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The Internet

Where Can You Find Information On Places w/ Broadband? 19

Posted by Cliff from the we-dun-need-no-steeking-modems dept.
PhipleTroenix asks: "My job may be eliminated soon, and I am considering downsizing my lifestyle. I'm looking for a small town (often less expensive) with good bandwith (either Cable modem or DSL). Boardwatch.com asks you to enter just an area code and it will provide you with a list of ISPs (useless). @home asks you to enter your name/address/e-mail/phone, and they will tell you if cable modem is available. Does anyone know of a way to browse a map for broadband, or any other way to find out if my dream home in BFE will have broadband available?" Ask Slashdot gets a lot of submissions asking about this in some form or another. Is there a site or a database somewhere that lists areas that have broadband services available?
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Where Can I Find Information On Places w/ Broadband? More

Where Can I Find Information On Places w/ Broadband?

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  • If you don't mind moving to Canada, there is a company [futureway.com](uses flash), which offers direct fibre connections to homes in some new developments near Toronto, with plans to expand into other parts of Canada later this year. These connections allow digital phone service ($19.95/month), 1Mbps internet($38.95/month, with future bandwidth upgrades possible), and digital television through another company [look.ca]. Anyway the deal is that that is the only com-link you need, and you only get one bill for phone, internet, and tv.

    Oh, and note that prices are in $Canadian. (to convert to USD multiply by ~.65)


    >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  • With cable internet access, if the town is small enough and your house or apt is *in* town, cable should be available everywhere and not just portions. One thing to watch out for is apt complexes that provide NO cable at all. And the cable co likely will not run a line in just for your one apt.

    With DSL, it's so critical and sensitive, you actually won't know for sure until your line is physically tested by the telco and you can't do this 'til you move in and order a phone.

    My wife and I just bought our first house last summer. Everytime we went "house-hunting", I'd write down or remember a street address of a house that looked interesting. You can usually guess the important parts of the phone number. What matters is the area code and the first (3) digits (exchange number, I believe). Then, simply go to either the local telco's webpage and enter this info or go to a DSL provider such as Covad and enter the same info. Covad though, is not in "small" towns. Even better, the DSL Reports [dslreports.com] site mentioned above... it queries most DSL and telco companies for availability at the address you specify.

  • Re:DSLReports (Score:3)

    by nion ( 19898 ) <nion@NosPAM.geekfest.net> on Wednesday January 24, 2001 @03:50AM (#485370) Homepage
    Perhaps you're thinking of this site [dslreports.com]?
  • I think he is asking for a large map where a high speed connection is available, not a site to enter address and phone number to see if it is available to a single address.
  • Beware that it isn't always available where you'd expect it! I live less than 20 miles outside Washington, DC...and no cable, no DSL. I assumed (two years ago) that a town with this proximity to DC would be wired. Nope.

    RJ

  • telco (Score:1)

    by maX_ ( 46318 )
    If it was me, I'd start by checking your local telco for xDSL/IDSN/PVC offerings.
  • Echostar's Starband system [starband.com] is complete two-way. No landline required. They claim 500kbps down, 150kbps up. Like DirecPC it's shared so it could swamp.
  • The only way I know of to assure that you can get broadband anything in BFE is to get a dish. I am not sure if DirectPC is 2 way yet (still had to use a modem for the uplink portion), but it seems to me that's the only way to avoid a dial up.
  • This site allows you to check distance to your CO, which will determine your DSL connection. Who cares if you can get Cable? :>

  • (would say something about DSLreports but somebody beat me to the punch)

    Anyway, in my part of the world (Texas, USA), cable modems are becoming suprisingly common. My mother has a cable modem in Nacogdoches, which is ~30,000 people deep in East Texas, a few hours drive from anything. It's roughly performance equal to a dual ISDN line, probably becuase the cable company doesn't have a really fat pipe (being as I said pretty much 150 miles from anything like a big city and thus a comm hub). I've heard from friends in other parts of the country that cable companies in their area are reasonably far along in their rollout as well.

