Bribing Comcast?

[Joe Bennett]

Okay, so I currently have Hughesnet, which is the only ISP available in my area. The trouble is, the max plan they offer is 25 mbps at 50GB a month for $129 a month. Combined with 700 ping, that makes this internet insanely overpriced. What I'd like to get, is Xfinity. They have very little coverage in my town, and since I live outside town, there's no real options available (Hughesnet, or some other sketchy isp with just as bad of rates...), so I'm curious if anyone has been able to convince them to run a cable to their house, and how much it costs... I've heard of people doing it, and it only costing like a grand or so, but not sure if it's true. Xfinity offers 150Mbps down with 1TB data for $59 a month, so it's a huge upgrade to what we have now, in ever respect. Any help is much appreciated.

[Crunchy Dragon]

If internet speed is really a problem for you, I would shell out for Xfinity.

 

Bribing is definitely out of the question, though. Don't do that.

 

-Moved to Networking-

[Joe Bennett]

3 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

If internet speed is really a problem for you, I would shell out for Xfinity.

 

Bribing is definitely out of the question, though. Don't do that.

 

-Moved to Networking-

Haha, I don't mean actually bribing, and I would totally shell out for xfinity... In a heartbeat, but they dont offer it on my road... And there's not many houses on my road. So is it possible to pay a bucket-load upfront and have a cable ran to your house specifically? 

[H3llscr3am]

what kind of 3/4G speeds do you get? maybe that's the next best thing for you.

[aries757]

7 minutes ago, TowerCG said:

Haha, I don't mean actually bribing, and I would totally shell out for xfinity... In a heartbeat, but they dont offer it on my road... And there's not many houses on my road. So is it possible to pay a bucket-load upfront and have a cable ran to your house specifically? 

call them up and see.

 

[Donut417]

13 minutes ago, TowerCG said:

Okay, so I currently have Hughesnet, which is the only ISP available in my area. The trouble is, the max plan they offer is 25 mbps at 50GB a month for $129 a month. Combined with 700 ping, that makes this internet insanely overpriced. What I'd like to get, is Xfinity. They have very little coverage in my town, and since I live outside town, there's no real options available (Hughesnet, or some other sketchy isp with just as bad of rates...), so I'm curious if anyone has been able to convince them to run a cable to their house, and how much it costs... I've heard of people doing it, and it only costing like a grand or so, but not sure if it's true. Xfinity offers 150Mbps down with 1TB data for $59 a month, so it's a huge upgrade to what we have now, in ever respect. Any help is much appreciated.

People have been quoted up to $50k to get cable companies to run lines. The fact is you need to understand how a cable network is set up. Firstly cable provides use Fiber to the node. The node generally will connect to 100-300 people. The cable company will use AMPs to get the signal to go further on the coax when needed, but they can only take it so far. The fact is, if your not in range of what the coax can do, then they have to run a fiber cable close to you and thus have a node. Nodes costs like $25k-50K from what I have read, plus AMPs also cost money, then there is the money for the cable. Honestly the costs might be too great for them to even consider, even if you would pay it. 

[AresKrieger]

5 minutes ago, TowerCG said:

So is it possible to pay a bucket-load upfront and have a cable ran to your house specifically? 

Possible, yes but difficult to setup and ultimately an insane amount of hassle and costs. Realistically comcast is already paid to do this by the government but as you may of heard they are scum, so they might be willing to (at a really really high cost 10k min I'd say) but they might ignore you.

[Zodiark1593]

1 minute ago, Donut417 said:

People have been quoted up to $50k to get cable companies to run lines. The fact is you need to understand how a cable network is set up. Firstly cable provides use Fiber to the node. The node generally will connect to 100-300 people. The cable company will use AMPs to get the signal to go further on the coax when needed, but they can only take it so far. The fact is, if your not in range of what the coax can do, then they have to run a fiber cable close to you and thus have a node. Nodes costs like $25k-50K from what I have read, plus AMPs also cost money, then there is the money for the cable. Honestly the costs might be too great for them to even consider, even if you would pay it. 

Wonder what options are left if Comcast refuses?

[Joe Bennett]

Wow, this is all kinda crappy news. Uverse is also in the area I believe... And a little company called mediacom, but neither of them have as good of claimed rates as Comcast. I'd be willing to pay up to around $2,000, but beyond that, it just doesn't make sense, since the community is growing, and we'll likely have more internet options within the next 3-5 years. I definitely didn't expect to hear that the costs would be $10k-$50k as I expected they'd only have to run a cable. 

[Donut417]

2 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Wonder what options are left if Comcast refuses?

Ummm Satellite and 4G LTE.  The only way to force cable co's to wire you up for free is if its in the franchise agreement. The fact is, Comcast is smart, so they would have figured out how to make sure they dont have to serve rural customers. Rural customers are not profitable so they will always be left with shit options. This is why you live in the city rather than in BFE. 

