Moving to Asheville in a few weeks; suggestions for Internet & mobile?
June 5, 2013 2:22 PM Subscribe
The questions similar to this are a few years old, so I thought I may ask this to see if there's any new info. I'm looking for suggestions for Internet & mobile providers in the Asheville area.
In West Asheville, it looks like Time Warner and Charter are the two possibilities for Internet provider (but please correct me if I'm wrong). Any suggestions, with an eye more toward up-time reliability and bandwidth consistency than price?
Also, a previous question from a few years back asked about mobile coverage. Has the situation changed at all? Any providers currently significantly better in terms of coverage or capability (in the Asheville city/Bent Creek area)?
Thanks!
P.S. -- if anyone knows of any nice steep trails to run, I'd love to hear about 'em!
In West Asheville, it looks like Time Warner and Charter are the two possibilities for Internet provider (but please correct me if I'm wrong). Any suggestions, with an eye more toward up-time reliability and bandwidth consistency than price?
Also, a previous question from a few years back asked about mobile coverage. Has the situation changed at all? Any providers currently significantly better in terms of coverage or capability (in the Asheville city/Bent Creek area)?
Thanks!
P.S. -- if anyone knows of any nice steep trails to run, I'd love to hear about 'em!
Charter's the dominant cable provider. They're okay. Decent bandwidth (40/4) on the standardish tier and that seems to get upgraded silently every couple of years or so. Evening contention varies. People downtown seem, anecdotally, to have more reliability problems than ones further out. The DSL packages tend to offer crappy downstream by comparison.
Mobile coverage is... variable, because of the terrain. You can find yourself going from a strong signal to nothing and back in relatively short distances. Verizon's still usually the best if you're towards the edge of the city limits or out into the county, and glancing at coverage maps, that applies to Bent Creek as well, but the only sure-fire way to tell is to invite people who use different providers over for your housewarming, and see who has the best signal.
posted by holgate at 2:53 PM on June 5, 2013
Mobile coverage is... variable, because of the terrain. You can find yourself going from a strong signal to nothing and back in relatively short distances. Verizon's still usually the best if you're towards the edge of the city limits or out into the county, and glancing at coverage maps, that applies to Bent Creek as well, but the only sure-fire way to tell is to invite people who use different providers over for your housewarming, and see who has the best signal.
posted by holgate at 2:53 PM on June 5, 2013
In West Asheville - welcome to the neighborhood, drive slow - there is no Time Warner. There really are only Charter cable internet and AT&T DSL. They both pretty much suck in differing ways but I think the price (sucky, way too high) is more or less the same. I have Charter and so does almost everyone I know. I haven't had bad connection issues with them, just the usual ridiculous billing and service screwups. FYI they respond well to the hashtag #chartersucks on Twitter but that might be the only thing they respond to. Argh. Anyway, Charter essentially has a monopoly and that doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon, alas.
There is a local provider who is gaining traction but you have to be in line of sight somehow and I am not, so I can't remember their name. If you want to learn more, join the West Asheville Watch Facebook page and search there for a similar question - actually, you might want to do that regardless of cable. They are mostly a nice group of people except when they get staggeringly paranoid and weird - the last time they did that I quit the group, hence the lack of a direct link. But for a newcomer I think they would probably be a great resource.
As far as phones, I have Sprint and have even gotten bars in the middle of Bent Creek, so I swear by them but holgate is right about the mountains messing things up unexpectedly. You just will learn to more or less deal with it. It's the same as the weather - if you don't like that or the cell coverage, walk half a mile. They'll both be different.
posted by mygothlaundry at 5:34 PM on June 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
There is a local provider who is gaining traction but you have to be in line of sight somehow and I am not, so I can't remember their name. If you want to learn more, join the West Asheville Watch Facebook page and search there for a similar question - actually, you might want to do that regardless of cable. They are mostly a nice group of people except when they get staggeringly paranoid and weird - the last time they did that I quit the group, hence the lack of a direct link. But for a newcomer I think they would probably be a great resource.
As far as phones, I have Sprint and have even gotten bars in the middle of Bent Creek, so I swear by them but holgate is right about the mountains messing things up unexpectedly. You just will learn to more or less deal with it. It's the same as the weather - if you don't like that or the cell coverage, walk half a mile. They'll both be different.
posted by mygothlaundry at 5:34 PM on June 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks, all!
I've seen some other positive references for Sprint mobile, so I think I'll give 'em a try.
Time Warner doesn't turn me away when I enter my address on their website... are they just toying with me? Are they in Asheville, but not all over? Because I've also seen some bad comments on Charter, and I'd be willing to pay for better service.