    So basically give the cable company/companies in the target town(s) a call to see if they offer service. True, cable modems might not be the absolute best solution technically and they might have crummy EULA/TOS consrtaints, but it beats dialup by a long shot... (Also there are typically fewer cable companies than ISPs for a given town, cutting down on the number of people to call.)

    Good luck!


    --
    Fuck Censorship.
  • I can't believe no one mentioned this already. I use it so often that I assumed everyone on Slashdot used it to.
    2wire.com has a Free DSL Lookup Service [2wire.com]. It takes your address and phone number, then tells you:
    1. Your distance from the DSLAM (e.g. 1000 feet).
    2. The Bandwidth available (e.g. 1100kbps down / 1100kbps up)
    3. The Price, DSL Provider (e.g. Covad), and ISP
    Secondly, I wanted to encourage you to opt for DSL instead of Cable if you can. Cable is definately the price winner, but using DSL allows you to (most of the time) chose between a large variety of competing ISP's. Whereas with Cable you have one big monopoly giving the lowest common denominator of service level (which means downtime and slow upgrade processes resulting in some months being 100kbps and other months being 900kbps).

    However, if you take your time to find a good DSL ISP, you'll get one that has good server uptime, never cheats on the bandwidth, and yeilds great latencies (e.g. 20ms to yahoo.com). You should also evaluate what DSL Provider you can use. Some areas only have one avaiable (such as Covad). But where I am there are 4 choices (New Edge, Covad, NorthPoint, and Easystreet). Of those 4, when I toured New Edge's NOC, I was very impressed! They have top of the line Alcatel (#1 brand in DSL) switches and can send a packet from west coast to east coast and back in under 4 milliseconds. (THAT is good latency). I hope that helps in your search. -Dan Browning
  • Sask Tel (government-owned telephone company) offers DSL in most cities and some towns in Saskatchewan. We just got it here where I live about two months ago.

    http://www.sasktel.com/highspeed/index.html
  • The author did mention looking for someplace with a low cost of living. He didn't say where he is living now, but the Toronto area isn't particularly cheap.
    According to Homefair's Salary Calculator [homefair.com], Toronto is a smidgen cheaper than Philadelphia, and a good deal more expensive than Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Sacramento, for instance.
    Toronto is, however, quite a bit cheaper than San Jose or San Diego.
  • There's just one problem : Look TV is practically dead. It never caught on and the business is "restructuring". Expect it to pop within a year or two.
  • What town, Skater? Fixed wireless may be an option for you if there's a provider in your area that offers it. You're in the ideal town for this type of access.
  • In addition to cable modem and DSL broadband access, you might not want to rule out fixed wireless access. There are providers offering service in rural and urban areas at speeds up to 11Mbps via DSSS and 3Mbps via FHSS. Check out http://www.isp-planet.com/fixed_wireless/index.htm l for more information regarding the fixed wireless industry.

  • They have top of the line Alcatel (#1 brand in DSL) switches and can send a packet from west coast to east coast and back in under 4 milliseconds. (THAT is good latency).

    WOW! Transmitting signals at more than 5X the speed of light is truly impressive! I was not aware that subspace communications had been implemented ;-)

  • I am not sure what you are personally looking for in a location, but perhaps you should consider the TYPE of connection you want.

    For example, Ashland Oregon (14 miles north of California) has layed fiber across the entire town -- the phone, cable, isps, etc all share it.... From what I understand, they can get T1 speeds over Fiber for about $35/month.
  • Akron, OH, was one of the first places in the country to get cable modem, courtesy Time Warner. It also has one of the lowest cost-of-living rates in the country, thanks to all the rubber companies leaving. You must embrace cold, snowy, overcast winters, however, and lots of rain the rest of the year (in that Northeast Ohio is second only to Seattle). It's also Indians and Browns country, so be prepared.

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