Broadband in the redwoods
January 13, 2008 – 9:48 pmI had an opportunity to visit a customer’s home this last Saturday while our installers were putting in their new satellite broadband service.
Here are a few photos I took during the installation. Click here for larger images.
It’s very exciting to deliver a broadband access product that reaches into the rural areas of California. If you live in an area that DSL doesn’t reach, we’ve finally got broadband for you.
8 Responses to “Broadband in the redwoods”
This is very nice, but for those of us on fixed senior incomes, it is still beyond our monthly budget. Too bad, we just have to still be patient with our slow dial up service.
Thanks anyway.
By Mildred L. Hodges on Mar 13, 2008
Yes, satellite is a bit more expensive than dialup. The equipment is pricey (we spend $400 on it), and the installation typically takes half of an entire day, and uses $50 in parts. Then, satellite capacity has some significant costs. The two satellites we lease capacity on are each over four tons of electronics in orbit, launched on Ariane 5 rockets – not a cheap project. It’s rocket science, literally!
For those on a budget, dialup access will always be the most cost effective way to access the Internet in many areas. One thing I encourage folks to look into is Universal Lifeline telephone service. There are some significant savings available if you can declare income within the limits of the program. Details can be found at http://tinyurl.com/38gbop
For example, a household of one or two individuals with income below $22,000/yr qualifies for phone service from AT&T at 1/2 price – or $5.34/mo, whichever is lower. To this, some taxes are added, so that’s not the whole story, but it’s better than the nearly $11 plus taxes that is the standard rate.
Universal Lifeline is funded by all other telephone users, under a fee mandated by the FCC. It’s not the phone company being charitable – they get reimbursed from the fund for the difference.
With Universal Lifeline, you’ll need to sign a postcard each year stating that your income is below the qualification level.
Lots more good information is available about Lifeline http://tinyurl.com/3957uy
By Dane Jasper on Mar 13, 2008
Good info. Dane, thank you. We still don’t qualify, but this is good to have for “whenever”.
Mildred
By Mildred L. Hodges on Mar 14, 2008
I do wish I could have this set up oh yeah because I love sonic but I can’t afford it as well because of my income , I’m on life line with verizon !
Judy
Sonic dial up has never givin me a problem I will be recomending it to my friend soon but it will be dial up as well sorry keep up the great work sonic.net maby someday I’ll get to have your new service hope so well thank you so much for the imfo. take care
By Judy on Mar 14, 2008
Thanks for the info, Dane. I’ve been struggling with ways to get broadband connection without leaving Sonic, with which (and whom) I’ve had consistently excellent experiences. I’ve been talking with a high speed wireless provider and realize that, closer to affordability though they may be, I’d probably be buying into marginal communication and internal relationships. A quandary, not well solved by spending more than I’ve got, particularly as the economy melts down for just that reason. Please keep looking at ways of including us backwoodspeople in ways that will allow us to eat and get to town occasionally.
Brad
By Brad Lundborg on Mar 14, 2008
We used to have one-way (downstream only) broadband via satellite from DirectTV, which worked pretty well. We kept our Sonic account for e-mail because of your great support and because the “biggies” kept being purchased and changing our e-mail address. We switched to cable-broadband from Comcast when it became available in our neighborhood a few years ago. Now Comcast keep trying to leverage our internet connection to get us to switch from satellite to cable for TV by jacking up the price if we don’t subscribe to the entire bundle. I’m going to check Comcast prices to see if it makes sense to take advantage of your offer. Sonic has always provided great service.
By Wayne on Mar 15, 2008
Hi Dane,
I live in the boondocks and have a Wild Blue Satellite connectiion. I just switched from HughesNet. Seems like the allocated bandwidth coming from Hughes gets divided up by the amount of customers. This makes for a very slow connection [down 300+/_ up 30+/-] Wild Blue keeps putting new Sats up when they get full. I am now receiving speed of 1.4 down and 140up. Makes life easier out here. I recommend satellite service to anyone that does not have other options. It is fast and fairly reliable [rains or heavy clouds can slow transmission speed, even bring it to a halt - but this happens rarely]. I use Sonic for my email and web hosting. You guys are the best.
By Ken Bowerman on Mar 18, 2008
I was a previous Hughes.net subscriber and ended up having to bail due to speed limitations over VPN (80% speed reduction while connected to the work network.) Comcast quoted me a cool $84,365 (with a straight face) installation cost… so no option there. I ended up with a rockin’ fast (but expensive) Sonic T1 line to the house. No VPN problems now! So the main question for me… How are the VPN speeds over the Sonic satellite service? Hughes definitely didn’t have the problem solved and I’m curious to know if other satellite have figured out way to overcome it.
By Josh Leone on Mar 26, 2008