Fast Internet, TV, and Telephone -- One Incoming Cable

LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, Alaska Icrontian
edited January 2005 in Science & Tech
That's right, here on a snowy mountain in Alaska, we've "IP TV", telephone, and ADSL 2 broadband all through the same incoming telephone cable. It's been up now for over two weeks. Lots of channels, supposedly HDTV, fast Internet, and flawless telephone connection. Not one outage so far. The telephone company said that they are one of only a handful of companies/locales in the US offering IP TV. So far, we really like it. One place to call for technical problems; one bill for the three services. Free ADSL/TV modem usage. Icing on the cake is that ADSL 2 is faster than any cable Internet I've had before. Even with three computers all accessing the Net simultaneously, speed is good.

Credit where credit is due: three cheers for our provider, "MTA".

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    What's the up/down on your DSL?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    I used several different speed rating sites.

    The fastest download speed was 4080 kbps (don't remember the site)

    At Broadband Reports (formerly DSL Reports), after three separate tests, the speed averaged 2660 kbps download and 839 upload! :D For real.

    The theoretical speed of our service is 4Mbps down/768kbps up. Needless to say, I am very satisfied with our service. When the technician installed changed us over from standard DSL to the newly offered IP TV - ADSL 2, he told us that MTA had taken great care to ensure that all (not many here) the DSL nodes were within a tight radius of the end users, that the company was serious about the service and "wanted to get it right".

    Oh, I should mention also that I conducted those tests on the remote computer, the one upstairs from the wireless router. Hmm, wonder what the speed is downstairs on the computer right next to the transmitter?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    It won't change much as the maximum bandwidth the DSL pushes is approximately one quarter of the LAN bandwidth supplied by the router.

    Speeds are good; still wish DSL was faster.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    Speeds are good; still wish DSL was faster.
    Good? Hah, they are great! I never had anything close to that with cable modem.
  • maggie99635maggie99635 Alaska
    edited January 2005
    Do you get unlimited downloads?
  • Access_DeniedAccess_Denied tennessee
    edited January 2005
    i get a whopping 5kb/s download speed here in Tennessee. i live in cetween 3 towns and NONE of them offer anything other than crappy direct satalight or crappy dialup internet service.
  • MadballMadball Fort Benton, MT
    edited January 2005
    How much, may I ask? I envy you greatly.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    Maggie, yes, that's unlimited usage - up and down. Madball, sorry about the envy. I had no idea something like this would be available in the forest on a mountainside. MTA just rolled out the ADSL2/IPTV service about a month ago. I have a package service - IPTV (most channels except movie channels; local TV is included) - telephone - internet: $112/month.
  • Access_DeniedAccess_Denied tennessee
    edited January 2005
    good lord thats almost as much as my car insurance ;D
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    Not a bad price AT ALL!!! I was paying $95 for Basic Cable TV and Internet. My speeds are supposed to have been upgraded recently to 5Mbps down, but dslreports say I am at a little less than 3Mbps down and about 350Kbps up. Telephone not included though, but my parents are paying for that until I have a job again, but they pay over $100 for theirs, mine, and my brothers.

    Good price, especially for where you live I guess.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    I was paying about $95 in Georgia for the same services, but the cable speed was about one-third the speed I'm getting now and the cable TV was not high definition. Of course, the HDTV signal is of no use to us, as our TV is not HDTV-capable. Oh well, Internet is much more important to us anyway. Considering the cost of living in Alaska, I do not feel overcharged for our service. Any other package, cable/DSL(v1.x)/satellite would end up being about the same cost, but with far less performance. For long distance telephone though, we don't use the phone company. We buy pre-paid cards at Sam's Club that are 3.3 cents a minute for the US.
  • ClutchClutch North Carolina New
    edited January 2005
    Wow that is pretty sweet. I work for a ISP here in my town. Can you give me a link to your providers website? Maybe I can get some info from it to maybe look into it as a route we might take.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    The price might seem a bit steep to some of you in the Lower 48, but I consider it reasonable. MTA is a cooperative, therefor the prices are kept down somewhat.

    Clutch, here's the MTA coop link.
  • maxanonmaxanon Montreal
    edited January 2005
    Are you in a relatively newly built area? If so, the infrastructure would allow for it. A lot of older areas can't get this beacause the lines are too old (not enough BW).
  • ClutchClutch North Carolina New
    edited January 2005
    Thanks for the link Leo.
  • GobblesGobbles Ventura California
    edited January 2005
    I pay 30 for dsl, 25 for phone and 98 for cable all channels.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    maxanon wrote:
    Are you in a relatively newly built area? If so, the infrastructure would allow for it. A lot of older areas can't get this beacause the lines are too old (not enough BW).
    There are actually very few homes where I am. The oldest homes on the mountain here were built in the mid-70's; the newest in the last five years.
  • maggie99635maggie99635 Alaska
    edited January 2005
    Jeez! They are fast. I wish ACS would do that. Guess I'm lucky to be able to get any DSL. I have to use a Sat. dish for TV. My TV antenna kept getting frozen in the wrong direction every winter!! It was the pits only being able to get two stations and they weren't very clear.
    I asked because I know Cable isn't unlimited up here. I bet you aren't moving any time soon.
  • MadballMadball Fort Benton, MT
    edited January 2005
    I have cable TV, but they don't offer internet, so I have to use DSL. They just had a price drop:

    384K ADSL $39
    768K ADSL $49
    1.5M ADSL $59

    Expensive, but its all I got.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    maggie99635 wrote:
    Jeez! They are fast. I wish ACS would do that. Guess I'm lucky to be able to get any DSL. I have to use a Sat. dish for TV. My TV antenna kept getting frozen in the wrong direction every winter!! It was the pits only being able to get two stations and they weren't very clear.
    I asked because I know Cable isn't unlimited up here. I bet you aren't moving any time soon.
    Maggie, I'm surprised you even have DSL option where you are! Eagle River is small...but your town is little more than a village. Nothing at all wrong with small locales; it's just I'm surprised the offer DSL. You're right about cable. Even if I wanted it, it's not available where I am. It's available in the town down in the valley, but not up here on the mountain. I still haven't figured out why they rolled out IPTV and ADSL 2.0 up here with our population base on the mountain being so small.

    (And you are right - I'm not going anywhere soon. I'm here to say. I chose to move back to Alaska and stay after I retired from military service.)
  • maggie99635maggie99635 Alaska
    edited January 2005
    I had to beg and lie to get the DSL. An engineer came out and switched something at the switching station. I told them there were people around me with DSL. Kind of the truth. :( I really like it up here,bought a house years ago,have a whole acre and can't see my neighbors!
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