Fiber Internet and TV Services, Cord Cutting

[lorwest]

We had our box installed last fall and I came home today to see my gas lines marked in my yard. I hope this means hooking up to the street is imminent?

[mattaudio]

So, this got installed last night:

Wow, your modem is quite different than mine. Mine is literally a managed switch with a fiber uplink that's mounted right into my network rack.

[mister.shoes]

Did they know you had a rack ahead of time? I suspect mine is the default approach (which I'm fine with, given my large plywood panel with all softs of networking mounted on it) but they have options if they find homeowners like you with more elaborate setups.

[mattaudio]

Nope, the switch is what they brought. Zyxel GS2200-8
It was clear the installer didn't usually rackmount them, but it came with rack ears so I put it in the rack while he was running the fiber over to it.

[mister.shoes]

Funny. They're not even remotely similar.

Update from the activity Monday: the boulevard is torn up a bit and so is the ground right below the box on the side of the house, but I didn't bother peeking under the turf to see if their conduit is hiding. Nothing is visible above-ground at this point. The city still needs to come grind out the giant elm stump left on the boulevard from the tree removal this past December, so it wouldn't surprise me if USI waits until that is done before I get properly connected.

[billhelm]

So the typical install pattern that I observed last fall was:
-Internal house hookup occurs- box affixed to side of home, wire run into home with switch equipment/fiber uplink (hardware varies depending on speed and internal setup), line runs from box on side of house inside to equipment.
-Line tunneled from boulevard to side of house with box, nothing running into box but the conduit. Sometimes happens around same time as internal install, sometimes later. Loose connection on both ends (you can tell which neighbors ordered at launch because the conduit is sticking out in front of their house)
-conduit run in boulevards, pops out of ground where junction boxes will eventually be installed. Sits like that for some period of time. Happens simultaneous to many home installs.
-junction boxes installed, fiber run, curb hookups occur (mostly in that order). when stuff starts to be buried in the boulevard and you can't see it sticking up anymore, your go-live date is approaching. was 1-2 weeks after all this was done that we went live.

Just my experiences in Northrop just north of the creek - YMMV and their process has evolved several times since they started doing installs several years ago.

[mister.shoes]

Thanks, bill! We're still somewhere around step 2. CPE marked every single gas line on the block yesterday, so that's a good sign. I still haven't peeked under the turf to see the result of all that drilling on Monday, but I expected to see conduit sticking up had they actually done something.

[tcarter612]

Good weather has allowed us to get a 2-3 week jump on the season. We have been hooking up homes at a rapid rate already. If your street is currently live you should be connected very soon.

Mainline construction will start next Monday on 3rd Ave and head east.

Thanks for the support.

-Travis / USI

[mister.shoes]

You rock, Travis. Thanks for the update (says the guy just east of 3rd).

[lorwest]

Also thanks from the guy between 15th and 16th.

[mattaudio]

"Fiber Internet Ready" is apparently a first-sentence selling point in my neighborhood. http://www.edinarealty.com/homes-for-sa ... -173998722

[amiller92]

There was someone from Centurylink knocking on ours on our block Saturday talking about fiber. I'll have to look into it as USI is not yet south of the creek.

[mister.shoes]

There was someone from Centurylink knocking on ours on our block Saturday talking about fiber. I'll have to look into it as USI is not yet south of the creek.

Not even 30 minutes before the USI installer showed up a few weeks ago, a guy from CL knocked on the door to say something along the lines of "We've been upgrading our lines in your neighborhood and wanted to make sure you haven't had any problems." I told him I didn't have CL and he said he knew that, but he wanted to make sure they didn't disrupt any other services. I just shook my head, ignored his really odd attempt at getting me to say "Oh really? Tell me more," and went back to waiting for USI. Good try, though.

[mattaudio]

The ditch witch was doing boulevard to demarc connections for multiple houses on the 4500 block of 17th Ave S today. Also included on this block is my neighborhood organization's office, which will be getting fiber which through some ridiculousness will be saving the taxpayers of Minneapolis almost $2,000 a year. #themoreyouknow

[twincitizen]

Mod Note: I removed "Minneapolis" from this topic title and moved it to "Anything Goes", so it can serve those in St. Paul and first ring suburbs who may be getting USI or CenturyLink fiber services soon.

CenturyLink PrismTV update: https://www.minnpost.com/politics-polic ... -available

[Realstreets]

Just scheduled my appointment for the NID to get installed. I'm on 23rd Ave S (Phase 2 area). Last I heard they would be going live on my street by August. I am so pumped partly because it will save me $250/yr while providing 4x the speed, with $0 going to Comcast!

If anyone else in interested in cutting the cord look into Playstation Vue. With the combination of live tv streams and fiber internet, I finally think I'm at a point where I could cut the cord without too much compromise. They were successful in negotiating deals for most of the major cable channels (including ESPN). Their packages range from $30-$50 a month. Even at $50 that's quite a bit cheaper than my pretty basic Directv package when you factor in all of their damn fees.

[twincitizen]

http://www.cnet.com/news/playstation-vu ... -compared/
SlingTV vs. Playstation Vue Compared

Even at $20, Sling doesn't seem to have enough to be "worth it", unless you just gotta have SportsCenter and CNN (and not much else)...
The mid-grade $35 Vue package "Core Slim" includes Fox Sports North, which is obviously a huge selling point, but at $35 is pushing close to introductory rates for cable and satellite. Nice thing about Vue is that there is no contract, so you could potentially just grab a subscription for the 6 months of baseball season and drop it over the winter months (or vice versa for T-Wolves/Wild). Vue also offers some limited cloud-based DVR functionality. If you don't need Fox Sports North, the basic Vue package at $30 might be tempting. Both SlingTV and Vue offer free 7-day trials, so you can check out the service, make sure you have enough bandwidth, etc.

EDIT: I see Sling now has a second package, called "Best of Live TV-Beta Multi-stream", which is also $20, like their basic option. This new option apparently includes Fox Sports (but drops ESPN)...seems too good to be true. I will fire up the free trial on that tonight and report back if I can watch live Twins games.

[John21]

I got a notice that a sub will be installing fiber for Centurylink in my neighborhood. 3900 block of 30th Ave S.

[lorwest]

USI fiber was turned on for part of Bloomington Avenue today. Any recommendations on wireless routers from current users?

[David Greene]

I will fire up the free trial on that tonight and report back if I can watch live Twins games.

And...?