[AresKrieger]

Just now, Zodiark1593 said:

Wonder what options are left if Comcast refuses?

Besides bringing up their failure to utilize federally granted money to properly expand the internet infrastructure in america as they were contracted to when given said money, not much, and given that they paid off most state legislatures to some extent its not as even something as extensive as that would do anything, in fact it would likely lessen the odds

 

1 minute ago, Donut417 said:

he fact is, Comcast is smart, so they would have figured out how to make sure they dont have to serve rural customers.

Well they were given large sums of money to serve said customers, but they simply used a small portion of that money to bribe lobby the feds instead

[Joe Bennett]

Hate the city... But hate the rural internet. So yeah, 

[Joe Bennett]

I assume Uverse and other ISP's all did the same? 

[AresKrieger]

3 minutes ago, TowerCG said:

I assume Uverse and other ISP's all did the same? 

Depends, if there is money to be made then a smaller isp could consider it, however the costs would still be high and depending on the distance and networking required it could in fact be higher cost to them then someone like comcast that has most areas somewhat covered, at least in the nearest suburb or city that is.

 

If you are talking about the federal grants, I think that was just the big ones like AT&T Comcast Time Warner etc

[Donut417]

Just now, TowerCG said:

Wow, this is all kinda crappy news. Uverse is also in the area I believe... And a little company called mediacom, but neither of them have as good of claimed rates as Comcast. I'd be willing to pay up to around $2,000, but beyond that, it just doesn't make sense, since the community is growing, and we'll likely have more internet options within the next 3-5 years. I definitely didn't expect to hear that the costs would be $10k-$50k as I expected they'd only have to run a cable. 

Uverse is Fiber to the node, but Phone lines have very short distances they can provide internet. So it would be almost as shitty as what your currently have. Mediacom seems to be a cable provider, so there service would be similar to all other cable providers. The issue is, do you even have Coax ran on the poles near your house? If not, your fucked. Also, your town has more options then mine. We have Comcast and AT&T, but AT&T doesn't serve most of our city and only has Uverse in select area's. We were also told by WOW whos in the neighboring community that the 24K potential customers that on in Romulus were not worth them to build out a network here. Sorry to burst your bubble, but there are not going to be more options in the future. Not at the rate these companies are working. With all the mergers and such. Also any new service are bound to be 4G LTE or 5G services with Caps and overages or throttling. 

 

1 minute ago, AresKrieger said:

Well they were given large sums of money to serve said customers, but they simply used a small portion of that money to bribe lobby the feds instead

All telecommunication companies were given money. The fact is, unless the population density  is high enough, they aint going to serve those people. If they cant reasonable put 100-300 customers on a node, then its not profitable for them to serve these customers. While Comcast didnt use it to expand is network, its defiantly using it to upgrade its network. 

[Joe Bennett]

Holy hell, I'm not hearing any good news at all. And I have no idea if we have coax cables or not. How can I find out?

Also, if it helps, I live about a mile outside of Fountain, Florida (not going to give the address out online for obvious reasons). 

[Canada EH]

 

[Joe Bennett]

How is that related?

[Donut417]

Just now, TowerCG said:

Holy hell, I'm not hearing any good news at all. And I have no idea if we have coax cables or not. How can I find out?

Also, if it helps, I live about a mile outside of Fountain, Florida (not going to give the address out online for obvious reasons). 

Depends, if your lines are line mine, they are up on utility poles. A cable TAP where cable companies tap in to the line to give you service, should look like a splitter. 

 

This is what a tap should look like. The one that my house hooks in to only has 4 outlets. If its not up lin the air then its under ground. Generally you will see small boxes sticking out of the ground, thats where all the connections should be. 

 

These are simlar to the types of boxes you will see in an underground setup. 

 

 

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, Canada EH said:

 

He still needs a valid address to get service. Also, its against Comcast TOS to share internet outside of the address that is served too. 

[Joe Bennett]

1 minute ago, Donut417 said:

Depends, if your lines are line mine, they are up on utility poles. A cable TAP where cable companies tap in to the line to give you service, should look like a splitter. 

 

This is what a tap should look like. The one that my house hooks in to only has 4 outlets. If its not up lin the air then its under ground. Generally you will see small boxes sticking out of the ground, thats where all the connections should be. 

 

These are simlar to the types of boxes you will see in an underground setup. 

 

 

Yeah, I'm probably screwed.

[Canada EH]

5 minutes ago, TowerCG said:

How is that related?

Do you got family or friends nearby with good internet?

[Joe Bennett]

2 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

Do you got family or friends nearby with good internet?

Nope, just moved from Ohio... 

[Canada EH]

2 minutes ago, TowerCG said:

Nope, just moved from Ohio... 

You are then stuck with whatevers available to you at your home.

 

or

Thio's your man!

[Joe Bennett]

Can't watch the video. Buffers to much