FairPoint, Connect America To Expand Internet Access Across 14 States

[IInuyasha74]

FairPoint will expand Internet service to rural areas in 14 states, but at speeds slower than broadband.

FairPoint, Connect America To Expand Internet Access Across 14 States : Read more

 

[digitaldoc]

For a new service, the 10/1 speeds are definitely on the slow side.

Better than nothing?

 

[DowneastD]

FairPoint is, without a doubt, the worst company ever put on this planet. Their service is terrible -- in the years since they took over in Maine, they have had to pay penalties for bad service in every month but three. They took 4 tries to install service for me, even though they were just reconnecting the previous tenant's service. In 2013 they got my bill wrong 12 months put of 12, always by different amounts. One month it was over by $110.30; five months later the entire bill was 28 cents -- and they called me and told me my bill would be wrong, and would take 4 months to correct. All of this for identical service with a rate set by the state. The state regulator has 9 customer service reps for complaints; 1 for each of the electric utilities and seven for FairPoint. I have lived with Verizon and Time Warner service and can say that either is at least 100% better. They also have failed to meet or even approach the broadband coverage they promised when they bought Verizon's Northern new England landline business.
Giving them $37 million is like pouring it on the ground -- during a rainstorm.

 

[Onus]

The article title says 14 states; ok, which 14??

 

[IInuyasha74]

The article title says 14 states; ok, which 14??

Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington

 

[alextheblue]

FairPoint is, without a doubt, the worst company ever put on this planet. Their service is terrible -- in the years since they took over in Maine, they have had to pay penalties for bad service in every month but three. They took 4 tries to install service for me, even though they were just reconnecting the previous tenant's service. In 2013 they got my bill wrong 12 months put of 12, always by different amounts. One month it was over by $110.30; five months later the entire bill was 28 cents -- and they called me and told me my bill would be wrong, and would take 4 months to correct. All of this for identical service with a rate set by the state. The state regulator has 9 customer service reps for complaints; 1 for each of the electric utilities and seven for FairPoint. I have lived with Verizon and Time Warner service and can say that either is at least 100% better. They also have failed to meet or even approach the broadband coverage they promised when they bought Verizon's Northern new England landline business.
Giving them $37 million is like pouring it on the ground -- during a rainstorm.

So business as usual for the feds. The 37 million is just a small piece of that pie anyway - they're talking about 10 billion over the next 6 years (though not all to any single company). I've seen a lot of bitching about Fairpoint but most people who use em don't have much alternative. I can't help but feel it would be better to expand LTE networks and continue to tweak LTE for better range.

"Having the FCC chairman refer to an Internet service slower than broadband as "broadband" gives the impression that he feels this is sufficient service for companies to provide."

Yeah or it gives the impression that he talks out of both sides of his mouth.

 

[Baumy15]

dear everyone who said those speeds are slow.
10/1MBPS is pretty damn fast i pay $60 a month for 8GB internet with 8MBPS down and 800KBPS up and i can download files at about 1.0MB/s and 2.5MB/s. everyone in America and hundreds of other states needs to learn that if you have 15/1MBPS internet you are already faster than the majority of Australian households. but until recently most of Australia will be hokked up to super fast internet (12/1, 25/5, 50/10 and 100/40MBPS) there is fibre (21/1, 25/5, 50/10 and 100/40) wireless broadband (12/1 and 25/5) and satellite (6/0.5) this is what we have to offer please understand that people saying that 10/1 is really slow i would give anything to get speeds like that for a reasonable price.

 

[BrandonYoung]

Being in rural Washington State where our options are currently dial-up, 10GB/month satellite, and 2 bars of AT&T 4G, I would be quite happy with 10/1mbps assuming its unlimited data. I would actually be able to let the kids use the internet without worrying that my 10GB/month allowance would not be wasted on 2 hours of HD YouTube.

 

[f-14]

".... many people living in rural America do not have access to the Internet.."
exede.com
SATELLITE INTERNET FTR

 

[Darkbreeze]

Hell, I'm paying 65 bucks a month to Comcast for an 8mbps connection in Colorado. I think for those who can't get anything faster than dial up, 10mbps is a dream, IF it was from a reliable service provider which Fairpoint clearly is not or at best "toes the line" in that regard.

 

[synphul]

Satellite internet is a joke in the u.s. (wild blue/hughes net, same service). It's extremely limited and runs on a rolling monthly usage plan. Use the internet for very little but have a day of extremely heavy downloads such as installing win service packs, updating gpu drivers etc. and good luck. You exceed your limit and speeds will be throttled to the point you can't check email for 30 more days until that day of heavy usage falls off the account.

So you get to pay around $98/mo for little usage (forget youtube and the rest of the internet, farmville was enough to push the usage limits - seriously.) Toward the end of the month you do all the heavy downloading over the course of a day or two, now you get to pay an additional $98 while going without service.

Currently besides satellite my region offers dialup (around 32.2kbps, can't hack 56k) and 3g. My current download speed according to ookla, 0.42Mbps. No, the decimal isn't an error. Current internet plan costs $40/mo. No dsl, no cable, no fiber. 10/1 would be a serious improvement from the reality of internet speeds in rural america.

