Broadband internet availability in the foothills? (Boulder, Longmont: co-op, house, transfer)

[joshuat]

We plan to relocate to somewhere in the Boulder area soon - we will be out visiting next week, and meeting with realtors. I'm trying to do some research beforehand on high speed internet availability before arriving, but not getting very far. I believe that I read on another thread in this forum that the 2 providers in the area are Qwest and Comcast. As I will be telecommuting, I absolutely need high speed internet (not satellite or DSL). However, even with the homes listed as having high speed internet on realtor.com, when I put their address into Qwest's or Comcast's sites they almost always come back as no service available at that address. I get the feeling they may be saying "plop a sat dish on your roof". At the moment I am just checking homes in the 80302 area code and some of the Nederland properties in the canyons. However, we will be looking at properties ranging from Lyons to Golden. Are Qwest and Comcast the only two players in these areas, or should I be looking for other providers?

I recognize that mountain homes generally aren't going to have broadband; we just have to figure out what limited areas are supported so we can concentrate our research on those areas. Thanks!

[chilaili]

Lyons has its own cable provider called Champion and their site is http://www.championbroadband.com/. I don't know about the other towns along the front range but when I lived in Boulder I had DSL thro Comcast which was okay. In Longmont I have DSL thro Qwest which works just fine.

[Neditate]

We have excellent high speed internet in and around the Nederland area. My husband telecommutes 2-3 days a week -- it is a necessity for us. There are several wireless providers, (I think they are all wireless) Nednet, Wispertel, Magnolia Road Co-op to name a few. We do not have cable nor does Qwest provide internet here - we are located a few miles outside of town.

[joshuat]

Thanks, I will start looking at the wireless services. Most of the addresses I have tested only offer dial up service - not even dsl.

My job requires frequent transfers of large files - 20MB up to 1G or so. I can pull those in just a few minutes here. I have trouble imagining that kind of performance on a shared wireless link, but I will research it.

[Neditate]

My husband says the best you should expect from wireless are T1 speeds. (1.5 MB per second). Several folks in our neighborhood have their own T1 lines, of course the companies they work for pay for it.
Where are you moving from?

[Shuffler]

try Mesa Networks...I see those signs out in Western Boulder County when I'm out on bike rides. My folks use it...it's fast and reliable as far as I can tell, no problems..

[joshuat]

Hmm, I don't think 1.5 is going to cut it. I am running around 5-6Mps at home, and at work it's something crazy like 25.

Well, unfortunately this seems to cut down my buying options considerably, but such is life. I was hoping that I was missing some obvious source.

Oh, to the person who asked, we are moving from the DC area.

[hcpc]

Originally Posted by Neditate

We do not have cable nor does Qwest provide internet here - we are located a few miles outside of town.

*Qwest now services most of Nederland as well as the larger Rollinsville area.

I have had Nedernet in the past (I was their 1st customer when I lived in Nederland) which worked well (around 1.5Mbps avg).

I have friends that have Whispertel (wireless) that are quite happy with their service.

I am currently working with Qwest to extend DSL (up to 5 Mbps down) in our area just outside of Rollinsville. However, in metro/outlying areas you can get Qwest speeds significantly faster than 5 Mbps.

FYI - DSL is a dedicated line where your speeds are consistent regardless of how many neighbors are using their connection (but is dependent on distance from the Central Office) unlike Comcast's cable internet which speeds are dependent on the number of people in your 'node' (neighborhood). Last I checked, Qwest is beginning to catch up to the speeds Comcast Cable is offering - Not quite there but really close. Especially when you are close to a larger neighborhood/community. At this time, Comcast is only offering a 8 Mbps DL speed with 'speedboost' which bursts up to 12 Mbps.

Hope that helps - Good luck!

[Neditate]

Originally Posted by hcpc

*

I am currently working with Qwest to extend DSL (up to 5 Mbps down) in our area just outside of Rollinsville. However, in metro/outlying areas you can get Qwest speeds significantly faster than 5 Mbps.

We've been trying to get Qworst to extend DSL here for the past 12 years (we are 4 miles NE of Nederland). We've had meetings with them in the past and they pretty much laughed at us! We had some hope last year when an independent guy almost had worked out a deal, but then it fell through. Almost every year a new resident tries an email and phone campaign, and every year it's the same old story. Good luck to you!

[joshuat]

Thanks for all the help and advice. We were out in the area last week looking at all the neighborhoods, and ended up making an offer on a house in Golden in Coal Creek Canyon. They have the high speed Qwest service available, so we are good to go. If closing goes well, we should be moving in by August 1st.