Is Lake Land’or Getting High Speed Wifi?
For years I’ve been trying to keep up to date on internet access in Caroline County. I knew that this past Monday the Lake Land’or Internet Committee was meeting to discuss two options. Today while perusing the Lake Land’or webpage, I found deep on a page, an update that the Technology Committee has chosen Casual Computing as the vendor of choice for Lake Land’or Internet Access. Casual Computing has even setup a webpage already.
The Lake Land’or information is found on the “Useful Information” page:
• Internet Access
Dialup internet service is available from the following ISP with local telephone access points in Bowling Green:
Bowling Green Electronics 633-2069
For those with extended local calling plans that include Fredericksburg, options are expanded to include access to most national ISP’s.
In the near future a local company Casual Computing (804-448-8546) will be providing High Speed Wireless internet service to the Lake Land’ Or Community. They have started a web page to provide Land’ Or residents the info they need about Casual Computing and in the future to be able to sign up for this service:
I’m happy that Lake Land’or has found a provider and is moving toward a solution to the lack of internet access. Happier still that the community page was updated so quickly with the information.
The Casual Computing site for Lake Land’or Wifi says in their FAQ, that they are in the final planning stages with the Community and will have updates in the next 30-45 days and that the timeline for installation is by the end of the year.
What Does This Mean?
Because of the emails that I receive from our blog, I know that some of you are skeptical of Wifi Internet. No, it won’t be as reliable as FIOS or fiber to the door and yes speed and dependability will be dependant on environmental conditions. But compared to what we have now and the lack of other options, this is great news.
I think from my experience researching this issue that Casual Computing is taking a risk here with their investment. I’m anxious to see how all this pans out, and eager to sign up when the service is finally available.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I still think the better option is NWT but I haven’t heard anything more about them since they came to the technology committee meeting a month and a half ago. From doing some research it would seem NWT has a pretty feasible chance in this area since they go out for a lot of the broadband stimulus funds from what I’ve seen and that should help cut down on their infrastructure costs.
Currently we’re a casual computing customer and the service is definitely better then VABB but there is still a lot to be desired. If it rains or it’s windy you’re going to have some pretty poor service. We’re off in the back of our neighborhood and we experience some line of sight issues quite frequently where there is just a ton of packet loss and it can become pretty frustrating. I imagine the LOS issues are only going to be worse there in land ‘or and lake caroline given the dense trees.
Hopefully we’ll hear something soon from NWT. I’m really hoping that this “decision” by the Land’or technology committee hasn’t influenced NWT to look elsewhere because that would be extremely disappointing.
I know of at least 2 different companies that had a plan for a wireless mesh system.The wireless mesh system would have had a fiber backbone which would have provided optimum speed for the short term.The fiber would have been rolled out shortly after.The so called hi speed committe who doesn’t know a walkie talkie from an iphone decided to go with casual computing.I saw them out there with their fire truck trying to gauge los and it was a joke.The tower which they claim would take away form the “beauty” of the community has apparently been approved.I guess it’s ok to put a 200 foot tower up if it’s someone white makes the suggestion.If they were going to go this route the service could have been up 2 yrs ago.The excessive treeline and extreme hill terrain will make it impossible to provide the proper service.You must also factor in the fact that casual computing is a small punk and pop company that has a few hundred subscribers in Belmont.The network they have will be unable to adequately accomodate andother 1500 customer with the amount of bandwidth they have.If they do acquire more bandwidth they will have to raise the prices to compensate for the higher lease cost.This whole thing has been a cluster @!#$ form the start.Rural Broadband put together a flawless presentation and guaranteed service installation within 90 days with no out of pocket cost to the community.As a matter of fact they were going to donate a portion of the proceeds to the hoa for other community projects.
Harry,
It sounds like you have a great deal of knowledge in this area. I wasn’t able to attend the meetings because I was out of town for the few that I knew about. Someone on the committee has been providing updates and they were also surprised that the HOA picked the company that they chose.
I’ve renewed my satellite internet subscription because I think it’s going to be awhile before it all gets sorted out and the feedback from the Belmont folks has been less than stellar.
I wonder how long Verizon or Comcast will dither about before realizing there is money to be made by providing solid service in our community.
If you haven’t already you can read some of the 60+ comments about internet in Caroline County here: http://www.vahomeplace.com/caroline-the-land-that-the-world-forgot/