We live between Caldwell and Snook on 166 in Burleson county. Needing some thoughts on internet providers both good and bad, particularly Zochnet?

I have Airplexus out of Caldwell, I live here near Lyons. Great service and reasonable $.

Lived in same area about 3 years ago. I had wildblue satellite internet, worked fine
I didn't want a big antenna on my roof

Had Skybeam and a horrible experience. Went to TexComm and was mostly happy, they sold out to Skybeam and the connectivity crashed the next week, speeds slowed... Switched to Brazos WIFI and am quite happy thus far.

I have been dealing with Verizon for years. They are truly horrible. Their DSL/phone services were recently bought by another company. I'm going to give them about 6 mos to clean up their act or will look to alternatives. Western Brazos County alternatives are appreciated.

DB, what kind of speeds are you experiencing from Brazos Wifi ?

Getting spikes of 9mbs with about 6mbs sustained down and close to 4mbs up. That's slow for many, but awesome out in the county for what I pay and twice the speed of Skybeam. Well enough that we're streaming TV for my kids while I'm uploading client photos and surfing the web with no issues.

We're just west of Snook near FM60, and the Tx Comm to Skybeam switch was seamless. Not happy about the change, but so far so good.
Can't blame Skybeam for the lightning strike last week that took out their Snook transmitter
Airplexus users all seem happy, just not sure of their coverage area.

I live in between cooks point and caldwell with skybeam and agree with whoever above said that speeds slowed down once the change was made from tex comm. I pay for their 3 mb down speed and I used to get that all the time and sometimes as much as half a mb over, now I'm usually in the 1.5-2 range and I test my connection every week or so.

Im just out of the range of air plexus, I wish Brazos wifi would expand out our way instead of east of B/CS. Still its better than satellite internet so I guess I shouldnt complain too much.

A buddy of mine has been using WireStar and loves it so far, you should see if they service your house.

Every one of you needs to go to Brazos Wi-Fi's webpage and do their speed test, and let them know that you want service out in Burleson county.

Get your neighbors to do the same. If there is enough people out here, he will probably look into it.

Meeting with Wirestar tomorrow.

It's only a matter of time before the one or two not complaining about Skybeam join the list of those of us that have realized they're an awful company. I've said it several times but as long as they work it's fine but once it goes down their service is just terrible. Good luck. If I were you I'd have another service at least selected. It's just a matter of time.

Does Wirestar have a webpage? I found one just not sure it is the right outfit.

I'm out in the general area and unfortunately excede sat is the best option at the moment for me. I would pay good money for a better ISP to cover that area.

http://www.wirestar.net/services/residential/high-speed-adsl2-internet

So I'll probably end up calling that wirestar sometime next week anyways, but I wanted to ask: even though DSL just needs a phone line, they usually only hook it up in neighborhoods right? I dont think it would be profitable if they were to run service out to just one or two people here and there in the country....

Also I didnt see it earlier but the OP's question about zochnet: I have a buddy over in Paige that has it and likes it a lot. Very stable and good speeds so h'es had no complaints switching from satellite. But you over on 166 wont be able to get it, right now they only service Lee and bastrop counties right now, and the western side of Burleson county catches a little bit , so I'm not sure why they advertise off of 21 before you even get into Caldwell if you are coming from B/CS unless maybe they are going to expand our way.

Think Wirestar is a great option where they are available but that is very limited. Looks like you are about 12,000' from the RSU if there you are directly homed off the one on Whites creek. Likely part of the problem with your existing DSL, and while ADSL2/VDSL is better at distance this is still long in the tooth. And not sure the there is any CoLocation available in any of the Verizon/Frontier RSU's in this region, typically there isn't.
Know a person that is further out than yours who's job is completely internet based and they seem to have survived.
I suspect its going to be wait for Frontier to get going, an existing WISP to decide to cover that area or build your own. I'm not sure why some of the rural water supply coop's have not undertaken this.

Zochnet actually services Caldwell for sure....they provide internet services to the Pecan Grove apartments in town across from the hospital.

So, how did the wirestar meeting turn out?

As some predicted, we have joined the "Skybeam sucks" crowd. How a company could undo TX Comm very respectable service in such a short time is incredible.

I'm surprised to see no mention of Texas Broadband. We live in the Independence area and are very happy with the price, service, and speed considering our location. Their website shows Burleson County to be within their service area. Texasbb.com

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I'm surprised to see no mention of Texas Broadband. We live in the Independence area and are very happy with the price, service, and speed considering our location. Their website shows Burleson County to be within their service area. Texasbb.com

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Can you go to speedtest.net and run a test during peak hours (evening)? I would love to know what upload and download speeds you are getting.

Not sure if it is available on the side of "the country" but we have Excede. We replaced HughesNet with Excede feel like Excede is better. We also have a AT&T MiFi hotspot that works well.

Because we have a lot of tree cover where we are located, I was told the best option would be to construct a tower on site. I wast told by someone at CEO net that they could shoot a signal to our tower that would be substantially fast.

I'm not sure that legit that is, but you would have a large upfront cost.

Any one have any experience constructing towers?

Oops, clicked post too soon.

We put up about a tower every other week for our customers. Shoot us an e-mail and we can get some prices together for you.

Thanks,
Jim

Just got a letter today the skybeam is now Rise broadband. Soon, I'll see improvements in connectivity and speed!!! (Their words not mine). And there's already a different website to go to, I just set up my payment info a month or two back on skybeam's website.....

I've been on Texas Broadband for about four years, since Skybeam bought Wixon Wireless and trashed it. It's hit and miss. I've got a good relationship with the guys at CEO and if they ever get a tower that hits my rooftop I'll switch but where I live terrain features make that an issue.

Texas BB is fair, not bad but not great. Part of their problem in BCS is the location of their tower they use for this area. It's across the river and a few miles away which is a long way for a signal to travel. Peak hour speeds aren't great, probably 60% of max. But I work from home and am connected to remote servers throughout much of the day and generally speaking it's fine. I do keep a Jetpack as a backup and have to use it every now and then.

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Just got a letter today the skybeam is now Rise broadband. Soon, I'll see improvements in connectivity and speed!!! (Their words not mine). And there's already a different website to go to, I just set up my payment info a month or two back on skybeam's website.....

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Rebranding for no real reason tells me they've figured out that their name is terrible. Now let's see what they do to fix that problem. Other than change their name, of course.

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Just got a letter today the skybeam is now Rise broadband. Soon, I'll see improvements in connectivity and speed!!! (Their words not mine). And there's already a different website to go to, I just set up my payment info a month or two back on skybeam's website.....

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PTTS rebranded to TS a few years ago but they're still horrible...don't hold your breath, Skybeam is the worst ISP I've used since 1995.