ITCOMO

Fiber to the Premises (FTTP)

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We (should) all know by now that fiber is the gold standard. If you have the choice to get FTTP then there's your answer, full-stop. There are two fiber carriers in Columbia: Brightspeed and Socket.net

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• Brightspeed: Offers symmetric gigabit fiber to the premises. As of this writing, there are no data caps, no modem rental fee, no contract, and no installation fee. Quantum was slowly deploying fiber to more neighborhoods. Time will tell what Brightspeed will do.
  Note: Was briefly known as Quantum, before that it was CenturyLink, and long before that CenturyTel.       Sheesh.
   

• Socket.net: This is a locally owned internet provider. And being local, Socket is (likely) more responsive to local needs. They are actively deploying fiber to neighborhoods in and near Columbia, and around mid-Mo. If you presently cannot get any fiber, then Socket is likely your best bet. If you can get a certain (large) percentage of your neighbors to commit to signing-up for Socket fiber then that'll increase the chances of them deploying to your neighborhood. So put on your best walking shoes, grab a clipboard, and go meet your neighbors!
  
  See the addendum at the end of this article for more on on Socket's fiber deployment in/around Columbia.

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Cable-based

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This is next-to-best for internet service. Cable is much more widely available because the cable companies have been burying cable (for TV service) since the 1980s. The vast majority of addresses in Columbia have cable-based internet as an option from one or both of the major cable TV providers here.

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Both local cable companies offer internet, TV, and phone service. But today, it's mainly the internet that you want. You might want cable TV. There are still advantages to old-school cable TV if you're a couch potato, but those advantages are waning. Forget the phone service. In the event you do want a landline, there are better solutions than getting it from your cable company. I mean, unless they offer it for $5 or something.

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The biggest disadvantage to cable-based internet is speed and data caps. Even though they both offer decent download speeds, their upload speeds aren't great. I mean, it's fine for casual residential use-cases. But if you're a tech geek, online gamer, or a WFH user, then those slow uploads can be painful.

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• Mediacom has the larger foot print of two major cable TV companies.

• Charter/Spectrum is the other provider. There's some overlap between these two but not much.

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DSL

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DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line and is the oldest "high speed" internet option around. I quoted the words "high speed" because it's really an abuse of the language to use those words to describe DSL performance. Most people stuck with DSL are getting maybe 10 to 15 mbps download (very often worse) and 0.5 to 3 mbps upload speed. Yeah, that's pretty bad.

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DSL is a product of "the telephone company". In Columbia, that is Brightspeed as of Oct 2022, CenturyLink before that. The DSL signal rides on the same decades-old copper phone wires that, as I like to joke, Alexander Graham Bell himself personally buried.

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People with DSL (and no fiber or cable option) often live outside the city limits in sparsely populated areas where the cable companies don't want to invest in deploying cable. And without the cable companies providing a competitive imperative, then the telephone company is in no hurry to deploy fiber. Isn't competition grand? The only reason these poorly served areas even got DSL in the first place was because the phone lines were already buried for landline telephone service so adding a DSL signal on top wasn't a huge effort -- and they could charge a princely sum for it.

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If you can't get fiber or cable internet, there may be better options for you than DSL.

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• Brightspeed is the main DSL provider in Columbia.

• Socket.net also offers DSL. Socket was founded in 1994 before cable-based internet become a thing. They offered telephone service and DSL. They still do today. But to remain relevant they wisely realized they needed to become a big (local) fiber player.

 

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Satellite (Geosynchronous)

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The traditional satellite carriers, HughesNet and ViaSat, offer service pretty much everywhere as long as you have a clear view of the southern sky -- no trees or other obstruction. That's their admittedly big (but only) advantage.

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These geosynchronous satellites have plenty of downsides.

 

• Very High Latency: Latency is how long it takes a data packet to travel from your computer to the internet. Lower is better. e.g. Fiber latency is typically 1 ms. Cable latency can be 20-30 ms. But geosynchronous satellite latency is around 240 milliseconds, single-hop (up and down). Twice that if you include the return packet. That's because the satellite is orbiting some 22,000 miles above the earth and the radio waves take that long to reach it. This can negatively impact real time communications like Facetime, Zoom, etc. by introducing lag.
   

• Oversubscribed: This is when there's more users (and traffic) trying to flow through the satellite than what it can handle. This can result in dropped packets, queuing, and other delays.
   

• Low data caps: Because the satellite is a very limited shared resource, satellite operators severely limit how many gigabytes of data you're allowed before your speed is throttled (even more). Limits of 50 to 100 gigabytes per month aren't uncommon. Compare that with 1,000 gigabytes that most cable internet providers give you and the unlimited gigabytes of most fiber providers.

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Satellite (Low Earth Orbit)

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There's a new satellite player that you may have heard of. Starlink, developed by SpaceX, is a constellation of thousands of LEO (low earth orbit) satellites. Starlink satellites orbit at around 340 miles, instead of 22,000 miles. That's about 65 times closer to earth which reduces latency comparable to that of cable-based levels.

