If you're a resident in the city of Buffalo, you know that your options for television and internet are incredibly limited. While the happy folks in the suburbs enjoy fiber optics rolling out to their homes, like Verizon FIOS, city residents are restricted to Time Warner Cable or satellite providers.
Focusing on the internet service options, there are very few choices for someone to get connected in the city of Buffalo. The full list of possibilities would be:
Assuming you want broadband internet and don't want to rely on your cell phone or wi-fi hot spots, this leaves you with Cable, DSL, and satellite. Consider that having a satellite modem set up can range in cost from $600 - $2,000 on top of the very high monthly fee and you're left with Cable and DSL.
DSL, of course, requires you have a land line phone plan in order to have a DSL modem (since it uses the same phone connection). More and more people are ditching their land line phones for IP based phone services like Vonage, or are simply using their cell phones as their primary phone. Not to mention that DSL connections tend to be on the slow end.
And that brings us to Time Warner Cable. Due to the issues mentioned above, anyone wishing to have a broadband connection in this city is basically confined to TWC for better or worse. We're at the mercy of their billing plans, their service, their programming, and their connection speeds.
Time Warner's broadband speed reaches an embarrassing 10Mbps (1.0MB ps) when maxed out. Compare that to FIOS which offers 15Mbps for the same price or even 25Mbps and 50Mbps for an additional fee and we're left in the dust. But what are we supposed to do about it? It's not like we can roll out our own internet infrastructure to compete with them.
According to ArsTechnica, that is exactly what the town of Monticello, Minnesota did. Fed up with the state of their connectivity, they decided to install a municipal-owned fiber network to every home in town. The last paragraph of the article focuses on Wilson, North Carolina which now has the fastest broadband in the United States at 100Mbps.
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Focusing on the internet service options, there are very few choices for someone to get connected in the city of Buffalo. The full list of possibilities would be:
FIOS, you'll notice, isn't on the list. After speaking with a Verizon representative, they said that the possibility of FIOS coming into the city within the next 5 years is almost zero. This is due to the fact that new fiber optic cable would have to be run underground throughout the city and into homes, an economically unfeasible option.
- Cable Modem
- Dial Up
- DSL
- Satellite
- Cell Phone Broad Band
- Wi-Fi hot spots
Assuming you want broadband internet and don't want to rely on your cell phone or wi-fi hot spots, this leaves you with Cable, DSL, and satellite. Consider that having a satellite modem set up can range in cost from $600 - $2,000 on top of the very high monthly fee and you're left with Cable and DSL.
DSL, of course, requires you have a land line phone plan in order to have a DSL modem (since it uses the same phone connection). More and more people are ditching their land line phones for IP based phone services like Vonage, or are simply using their cell phones as their primary phone. Not to mention that DSL connections tend to be on the slow end.
And that brings us to Time Warner Cable. Due to the issues mentioned above, anyone wishing to have a broadband connection in this city is basically confined to TWC for better or worse. We're at the mercy of their billing plans, their service, their programming, and their connection speeds.
Time Warner's broadband speed reaches an embarrassing 10Mbps (1.0MB ps) when maxed out. Compare that to FIOS which offers 15Mbps for the same price or even 25Mbps and 50Mbps for an additional fee and we're left in the dust. But what are we supposed to do about it? It's not like we can roll out our own internet infrastructure to compete with them.
According to ArsTechnica, that is exactly what the town of Monticello, Minnesota did. Fed up with the state of their connectivity, they decided to install a municipal-owned fiber network to every home in town. The last paragraph of the article focuses on Wilson, North Carolina which now has the fastest broadband in the United States at 100Mbps.
When Time Warner Cable (which still tops out at 10Mbps and no DOCSIS 3.0) was asked why it had not stepped up to meet the city's demand for faster access, a company rep told TechJournal South that it hadn't actually heard a citizen outcry over the issue--or it would have acted.If that is the case, it's time for an outcry. Obama is pushing technology initiatives out all over the place and we're sitting here browsing the internet at a measly 10Mbps with no alternative? How does one go about organizing a citizen outcry to get better service from a company that is capable of providing it?
I spoke with a FIOS representative last Christmas at the Blvd mall. He told me that the City of Buffalo has an ordinance/policy that if new cables are to be laid, they have to go into EVERY HOME. Not just those that would probably buy the service (i.e. the more economically advantaged areas.) They would lose so much money doing this that it would never be made up in fees.
I suspect the City of Buffalo would encounter the same problem if it tried to install its own system. If the city would allow FIOS to install in certain neighborhoods or districts, they would be here (and by here I mean Elmwood Village, Downtown, etc.) in a heartbeat. They know the demand is here-they would love the business. It's the policies of the City that are keeping them out.
But this is just what I was told-I can't vouch for its veracity.