OT-Anyone getting internet from their EPA?

[PCHSDawg]

We got DEFastlink thru Dixie Electric PA and it's impressive. Advertised 1GB speed, unlimited for ~$90/month. I believe Dixie Electric was the guinea pig EPA but I'm curious if other EPA's are offering it. It was a culture shock going from Verizon hotspot to fiber optic.

 

[Cooterpoot]

Not yet. But it's coming eventually I hope. They're using a contractor and they're adding people in the most populous areas first, so I'll be last. Not really costing the EPA much of anything because it's all done with USDA grants.

 

[PCHSDawg]

Not yet. But it's coming eventually I hope. They're using a contractor and they're adding people in the most populous areas first, so I'll be last. Not really costing the EPA much of anything because it's all done with USDA grants.

Luckily for me Ovett was the first area, maybe because there are zero options outside of satellite and cellular. Still took 4 months longer than they forecast to get us hooked up, but it was definitely worth the wait.

 

[PineGroveBully]

I’ve had it through TEPA about a month, first high speed I’ve ever been able to get. I’ve got the basic package, 59.99, I’m at about 295mbps both up and down.

All I had was a cspire hotspot that I was doing good to get 3mbps. That was a good day.

 

[kired]

I’ll soon have options of Comcast cable, tombigbee electric and cspire fiber.

Honestly the cable has served me well, fast enough for what I’ve needed. I’m finishing up a 2 year introductory price plan this month. It’s about $15 cheaper than tombigbee. Figure I’ll ask Comcast to hold that price or I’m switching.

No clue what cspire is doing. They are a good bit higher than tombigbee so not sure why anyone would use them. But I’m glad to have the options / competition

My parents are on northeast power near Lafayette county and it’s been awesome for them.

 

[DoomSlayer]

I’ve got an uncle that has it through TCEPA and it works great. $80 a month total, no modem rental fees and they’ve got two signals. One is faster with less range and the other is the opposite. My phone connects to the slower one when I’m there and I’ve never had any issues. He told me it works great and he’s had zero outages.

 

[PCHSDawg]

I’ve got an uncle that has it through TCEPA and it works great. $80 a month total, no modem rental fees and they’ve got two signals. One is faster with less range and the other is the opposite. My phone connects to the slower one when I’m there and I’ve never had any issues. He told me it works great and he’s had zero outages.

Only outage I've had is when the power went out, as soon as the lights came back on the internet was on.

 

[Eleven Bravo]

No way. Our local EPA (Magnolia Electric Power Association) in southwest Mississippi board of directors voted against offering it due to “lack of interest” among members. This is complete ********-cheap bastards are stuck in the 1950’s and are too backward and ignorant to do it. Simply put, they don’t want to spend the money. Everybody I talk to wants it and needs it. Meanwhile, those of us stuck out in the sticks with no Internet are screwed-and people wonder why our schools suck and industry doesn’t want to locate here. I think MEPA was one of only a couple of EPA’s in the state who thought it wasn’t important. Shaking my head at their ignorance..

 

[Xenomorph]

We got service from our EPA back in November. I get 970 mb up/down everyday for $79.99. It’s a dream.

This is my wifi just now standing about 50 feet from my router.

View attachment 21286

 

[bigiron.sixpack]

4-County Fastnet. $80/month for 1GB. We are getting >270 mbps downloads over WiFi and over 300 mbps uploads with the equipment 4-County provided. Life changer for living out in the woods.

 

[Xenomorph]

Pontotoc EPA voted against it too so they missed out on the federal funds last fall. I would campaign against every one of those board members.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

From what i've heard, rural broadband averages around $25k/mile, but federal funds pay for most of it. We're served by entergy, so none for us. Waiting on Starklink.

 

[$altyDawg]

I imagine Tallahatchie Valley EPA is probably at least a couple years out from where I am. I'm hoping for ol' Elon to swoop in with his low orbit satellite solution to help me get by until fiber is offered in my section of the boondocks.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

The infrastructure bill that passed the Senate other day dedicated $65 billion to broadband. $45 billion specifically to providing access to rural areas that don't have access currently. Private, public, and non profits are all eligible for the funding. As I understand it the funds will be distributed to each state no later than180 days after the bill is signed into law.

I think the hiccups will occur at the state level, time to find of any state legislatures are greased up with the non profit utilities and cut out private companies.

Long story short, "It's Coming" and you should have broadband somewhere between 12 months and 27 years.... Lots of government in the way. Starlink is probably in your future.

 

[dstatechamps]

Pontotoc EPA voted against it too so they missed out on the federal funds last fall. I would campaign against every one of those board members.

I work for Tombigbee EPA. It has been mentioned that when we finish our build out that we may also end up serving Pontotoc's area. With the broadband, neighboring co-ops can pick up your area if your co-op isn't. At least that is how it was explained to me. Nothing definite, but it is a possibility.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

That upload speed gives me a little chub. Impressive.

