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vacationing in upstate NY town that has no service from *any* cell phone company

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vacationing in upstate NY town that has no service from *any* cell phone company

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Old Jul 28, 2016, 1:00 pm
  #31  
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Originally Posted by WIRunner
Last bit, in Maine, fibre is surprisingly available in rural areas. There was an initiative a few years ago called 3 ring binder, which brought three rings of fibre optic to the various communities. Local ISPs have access to this, and are able to deploy it to their customers at fairly inexpensive prices.
Actually, I believe several states got NTIA grants for broadband infrastructure. 3 Ring Binder was one such project. Another is the MassBroadband 123 network. Kentucky is currently building one, KentuckyWired, that is financed and owned by Macquarie, a large Australian bank that has a private equity arm with an appetite for infrastructure investments.

3 Ring Binder is run/managed by Maine Fiber Co. Most towns of appreciable size in Maine are either on its path or nearish. I believe a significant chunk of the Maine School & Library Network uses 3RB for transport. MFC publishes its dark fiber lease rates on its website.

But 3RB is a middle mile network. In general it's not possible to connect it to your house directly and get service. As mentioned above, you need an ISP.
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Old Jul 28, 2016, 2:19 pm
  #32  
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Originally Posted by WIRunner
I wouldn't include WI in that. The southern half of the state has very strong US Cellular LTE coverage (places where there are no service are the exception, not the rule.) AT&T and Verizon have the northern half fairly well covered. If you're finding areas in WI where coverage is lacking, it is 95% of the time due to local restrictions on building out a cell site. If USCC and Verizon are the primary carriers, coverage is generally not an issue. If it is AT&T and Verizon, you'll run into more dead spots. If you're in Maine (which would be NNE), and have no Verizon and no US Cellular, you're either in a forestry area, or a potato field.

Last bit, in Maine, fibre is surprisingly available in rural areas. There was an initiative a few years ago called 3 ring binder, which brought three rings of fibre optic to the various communities. Local ISPs have access to this, and are able to deploy it to their customers at fairly inexpensive prices.
At my last house about 10 years ago, there was no broadband within miles. My only options were dial-up and satellite internet. I ended up installing a DirecPC dish on my roof top. I did it myself and it was pretty simple. The only hard part was running the coax down to my study. Didn't realize my attic was in such poor shape...

Anyway, DirecPC(now HughesNet) did provide pretty fast broadband for downloads, but the upload link was still vial dial-up. (yes, I know how ridiculous that sounded) On top of that, they had a fair-usage policy. Exceed a certain amount of usage and the connection is kicked off. It gets reset every billing period.

I'm so glad that I now have 300mbps cable internet at my home. (unfortunately, the upload is still an unacceptable 5mbps)
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Old Jul 28, 2016, 3:43 pm
  #33  
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Originally Posted by gfunkdave
Actually, I believe several states got NTIA grants for broadband infrastructure. 3 Ring Binder was one such project. Another is the MassBroadband 123 network. Kentucky is currently building one, KentuckyWired, that is financed and owned by Macquarie, a large Australian bank that has a private equity arm with an appetite for infrastructure investments.

3 Ring Binder is run/managed by Maine Fiber Co. Most towns of appreciable size in Maine are either on its path or nearish. I believe a significant chunk of the Maine School & Library Network uses 3RB for transport. MFC publishes its dark fiber lease rates on its website.

But 3RB is a middle mile network. In general it's not possible to connect it to your house directly and get service. As mentioned above, you need an ISP.
Right, our ISP is in Charleston, the University of Maine is looking at establishing a fibre network in Old Town and Orono. It was interesting that shortly after the fibre was run, suddenly TWC became interested in servicing some of the outlying areas that they for years had zero interest in. We've been pretty happy with it. The downside is when you need service work done, Maine Fiber is not particularly speedy with their service calls.
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Old Jul 28, 2016, 6:26 pm
  #34  
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Originally Posted by WIRunner
I wouldn't include WI in that....
And I bet that the OP's reference to "Upstate NY" might really be "Northern NY"...perhaps somewhere in the Adirondacks. Most of upstate NY is pretty civilized.

Oh, and don't forget that if you live in Manhattan, upstate NY starts at Yonkers.
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Old Jul 28, 2016, 7:44 pm
  #35  
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Originally Posted by Bonehead
And I bet that the OP's reference to "Upstate NY" might really be "Northern NY"...perhaps somewhere in the Adirondacks. Most of upstate NY is pretty civilized.

Oh, and don't forget that if you live in Manhattan, upstate NY starts at Yonkers.
Correct!

Undisclosed location several miles north of I-90, to be precise.
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