Fiber to the Home

[hemicuda]

Our local EPB has started rolling out fiber. They completed the infrastructure a few years ago and are now planning to have the first residential customers connected by late '08. In 3yrs they project 80% of the area will have the service available.

Finally... some well-needed competition for Com(mie)cast and Broken-Service(AT&T). The EPB is a "community-owned" company. I just hope their prices are reasonable. A video clip from their site claims 50+MB (yes B not b) transfer speeds. No info on whether it's sync or async rates yet.

EPB FTTH

[gminnick]

hemicuda,

I noticed you are also in Chattanooga, TN. I am new to SageTV. I had a tuner many years ago and used a program called Showshifter, but then moved up to Comcast DVR and have not done anything since. I decided to scale down to basic cable when I read that Cable companies must provide local HD channels in their basic package. However, I am getting many different answers to that comment from Comcast while trying to troubleshoot a problem. I have the Hauppauge 1600 and SageTV and can get all local HD channels except ABC. I was wondering, since you are in Chattanooga also, if you have this problem? I did a scan and checked every channel (except I did skip over many of the 62-xx channels since they seemed to be music channels) and cannot find ABC HD. And since you commented on EPB, I had called EPB and they said they do not use QAM for their broadcasts so was wondering if you have heard how EPB works and if they will have tuners available for that.

Here are the local HD channels I do get and their channel

79-1 WRCB (NBC) HD High-Definition TV
79-3 WDEF (CBS) HD
61-1[90-61-1] WDSI (FOX) HD High-Definition TV
53-2[90-53-2] WFLI (CW) HD High-Definition TV

Thanks,
Gary

[hemicuda]

I've heard clear-QAM service in Chatta-nowhere can be segmented based on your exact location, but that info is sketchy. I don't know if it will help any, but here's the scn and frq files I use w/ my 1800. You will of course have to rename them appropriately for your card. I'm getting 130 channels w/ music and ABCHD (WVTCDT)

Before Andy steps in I'll say that if you use those you do so at your own risk. And that I haven't run a scan in several months so they may be out of date a bit or may not even work at your location. I was going to PM this but the option didn't pop up.

I haven't checked further into EPB. They have managed to make service available where I work, but no one has jumped on it yet. They'll make a heck of a mess getting it in my neighborhood; all underground utils. Good luck.

[gminnick]

Thanks for the quick response. I will look over these files and see what I can find out. I lost NBC HD tonight so something odd is going on. I finally spoke with someone in tech support at the local Comcast and he assured me I should be getting local HD in QAM with the basic package and he said they may have to check my signal out. I think I have talked to 10 people at Comcast and only 2 have admitted that local HD is available with the basic package and they were techs. Anytime I talk to someone else I don't get that response.

[hemicuda]

Tier 1 support typically doesn't have a clue as to which end is up. Occasionally I find someone claiming to have "knowledge" behind the counter, but even that's rare.

[mistergq]

hemicuda:

This looks identical to FIOS I have with Verizon. If so, you won't be disappointed. The quality is unbelievable. The internet is the best.

I now have FIOS Internet for my business at my office. I am trying to get the people I sublease with to split the cost with me, because I cannot use all that bandwidth with just a two person operation!

[reeven]

In Romania(UE) there are 2 big net companies, one of them, RDS, give 100mbs at 15$/month, unlimited downloads.
And 50mbs at 9$.
Plus free wireless net, with an usb modem.
Plus free mobile phones and normal phone.
10 years ago i was at 16kb at the same company, 50$/month.