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Post by Gray Cope on Jun 15, 2012 16:47:40 GMT -8
How will OPALCO's wireless broadband compare to other choices currently available?
At the May 16th OPALCO community forum in Friday Harbor a DISH satellite broadband provider (I think his name is Ray Jackson) said he could provide up to 12Mb/s download and 3Mb/s upload speeds. These may be slightly better speeds than what OPALCO proposes. The costs are probably about $60 / month if you include the equipment fee. I think that price has a 7GB monthly limit.
Friends I know who have used Satellite Internet service about 8+ years ago had problems with latency. Maybe things have improved. Does DISH High-Speed Internet have latency issues?
How does DISH satellite Internet compare to OPALCO's proposed wireless broadband pricing? Has OPALCO even provided an estimate of what the costs would be other than "comparable"?
What are the costs of other broadband options in the county?
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Post by Gray Cope on Jun 15, 2012 19:22:26 GMT -8
A friend in town has CenturyLink DSL which costs him $50 (unbundled) per month for 10Mb/s download speed. He has not speed tested it, but has no complaints. I don't think there are any limits to how much data you can move per month like there is with satellite.
I suspect they have cheaper plans if you are willing to live with lower download speeds or bundle.
Anybody have broadband Internet pricing and performance they want to share?
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Post by Gray Cope on Jun 18, 2012 13:40:50 GMT -8
I just heard from another friend who has Rock Island's canopy service. He has used it in two different places (one in Friday Harbor the other just out of Town) and currently gets 2Mb/s (down) and 256Kb/s (up) for about $53 per month.
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Post by Rick on Jun 27, 2012 15:54:59 GMT -8
I currently have Century Link 256 up/ 1MB down. I bundle this with a phone line that has minimal features. This bundle is $42.09 monthly. I am located about 3 miles from Friday Harbor. Service has been reliable and I have been using it for about 4 years
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Post by Gray Cope on Jul 18, 2012 14:27:01 GMT -8
Today Rock Island Technology announced a revised pricing plan. It appears to be a price drop and provides a better bracketing toward actually getting what you are paying for in terms of ADSL performance at the higher speeds. Plus, if you are upgrading they will "pre-qualify your line for speed availability prior to placing any upgrade order with CenturyLink. That way you can actually know what you'll be getting before you actually pay for the upgrade.
I think this points out what I've written elsewhere. OPALCO is entering into a competitive marketplace. If our Co-op does the $18 million wireless expansion it needs to be prepared for CenturyLink with its 1.5 Billion in cash and 1/2 billion in annual net income to mount a competitive response. Maybe price first followed by technological improvements.
These things are something our Co-op needs to have a prepared response to in its business plan.
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Post by JOHN on Jul 25, 2012 19:06:13 GMT -8
Gary Cope's message is a valid one. Outside of all the other concerns about if OPALCO should even be competing head to head with Centurylink or Rockisland is one thing, but to penalize the power costumer to subsidize it's broadband work is wrong.
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Post by Mike L on Jan 16, 2013 17:18:57 GMT -8
I pay 50/month to Centurylink, for 10Mbps speed over DSL. I get pretty close to 10 Mbps down, and about 0.7 Mbps up.
I am in town.
My connection is reliable, and I've had it for several years. I fully expect this speed to increase over the next few years.
10 Mbps is a below the average in Japan and North Korea right now. It's certainly not state of the art.
I don't understand why I'd want to pay for Opalco to invest in a technology that not even state of the art now. It's going to be obsolete before they ever get it done.
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Post by Chris Sutton on Feb 7, 2013 20:24:24 GMT -8
I pay Century Link $89/month for phone and internet bundle. I get 1mb down, and 256k up. I live on Orcas in Olga. I know of others near me who can get less than 756k down, and probably 128k up. This is not adequate.
To me it seems obvious. Instead of paying Century Link who will never invest in anything for a measly 10k customers over on some remote islands, I would much rather give me $90/month to my local coop and get a way better connection.
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