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Starlink is initially intended for rural users who have no other good options for internet access. Mid-Mo users that are too far away from Columbia or other towns to have decent internet options may be able to subscribe to Starlink. SpaceX is taking preorders but many areas of mid-mo are still wait-listed as satellite launches continue and equipment becomes available.

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Once it becomes widely available then Starlink could be a good option for rural users.

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Fixed Wireless

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A WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider) provides "fixed wireless" services. This is a long distance, point-to-point wireless connection to deliver a signal to a small antenna on your roof. Typically the WISP will have their main antenna on a tower that can broadcast a signal for a number of miles in the surrounding area.

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WISPs are indicated only when you have no fiber or cable internet options.

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Here's a few carriers serving Columbia. There may be others.

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• iZones

• Quantum Wireless

• Tranquility Internet

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Cellular Wireless

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Similar to WISPs, cellular wireless providers deliver internet via a wireless signal to your (usually) rural home or office. There are some important differences in the service specifics such as data caps, speeds, and costs. If you have 4G or better coverage on your mobile phone at your rural location then this may possibly be a better option than DSL.

 

Some wireless carriers like T-Mobile are offering 4G wireless "home internet" service that could be a decent option for those who cannot get fiber, cable, or DSL. The downside is that cellular wireless is usually derated (has lower priority) on the cellular network than do mobile devices. That means it gets whatever bandwidth is left-over after any mobile devices connected to the nearby tower are serviced in any given instance in time.

 

Sometimes these wireless plans advertise no data caps but somehow fail to mention a "soft cap". That's when your service is throttled for a period of time, usually until the next billing cycle begins. You'll really never know the true performance of this solution until after the system is installed and you've had a chance to use it for a while.

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Cellular "home internet" such as the T-Mobile offer is not an equivalent replacement for a physical connection such as cable or fiber. The reason is simple. There's far less capacity* in the wireless radio spectrum than over a wired connection. T-Mobile and others have been advertising this service as a panacea. And as more and more people sign-up, the service will slow down for everyone as the cellular network becomes saturated with traffic. Data caps (soft or hard) will be enforced and speeds lowered.

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In short, I only recommend this if a wired-solution is unavailable or if the only wired solution is slower DSL (less than 5 mbps).

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* Capacity doesn't mean how fast your individual performance metrics are. It refers to the ability of the network to simultaneously provide that level of performance to a large number of subscribers. e.g. Your water faucet may output fast enough to fill a bucket in, say, one minute. But if everyone on your street turns on all their faucets at the same time, that one-minute fill might turn into five minutes or maybe ten. That's what we mean when we say "capacity" relating to telecom.

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Pirate Access

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This is an non-endorsed, ad-hoc way to get internet access from a collaborator/friend who does have decent internet access. Perhaps your home or business is on the wrong side of a county road or just outside the coverage range of the providers in your area.

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By setting up a wireless bridge (a type of point-to-point wi-fi), your lucky internet-having friend can beam a signal to your premises. Hardware is not that expensive, distances can be considerable (several miles) and performance can be pretty good. There's no extra cost beyond the hardware itself. There are some downsides and considerations to account for -- but it is an option for the adventurous and desperately disconnected.

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Redundancy with Two Providers

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Some businesses and WFH users simply cannot tolerate any loss of internet access whatsoever. Several hours or a full day(s) without internet access may cost such businesses thousands of dollars in lost opportunity, paying employees who cannot do their jobs, and upsetting customers.

 

A fairly cheap insurance policy is subscribing to two different ISPs and using an auto-failover router to switch between them depending on availability. If one goes down, the other picks up the load almost immediately.

Most developed areas have two or even three delivery options to choose from. You might have fiber as a primary and a cable-based offering for the backup. If fiber isn't available, then your primary might be cable with DSL as a backup. Even cellular could be a backup.

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Over the years we've seen increased deployment of fiber. But alas things don't move as fast as I'd like to see. There's a number of reasons for that including political interference, monopolistic practices, and good old-fashioned corporate greed.

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Addendum: Socket Fiber Deployment

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Socket is actively deploying fiber to neighborhoods all around Columbia and surrounding areas.

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But due to the costs involved with fiber deployment, Socket will only consider bringing fiber to a neighborhood if it makes sense financially. And one of the key metrics for that is how many homes will commit to subscribing. If Socket has already pre-qualified a neighborhood and is just waiting for a certain level of commitment to proceed then by all means someone living in said neighborhood should take charge, form a committee, talk to the neighbors, and get the necessary commitments to proceed.

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Sales data reveal that homes with fast internet options, mainly fiber, sell for a 3.1% price premium on average than homes without. So for a home valued close to the median price of $300,000 (in CoMo, as of this writing), that's a nearly $10,000 bonus for having fiber.

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That's worth keeping in mind if your neighborhood only has DSL or worse internet options. If you live in a "proper" neighborhood (one with a decent number of homes on several streets) that only has DSL available then you really should lobby Socket Internet to bring fiber to your neighborhood.

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There are many people, me included, that simply will not buy in a neighborhood lacking fiber -- it's that important. Having gigabit fiber internet was a key decision in our choosing the home we're in today. Good internet access isn't a luxury, it's a requirement today.

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