I tried to find more internet service provider solutions for Texomans in this update. The following article includes a few new leads and review-type information about services that Graham Jones, RF systems engineer, and I previously covered. Please add your ISP reviews in the comment section, or if you know of others not listed here, please provide their information in the comment section. Your reviews will help your fellow Texomans.

Graham’s Reviews

Cable One:

I inquired at Cable One a couple of weeks back and actually was able to talk with a manager. He looked at my location and conferred with their construction people and came back saying it would cost $75,000 to run fiber 1500 feet into my neighborhood. So that is not a good business prospect for them (or especially me!). My daughter has a place on Hillcrest a good distance off the road. Cable One told her it would cost $90/foot for fiber installation to her house -- that was not a good deal either.

Arbuckle Communications:

I tried Arbuckle Communications (http://arbucklecomm.com/residential-internet). Their coverage map shows coverage down here, but with the trees around us, I am sure it would take a tower as well. The representative said that they do not provide service in Texas -- only Oklahoma. Some sort of gentleman’s agreement with a Texas carrier -- I guess.

Frontier DSL:

Frontier DSL service is slow and prone to congestion since they simply carried on with Verizon’s system. Their customer service is indeed lacking. The Richardson and all of the northern Dallas suburb FIOS problems were due to their lack of expertise in switching over the FIOS Internet/TV system.

I read that they are close to bankruptcy (lost $2-billion so far this year). The comment I liked was that Verizon’s plan will buy back their systems for pennies on the dollar. They have provided reliable service at a slow, but consistent, 3 mbps for me. Since a neighbor who also was a Frontier subscriber moved out, it looked like he was hogging the bandwidth using Frontier ISP service for TV. I had a lightning strike take out the ethernet part of their modem and they replaced it very promptly. Their customer service was helpful in getting it running except for one character. But, I have it running fine now.

Rise Broadband:

From talking with the Rise people a while back, I found out their Gordonville tower is just the short tower near the post office. They had an offer of signing up for service with a $250 installation charge. If the installer is unable to make a path to provide service, they take the equipment back and give you a refund. I'm pretty sure they cannot make a path to the little tower in Gordonville due to my close-in trees.

Nortex Communications:

Nortex Communications (https://join.nortex.com/#Zones) had an ad in the Whitesboro paper. I signed up for service but their build-out is only as far north as Collinsville. I very highly doubt they will get enough response from up here to justify an investment.

Kendall’s Reviews

AT&T Nighthawk LTE:

I heard that this AT&T wifi hotspot worked well for only one person. The reviews on the link below can help you make up your mind on this service. AT&T requires a two-year contract. Based on the reviews, I would not use this service. But, these reviews are found on the AT&T website, so they do not mind negative reviews. The person I talked to lives just outside of Sherman and loves it. Scroll down the page to find the reviews.

16 out of 31 (52%) reviewers recommend this product: (The other 48% hated it)

https://www.att.com/devices/netgear/nighthawk-lte-mobile-hotspot-router.html#reviews

Cable One

You pay up front for the first month with no contract. I received a circular in my mailbox offering free installation every month once they moved into my neighborhood. I think they waive the installation fee for new customers, but that is my perception. I do not know how they work their sales campaigns.

Graham lives about 1 ½ miles as the crow flies from me but in a separate enclave outside of my neighborhood. His daughter lives in a low-lying area in my neighborhood with mature trees. It is my understanding that if a customer subscribed to Grayson TV Cable before Cable One bought that company, they can subscribe to Cable One with no extra charges for laying fiber. I did try Grayson TV Cable and it was horrible, but their cable was still connected to my house.

I just installed Cable One. I finally have high-speed cable internet. They advertise 100 mbps. It depends on the time of day for me what speed I achieve. At 3:33 p.m. this week on Wednesday, my mbps download speed was 88.5 and my upload speed was 3.1. That is the highest speed that I have recorded in two weeks. At 11:12 p.m. on Thursday, my speed was 76.5 download and 3.1 upload

Those mbps speeds work great for me, but please realize that they cannot deliver 100 mbps everywhere. Their installation technician was great! So far, their customer service has been top notch compared to when I tried to get information from them concerning their coverage areas last January. The communication with Cable One at that time was terrible.

