Oops! Where’s the application?
RST Fiber from Shelby remains committed to installing and providing high-speed broadband internet with a fiber cable network in Wake Forest, but it appears their application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to cross the Neuse River – a distance of 300 feet or so with permission already granted to use Duke Energy poles – is missing.
The application may be in the Corps’ Wilmington office or maybe not. The crossing will be made, when approved, near the newly completed bridge below the dam on Old Falls of Neuse Road.
The rest of the initial infrastructure is complete, and Tuesday night the Wake Forest commissioners agreed to a utility easement to allow RST to install “a mobile electronics enclosure building” on a lot at the corner of East Jones Avenue and South Taylor Street next to the Wake Forest Police Department’s metal storage building.
Meanwhile, CenturyLink is installing fiber cable high-speed internet in some new Wake Forest subdivisions. The company apparently began in Traditions and has moved east to Bishops Grant which is next to two developing subdivisions, The Reserve and Kings Glen. Those installations and possibilities are from observations.
Following are the questions and answers CenturyLink provided:
Is the service provided via fiber cable?
CenturyLink is providing 1 gigabit service to some homes and businesses in the area using fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology. Thisprovides eligible customers with fiber right to their home or business, allowing them to receive consistent speeds up to 1 gigabit per second.
What speed or speeds are offered and what is the pricing?
CenturyLink is offering speeds up to 1 gigabit per second in some locations. Many residential and business customers outside the 1 gigabit footprint may be eligible for Internet speeds up to 40 and 100 Mbps. Residential customers, located in areas where 1 gigabit speeds are available, can subscribe to 1 gigabit service for as low as $79.95 a month when bundled with other qualifying CenturyLink services. Business customers should contact CenturyLink at 800-201-4102 for pricing information.
What neighborhoods or subdivisions in and near Wake Forest are you currently serving?
Fiber-to-the-premises technology will be deployed in all new subdivisions where CenturyLink provides communications services. This will give customers access to symmetrical upload and download broadband speeds up to 1 gigabit per second. Customers are encouraged to visit the local Wake Forest retail store at 14111 Capital Blvd. or call 919-554-2445 to determine availability in their area. Business customers can call 800-201-4102.
What neighborhoods or subdivisions in and near Wake Forest do you plan to begin serving in the next two years?
CenturyLink is offering speeds up to 1 gigabit per second to customers in some housing developments and neighborhoods throughout the Wake Forest area. We expect to continue to launch the service in additional neighborhoods and developments in the coming months but are not disclosing those locations at this time.
Do you have plans to extend the service or make it available to all parts of Wake Forest in the foreseeable future?
At this time, we do not plan to make gigabit services available to every existing neighborhood in Wake Forest. We also are not the communications provider in most of the Heritage subdivision and only have plans to build in future phases of Heritage. We do expect to continue to launch the service in additional neighborhoods and developments throughout Wake Forest in the coming months but are not disclosing those locations at this time.
Will you add other services — TV, telephone?
CenturyLink offers residential and business voice services, data services, cloud solutions, and home security service in locations where gigabit speeds are available. Many customers in the area also have access to PrismTM TV service.
What is the level of participation you have in the areas you currently serve?
We do not disclose the number of customers who subscribe to our services.
Do you have a threshold level of participation requirement before you begin service in an area? What is that threshold point?
We expect to continue to make investments where economically feasible. CenturyLink is most interested in partnering with municipalities that demonstrate a willingness to cooperate in the fiber deployment process and will consider expansion in areas where we receive positive community support, competitive parity in the marketplace and the ability to earn a reasonable return on our investment.
One Response
Has anyone performed any due diligence on RST Fiber in terms of existing residential customers, RST’s funding and financial resources, the relevant experience and expertise of their management team, satisfaction of existing customers (if there are any)?, etc., etc. They appear to be very good at publicity and press releases, but are they actually good at providing a quality service to existing customers? I would be very interested in learning the answers to these questions before the citizens of Wake Forest get too excited.