VA, Charter Communications and Embarq which is now called CenturyLink. Both companies offered sub-par service at a high premium at the time; city residents were fed up with price hikes from both companies creating stale competition. It was time for a new competitor to come to the plate in the form of BVU OptiNet. During the late 90s BVU was busy stringing up fiber to create there own network that would be used between local city government buildings, city schools, and telemetry for BVU owned electric substations. Between 1999 and 2001 BVU actively pursued other ways to utilize this infrastructure to benefit the community. In early 2001, broadband and PCX telephone applications were introduced to local schools and government offices. As local businesses learned of BVU’s broadband capabilities, they began expressing interest, surveys confirmed that there was significant public interest, by local consumers, in BVU providing competitive telecom and information.

 

In order for BVU to offer telecommunication and information services, it would take over 2 years working with lobbyist to change Virginia’s laws and to complete necessary regulatory compliance to obtain state approvals. In addition, just weeks prior to OptiNet’s planned launch, the incumbent CATV provider (Charter Communications) filed an injunction against BVU’s deployment of cable television services. In the end BVU succeeded against the injunction and was able to launch their FTTH services toward the end of 2003. Here recently a poll was conducted and BVU has a 90% penetration rate in the City of Bristol, VA against Charter Communications.

 

BVU was the first municipality in the United States to offer the full triple-play of services (telephone, cable and Internet) over a fiber-to-the-home network; therefore, many entities, both public and private, and from the U.S. and abroad, have sought knowledge and direction from the seasoned professionals at BVU.

 

 

Interesting! Besides Verizon offering FIOS to a limited area in a city 20 minutes from me, there is only one other place with FTTH and it's a small borough with a municipal fiber operator. Once they came to town the local cable co was forced to be priced competitively or go out of business for lack of customers.

[chris92]

Nice article! I wish we had that in my area...Our farm house is in the middle of the ends of 2 DSL providers: AT&T from the north and Frontier from the south...neither want to build out. AT&T is the the current POTS provider, and recently laid all new underground lines, but didn't bother to extend DSL service ... 57,000ft. from the CO that's from a town twice as far away from the closest town with a CO!

 

Still running on a Sprint 3G card, though...it's not too bad since the NV upgrades

[mrknowitall526]

Nice article! I wish we had that in my area...Our farm house is in the middle of the ends of 2 DSL providers: AT&T from the north and Frontier from the south...neither want to build out. AT&T is the the current POTS provider, and recently laid all new underground lines, but didn't bother to extend DSL service ... 57,000ft. from the CO that's from a town twice as far away from the closest town with a CO!

 

Still running on a Sprint 3G card, though...it's not too bad since the NV upgrades

 Yikes, 57,000 feet!  That's somewhere around 11 miles.  That's crazy!  Doesn't make much sense that they would replace the lines but not upgrade to DSL... but maybe it is coming soon.  

 

Sometimes they way they wire up places makes no sense - makes you wonder what they were thinking when they did it in the first place!

[mrknowitall526]

In case anyone who read this was curious, just placed my DSL order today. 1.1-3 Mbps from Verizon. Was hoping for 3.1-7 but we'll see if they can increase the speed.

 

Supposed to be installed on Wednesday. Some how we didn't qualify for a self- install

[travismheim]

In case anyone who read this was curious, just placed my DSL order today. 1.1-3 Mbps from Verizon. Was hoping for 3.1-7 but we'll see if they can increase the speed.

 

Supposed to be installed on Wednesday. Some how we didn't qualify for a self- install

Unless you previously had Verizon services installed and activated at your address, they won't ever let you do a self install. Also the same applies if you had service, cancel for a long period of time and then try to sign back up.

[mrknowitall526]

Unless you previously had Verizon services installed and activated at your address, they won't ever let you do a self install. Also the same applies if you had service, cancel for a long period of time and then try to sign back up.

We have a landline, though, but I guess that doesn't count.