 

[johnson86-1]

No way. Our local EPA (Magnolia Electric Power Association) in southwest Mississippi board of directors voted against offering it due to “lack of interest” among members. This is complete ********-cheap bastards are stuck in the 1950’s and are too backward and ignorant to do it. Simply put, they don’t want to spend the money. Everybody I talk to wants it and needs it. Meanwhile, those of us stuck out in the sticks with no Internet are screwed-and people wonder why our schools suck and industry doesn’t want to locate here. I think MEPA was one of only a couple of EPA’s in the state who thought it wasn’t important. Shaking my head at their ignorance..

It's not a slam dunk. They will have to spend a good bit of money to do it and then the concern is that they will be undercut by cellular or satellite options and be stuck with debt for infrastructure that is not competitive. And there is also the concern with maintenance. If you run it overhead on poles, you have the same maintenance issues as current power lines, but their current linemen can't splice it together as easily. And then there is the very Mississippi (or I guess Southern) problem of people shooting birds off wires. Not sure how big of an issue that is, but that is one of the headaches I've heard, is that an electrical wire catching a pellet is usually not going to cause a problem, but the fiber catching a pellet does cause a problem.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

That's the most good ole boy **** I have ever heard. "Well Mr. Johnson, we would love to run high speed internet to your home, but the damn Bennett boys across the holler are known for shooting crows off the wires. And we can't risk it."

If I remember my Mississippi correctly, and I believe I do, the first time someone did that in an area that has waited 20 years for high speed internet... Well the most fearsome posse in a century would form to hunt the bastards down.

 

[johnson86-1]

I work for Tombigbee EPA. It has been mentioned that when we finish our build out that we may also end up serving Pontotoc's area. With the broadband, neighboring co-ops can pick up your area if your co-op isn't. At least that is how it was explained to me. Nothing definite, but it is a possibility.

Are ya'll running the fiber on a cost based rate? Or are they going to charge market and try to make margins and apply it to capital credits and/or reduce utility rates?

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

I just checked the address on a farm we have west of Arkabutla and it said it was eligible for TVEPAs fiber internet so maybe you won’t be long from getting it. And this is in the middle of nowhere.

 

[johnson86-1]

That's the most good ole boy **** I have ever heard. "Well Mr. Johnson, we would love to run high speed internet to your home, but the damn Bennett boys across the holler are known for shooting crows off the wires. And we can't risk it."

If I remember my Mississippi correctly, and I believe I do, the first time someone did that in an area that has waited 20 years for high speed internet... Well the most fearsome posse in a century would form to hunt the bastards down.

Well, you don't know your Mississippi apparently because that's exactly what did not happen. I think you could probably educate the public enough that it would be greatly reduced in a relatively short period of time, but you're not going to be able to stop it anymore than you can stop rednecks form shooting stop signs or throwing beer bottles at them.

Now maybe that's not a significant enough problem that it should stop utility companies from investing in it, but utility companies tend to be conservative (not in the political sense). Cooperative boards probably more so than utilities in general. When a utility in Mississippi starts investing in broadband and decides to sell it and abandon the project and loses a few million dollars on its investment, then other boards in the same state are going to take note, particularly TVA distribution cooperatives, for which a few million is actually still real money to many of them and will get a CEO fired, not just a rounding error like it will be for most electric utilities.

And many cooperative boards still remember enough history to remember when electric distribution cooperatives got engaged in other sure fired money makers, like natural gas distribution and water and sewer services and lost their ***.

 

[$altyDawg]

I'm hopeful they'll start construction before the end of the year in Yalobusha county, but we'll see. I talked with someone this past weekend and unfortunately heard more "er uh's" and excuses than I did anything promising. I'm geared to wait for a couple more years, if at all in my area.
I'm counting on Elon coming in and saving the day for me by the end of this year.

 

[msstatelp1]

I live about 3 miles from the Northcentral EPA offices in Olive Branch and have no idea when they will be offering service, if ever. My neighborhood has been bypassed by CSpire, ATT, and all other companies offering fiber in OB. Newer and more expensive neighborhoods to our north, south, east, and west have fiber.

 

[Cooterpoot]

My question to you guys that have it. Are you paying the EPA for the service, or another internet company. Is it billed with your power bill or separate?

 

[Ellisville Dawg]

Luckily for me Ovett was the first area, maybe because there are zero options outside of satellite and cellular. Still took 4 months longer than they forecast to get us hooked up, but it was definitely worth the wait.

Really glad to hear you say this. I’m on the east side of Ellisville and we’re supposed to be hooked up next month. Comcast is terrible out our way.

 

[o_Hot Rock]

I am expecting to get four county within the next 4-6 weeks at my Webster County place and I can't wait. I am currently using a streaming service through cell towers that cost $100 a month for 200 gb with downloads speeds ranging from 5-25mbs. I am expecting unlimited data at 250mbs from the basic package from 4cty for $60 or so. I may even have another option becasue C-spire has flags in my ditch put up for cables. I should get real internet soon.

