Internet Service in Liberty Hill/Leander, Texas

Off course to maintain tomzap.com, I have to be connected to the internet and that hasn't always been easy. I live in the country where there is no cable or DSL.

Dialup:   At first I just had a dialup connection. That's what most people had in the early days. Web pages were simpler and making them load reasonably fast with low bandwidth was one of the main criteria. There are still people who just have dialup and I keep that in mind when designing pages. That is why you will find few images on upper level pages. Most of the images are together on lower level pages where they can be easily avoided if bandwidth is a problem.

ISDN:   I finally upgraded to an ISDN line through Southwestern Bell. This process took 6 months and hours on the telephone either on hold or actually talking to an idiot. At one point I was billed for service. I called and said I did not yet have service. I was transferred to a technician who tested the line and confirmed that my ISDN service was working normally. I just kept repeating, "They have not run any wires to my house. I do not have service." That's how it went. I did finally receive service and about all I can say is that it is faster than dialup, but expensive.

Wireless:   It is now called "WISP". This is internet service via land-based radio. This was a big step up with speeds initially somewhat less than DSL but much better than ISDN. I forget who the first provider was. It worked fine until he just left town with no notice and that was the end of that. Then we got PrismNet. PrismNet was really more interested in selling business solutions, building web pages, etc. But to do that their customers needed internet access so they built a wireless network. To reach me, the signals come from Austin and are radioed to a tower in Pflugerville, then to Georgetown, then to Liberty Hill, then to me. So it's not the most reliable connection. A storm will often take out one of the transceivers and we have to wait for the weather to clear and someone to climb a tower and make repairs. PrismNet got tired of it too and divorced themselves of this hardship and we were suddenly Incredinet customers. Initially there was slow service and continued outages. According to Incredinet, PrismNet had not left the system in the best of repair. After a couple of years Incredinet did manage to achieve a reliable high-speed system rivaling a DSL connection. The cost is $50/month. In October 2010, a legal dispute arose between Incredinet and PrismNet with the result that PrismNet took over the system, uncerimoniously announcing to the customer that we could either pay them or be shut off. The deal was offered without field service of any kind. The PrismNet plan appears to have been to collect monthly customer fees for as long as the system was operable while attempting to sell off to someone else.

Finally in November 2010, one of the Bertram customers formed a company, A-N-F Internet, and purchased the customer base from PrismNet. PrismNet still provided the T3 connection by radio link with towers in Pflugerville, Georgetown, Liberty Hill, and Bertram. In February 2011, problems developed with the Liberty Hill and Betram towers. PrismNet tried unsuccessfully to fix their system but ultimately A-N-F had to secure the rights to that portion of the system and purchase new equipment to establish dependable communications. PrismNet continues to provide the T3 connection to the Georgetown tower so we are dependent on PrismNet competence to maintain that segment of the connection.

Wireless Internet Providers in the Leander/Liberty Hill Area:   There are actually multiple wireless internet service providers in this area. It is complicated though because it is difficult to find out who they are. There is no list really unless you search very thoroughly on the internet. Plus, they come and go, merge, transfer, and are generally just hard to get a handle on. So here is what we have as of February 2011 as far as I can tell:

• Western Broadband   A local company that has been around for years and appears to offer reliable service. They serve many rural communities and offer web hosting services as well. For $50/month you only get 1Mbps download and just 256Kbps upload. For $100/month you get 2Mbps downloads but just a slight increase in upload speed to 384Kbps. They have added WiMAX equipment that can provide 3Mbps down/1Mbps up. They are 2.4Ghz with no plans to offer higher frequencies or speeds.
• Cobalt Broadband   The company went backrupt in 2011 and became Skybeam. They serve many areas and have been aggressively expanding, resulting in a sprawling customer base of numerous isolated nodes with varying levels of reliability. They have been the only one to really advertise in this area which they did by posting signs along the roads. I think they got a lot of customers that way but initially the service was described as "oversold" in this area and there were frequent outages and slowdowns. It appears to have overloaded the 2.4 GHz band in this area which has caused a problem for other providers trying to use that frequency. Bandwidth was not regulated and you got whatever the system could provide at the time. I tried them for a month and they were faster than PrismNet (my provider at the time but now defunct as a wireless provider) but there were more times when there was no service at all so I stayed with PrismNet. I have a report that their service is improved. Some Cobalt customers remain unhappy as evidenced by the web site Cobalt Broadband Sucks.
• ERF Wireless   Offer wireless internet service in several states. They have advertised service in Bertram but do not serve Leander with wireless service. They appear to be focusing on commercial customers now. (800) 538-9050.
• A-N-F.net   This company stepped up in November 2010 and purchased the PrismNet radio distribution system in Liberty Hill and Bertram. ANF is based in Bertram, TX. 512-355-2223. They no longer get their T3 feed from PrismNet but have fiber optic directly serving the Liberty Hill and Betram radio towers. They are using 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz frequencies. I am located 8 miles from the tower and have been getting interference on the 2.4 GHz frequency causing the service to be intermittent. A-N-F recently switched me to 5.8 GHz which is not as crowded. I can now get a maximum data rate of 25 Mbps download and 13 Mbps upload at this frequency.

Conclusion:   Overall, I am pleased with wireless radio service. The providers tend to be small and local (with the exception of Cobalt) and you can call and talk to a person most times. There are problems from time to time and it is still a developing business model so there may be surprises and changes to come. It appears that radio service will be able to compete with cable and DSL perhaps not just in rural areas but in municipalities as well.

| Top of page | Main index | Search | What's new |

---

The Pacific Coast of Mexico www.tomzap.com Tom Penick:  tom@tomzap.com