Byte by Bite

Faster Internet a Highly Sought After Utility

by Marv Dealy

Reader Ed Fernandez wrote at length, saying in part: “I was surprised to hear that Mark Thornton had not responded to the letter signed by 90 of his constituents in the Curtis Creek Ranch Area. For years I have felt that the Curtis Creek Ranch and Lambert Lake Estates (and now Whispering Woods) subdivisions face common challenges and should maintain an open line of communication. I’ll bet we could have doubled the signatures on this letter!”

“If the county wants to increase its tax base and create jobs that increase cash flow into the county we must have the infrastructure to promote this goal, including high speed Internet access. I know of several people who have moved out of the county to conduct their business because of limited high speed Internet access.”

“Would it not be legal and practical to impose a requirement that all new construction whether residential or commercial provide high speed Internet access? Would this not impose extreme pressure by the developers on SBC to provide such access? Would the county issue building permits if there was no source of water, electricity or phone service? Why not include high speed Internet access?”

Well, Ed, your idea to include high speed access for new construction might cover that part of the problem but what about existing homes and businesses who are closer to Dogpatch than the Emerald City in terms of Internet availability.

Writes reader Monty Youngborg: “I live in Apple Valley and my normal dial-up speed is 4.8 Kbps. I need to disconnect and reconnect over 10 times to get over 20 Kbps. Tony Seidel (a friend of mine) should not feel too upset if he can get 26.5 Kbps.”

Monty continues, “I’ve been a Mother Lode Internet customer for about 6 years. They told me we should have DSL by the end of 2005. On January 5th, they told me it would be “soon.” SBC doesn’t even have us on the list to get DSL. I would like to be given the straight story. Keep on pushing.”

You folks out there lucky enough to be located where your home or business is geographically eligible for high speed Internet need to take a moment and think about what Monty is saying here – his Internet connection speed is about 60 times slower than your DSL connection speed. If you’re working on a T1 or better at your office, you’re surfing at around 310 times the speed Monty “enjoys.”

The Wild Blue (www.WildBlue.com) satellite that I’m having installed on my office in Big Oak Flat (should be up and running by the time you read this) is expected to give me around 1.5 Mbps down and 256 Kbps up. Faithful readers will remember the problems we’ve endured over the past 14 months with the T1 line at my office. Well, a couple of weeks ago I pulled the plug on the thing and sicked Paul Bunt, Esq., on the phone company who is still trying to collect $500 a month for the thing, even though it was wholly unreliable, bouncing around like a Mexican jumping bean.

We’ve overseen the installation of a Wild Blue satellite and associated network and guest hotspot access setup at the San Jose Family Camp on Highway 120 near Yosemite Park. The system is working so well that, as I mentioned, we’re going to give it a go. For those of you unwilling to wait for the phone company, our politicians, or the skies above to “do something” you might want to consider this setup.

Monthly fees start at about $50, the equipment is barely under $300, and there’s a special on installation through March of about $80. Speeds range by what you’re willing to pay per month and range from 512 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps down and from 128 Kbps to 256 Kbps up.

Don’t call me about the satellite; our closest dealer is Blacksheep Satellite Systems in Georgetown and their phone is 877-203-1884. Ask for Trish and tell ‘em I sent you. It won’t save you a dime and it won’t make me one either, but from personal experience I know you’ll enjoy talking and working with her. I’m so impressed with the overall setup that we’re having young sidekick Jason Niedens trained to become an official Wild Blue guy so there’ll be some local help when the inevitable hurricane blows through.

Back to the mail bag. From reader Sandy Nies, recently retired Fire Captain from the Groveland CDF fire station: “There are two other options for high speed Internet access that you didn't mention in your article, but neither one of those is mature yet either. The first and most likely to fill the gap is going to be access through the cable systems.”

“I attended a ‘workshop’ with the Comcast cable representative, and she admitted that Internet access could be part of the new agreement with the county of Tuolumne, which is in the negotiation phase with Brent Wallace as the representative for Tuolumne County. Being a close friend of Mark Thornton, and also a member of the Board of Supervisor's Public Safety Committee, I have made my desire to have Internet access included in the new agreement with Comcast well known to both Mark and Brent.”

“If you can add any juice to this effort, please do so. I think the cable Internet access scenario is our best hope, but Brent needs to hear that from more than just me. Comcast will no doubt offer other new technologies, like the pay-for-only-the-channels-you-want-to-watch model (which Comcast didn't want to admit they could) so Brent may have to pick and choose what will be in the new contract. And by the way, the last contract was for 20 years, so we need to get what we want the first time.”

Sandy continues, “The other possibility for broadband is ‘wireless.’ Sonnet and Goldrush both offer this now, but the cell tower ordinance is killing them. Hopefully this will be changed with a change in the ordinance, but it will still take time to put up towers and transceivers.”

“I live directly below Sonnet's antenna and still can not get a signal because I am below the azimuth of the antenna. Goldrush's antenna is on Fowler Peak which I can see from my house, but their people refuse to contact me about service. I was told at one time that they could provide service to my location, but haven't been able to get a reply from them since.”

Sandy, I hear your frustration about local ISPs communications problems (so to speak). And Monty, your plea for someone to tell you the straight story without embellishments or the use of words like “soon” sounds like a clarion call to gather pitchforks and torches and prepare to march on something or other.

I think Sandy’s right that our best hope is the cable systems for fast Internet. Matt Ashe has said it often and best: “wire is better than wireless.” As Sandy wrote, Brent Wallace needs to hear from as many as possible who could benefit from Comcast providing broadband Internet through their system while negotiations are still going on. Call him at his office at 533-5511 or e-mail him at cao@tuolumnecounty.ca.gov. If you’d like to contact other County Folks, the staff is all listed at the Tuolumne County web site (http://portal.co.tuolumne.ca.us/psp/ps/TUP_ADMIN/ENTP/h/?tab=DEFAULT).

I’d also like to take this opportunity to point out there is a second cable system in the County, not operated by Comcast, that (were anybody in charge) could also provide fast Internet, this time to the good voters in South County. I understand that the current owner of this system would give it away to the first comer, but it seems that white knight’s appearance is about as likely any time soon as further development at The Scar along Highway 120.

Finally, reader Ritchie Christianson of Columbia e-mails: “When I was at my folks place in Southern California December 22 I was checking news articles on Google News and under the technology section was an article from the Union Democrat by Marv Dealy. Just in case he doesn't know it let him know his article was good enough to make Google News. I really enjoy his articles and find them very helpful and easy to understand. His article in today's Union Democrat on lack of high speed access was excellent.”

Thanks Ritchie – you made my Mom’s day.