Fairhope - Question re: new house and no services available (Gulf Shores: real estate, 2015)

[gulfshoresguy]

Hi all...

My wife and I are moving to a new Truland built house in a new part of the Fairhope Quail Creek neighborhood. While calling around to arrange for cable, internet, and phone, I recently discovered that no services are available - meaning, there are no service lines installed along the street so we can't get service to the house. I was very shocked and very much dismayed, especially since I work in technology from home for my job.

The Truland rep said this was a Baldwin county issue, not a Quail Creek or Fairhope issue. He went on to say that other homeowners have run into the same issue and to get around it, they have used their cell service Hotspot or satellite internet/cable.

I'm hoping ya'll can help me with some direction and answers to my questions.

1. Has anyone else encountered a similar situation in or around Baldwin county and if so, how did you resolve it?

2. Is there anyone or any agency I can contact to find out when service might be available in this new area?

3. I'm shocked that I can't even get a land line phone. Does anyone know if this is a government requirement due to the need to have 9-1-1 access? (Btw, I realize I can use my cell phone for 9-1-1 but what if someone didn't have a cell phone!)

4. Has anyone used Dishnet or other satellite internet and if so, is it pretty reliable? Do you think I'll have issues working from home while connected to my company's systems?

5. Does anyone have any advice on things I could do or people I could talk to to get this resolved?

It seems kind of ridiculous to me that a new part of an existing community cannot receive services that the rest of the community has access to.

Thank you in advance for any and all feedback.

Fairhope Guy
(formerly known as 'gulfshoresguy') ;-)

[Keeper]

Hopefully someone can answer this. Do you know who the cable provider is in that area in the older area. You can get directTV and I believe they have internet connection.

I would call the local phone co. and ask if they are going to be installing phone lines. I find it strange that you can't get a local land line.

We have one member that lives in Fairhope and she knows a lot about the area. Looking at a map it appears you are in the city limits so I would start calling the phone co then move on to city officals

[gulfshoresguy]

Hi Keeper,

First, thank you for your reply. You asked about existing cable provider and according to the real estate agents, Mediacom and AT&T Uverse current serve the original sections of Quail Creek.

When you say 'start calling the phone co...", do you mean CenturyLink? I'm not sure who the phone company is any more with all the changes in the telecom industry.

Thanks again.

FairhopeGuy

[Keeper]

Well I would try both CenturyLink and Media com.

Gulf Telephone Company in Fairhope, Alabama with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com

Call the mayor or council members and ask who represents your area.

City of Fairhope, AL : Home

Unless you are the first home in the new addition it is hard to believe that you can't even get phone service

[mph101]

You can check with Excede satellite internet. The service is 12/3 pretty stable with a lot latency, not for gamers, VPN. Its expensive and you better read the reviews. The data cap is awful limiting and they will throttle you to slower then analog if you hit the limits. Most people are not realistic about how much data bandwidth they really require in 2015. Use a good bandwidth calculator, trust me its not the one on excedes website. That under estimates what you need.

Here is a good one with examples:

Estimate your Usage | Northwestel

The good side is Excede is offering a decent package in Baldwin County, for 6 months then you can upgrade to the 150 GB monthly plan and thats pretty decent amount for satellite. It will be about $150+ a month. Face it satellite is a last resort and if you lived in Alaska its a decent deal to be able to dowload at 12 mbps and uload at about 3 mbps (which is vastly superior to Centurylinks pitiful dsl upload speed).

No phone available with Excede though. The 2 yr contract is stifling as well.

Satellite Internet Service Provider - High Speed Broadband from Exede

You might be grateful to stay away from Mediacom they are rated about the worst provider in the nation, and there are lots of terrible providers.

[36532]

Has anyone figured out real internet service on bunker loop? I'm sorry to be blunt, but cell hotspots and satellite internet is not the same, it's terribly slow and has unusably low data caps...when someone asks where to buy a car, don't send them to the bicycle store.

[Mobilemom52]

This is astonishing to me. Seems that the developers should have been aware of this and made darn sure services were available, as these things are pretty basic. (Also goes without saying that the homeowner should ask these questions during the home buying process, especially if the services are integral to his work.)

The only Baldwin Co. provider I'm familiar with is Mediacom, which we use for cable, internet, etc., at our Gulf Shores condo. Ok service.

[MPC]

Originally Posted by gulfshoresguy

Mediacom and AT&T Uverse current serve the original sections of Quail Creek.

When you say 'start calling the phone co...", do you mean CenturyLink? I'm not sure who the phone company is any more with all the changes in the telecom industry.

Maybe you could try DirecTV since AT&T has just took over them and I think are not continuing the UVerse brand. Best bet is that in my opinion with a land line from AT&T. Did you talk to the city and see all what lines are running on your street?

[timmycharged]

How are you making out? Any updates on this? Hoping your holidays were good at the very least.

[arboc]

I used to work in engineering for a cable TV company in another state and we built our services, along with all of the other utilities, before any house was ever constructed in a new development. In our case the developer paid to put in all of the utilities.