Internet and TV Service in Moultonborough?
 

Spectrum just raised our bill (again) and we would like to consider other options for internet. Any suggestions for good and reasonable internet service in Moultonborough? (The other threads addressing internet service appear to address areas other than Moultonborough.) Thanks.

If you find another decent provider, please share. Spectrum is awful, and every time I pay the bill, it’s painful. Not all of M’boro has internet service, so we are supposed to be grateful. 🤨

You won't likely beat Spectrum for internet speed. You can try the phone company, they have upgraded their system over the past couple of years, I know some that get 80Meg over DSL. They cover 95% of the town, plug your address in here and see what you can get:

https://www.consolidated.com/residen...order-internet

Other than that, there are satellite providers, but coming from a Spectrum experience, you won't be happy.

I started with Consolidated Communications last January in Meredith. They replaced their old line going from the road to house and give me a large, powerful modem for about $100.

The monthly price is about $51/month for the first two years, and it has enough flow to keep the You Tube-tv flowing very good.

Looks like you can get 25 Meg (if you pay for it) !!! HeeeeHawwww

I have no clue about 25 Meg ...... all I know is I can watch two different tennis matches at the same time, on two different laptops on Tennis Channel and ESPN+ with the Consolidated modem and You Tube tv ..... if I want to! ..... and, may God bless the Social Security Administration!

DSL is OK for some...
 

DSL is cheaper than cable and speeds are a lot faster than they were, but your speed capacity is determined by how far from their roadside switch you are. Some people in M'boro are still getting barely more than 1 Mbps, but many are in the 5-15 Mbps range. For a Netflix or HD YouTube clip, you need about 3 Mbps. With 4K streams, 10-15 Mbps. Think of it like a water supply. If your pump can produce 15 gallons/minute and you consume 3 gallons/minute for each shower, five people can take a shower at the same time before the water pressure slows down. Same with internet. If it is just one device on the net, a 5 Mbps service may suffice. But, if you have smart TVs, several laptops, several people using the net at the same time, things can slow down if you run out of bandwidth. In M'boro, Spectrum cable starts at 100 Mbps, so you would have to be a heavy consumer of data to slow that down. When Elon Musk gets his 12,000 low orbit satellite Starlink up and running, there may be another option - but data rates, data volume limits and cost are still unknown.

Consolidated Communications
 

Spectrum increased our monthly bill (internet/phone/cable) from $110 to $296 in July so we dropped them! We signed up for internet only with Consolidated Communications (previously Fair Point). They partner with DirecTV if you want cable TV too. We bought a Fire Stick from Amazon and will just stream movies and shows onto our flat screen. Our internet bill is $37...we are going to live without cable and be very happy!

DSL is getting better
 

It would be interesting to see which services you subscribed to that jacked up your price so much. My charge for cable TV went up (June to July) from $67 to $82 but the internet price remained the same, so my total bill was about $15 more. Perhaps you are renting a lot of on-demand movies? With your cut-cord streaming strategy, can you get the Patriots' football games? At what cost?

Anyway, the good news on DSL is Consolidated has upgraded equipment in M'boro so that some can get as much as 80 Mbps. That's not Spectrum's minimum of 100 Mbps, but is a lot more than DSL offered before. They've shared a map of maximum speeds per household across the town. About half the town can get 25-80 Mbps, a quarter are in the 10-20 Mbps range and another quarter in the "up to 7 Mbps". Hopefully this will continue to improve.

Can this map be shared with the rest of us, or is it for a few privileged ?

I get my info from people I know.

No -per Consolidated request, the map is not for public distribution, but would likely show up at any public hearing on the topic. The town will use the data to help make investment decisions about broadband expansion. Both the cable and phone companies are willing to enter into private/public partnerships, bringing high-speed internet to areas with low-density development. The goal is 100% availability of FCC defined high-speed broadband.

Sorry my comment being a little terse, I get a little nervous to put total trust in what a government agency does behind the curtains, not meaning to impugn you personally.

Thanks for the PM.

Here is something for the government to work on
 

Time Warner/ Spectrum hasn't replaced the backup batteries on their pole mounted power supplies in a decade. When there is a power failure (like there is now on the length of 109); cable, internet and (cable) phones go down instantly. Those of us with backup power should be getting what we paid for, with proper maintenance.

More importantly, those that exclusively use (cable) phones are denied access to emergency services.

The town can even do this in private, it doesn't matter to me, as long as it gets done. :)

So no regular broadcast channels? No Patriots, no Good Morning America? I can't figure out how to cut the cord if we still want broadcast channels.

Lakegeezer: I get your question, it was shocking to us as well. We had a bundle package with basic cable channels, a home phone and medium speed internet. We had our service placed in vacation mode and when we turned it back on, my first bill was $296. We don't have any premium channels and don't buy any on damand tv. We were informed that we no longer are eligible for the $110 bundle package so we were automatically charged the full price for all three services. We negotiated with Spectrum at that point (July) for a $170 bundle. That still didn't sit well so we cut the cable and now just stream from an Amazon FireStick.

WakeboardMom: we can watch local channels (WMUR & WBZ, etc) news but it is never "live", it is pre-recorded from a couple of hours earlier. We haven't yet explored further into buying Hulu or another streaming App, I believe that would allow us to watch live TV and sports. For now, it is working for us as it is only our vacation home. We like to spend our time there, beaching, BBQing, boating and too often...chores and projects.

Antop?
 

They were promoting these on QVC the other day. Apparently, the signal is coming from somewhere in ME, per the page where you put in your address. Has anyone tried it?

Tried to put in a link, but it looked a bit weird, so I took it out. It's antopusa.com.

Mac

If your lake house is seasonal....
 

If you have a "winter" home somewhere else that has good local broadcast over-the-air antenna reception, you can do what I did.

I have a winter home that gets 26 channels on a large, old, in-the-attic antenna. I purchased a Tablo 4-channel DVR for that home that allows me to not only record everything I receive, but retransmit it to any smart TV in the house or stream over the internet to my lake house. We have about 6Mbps inbound to the lake house via Consolidated DSL. The Tablo records all the shows I want and can stream live broadcasts (such as the Patriots games) with no problem. I've achieved cut-the-cord Nirvana for both locations.