Fiber Internet and TV Services, Cord Cutting

[David Greene]

http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Aspen-EASDT ... B000GIT002

Speaking of that, what are peoples' experiences with attic-installed antennas? We've got one in our attic and it's mostly ok though PBS occasionally flames out. I had to add a signal amplifier to make all the stations come in.

I know outside is better but I really don't want to go up on the roof. Are there channels only reachable with an outdoor install?

FWIW, OTA HDTV is higher quality because the signals aren't (further) compressed to squeeze more channels in. I believe you also get some subchannels you don't get on cable/satellite.

We cut the cable a couple years ago and haven't missed it a bit. We don't even have a Roku or similar streaming box. We just don't watch as much TV anymore. We do stream maybe a few movies a month from iTunes or Google Play.

One thing we've noticed is how many people want to turn on televisions to baby-sit our child: haircuts, dentists and so on. It's really irritating given the well-known medical studies of how bad that is.

[seanrichardryan]

At our old place on 24th in the Wedge we had a full size HD attic antenna in a crawlspace over the back of our house. Every evening during primetime MAC would open up flights going right over the house and we'd lose reception. Twas quite annoying.

[jkrejci]

Just going to drop off this for everyone, an oldie but a goodie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ilMx7k7mso
(yes, in Internet time "2+ years" is old)

[Chef]

I feel like Roku is worth is just to get news through Nowhere Man - BBC, Al Jazera, France 24, NHK World and Deutsche Welle leave me so much better informed than anything on American TV. I suppose you could stream all of those through your computer but Roku is more convenient.

[mamundsen]

Since we're discussing it... I'm a fan of Chromecast. I have two (one on each TV) and I got them for $20 each.

Also I have noticed an improvement in my Xfinity internet speed over the last 24 hrs.

[jw138]

An interview with USI's CEO, Joe Caldwell:

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/p ... rview.html

The article starts off with:

Next up for the business: seeking approval to sell TV service in Minneapolis.

But the only further detail was:

You say you’re confident cable TV will die out eventually, but you want to get into the business anyway. Why?

My generation grew up with cable and hasn’t figured out Hulu or Netflix, or how to get content over the Internet. USI can support both models — we’re here to help you cut the cord, but if you still want to be archaic, we’ll help you with that, too.

There were no addition details on when they'd be requesting the approval or the scope of the TV service they had in mind.

[mister.shoes]

That's a great article, but all I want to know is when they're going to add my block of my street to their schedule. I know I've said this a million times in this thread alone, but seeing fiber going in one block east of me and stopping a block and a half north is torture.

[jw138]

That's a great article, but all I want to know is when they're going to add my block of my street to their schedule. I know I've said this a million times in this thread alone, but seeing fiber going in one block east of me and stopping a block and a half north is torture.

Not that it's going to help you, but personally the best thing about fiber for me was the anticipation! While excruciating, it was very exhilarating. After installation the first week was full of unicorns and rainbows but then very quickly became "normal" and now I don't even give it a second thought. In reality, my quality of computing life really didn't change much after replacing my old 30 Mbps service (except when doing operating system updates - that still amazes me). It was very similar to replacing the mechanical drive in your computer with an SSD for the first time.

[jkrejci]

Not that it's going to help you, but personally the best thing about fiber for me was the anticipation! While excruciating, it was very exhilarating. After installation the first week was full of unicorns and rainbows but then very quickly became "normal" and now I don't even give it a second thought. In reality, my quality of computing life really didn't change much after replacing my old 30 Mbps service (except when doing operating system updates - that still amazes me). It was very similar to replacing the mechanical drive in your computer with an SSD for the first time.

I suppose that is a metric of success. The less you need to think about it, the better. If it always just works, that's good. When you need a full/high speed transfer and that just works, that's good. Sounds more like a general utility: water, power, gas, etc. Rarely do I feel like "oh man I wish my water didn't fail again."

[David Greene]

Recently our high-speed router/base station started acting up. The 5G signal seems to go in and out. I've found that to get something near full 100Mb/s requires a 5G connection. I'll try moving the router (it's currently in the basement) but it's odd that it just started dropping signals recently.

We might need a new one. Any suggestions?

[jkrejci]

Recently our high-speed router/base station started acting up. The 5G signal seems to go in and out. I've found that to get something near full 100Mb/s requires a 5G connection. I'll try moving the router (it's currently in the basement) but it's odd that it just started dropping signals recently.

We might need a new one. Any suggestions?

Obviously this is not a tech support thread... but off hand I'd suggest checking for firmware upgrades. Also, simply rebooting them sometimes helps. Since wifi is impacted by other radio sources it is hard to gauge where issues may be originating from: could be a new neighbor device or even a new device of your own. The less obstructed you are to your wifi access point / router (walls, distance, objects, etc) the better off your connection is likely to be. The hardware could be failing too, I've seen devices that are dirty or have obstructed air vents can overheat which can lead to degraded performance.

[mattaudio]

or see if you can run ddwrt or tomato on it instead.

[FISHMANPET]

Le sigh, I miss my tomato, I'm stuck with some random Russian firmware on my Asus router and I miss the Tomato all the time.

[David Greene]

Tried DDWRT once but grew frustrated with the non-existent upgrade process. I have philosophical issues with Tomato. Anyway, I'd rather waste my time putting electronics into a 90-year-old player piano than administering embedded Linux systems.

I think it likely that some other radio is interfering. SSIDs appear and disappear all the time around here.

[Chip Whitley]

I'm still patiently waiting for USI fiber to get lit at Elan. I know the fiber is already buried to Elan but they said the actual completion of wiring and getting apartments online wouldn't happen until mid-October. In the meantime, I've somehow been able to connect to xfinitywifi and get a decent connection. You're only supposed to be able to login and connect if you have an active subscription to Xfinity but I never had Comcast actually put my modem online and I'm not paying anything. Hopefully by the end of the month, my lovely gigabit connection will return. It's amazing how much you miss it, especially someone who works in the IT world.

[mattaudio]

I don't think it's been asked yet... Why is USI doing roughly every other street, rather than filling in an entire area before proceeding?

[lorwest]

I don't think it's been asked yet... Why is USI doing roughly every other street, rather than filling in an entire area before proceeding?

I've wondered the same thing. I live on Bloomington and my neighborss on 15th and 16th have been on the map all season, but has anything been installed on those streets?

[jw138]

I don't think it's been asked yet... Why is USI doing roughly every other street, rather than filling in an entire area before proceeding?

Just speculation, but maybe it sets them up for a faster more efficient roll-out in 2016?

[billhelm]

our fiber went live over the weekend. We were not slated to get it for another month, so they seem ahead of schedule.

[tcarter612]

We are about 3-4 weeks ahead of schedule currently, we made some efficiency changes this summer that really sped things up

The primary reason for skipping streets was our thought that we could fiber more wireless nodes this way.

The real benefit should be realized in 2016 when we rapidly install those streets we skipped this summer. I hope to open up sales for those streets in early December so we can get everyones homes pre-wired over the winter and turn them live asap in the spring.

Thanks for everyones support with this project.

-Travis / USI