Aight hexbears, so here's the sitch:
I am a homeowner living in a zip code where there is 99% coverage from gigabit internet plans for fairly cheap.
Unfortunately: the home I own is a condominium. I am required to pay for my own internet service but per discussions with other ISPs it sounds like there may be some sort of exclusive deal between the HOA and my current ISP provider to exclusively service the complex I am in. We're literally a red dot in a sea of blue. The result is that I am currently being forced to buy a service that not only provides me a much shittier service than nearby competitors, but also charges me more than double the rate. Obvious fun benefits aside I am on the work from home train and could really use a boost for my job.
What are my options? Anybody have personal experience with this? The details regarding this deal are not in any of the governing documents provided to me and my attempts to reach out to property management or the community portal have been met with radio silence. I have a decent repour with the president and the treasurer of the HOA just as a resident and haven't made any waves but I'm prepared to light a fire under anyone's ass I have too. Plan on asking them both about it next time I see them.
Edit: update! Welp looks like the HOA meeting was postponed due to the three day weekend...Im gonna stay on it though!
Edit2: BIG UPDATE! Ran into the hoa treasurer earlier this morning on a dog walk. The minute I said the word internet he had the most glorious OMFG expression on his face.
TLDR; this is a known issue shared through the community and the president of the HOA is making moves to get us on fiber, but its slow going. I am going to ask him more regarding specifics next time I run into him.
*Longer version: * the treasurer launched into a huge list of complaints about how spectrum basically has a monopoly in the community and multiple people have shared the same frustrations. There's no exclusive deal, but its apparently required an act of congress to get us on the fiber train. Not only that but when I asked about the AT&T wire pillars and the fact that they're in multiple spots and we're surrounded by fiber coverage he said "Oh no, it gets better. Those wire pillars inside the gates are there to serve the houses outside the community. I know because I dug one up behind my unit and pulled the wire out and a representative from ATT show up at my door 3 weeks later and there was a huge back and forth over how they even had the authorization to dig there when they're not servicing any of the units here." Sounds like there have been delays and the process has been going on for a year but there has been some movement and we should be on the fiber train at some point. Again, i'm gonna check with the president and see about where that stands and what I can do to expedite, if anything.
Moral of the story is: HOAs do suck, but big telecom companies suck even harder.
if youre paying the HOA, there should be transparency at least on if there is some contract in place or something. But HOAs can be so fuckin shady it wouldnt shock me if they were pocketing extra money.
see if they have some contract with the ISP, see what the speeds are, test what they should be, and if gigabit would be better youll have to organize others in your HOA to raise a stink. I understand the need for an HOA in a shared building, repairs need to be done that can effect everyone, but this shit is just too far.
with so many more work from home people, there might be others in the same situation.
That's kinda what I'm wondering. Even if the majority of people here don't need gigabit internet: they could still get comparable 100/300/500 plans with faster upload rates for cheaper. I feel like getting nickle and dimed is reason enough alone to cause a fuss.
The HOA fees are pretty significant but they don't include internet access. Have to buy that as an individual. I would *think * that would give them less say over what ISP I could buy but this country is cursed as fuck so who knows. At the very least I think the details of that agreement/contract should be made more transparent to the community.
even though you have to buy it, theres no other internet service lines to your building? i guess its just coaxial?
if youre able to just not do their plan, you could look into 5g home internet with verizon or t-mobile. but definitely organize people and tell them the benefits of fiber optics. also mention how fiber is buried, so it fails way less often because of weather and cars hitting telephone poles. I've had fiber for 3 years and i dont think its ever gone completely out.
even though you have to buy it, theres no other internet service lines to your building? i guess its just coaxial?
THAT is what's really weird and eyebrow raising to me about the whole thing. Walking around the community there's a ton of green direct burial pillars inside the fence and a lot of them are clearly marked AT&T which is the largest fiber provider directly outside of the gate in any direction if you walk like two steps. I guess it could just be old copper wiring or something but man it seems weird.
Reliability is another good point I can raise. Is there more info on that I can point to that you can link me on? Our internet goes down relatively frequently in the community randomly for an hour or more every couple of weeks and even at lower speeds I know that would sell a lot of people on it.
The available wired connection here is overpriced like hell but its not quite as bad as a satellite/5g connection would be still. Actually you can get over 500mbps but the upload rate is caped at like 25mbps.
actually i might be wrong, fiber can be aerial so you might have to check with AT&T on that. Im pretty certain in my area they are all underground, they have a method called microtrenching that makes them easier to install.
https://www.noanet.net/insights/the-ups-and-downs-of-deploying-fiber-aerial-vs-underground/
"Buried fiber deployments are immune to wind and ice damage because they're located below the layer where the soil freezes. This means that underground deployments are about 10 times more reliable than aerial routes, especially where poor weather abounds."
so hopefully it's buried, i guess it could be aerial if AT&T owns the telephone poles already, that is usually the biggest factor in using those.
it sounds like there may be some sort of exclusive deal between the HOA and my current ISP provider to exclusively service the complex I am in. We’re literally a red dot in a sea of blue. The result is that I am currently being forced to buy a service that not only provides me a much shittier service than nearby competitors, but also charges me more than double the rate.
I can't give any recommendations, but I always kind of wonder how this sort of thing happens. Isn't the point of an exclusivity deal to provide cheaper services in exchange for guaranteed customers?
I've researched into this a bit and it sounds like there's several possibilities, some more nefarious than others. The most nefarious and perhaps corrupt is that there is a handshake deal to provide kickbacks to the HOA with additional deals/services to the community (IE gate maintenance, surveillance, etc) if not directly to HOA board members. The other option, which I suspect is more likely, is that the current ISP ran the initial wires at a loss under a non-compete contract for x number of years. Its impossible to know more unless I can get specific details, but it seems like whatever the case may be: contracts are ALWAYS up for renegotiation if you're willing to go through the headache. There's an HOA board meeting tonight and I intend to crash it and find out more information.
Oof, that's a possibility I hadn't considered but that def makes sense. I can totally see some boomer on the HOA board being insanely short sighted about that one. Eitherway, I will hopefully find out more info tonight.
Rights of Way are huge issues when it comes to telcos and the legal fuckery they can get away with by delaying or otherwise obstructing competition from leasing space makes it worse for everyone. Spectrum was the sole provider here for the longest time with broadband that maxed at like 300 Mbps for like $150/month (internet only) then AT&T came in offering 1 Gbps (up/down) for $90/month. It took spectrum another year before they offered fiber at equivalent speeds and prices. Spectrum also had the great habit of raising prices arbitrarily by $1 to $5 per month every year without upgrading service or anything else.
any builtin boards in the lobby? maybe you could organize a "network strike", like everyone in the building all upload big images :dprk-soldier: at the same time? Or, if you get enough people, just flat out refuse to pay until demands are met? Might be difficult if there's already a contract in place, but you never know
edit, i mean, dont say "network strike" on the hypothetical bulletin board, say something like, "experiencing slow internet? Me too! Lets talk about our options"
No bulletin board. I could go door to door and might go to that length if necessary.