And yes, I'll drive slow! BTW, what's up with that crazy section of Patton Ave? It seems like you have a nice, simple 4-lane highway, that suddenly becomes a free-for-all killzone for a couple of blocks. I was driving around in a rental car and thought I entered some Mad Max hellscape. Cripes.
posted by sutt at 6:48 PM on June 5, 2013
I've seen some other positive references for Sprint mobile, so I think I'll give 'em a try.
Time Warner doesn't turn me away when I enter my address on their website... are they just toying with me? Are they in Asheville, but not all over? Because I've also seen some bad comments on Charter, and I'd be willing to pay for better service.
And yes, I'll drive slow! BTW, what's up with that crazy section of Patton Ave? It seems like you have a nice, simple 4-lane highway, that suddenly becomes a free-for-all killzone for a couple of blocks. I was driving around in a rental car and thought I entered some Mad Max hellscape. Cripes.
posted by sutt at 6:48 PM on June 5, 2013
You mean Malfunction Junction? Where Patton crosses the river it also becomes part of I-240 and another highway as well, and pretty much everyone needs to get in a lane that's 3 lanes away where they started from. It's enough to make you stop shopping at Earth Fare (almost). You get used to it, but there are constant accidents. The state was going to separate the traffic flow there a couple years back, but the two potential plans were A) bulldoze a black neighborhood and B) put a loud stacked interstate next to a yuppie white neighborhood. The ensuing controversy made everyone nostalgic for a simple free-for-all killzone.
posted by rikschell at 8:50 PM on June 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by rikschell at 8:50 PM on June 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
You mean Malfunction Junction?
Though it could just as easily mean the junction with Leicester Hwy or the bit past Haywood or any bit between. I don't miss driving on Patton.
I've never known anyone in/around Asheville with Time Warner cable: most have Charter, a few have AT&T. The locally-owned line-of-sight alternative that mygothlaundry mentioned is almost certainly Skyrunner. I know a few businesses downtown that use them, but nothing about their residential service. No harm in asking them whether it's feasible where you are.
posted by holgate at 10:12 PM on June 5, 2013
Though it could just as easily mean the junction with Leicester Hwy or the bit past Haywood or any bit between. I don't miss driving on Patton.
I've never known anyone in/around Asheville with Time Warner cable: most have Charter, a few have AT&T. The locally-owned line-of-sight alternative that mygothlaundry mentioned is almost certainly Skyrunner. I know a few businesses downtown that use them, but nothing about their residential service. No harm in asking them whether it's feasible where you are.
posted by holgate at 10:12 PM on June 5, 2013
The state was going to separate the traffic flow there a couple years back, but the two potential plans were A) bulldoze a black neighborhood and B) put a loud stacked interstate next to a yuppie white neighborhood. The ensuing controversy made everyone nostalgic for a simple free-for-all killzone.
And that plan? It's baaaaaack, complete with historic black neighborhood in the heart of West Asheville destruction and all. Yeah, the whole thing has been a massive clusterfuck since day one and it continues to be horrific. Given the current climate in Raleigh vis a vis Asheville (I believe the exact words were ERADICATE! ERADICATE!) I think we may actually see it happen in our lifetimes. This is not good news.
posted by mygothlaundry at 4:20 AM on June 6, 2013
And that plan? It's baaaaaack, complete with historic black neighborhood in the heart of West Asheville destruction and all. Yeah, the whole thing has been a massive clusterfuck since day one and it continues to be horrific. Given the current climate in Raleigh vis a vis Asheville (I believe the exact words were ERADICATE! ERADICATE!) I think we may actually see it happen in our lifetimes. This is not good news.
posted by mygothlaundry at 4:20 AM on June 6, 2013
Response by poster: You mean Malfunction Junction?
Yes, that's exactly it. Man. I basically picked a lane, stuck with it, and decided I'd navigate from wherever I ended up. And decided it was not a good day to die.
I'm curious about Skyrunner, but have doubts about its uptime (maybe it's not an issue, but my innate bias is to prefer a physical cable over a broadcast). I'll be working from home, so it's gotta be a pretty robust service.
posted by sutt at 5:01 AM on June 6, 2013
Yes, that's exactly it. Man. I basically picked a lane, stuck with it, and decided I'd navigate from wherever I ended up. And decided it was not a good day to die.
I'm curious about Skyrunner, but have doubts about its uptime (maybe it's not an issue, but my innate bias is to prefer a physical cable over a broadcast). I'll be working from home, so it's gotta be a pretty robust service.
posted by sutt at 5:01 AM on June 6, 2013
Skyrunner is very service oriented. They have showed up in minutes when I had trouble.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 8:05 AM on June 6, 2013
posted by Mr. Yuck at 8:05 AM on June 6, 2013
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ATT has incredible coverage in the South because they bought Cingular.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:30 PM on June 5, 2013