High Speed Internet Services
in Grand County, Colorado
This is a short summary of possible high speed services available
in Grand County.
Grand
County Internet Wireless
We have been offering high speed wireless services since 2002.
We cover most of the county including all towns except Parshall.
It is line of sight and must see one of our braodcast points.
We will continue to add broadcast points to cover areas that
will not be covered by other high speed services where possible
or to improve speeds where we currently offer services. Startup
cost is $200 and $50 permonth for the service. Most of our users
see speeds from 150K to 2.2 K both upload and download. we do
not control speeds to end user
Qwest
High Speed DSL offered by Grand County Internet Services
Qwest turned on the first services in Winter Park in April
2005. DSL will be available in limited population areas as they
expand their network.. We provide service starting at $25 per
month. Install charges from Qwest may vary depending upon promotions
and existing telephone services. A DSL modem is required and
may be leased from Qwest or bought for $69.95 including shipping.
GCIS does not charge any install fees if we order the service
for you.
Cable
Comcast started delivering high speed cable internet services
in January of 2005. They do not have services everywhere, but
mainly in the towns of Winter Park, Fraser, Granby, Grand Lake,
and Hot Sulphur Springs and some locations in between. They advertise
4Mb download and 384 upload as standard offering. Standard pricing
without television is $52.95 and 42.95 with cable television.
Installation is $99 for 1 computer or $149 for up to 5 computers
wirelessly connected. For businesses the install fee is $250(see
fine print) and $95 per month and requires a one year contract.
No contract is required on home accounts unless you sign a special
promotion package.
Note all these prices are off the Comcast web site as of 12
Nov 2005.
Satellite
Up until recently, only 1 service Direcway has been available.
on the old Satellites as time went on, the speeds went down.
Download speeds were in the 300K region and upload speeds not
much faster than dialup lines and in some cases worse. Equipment
costs were very high (about $600) and monthly charges starting
now at $60 per month. They now have a new Satellite and a visit
to their website shows upfront costs of $600 for equipment and
installation and $60 per month for 700K download and $70 per
month for 1Megabyte download speed. Upload speeds can be expectd
to be 70 - 100K. a 15 month commitment totals $1500 for home
use . Note that installation in Grand County may be higher due
to travel time and that businesses have higher install and monthly
fees. Business plan requires a 24 month commitment and will total
$3500.
A new Satellite system called WildBlue has been launched.
It has a $199 install with three different speed plans starting
at $50 per month. A one year contract is required. The low price
plan has speeds download up to 512K and upload up to 128K for
home use. Business plans start at $70 per month with same install
costs and speeds at 1MB down and 200K up (the middle plan for
home users). Total committment for home is $1082, and for business
$1342.
CELL Phone
Verizon cell phone services does offer internet services for
any computer which can accept a PC card.Most PC porables have
the slots for these cards (newer Mac portables do not). NationalAccess
is capable of data speeds bursting up to 144 kbps, delivering
average speeds up to 120 to 200 kbps. You may experience slower
data speeds. If you travel to metro areas, many of them can give
you higher speeds but we are talking Grand County. Rule of thumb
is that if you can get get cell phone communications you will
get higher than normal dialup sppeds on normal land lines. Cost
is $60 per month and the card is $99. You must have a 2 year
plan and normal cell service with Verizon. Be aware you cannot
find out about this pricing unless you have a verizonwireless
account and use the web services they offer. Otherwise call them.
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