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It only took 23 years…
.
.
But Casa River finally has fiber optic high speed internet.
.
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When we moved to our house in the country in 2002, the only option was dial up. Anyone out there old enough to remember that screeching nightmare?
The next step came ten years later, but it was only Broadband and if a few of our neighbors were online at the same time? It was buggy and slow as molasses.
When streaming became popular, we were out of luck and I ended up watching shows on my 7 inch cell phone screen. Not great, but better than nothing.
And then Fidium came to town, laying their magical lines and hooking up all us speed deprived residents.
.
.
To be honest, Fidium would not have been my first choice. Their website and apps are shite, full of error messages and links that go nowhere. Their customer service is awful, with wait times of an hour to speak to a human. The installers were supposed to bring a WiFi extender so we could connect the man cave /Barn Mahal tv… but they didn’t.
Is it perfect?
No. But it’s the only game in town ….
.
.
And I can now watch AppleTV on an actual tv!
So it’s progress.
🤣
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River's world..... 
Welcome to the 21st century!! 🙂
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It’s rather nice here, I have to admit.
😉
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I’d go back to perpetual 1994 if I could.
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Dialup… Yup. Remember
Congratulations. It’s going to be easier now heading into long winter months.
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Good timing, for sure.
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I hope your installation goes better than ours did! Ours lasted two days and had to be totally redone. Then they buried the underground line about 3 inches deep – right through my yard.
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So far so good.
As I said, I wouldn’t have chosen Fidium, but it’s literally our only choice.
My husband had to secure the line to our house because the installers left it flapping to the wind.
🥴
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Wow…you were very deprived of internet choices. We have Xfinity, Spectrum and AT&T, which is fiber optic now so it’s the best speed one can get. I’m glad that now you are able to watch Dexter Resurrection on a full size television. And yes, I remember the dial up connections, that screech was horrible. Welcome to the 21st Century River!!
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Maine rural towns have weird laws about cable/internet companies. It’s so expensive to run the lines in the country each company signs an exclusive with the town not allowing competitors in. Our town has Spectrum, but between us and downtown is miles of state protected forest land which can never be developed. It’s a dead zone and Spectrum refuses to cover it. We’re 3 miles from the next town which has Xfinity and they were willing to cross the line but Spectrum said no. We battled it for years to no avail. Fidium is part of Consolidated Communications who currently have the old phone lines so they just piggybacked them.
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Congrats! The options in rural New England were not great when I was there last week. There were places were I could barely get cell service–and forget Wifi!
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When our neighbors get halfway down their driveway they lose service. It’s nuts.
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I was at a cottage where you had service in one room and not another. But the room with the service kept changing…
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That’s even more annoying.
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Trying to explain this to clients and colleagues in LA was probably the most challenging aspect.
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Ah, dialup. I started at 300 baud, ended where we all did at 56k. I remember thick serial port cables and that ubiquitous screeching sound.
I’m not, however, so ancient to have used an acoustic coupler.
But this trip down memory lane has certainly made me feel old…
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I used to do property inspections and received my contracts by fax. Talk about a screecher.
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My kids live in the Bay Area and always have the latest WiFi tech. In Arizona, we’re far enough out that it will be years before we do. I’m glad you’ve gotten improvements though.
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Very happy for you. Lots of times we big city suburbanites take all of our tech for granted. You’re gonna love it!
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After a few issues, we’re enjoying it. Definitely faster than before.
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Wow. Welcome!! I’m so happy for you both! You’ll have so much to catch up on with that gigantic screen. 🙂
Of course I still remember dial up—who can forget that screaching sound, and slow ass everything!
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There was nothing more frustrating than dial-up. I’d be three hours into downloading a Linkin Park mp3 over a questionable file-sharing site only to have an incoming phone call kill that connection.
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Ugh. Yes!
How did we not put a bullet in our heads?
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Because ordering a gun online using dial up would have taken three days.
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True…
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I swear I wrote out a whole comment congratulating you for broadband and complaining about internet connection while in rural New England recently. As always, it’s possible I swore and went to WordPress jail or the cat made an ill-timed jump on the keyboard. Anyway, congrats!
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The dial-up screech was irritating, but revolutionary. Now, we have had Fiber Optic for years, and it is underground. That is important because Hurricanes in Florida tend to target above-ground stuff. Our provider just upgraded us to 500 Mbps at no additional cost, so we only pay $35 per month (no, not a special price teaser) for super freaking fast internet that survives storms.
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We’re paying $77 for 1 gig plus phone service. And yes, I remember living down south where everything was underground.
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