Cord-cutting, or canceling your cable TV subscription, has become increasingly popular. More and more Americans use paid streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon for watching TV. Less than half of U.S. households (46%) still use cable or satellite TV services, and only 14% regret switching to streaming.
Streaming is popular because lets you watch what you want and when you want—no more need to schedule viewing or fuss with with DVRs. Streaming can also save money because you are not forced to an expensive bundle of hundreds of TV channels when you only watch a few. Most households that have switched to streaming will report that their television experience is better than their previous cable TV subscription.

Cutting the cord and switching to streaming TV services can also save money. Many households save $50 per month or more, depending on what streaming services they use.
In the early days of streaming services, it was often difficult to get local news and live sports, but that has changed for the better. Streaming services like YouTube TV, Philo, Paramount+, Peacock (CBS) and other streaming services make it easy to get the same local content that was available with a cable TV subscription.
An inexpensive digital TV antenna (about $30 on Amazon) is also an easy way to get local channels (and no monthly fees). Web sites and services like the free What to Watch simplifies finding what is offered by the various streaming services.

If your home has a fiber Internet connection, watching your favorite TV program becomes easier than ever; the buffering delays are gone, and the picture quality can be noticeably better. And the fiber modem is smaller, simpler, and more reliable—no more having to reboot your cable Internet modem. And if you need a voice telephone landline, a fiber-based phone line can cost as little as ten or fifteen dollars a month. And the fiber Internet connection is usually symmetric—equal upload and download speeds, which is not available with the old-fashioned copper-based cable Internet service. The symmetric fiber easily supports multiple video conferences (e.g. Zoom) and multiple TVs at the same time.

Best of all, fiber Internet increases the value of your home by as much as $5000 to $7000 dollars.

Summer's right around the corner, and so is our lightning-fast Fiber Internet! Say goodbye to lag and hello to a smooth connection all season long. Check now to see if our fiber is right around the corner from you! https://wideopen.servicezones.net/Blacksburg

Happy New Year! In 2024, we're thrilled to announce that WideOpen Blacksburg is expanding into new neighborhoods, bringing lightning-fast, fiber-optic internet to more households. Our team will be working diligently to make this a reality, and we're committed to providing you with the best service possible. Thank you for choosing WideOpen, and here's to a year filled with seamless connections and improved online experiences.

Best Regards,
The WideOpen Blacksburg Team

Consumer Reports recently reported that 84% of their members in March 2022, agreed that Internet service is “as important as water or electricity.” National surveys mirror those numbers with the latest number there being an April 2020 survey showing 80% of all surveyed consumers saying the same thing.

With the importance of Internet services clearly established in most people’s minds, the two questions that beg for answers are how much should you pay for your Internet connectivity and how much Internet should you get for that money.

Consumer reports also published a study on November 17, 2022. It was based on the analysis of 22,000 Internet services bills. They found that “the median cost of high-speed Internet service was $74.99 with nearly half of households paying prices between $60 and $90 per month.”

They also found that it was hard for people who bundled services to actually tell what they are paying because many companies would rather you not know exactly what you are paying so you cannot comparison shop. All this comes at time when the FCC is planning to require what have been called Broadband Nutrition Labels so that you clearly understand what you are getting.

At WideOpen, we are ready for the labels. We already have very clear, easy-to-understand pricing. You will find our pricing displayed on our homepage. On that page along with our pricing are the speeds which will be delivered to your router through our fiber. To find pricing and speeds on the first page is actually fairly rare in the world of Internet pricing.

As part of my job at WideOpen, I also help other communities understand the broadband challenges that they face. One of the first things we deliver to them is a service provider report which details the pricing and speeds available by zip code by provider. I would estimate that less than one in ten Internet service provider of the many that I have surveyed have detailed speed and pricing information on their first page.

Some service providers will not give you pricing without an exact address. They often cloak this in “we have to know your location to make sure we are providing services there” which sort of makes sense except I have had customer service reps tell me they keep the information hidden because they charge different prices in different neighborhoods.

For those service providers who are reluctant to put their pricing on the web, I have to call and talk to a customer support representative. That kind of situation put a consumers at a real disadvantage. Because the only thing in writing would be your notes.

Even then companies can be very vague on speeds and what costs are included. On a recent call I was told, “We just estimate those extra fees. You will see the exact number on your first bill.” Then there are the special discounts that disappear and result in radically higher prices after the first year. Some of the stranger fees masquerading as government fees are there just to pump up the company’s bottomline.

Still I was totally surprised recently when I was told on the phone that the price that I would pay for Internet service would increase $10 a year for the next three years which did not match what was on the web. Sorting out which was right would not be fun.

None of those things happen when you choose WideOpen Blacksburg’s fiber. Our pricing has no gimmicks and the speeds that get delivered to your router are the speeds that we advertise.

Anyone with a technical background will tell you that the speed that gets delivered to your computer has a number of variables included whether your computers have a wired or wireless connection. Some routers are not as efficient in handling high speeds. While I am not on the WideOpen Blacksburg Network , I am on a fiber network in North Carolina where I live. A router swap made a huge difference in my network speeds.

My theory on how much broadband you need, is to budget a specific of money monthly. Then find the most reliable and fastest Internet you can get for that money. I cringe when I see people paying over $200 and sometimes over $300 for bundled Internet, TV, and telephone. I pay far less with fiber and streaming services. You just need to be sensible about the streaming services you use.

