I have some good news going on for Texomans without decent internet connection options. I apologize for posting this update so late. The holidays got in my way.

CRICKET WITH AN AT&T MOBILE HOTSPOT FROM WALMART

A friend of mine called me about this option. A neighbor of hers recommended that she buy a mobile AT&T hotspot at Walmart, then purchase Cricket's unlimited internet and replace the SIM card in the At&T Hotspot. She says she is getting high speeds. Her neighbor that hooked up this connection has 5 devices connected to his hotspot. This costs my friend and her neighbor about $70.00 a month, plus the purchase of the hotspot device.

Graham Jones informed me that the Walmart hotspot is fine for low data usage folks. This connection appears limited to 3G speeds, and that speed reduces if one exceeds a certain data usage. Someone conversant with service details needs to explain the limits. Good luck with finding someone like that at Walmart. AT&T can devise a system that blocks other sim card brands in its hotspot product.

EXEDE

I have had Exede ISP for two months and am very happy with their service. As I said in an earlier update, Exede provides satellite service. I tolerated two months of satellite service with Hughes.net and what a huge difference Exede makes. It rained several times, and I had NO service under even slight cloud cover with Hughes.net.

Since I contracted with Exede, it only rained a little bit, so before I could update on my experience with Exede, I had to experience a heavy rain. Exede impressed me. Of the few times it rained heavily in Sherwood Shores, I only lost total connection once, and that was during heavy cloud cover, lightning, and thunder. I unplug the computer anyway, just in case of a power surge during those storms. I have only had to reset my modem and router once in two months. Exede costs me $60.00 a month for the lowest level of their options, plus charges a $10.00 monthly fee for rental of their modem.

Exede requires a two-year contract, has three levels of service, is operated by franchise owners, and has a toll-free customer service number. If you exceed your monthly bandwidth allotment, you automatically revert to what they call the Liberty Pass at no extra charge, or you can buy more GBs. I use up my bandwidth within 10 days of the month, and I am not seeing a huge slowdown in my MBps for the rest of the month. I really appreciate that feature. With Hughes.net, you are just out of luck. The only way to get more GBs with them is to pay for their top tier level of service, and even that is seriously limited.

You really do need to keep your franchise Exede dealer’s number handy. I lost my phone, had not put my dealer’s number in it, and I had to call the toll-free number to find my dealer’s number. It took quite awhile to figure out which one I needed to call, but they were absolutely great about getting me the help I needed. I give them an A+ for customer service so far. I just needed to reset my modem and router.

I had to call several different numbers for Exede over a three month period before one dealer would give me service. I recommend calling as many dealers as you can find by calling their 866 number to speed up the process. Several dealers told me that Exede was not available in my area. My dealer is in Childress, TX. To find an Exede dealer, call 866.997.5757.

CABLE ONE

I do not have as much information on the progress of Cable One at this time as I would like. Around the first of November, I talked to one of their techs in my neighborhood. He told me that it would be six to eight months for service availability. Cable One bought Grayson TV Cable. Anyone who had Grayson TV Cable should have received two letters by now; one from Grayson TV Cable announcing that they had sold out to Cable One, and one from Cable One with an extremely short list TV channels they plan to offer.

I asked the tech from Cable One for a number to contact one of their operations managers. He gave me a number and I asked Graham Jones to call the number for me. Graham wrote me, “I did call that number and it responded with the standard voice prompt: Press 1 to wait a long time, press 2 to wait longer, etc., etc. I found out the company installing the fiber up 377 is:”

http://www.zayo.com/solutions/global-network/

Cable One contracted with Zayo to lay their fiber optic cable system. If you want to see where they are laying the cable in our area, go to their home page link that I posted above, hover your cursor over Solutions in their menu, and under Services click on Network Map. Type your address in the box on the top of the map. It takes awhile to load as you zoom it in or out. Once it loads, look at the purple-blueish lines for their fiber cables under construction. The map shows that Cable One is laying a true internet network and infrastructure throughout southern Texomaland up to Oklahoma and beyond. Their tech told me that Cable One is investing millions of dollars.

I have called the Cable One number that I gave to Graham, and I got a voice mail message. I asked them to call me because I write about tech updates for a Lake Texoma web magazine. They did not return my call. Please contact me if you have any news on Cable One that could help all of our neighbors in Texomaland.

FRONTIER

This Frontier update comes from Graham Jones:

What you would expect from a company who thinks they are a monopoly . . . Slow Verizon ADSL data rates. If you are grandfathered on Verizon’s system and make any changes they will try to increase your monthly by a few hundred percent! They may go to a higher speed type of DSL (VDSL) but are building that out in more densely populated areas they are allowed to serve.

I can say that I could barely get online with Frontier in Sherwood Shores proper at our library, and every neighbor I have asked or talked to about their Frontier service says it is extremely slow. Graham lives closer to the CO or Frontier’s central office. It is not even possible to get Frontier service in Sherwood Shores unless someone moves or dies. At the time I was finally able to connect with an Exede dealer, Frontier would not even put me on a waiting list, which they had previously offered me.