Frontier Communications

I know that Frontier’s service is awful in the Gordonville, Texas, area. These nightmarish reviews on Yelp about their Richardson, Texas, office right off of U.S. Route 75 agree with what we have observed in my neighborhood:

https://www.yelp.com/biz/frontier-communications-richardson?osq=Frontier+Communications

Viasat Satellite

I used Viasat, formerly Exede, for the past 22 months. It is by far the best satellite service I have experienced. Their technicians are absolutely the very best that I have worked with. But, their 888.746.8960 customer service falls in the category of extremely low quality. It is best to keep your installation technician’s business phone number and call him before you call the 888 number if you have a problem with your service. They require a two-year contract.

I experienced outages during heavy rains and ice but not during all rain and cloud cover. Viasat’s contract worked against me because I could not sign up for Cable One’s service when they arrived in my neighborhood for six months. If Viasat can serve you, and that is your only satellite option versus slow or no internet, go for it. I had the basic plan, and I was extremely satisfied with the quality of delivery of their internet service outside of having to call their 888 number. Considering that it is satellite service, my satisfaction level belongs to their expert field technicians who are independent contractors.

If they have an outage in your area, they will not make live customer service reps available to speak with you on the 888 number. When you need to call the 888 number, you have to go through a number of automated choices to reach a live person. They obviously prefer that you conduct automated or online communication. 

Hughesnet Satellite and Dish TV

Please do not consider Hughesnet Satellite. They give awful service, offer horrible and expensive plans, employ unqualified technicians, and you will experience many outages. Dish TV uses Hughesnet as their ISP. Hughesnet survives on being the only choice their customers have. Thank goodness, in Texomaland, that practice has changed.

Please Refer to Past Internet Update Articles for ISP Reviews Not Covered Here-Links Posted Below

The ISPs in green font are covered in this or past update articles. If I have not included their website addresses in this update, their links are included in past update articles.

List of Known ISPs in the Texoma Area

360 COMMUNICATIONS: Durant-Good prices for different speeds

http://www.threesixtycomm.net/residential-internet/

ARBUCKLE COMMUNICATIONS: Ardmore

AT&T Nighthawk:

https://www.att.com/devices/netgear/nighthawk-lte-mobile-hotspot-router.html#reviews

BROKEN O BROADBAND: Near Pottsboro area, limited coverage

CABLE ONE: Ardmore, Sherman-large coverage areas

CHEROKEE COMMUNICATIONS: Durant

https://www.cherokeecomm.com/services/internet

FRONTIER DSL: Super slow in Frontier coverage areas

GRAYSON COLLIN COMMUNICATIONS: Is GCEC Telcom-Grayson and Collin Counties

http://graysoncollin.com/fiber-internet/

LOCALNET: Durant-DSL

https://www.localnet.com/

NORTEX COMMUNICATIONS: Gainesville, Collinsville? Not sure about their total coverage area.

https://www.nortex.com/internet/

RISE BROADBAND: One tower south of Madill and one short one near the Gordonville post office; do not know where they are advertising in other areas of Texoma.

SPRINT WIRELESS

SUDDENLINK: Gainesville

https://order.suddenlink.com/Buyflow/Products

TECHWAVE: Sherman-Limited coverage areas

TEXOMA BROADBAND: Formally Internet Texoma: Sherman

PREFERRED TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS-Myra, I am not sure about this one, maybe the tower is in Myra.

https://www.preferredtechnology.com/

VIASAT SATELLITE: Call for coverage areas

VYVE BROADBAND: Durant

https://www.vyvebroadband.com/home/internet-services/

Links to Past Relevant Texoma Internet Update Articles

https://www.laketexoma.com/blog_article.php?baid=4965&src=myacc

https://www.laketexoma.com/blog_article.php?baid=4110&src=myacc