 

[jungleboogiemonster]

I'm absolutely amazed this is happening with the current state of politics in the US. However, this spending will help bring opportunity and improve the quality of life for many people in rural America. It's unarguably a necessity at this point.

 

[velocityg4]

dear everyone who said those speeds are slow.
10/1MBPS is pretty damn fast i pay $60 a month for 8GB internet with 8MBPS down and 800KBPS up and i can download files at about 1.0MB/s and 2.5MB/s. everyone in America and hundreds of other states needs to learn that if you have 15/1MBPS internet you are already faster than the majority of Australian households. but until recently most of Australia will be hokked up to super fast internet (12/1, 25/5, 50/10 and 100/40MBPS) there is fibre (21/1, 25/5, 50/10 and 100/40) wireless broadband (12/1 and 25/5) and satellite (6/0.5) this is what we have to offer please understand that people saying that 10/1 is really slow i would give anything to get speeds like that for a reasonable price.

Yea 15/1 is more than fast enough to stream HD video. I'd much rather have unlimited 15/1 than my current 75/20 with a 300GB cap. I use more than a couple mbps. However, I can easily use a lot in a month.

 

[gggplaya]

I think the FCC definition of broadband is stupid. 25Mbps is fast, not bare minimum to be considdred broadband. 10Mbps is all you need to stream HD netflix, and 25Mbps still feels very fast, several gig download don't take long at all. 25Mbps is a freakin luxury, unless you're sharing that between multiple people, most people will never make full use of it.

 

[RCguitarist]

I feel sorry for those people in the areas that are going to be connected by Fairpoint. Should have hired my company. We actually provide our customers quality service because it just isn't right not to when it comes to connecting people to the rest of the world.

 

[digitaldoc]

I think the FCC definition of broadband is stupid. 25Mbps is fast, not bare minimum to be considdred broadband. 10Mbps is all you need to stream HD netflix, and 25Mbps still feels very fast, several gig download don't take long at all. 25Mbps is a freakin luxury, unless you're sharing that between multiple people, most people will never make full use of it.

Agreed. I just got upgraded last month from 15/5 to 25/5, and really don't see any difference in actual usage. 15 Mbps is more than enough for most, and should have been defined as the minimum. The previous minimum that it replaced was 3 Mbps and this was kind of slow though.

 

[ceh4702]

My sister has some sort of satelite Internet from Hughes Net. It is surprising how close someone can live to town, yet you drive a quarter of a mile and no Internet.

 

[ceh4702]

I think if you don't have high speed Internet then you should not have to pay your taxes.

Of course you are free to move someplace else. There is a price to pay if you want to live in the country.

 

[synphul]

With current technology, there's no reason people in 'rural' areas should have to pay a 'price' or penalty. Rural doesn't always mean so far out in bfe that a government satellite can't find you. My region is considered 'rural' and even most of the closest city is considered 'rural' (farms, ranches etc) and yet I'm only 6mi away but not 6mi in the 'boondocks' rather 1.5mi from a major state highway and 50-60min from a major metro area.

It's coming to a day and age where the internet is becoming less of a luxury and more of a utility. Everyone says 'want more info? visit our website', taxes are done online, bills are paid online, banking encourages people to do transactions and account management online. We can't all fit in the cities which many are already overpopulated. If google can send a car down my street with cameras on the roof to capture google maps 'streetview' images, I'm obviously not THAT remote.

This is nothing derogatory to other countries in the least but to be realistic. I have friends from parts of asia who have a more solid internet connection and much faster connection speeds connected via a laptop sitting on raised platforms that appear to be made of bamboo in the middle of the jungle with not even a power line in sight. Places you think you'd only ever see on nat geo. The running joke between us was which bamboo tree exactly are they plugged into to get their internet so I can plant one in my yard. Putting it into perspective, what's rural in other countries is far more remote than 'rural' in the u.s. so there's absolutely no excuse for the shoddy internet service/options in this country except greed and pure laziness. No one can convince me it's 'just the way it is' because obviously in other regions of the world it's already been done so it's apparent that yes in fact it is possible and there's no excuse.

 

[MarkW]

And not a single one of the 14 states its going to expand into is even mentioned.. Come on man!!

We are not mind readers here.

 

[Darkbreeze]

It's posted above.



Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington


You don't need to be a mind reader, just a reader. Heh.

 

[MarkW]

Those posts are not visible when you finish reading the article...

Guess I'm lucky. They aren't coming to Wisconsin... :lol:

 

[YancyD1]

The article title says 14 states; ok, which 14??

The article title says 14 states; ok, which 14??

 

[BrandonYoung]

Crappy or not, if they can get me unlimited data and off hughesnet I will be happy assuming the connection is stable 60% of the time.

 

[digitaldoc]

Crappy or not, if they can get me unlimited data and off hughesnet I will be happy assuming the connection is stable 60% of the time.

Satellite internet is so painful and expensive, I don't blame you for wanting to jump ship and get just about anything else.