Broadband/High Speed Internet access? (Manchester, Merrimack: cinema, subdivision, live)

[nhyrnut]

Originally Posted by Jude1

I am in Littleton, Time Warner (defunct Adelphia) has not proven reliable. My connection has been unstable for several weeks, live tech support by phone essentially consists in putting you on hold for over 25 min and then transfering you to some other guy, who again puts you on hold (I gave up after 3 attempts).

Not to bad Timewarner but , The4 tech that hooked you up more than likely didn't put the booster/filter on. I know alot of ppl that deal with Timewarner and their customer service sucks. I use Direct TV with Verizon DSL they both work Great. Fiso is comming some parts in southern NH already have it. It blows broad band out of the water. My buddy has it and you can literally tak a Movie like lord of the rings, and download it in 38 seconds. Not that it was on a timer or we down loaded lord of the rings or anything. It was just a test to see if it was as fast as they said. and ya it was.

[Yankeehombre]

For the most part here, you need to be within a mile or so of the telephone switching stations for telephone DSL ~$40.00/ Month for 10 MbPs(check with Verizon on a specific address), but cable is widely available in any mid to large sized town. (actual speeds vary depending upon neighborhood useage.)

[FreckleFace]

I live in Plaistow NH which is about 20-30 minutes from the coast and borders Haverhill MA off Rt 495. I have Comcast but have a choice of Verizon DSL or FIOS. I get letters once a week from Verizon asking me to switch to FIOS. Comcast is expensive ($42-$47/month) add Cable tv and your looking at $100/month. DSL is cheaper. I have not switched because my email address is comcast.net and I am so embedded with that address I fear switching. I should have went with yahoo mail years ago.

[Tec2StepsAhead]

I recently moved to Hampton, NH where Verizon has their FiOS service available. After hearing all the benefits of the fiber and do some homework about the service I decided to give the FiOS service a chance. The service is very stable during downloads and actually delivers a little more that the 15mbps when there is only one computer active on my network (noticably faster that my old service).

Very satisfied with the internet service and installation process. Wouldn't recommend anything else!

[NHDeb]

We are in Merrimack and have Verizon DSL and love it. It's fast enough for our needs, though my husband complains it isn't as fast as his T-1 line at work. *G*
It runs us $20-30/month. We have DISH for TV because we weren't happy with the cost of the cable for what we were getting.
We have many friends in town with cable internet access through Comcast, which is fast but only when it works - they are off-line quite often (at least once a month) compared to us only being out when we lose power - which has been rare.
I'm sure there are people on both sides regardless of providers. All of them offer a variety of deals that will help with costs.
Happy searching.

[New Hampshire]

Comcast recently took over from Adelphia in my area, and I've had nothing but trouble. Customer service is the worst, the tech couldn't connect me so I had to connect myself, billing is not recognizable - I only have high speed internet service, but they were charging me for TV as well and went back to the old Adelphia billing and added TV backdated - fortunately I had my prior billing records and after months and letters to Comcast headquarters in Philadelphia was able to get the TV off my bills. Comcast goes down, downloads slowly - once I was typing away, and a Comcast screen disconnected me and asked me to sign up for new service! It took about one-half hour for Tech Support to get me back online (Tech Support was professional, patient, and knowledgeable.)

Verizon FIOS - do you have to have telephone service?

[MashHawkeye]

Warning: little or no service in rural areas here.

I used to work for an ISP called MonadNet (now defunked :-( ) and I like to think that I know a thing or maybe even 2 about broadband.
If you live in a rural area in NH be prepared for a VERY VERY VERY long wait for 10 years old technology,... DSL or cable... and just plain forget about fiber, never going to happen here.

I live 18, 003' from my local C/O (verizon, Spofford NH) and over the past 3.5 years have been told at least 10 differing wire distances all of which are complete and udder BS. No one is willing to go the extra mile to provide. There is no cable on my side of town and I live in a fairly populated area (for Chesterfield.)

./wine

[mrdude]

other than time-warner, comcast, and verizon, are there any other ISP's in portsmouth? neither comcast or verizon have service to my apt. complex, and i'm not very impressed with what i've heard about time-warner's reliability.

[kc03842]

The Legislature can do something that positively affects your life every day, something that will enrich your choices while lowering your daily costs. Should it do so? Of course it should.

So, why have the solons not acted? Why are they busily outlawing the release of birthday balloons and making the miniscule part of the citizenry who engage in homosexual activity happy when they could easily unleash competitive forces for a positive impact on every New Hampshirite?

I speak of creating a true competition for the privilege of piping electrons toward your television, computer and telephone. Competition begets creative products at lower costs. Think of the consumer electronic industry, the only industry that constantly produces improved products at lower costs.

In 1954, one could buy a new car for the price of an RCA color TV that brought in grainy pictures of actors who looked realistic only if they were lead characters in a zombie movie.

Today, the latest huge-screen, high-definition, whiz-bang set is cheaper than a used Yugo. That comes directly from high competition for consumer electronics dollars, and we should have the same for the programming portion of the package.

Imagine what might evolve if Comcast had true competition. Hey, can I pick the channels I want to pay for? I do not want rotating jewelry but I do want more Discovery, history and movie channels.

Let me decide what will be available in my home not some Comcast marketing manager. While you are at it, charge me for what I watch and nothing more. Our television is on an hour or two a day, except during baseball season. Others are on most of the day. Why should I pay the same as a TV junkie?

Competitive pressure may not create these features but it will provide better product offerings, creative thinking and more options for consumers. Television programming delivery is analogous to cars that were junk after 60,000 miles before Toyota kicked the Big Three’s butts.

To get home entertainment competition we need to get the Legislature’s attention away from its silly social engineering agenda.

Verizon Communications is rapidly adding television programming and Internet through fiber-optic networks all across the country but only half of the package to New Hampshire. Their fiber-optic cable system carries the marketing monikor of FiOS.

We have FiOS light as only the Internet bits traverse our fiber optics, not entertainment programming. Our archaic requirement that providers of wired television programming negotiate franchises with each local community, one by one, is making us a brackish broadband backwater.

Other states provide statewide franchising negotiated with techno-savvy regulators while we insist that providers negotiate with hundreds of little towns dealing with endless questions about the individual programming interests of part-time selectmen.

Statewide franchise negotiation equals faster payback on the significant fiber-optic investment so Verizon makes the obvious business decision and gives New Jersey television entertainment competition while New Hampshire selectmen engage in fruitless chats with the only game in town, Comcast.

Verizon might return to New Hampshire to see if we have smartened up any after all of the forward looking states are on-line.

Full disclosure: My only interest or connection with either Comcast or Verizon is my monthly angst at paying their bills. Pitting these two against one another in the ring of competition would relieve much of my, and your, angst.

That other alternative, satellite, promised to provide competition for cable but fell short. Satellite is site dependent, weather sensitive and has poor Internet upload capability. All of those small faults result in satellite being a weak competitor. Satellite just does not bring enough to the table to create the kind of competition that will force significant changes.

This is a bi-partisan issue if there ever was one. Republicans love the free-market competitive system and Democrats like centralized government regulation. Everyone wins here, except the Comcast monopolizers.

Yet the Legislature is quiet on the home entertainment front. Every N.H. constituent would benefit from a true competitive environment, but legislators ignore this issue. They are too busy chasing down smokers and seat-belt shunners to do something this useful.

So, rise up, call your rep and demand home entertainment competition.

Come on, reps, FiOS it to me!

[mechtm84]

I'm moving to NH in July and was wondering if you guys had cable internet up in that part of the woods? If so, what is it and what are the prices?