I have another place in Union County serviced by New Albany Power and Light, they won't be offering it because it is a city owned utility and not an association. I was told they weren't given funds since they weren't an association. I am struggling up there just using a c-spire hot spot with limited data.

 

[DawgsOnTheWing]

This made me remember that I had participated in a survey for high speed internet conducted by Yazoo Valley EPA several months ago. So, I hit the YVEPA website and they had a letter posted, see link. Basically, they hired a firm to conduct a study on the feasibility of providing fiber optic gigabit internet to all subscribers, with fiber optic being located on their existing overhead lines. The study revealed that it was not economically feasible due to YVEPA being a low-density market. To their credit, YVEPA continue to search for other avenues to provide internet service. They discovered and joined the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), a FCC grant program that basically conducts a "reverse auction" for service providers to bid for grant money. Unfortunately, YVEPA was not a low bidder. The letter identifies the winning bidders in the YVEPA service area as NexTier Consortium, Space Ex Tech Corp, and Connect Everyone, LLC. These apparently will be either satellite or fixed-wireless, with little fiber optic. Was glad YVEPA made a run at fiber optic to everyone, but understand how it turned up to be non-feasible. YVEPA area covers lots of area with little population.

http://www.yazoovalley.com/content/broadband-service-report

 

[PCHSDawg]

My question to you guys that have it. Are you paying the EPA for the service, or another internet company. Is it billed with your power bill or separate?

My light bill is from Dixie Ele., the internet bill is DEFastlink and is billed separately.

 

[Mjoelner]

I'm going to when it's available but, according to the 4 County map, everyone around me will have it by this spring and I'm in a bubble not slated to get it until 2023. In the meantime, guess I'll upgrade my Verizon hotspot package to be able to stream a little.

Here is a good link to use to pick the streaming service you want:
https://www.suppose.tv/tv

 

[PineGroveBully]

Same for me, ours is a totally different office

 

[garddog]

EMEPA set up a sister co-op to the electrical company. They are sharing some resources from what I have read. They are on Facebook and have a lot of information out there.

They service rural Lauderdale, Kemper, Noxubee, and Winston counties. They started with areas that had no service outside of satellite.

It is not to our area yet, but we will switch. No sense in not supporting your local co-op. From the ones that have it already, nothing but positive reviews.

Any area co-op that doesn't grab this free money and build it, should have all board members replaced.

 

[dstatechamps]

Are ya'll running the fiber on a cost based rate? Or are they going to charge market and try to make margins and apply it to capital credits and/or reduce utility rates?

You are asking questions I don't know the answers to. lolz.

The way I understand it, we aren't trying to make a mint here. Our base service is $54.95/month for 100 mBps symmetrical and $84.95/month for 1 Gig symmetrical. No install costs, no rental fees, no contracts, etc. That's not supposed to change. There are other ways to make cash off it other than our members internet access. A co-op can lease "dark fiber" to customers. Say a company had several locations they wanted to network. They could pay us to use fiber that we weren't using to directly connect those locations.

One co-op we visited in Missouri was using internet revenue to fund, I believe 35% of their electrical operating costs. I don't know if there was a trickle-down effect to decrease power bills, but I could see where there might be. That said, we would have to get our install paid off before that could happen. I read where someone said it was all government funded, but it's not. We have received some grants, but not nearly enough to pay for the thing. Our feasibility study projected a 15-20 year pay back, but that is dependent upon what our take-rate is.

We hope to have our build-out complete by early 2023.

 

[dstatechamps]

EMEPA set up a sister co-op to the electrical company. They are sharing some resources from what I have read. They are on Facebook and have a lot of information out there.

They service rural Lauderdale, Kemper, Noxubee, and Winston counties. They started with areas that had no service outside of satellite.

It is not to our area yet, but we will switch. No sense in not supporting your local co-op. From the ones that have it already, nothing but positive reviews.

Any area co-op that doesn't grab this free money and build it, should have all board members replaced.

The internet portion is treated as a separate company. The way the law was written the internet part can't be funded with money from the electrical co-op side, but the money can flow from the internet back to the electrical. Not sure why. May be because the electrical co-op is a non-profit and the internet company isn't. I'm not up on the accounting, but we (electric) own the actual fiber. We lease space in that fiber to the internet side of things.

There is money out there to be had, but the process to get it isn't as simple as just grabbing it. We applied for a handful and came up with nothing on some, got some on others, but it isn't nearly enough to cover the thing. Not by a long shot. Our board decided to move forward, but the financial commitment to do it was certainly substantial enough to give them pause.

 

[garddog]

Here is a good read for EMEPA. I would imagine most are set up the same, but maybe not.
https://www.eastmsconnect.com/frequently-asked-questions/

 

[oxfordrebel22]

Are ya'll running the fiber on a cost based rate? Or are they going to charge market and try to make margins and apply it to capital credits and/or reduce utility rates?

Reduce utility rates.