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.

  • Ericthescruffy [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    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.

    • Cummunism [they/them, he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      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.