Certainly, our symmetric 500 Mbps up and down is right in the sweet spot, $75, or the median cost for Internet connectivity costs discovered by the Consumer Reports study. The difference with our service is that you will actually get 500 Mbps down/ 500 Mbps up, not the much smaller numbers that CR found in their study which included a look at premium services.

Because of the nature of CR study, you cannot draw an exact conclusion on advertised speeds versus actual speeds. However a chart like the one in their report should at least prompt you to run a speed test to see if you are getting close to what you were told you would be getting. Today, at my computer not the router, I tested 936 Mbps down / 939 Mbps up so I am pleased with what I am getting. Are you pleased with your speeds and the price you pay?

David Sobotta
Vice President
WideOpen Networks

1. Page 3- What Consumer Reports Learned From 22,000 Internet Bills.- Dec. 17, 2022

Blacksburg, Virginia, 11/17/2022

If you’re an adult enjoying the last couple of months in 2022, you likely have faced your fair share of technology decisions. Maybe you remember the decision to get your first cell phone or even better, the decision to upgrade your flip phone to a smartphone? Then there is the life-changing decision to completely give up your landline telephone. Haven’t done that yet? There is still time.

The point is that technology changes and there comes a time when we all move to the next technology. Some of us move faster than others. One of the technologies that I championed for years even before coming to WideOpen is fiber. Some of you have our fiber near your homes in Blacksburg but have yet to take advantage of it even as WideOpen Blacksburg continues signing up customers.

I have been in the technology industry for over four decades whether you believe me or other industry experts, fiber is the future for Internet connectivity for homes.

The reason that I can say this so confidently is that even the old line cable and DSL companies are deploying fiber to the home (FTTH). Verizon long ago stopped doing copper-based DSL as did AT&T. Both are now focusing on only fiber. Recently, we started running into Xfinity/Comcast FTTH. Here is what Xfinity says about fiber.

We’re excited to bring a new all-Internet Protocol (IP) technology, fiber-only network known as EPON (or Ethernet Passive Optical Network) to some communities in your area! If your community has arranged for Comcast to build this new network, you’ll have a faster internet connection, with fast download and dramatically faster upload speeds, access to more advanced TV service and a more reliable network.

So the question is why are they NOT offering you fiber in your Blacksburg neighborhood. The truth is that fiber is expensive to build and if they are already getting revenue from you, they are unlikely to invest a great deal more money to get the same amount of money or less from you.

The other truth is that cable companies are very happy to have you caught between a hard place and a rock with no other company offering better, less expensive Internet connectivity. When cable companies are pressed by communities, they prefer to cloud the decision process by talking about speed upgrades to your current copper cable network. Those rarely come to fruition unless there are competing providers threatening to swoop in and take revenue from the incumbent cable provider.

Industry experts such as the CEO of Bell, Canada’s largest provider of Internet connectivity, have thrown some cold water on the idea that the next generation of coax cable technology, DOCSIS 4.0, is going to solve the upload speed problem for coax cable providers.

The CEO of Canadian operator Bell became the latest to cast doubt on DOCSIS technology’s ability to compete over the long term. His comments came in response to a question about whether Comcast’s recent multi-gigabit DOCSIS demo has Bell concerned that cable players in the country might be able to put up more of a fight against fiber than originally expected.

Bell’s CEO Mirko Bibic argued the trial was conducted in a lab environment – not in real world field conditions. From Bell’s perspective, it still doesn’t see a true path to multi-gig symmetrical speeds using DOCSIS.

“The true symmetrical DOCSIS path is quite unclear, and it’s going to take a while. And even then, I don’t think they’re going to come close to our upload speeds, and it’s going to be an expensive proposition either way,” he said. Bibic said that means operators have to choose: swallow the cost and deploy fiber or make an expensive investment in DOCSIS that has an uncertain payoff.*

To put the final nail in the coax coffin, on November 15, as part of our consulting business we talked to a cable company in another part of the country looking for help. They need help because they have recently been awarded a grant to build 141 miles of fiber and they have also decided to upgrade all of their copper coax connections to fiber.

Actually, the coax-cable coffin has room for one more nail. After realizing that there were no pieces of coax cable in my equipment closet that I could haul out for a picture, I went looking. I went to Walgreen’s which had a wall full of HDMI, Ethernet, and USB C cables but no coax cable, I tried and also struck out at our local Food Lion. I was headed to Lowe’s Home Improvement when I decided to try Dollar General. They had one coax cable but it was behind the counter. It is probably a good rule that if you only find your cables at Dollar General, maybe it is time to start thinking about upgrading how you connect.

All of this means that fiber is future and you should check to see if our fiber is near your home, and if it is, you have another technology decision to make. Are you ready to move up to the Internet’s gold standard of home connectivity- fiber to your house?

If you still need some convincing that you should be thinking about switching to fiber, try this link about staying technologically ahead of your grown kids, Keeping Updated Just Enough to Stifle Giggles.

Or if you really want a dose of how much fun cable technology updates can be, try this post about the last time I upgraded our cable box in 2018. It was the my last cable upgrade since I am lucky enough to be on a fiber network run by North Carolina telephone company that long ago saw the light so to speak and began the process of upgrading their copper network to fiber.

- David Sobotta, Vice President, WideOpen Networks

*Bell isn’t convinced DOCSIS can deliver symmetrical speeds
By Diana Goovaerts, Nov 9, 2022 Fierce Telecom