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I have been watching the housing market in Texas (rural areas around Houston, Dallas, and Austin) for a while. I've been actively looking at homes for the past

I have been watching the housing market in Texas (rural areas around Houston, Dallas, and Austin) for a while. I've been actively looking at homes for the past few months. I'm closing on a home in a week assuming it all goes well. As a software developer one of my criteria for buying a home has been "fast" internet. FCC's website [0] is the absolute opposite of reliable. Information there is, at best, not up to date. There are some cases where I'm convinced that the internet service providers are maliciously claiming service in an area that they do not actually provide. Then there's the internet service providers themselves. They'll offer fast service on their website just because they offer it in the zip code. Then you call to order, spend an hour on the phone, and discover that they don't provide service to that address. Sometimes it's because the telephone pole is too far by a few feet or a few miles. Or sometimes it's because they don't provide service to that zip code at all. And then if you ask how much it will cost to build service to that address... you're lucky if they'll give you a quote. Most of the time they'll refuse to build. Some of them will tell you to go to their "partner" [19] who will figure out who your ISP is... and that partner will then send you right back to that same ISP who will deny service. I have documentation. Would the Texas AG file a criminal complaint? No, I don't trust he would. The Texas AG is demonstrably as corrupt as the rest of the current Texas government. There are some regional ISPs that are "better" because they don't seem to employ the scummy tactics about zip codes... but they also don't provide a wide service area and often won't build out. The FCC's website is so unreliable that I'd end up just having to call every ISP and asking whether they service the address. And even more importantly is I'd have to ask specifically about serviceability of that address and beware of the representative just parroting the zip code offer. I'd end up spending multiple hours to check a single address for internet service. Then I'd end up trying to filter a dozen addresses a week. It's fucking infuriating. [0]: https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/ https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/ [1]: Altice (Suddenlink): https://www.suddenlink.com https://www.suddenlink.com [2]: Altice (Optimum) https://www.optimum.com/alticeone https://www.optimum.com/alticeone [3]: CableOne (Sparklight, NewWave): https://www.sparklight.com https://www.sparklight.com [4]: Windstream: https://www.windstream.net/high-speed-internet https://www.windstream.net/high-speed-internet [5]: Comcast: https://www.xfinity.com/learn/offers https://www.xfinity.com/learn/offers [6]: AT&T: https://www.att.com/buy/bundles https://www.att.com/buy/bundles [7]: Entouch https://www.entouch.net/ https://www.entouch.net/ [8]: Frontier https://frontier.com/ https://frontier.com/ [9]: GCTR (Vyve) https://vyvebroadband.com/ https://vyvebroadband.com/ [10]: Spectrum (Charter) https://www.spectrum.com/ https://www.spectrum.com/ [11]: Consolidated https://www.consolidated.com/ https://www.consolidated.com/ [12]: CenturyLink https://www.centurylink.com/ https://www.centurylink.com/ [13]: EarthLink https://internet.earthlink.com/ https://internet.earthlink.com/ [14]: Livingston Communications https://livcom.us/ https://livcom.us/ [15]: Lake Livingston Telephone Company https://lakelinkgstontel.com/ https://lakelinkgstontel.com/ [16]: Colorado Valley Telephone Co-operative https://www.cvctx.com/ https://www.cvctx.com/ [17]: People's Telephone Co-operative https://peoplescom.net/ https://peoplescom.net/ [18]: Eastex https://www.eastex.com/ https://www.eastex.com/ [19]: SmartMove.US is fucking trash https://www.smartmove.us/ https://www.smartmove.us/

cweagans 5y ago
Getting a quote to build out service to an address through any residential sales channel at an ISP is an exercise in futility. They generally won't quote it to residential customers because the quote usually ends up being for some astronomically high amount (dozens/hundreds of thousands) that few residential customers could reasonably afford. If you really want to have something built out for you, I recommend the following approach: 1. Find neighbors that are both frustrated with their internet options and have some money to spend 2. Call the business sales line for whatever ISP you want to go with. 3. Request a quote for yourself and mention that there are some neighboring businesses that would be willing to go in on the build cost. Usually, you can at least get a quote that way and you can decide from there whether or not it's worth it. Once they've built out service to your location, other residential customers can re-use that same infrastructure, so they don't all actually need to have businesses of their own. Sparklight is a provider in my area as well and they will build out business service to a residential location if there is business being conducted there (it's a pretty low bar to meet, and when in doubt, you could simply set up an LLC for yourself. I think it's ~$300 in Texas, which would essentially be a rounding error on the cost of the service buildout). Another option that you could look into is setting up your own ISP. I found that in my previous home, I would have been able to set up a tiny neighborhood ISP for ~$30k (for 15 homes). It's a large chunk of money, but divided up across multiple homes + ongoing service fees, it would have been pretty manageable. This was the cost for fiber-to-the-home and it was so low only because I didn't have to cross any public right-of-way, I was able to find a path for the fiber that didn't cross any other utilities or anything, there was fiber nearby (Zayo Communications publishes a map online where you can find this info), and I was willing to do much of the installation work myself. I ended up selling the house and moving instead, but it would have been a pretty fun project. You could also consider starting a WISP. https://startyourownisp.com/ https://startyourownisp.com/ has come across HN several times and is a really interesting resource.
- inetknght 5y ago
  > the quote usually ends up being for some astronomically high amount (dozens/hundreds of thousands) that few residential customers could reasonably afford. Yes. I was prepared to spend tens of thousands of dollars. > Another option that you could look into is setting up your own ISP. I'm interested in doing so but not as part of a purchase of a home. Maybe a few years down the line I might.

cweagans 5y ago

Getting a quote to build out service to an address through any residential sales channel at an ISP is an exercise in futility. They generally won't quote it to residential customers because the quote usually ends up being for some astronomically high amount (dozens/hundreds of thousands) that few residential customers could reasonably afford. If you really want to have something built out for you, I recommend the following approach: 1. Find neighbors that are both frustrated with their internet options and have some money to spend 2. Call the business sales line for whatever ISP you want to go with. 3. Request a quote for yourself and mention that there are some neighboring businesses that would be willing to go in on the build cost. Usually, you can at least get a quote that way and you can decide from there whether or not it's worth it. Once they've built out service to your location, other residential customers can re-use that same infrastructure, so they don't all actually need to have businesses of their own. Sparklight is a provider in my area as well and they will build out business service to a residential location if there is business being conducted there (it's a pretty low bar to meet, and when in doubt, you could simply set up an LLC for yourself. I think it's ~$300 in Texas, which would essentially be a rounding error on the cost of the service buildout). Another option that you could look into is setting up your own ISP. I found that in my previous home, I would have been able to set up a tiny neighborhood ISP for ~$30k (for 15 homes). It's a large chunk of money, but divided up across multiple homes + ongoing service fees, it would have been pretty manageable. This was the cost for fiber-to-the-home and it was so low only because I didn't have to cross any public right-of-way, I was able to find a path for the fiber that didn't cross any other utilities or anything, there was fiber nearby (Zayo Communications publishes a map online where you can find this info), and I was willing to do much of the installation work myself. I ended up selling the house and moving instead, but it would have been a pretty fun project. You could also consider starting a WISP. https://startyourownisp.com/ https://startyourownisp.com/ has come across HN several times and is a really interesting resource.

inetknght 5y ago
> the quote usually ends up being for some astronomically high amount (dozens/hundreds of thousands) that few residential customers could reasonably afford. Yes. I was prepared to spend tens of thousands of dollars. > Another option that you could look into is setting up your own ISP. I'm interested in doing so but not as part of a purchase of a home. Maybe a few years down the line I might.