How much does it cost a phone company to provide DSL service?
July 20, 2011 5:45 PM Subscribe
How much does it cost a phone company to provide DSL service?
I currently live in a remote part of Wisconsin. There is no cable or DSL and even the cellular signal is weak. Right now we are using Satellite but it's expensive as hell and the bandwidth caps are tight (12G/30 days) and the latency is ungodly.
What does it cost to get the necessary equipment to provide DSL service? (a DSLAM?) Centurylink is very closed lipped about it's expansion plans.
I thought that Obama's stimulus package was going to offer some relief but it turns out that isn't going to help. High Speed Internet access for everyone apparently means coupons for Satellite installation.
Are there alternatives I haven't considered? It's driving me crazy.
I currently live in a remote part of Wisconsin. There is no cable or DSL and even the cellular signal is weak. Right now we are using Satellite but it's expensive as hell and the bandwidth caps are tight (12G/30 days) and the latency is ungodly.
What does it cost to get the necessary equipment to provide DSL service? (a DSLAM?) Centurylink is very closed lipped about it's expansion plans.
I thought that Obama's stimulus package was going to offer some relief but it turns out that isn't going to help. High Speed Internet access for everyone apparently means coupons for Satellite installation.
Are there alternatives I haven't considered? It's driving me crazy.
DSL is very sensitive to the distance between you and the central office, as well as the condition of the wiring. It may well be the case that no amount of money spent on equipment at their end could provide you with acceptable DSL service due to the long lengths or poor condition of the wiring. And once you start talking about re-laying wiring you should just skip DSL entirely and go straight to fiber anyway; the whole point of DSL is that it reuses existing wiring.
posted by Rhomboid at 6:15 PM on July 20, 2011
posted by Rhomboid at 6:15 PM on July 20, 2011
Response by poster: I think there is service about 3-4 miles away. Would I have to find someone with existing service? LoS might be sticky too, it's heavily wooded around here.
posted by Bonzai at 6:16 PM on July 20, 2011
posted by Bonzai at 6:16 PM on July 20, 2011
Best answer: You can search for wireless ISPs here. You can also search at DSL reports. You might also want to reask on the DSL reports forums.
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:34 PM on July 20, 2011
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:34 PM on July 20, 2011
According to this pdf source, the outside limit is 3 miles from where they convert from internet service to copper wire, and that would be for also relatively slow service. I found that when choosing a place to live in Vermont I had to make this an active part of my decision making process. I don't know of good alternatives.
posted by meinvt at 6:57 PM on July 20, 2011
posted by meinvt at 6:57 PM on July 20, 2011
Response by poster: from meinvts pdf source: You must be within a three-mile telephone wire length of
the location where the internet signal is added by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to the
telephone signal
'Where the internet signal is added' makes it seem like you don't have to be within 3 miles of the central office but 3 miles from some sort of device or repeater or something, I have no idea. I was hoping someone out there in mefi land installs these devices for a living, or buys them for an ISP or something like that.
I guess I figured if I knew how much my telephone company was paying I could guesstimate how many users it would take (in a 3 mile radius) to be profitable.
posted by Bonzai at 8:48 PM on July 20, 2011
the location where the internet signal is added by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to the
telephone signal
'Where the internet signal is added' makes it seem like you don't have to be within 3 miles of the central office but 3 miles from some sort of device or repeater or something, I have no idea. I was hoping someone out there in mefi land installs these devices for a living, or buys them for an ISP or something like that.
I guess I figured if I knew how much my telephone company was paying I could guesstimate how many users it would take (in a 3 mile radius) to be profitable.
posted by Bonzai at 8:48 PM on July 20, 2011
Best answer: DSL Reports Forums is where you should be talking to folks about the roll-your-own method. I used to work for an ISP in Seattle and I seem to recall that DSLAMs were in the tens of thousands of dollars and this was almost ten years ago and there would be no way they'd want to install and maintain one for just a few customers. This is the hell about the digital divide issues, as people get more sparsely populated, there is almost no economic incentive to getting them on broadband, you'll literally never make your investment back.
However, the cost is only a small part of why your telco doesn't want to do this, there's also maintaining the thing and keeping it connected to its own network, etc. As meinvt says, you need to be 18000-ish feet from the central office. Some telcos [like the one where I used to live in VT, Topsham Telephone] have what they call a mini-pop system [pop=point of presence] where they basically build repeater-type things and you can be within three miles of those. Usually tiny telcos get grants to build this sort of thing out. Lately a lot of the grants have been going to people who are bolstering existing infrastructure and/or doing small-scale projects like this. Broadband money in Vermont went to go to get more bandwidth to schools and libraries, for example, a noble goal but also an easier goal than wiring up the rest of the population that is hard to serve and hard to reach.
Anyhow, you should make friends with the broadband people in your state and continue to report the lousy situation with your capped/lossy/laggy connection. People do seem to be differentiating lately between "terrestrial broadband" [i.e. the kind that comes over wires] and satellite/cell sorts of things that usually come with bandwidth caps [and often some net neutrality issues]. I'd also suggest your local elected officials. This sort of issue is worth being a total gadfly about, in my own personal opinion. Sorry the news isn't better.
posted by jessamyn at 9:21 PM on July 20, 2011
However, the cost is only a small part of why your telco doesn't want to do this, there's also maintaining the thing and keeping it connected to its own network, etc. As meinvt says, you need to be 18000-ish feet from the central office. Some telcos [like the one where I used to live in VT, Topsham Telephone] have what they call a mini-pop system [pop=point of presence] where they basically build repeater-type things and you can be within three miles of those. Usually tiny telcos get grants to build this sort of thing out. Lately a lot of the grants have been going to people who are bolstering existing infrastructure and/or doing small-scale projects like this. Broadband money in Vermont went to go to get more bandwidth to schools and libraries, for example, a noble goal but also an easier goal than wiring up the rest of the population that is hard to serve and hard to reach.
Anyhow, you should make friends with the broadband people in your state and continue to report the lousy situation with your capped/lossy/laggy connection. People do seem to be differentiating lately between "terrestrial broadband" [i.e. the kind that comes over wires] and satellite/cell sorts of things that usually come with bandwidth caps [and often some net neutrality issues]. I'd also suggest your local elected officials. This sort of issue is worth being a total gadfly about, in my own personal opinion. Sorry the news isn't better.
posted by jessamyn at 9:21 PM on July 20, 2011
Response by poster: I know the closest town with a school got itself hooked up not long ago and I bet if I clocked it in my car the edge of the current DSL service (the place I mentioned above that is about 3-4 miles away from me) would be 3 miles from that town.
Even though I knew I probably wasn't going to like the answer I think I have pretty good idea of WHY I'm stuck with satellite.
Maybe with some luck we can get those bandwidth caps highers and maybe better technology down the road the speeds will get better too.
The latency will always be the latency, geosynchronous orbit being where it is.
Thanks all
posted by Bonzai at 9:40 PM on July 20, 2011
Even though I knew I probably wasn't going to like the answer I think I have pretty good idea of WHY I'm stuck with satellite.
Maybe with some luck we can get those bandwidth caps highers and maybe better technology down the road the speeds will get better too.
The latency will always be the latency, geosynchronous orbit being where it is.
Thanks all
posted by Bonzai at 9:40 PM on July 20, 2011
Look for a WiMAX service. It is a medium range microwave-style wireless "last mile" hookup.
posted by gjc at 6:05 AM on July 21, 2011
posted by gjc at 6:05 AM on July 21, 2011
An article on Ars talks about WiFi over different frequencies for extended range. I haven't read the article in detail but I know it's just research at this point and even for this tech, 3 miles is probably pushing it.
posted by chairface at 2:20 PM on July 21, 2011
posted by chairface at 2:20 PM on July 21, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by trevyn at 6:09 PM on July 20, 2011