What is that Status of High Speed Internet for Lowe's
Farm?
Update on U-Verse
In December, the board was advised by our
internal contacts at
AT&T that the entire
U-verse rollout to
Lowe’s Farm is now
complete and that
all homes in Phase 1
and Phase 2 that are
within the distance
requirements to
receive U-verse are
able to purchase the
service. Although
some homeowners in
Phase 2 have been
able to get U-verse
installed in their
homes, the vast
majority of Phase 2
of Lowe’s Farm is
too far from the
VRAD cross connect
box to purchase the
service. Even two
members of our Board
Of Directors
attempted to
purchase the service
because the AT&T
website said it was
available. But when
technicians arrived
to install the
service, they were
advised that they
were too far from
the VRAD box and
that the
availability
information on the
AT&T website for
their addresses was
incorrect. Numerous
other homeowners in
Phase 2 have had to
go thru this same
frustrating
process.
Unfortunately, the reality is that until
technology improves
to allow U-verse to
reach longer cable
distances OR AT&T
decides to provide a
second VRAD cross
connect box in
Lowe’s Farm, the
remaining homeowners
in Lowe’s Farm will
not have access to
U-verse. The Board
wishes they had
better news to
provide our
homeowners in Phase
2, but unfortunately
the Board has no
control or leverage
in this situation.
With the
deregulation of the
cable industry in
Texas, cable and
broadband service
providers can simply
pick and choose
which areas they
want to provide
their services.
Local franchise
agreements, which
used to force
Charter to provide
service in the City
of Mansfield, are no
longer in effect.
So if you live in Phase 2 and don't have access to
U-verse, what other
options do you have?
For television
programming the most
common options would
be rabbit ears or
satellite TV.
For internet access,
there are several
options that the
Board is aware of. Wireless
phone providers (such as Verizon, Sprint, AT&T) offer
broadband access
cards for computers.
Some satellite TV
providers offer high
speed internet
access thru their
satellite dishes.
There are also
several local direct
line of sight
internet providers
(Air Canopy and Cool
Access) who utilize
a fixed antenna on
your rooftop pointed
towards a repeater
mounted on a tower
or structure.
As it’s name
implies, you have to
have direct line of
site from your
rooftop to their
repeater. . Posted
Jan. 16, 2010
U-verse Now
Available in
Portions of Lowe's
Farm
Last week,
AT&T finally
started rolling out
U-verse to Lowe's
Farm which will
provide yet another
level of competition
and options in the
television,
internet, and
telephone market for
our homeowners.
Unfortunately, this
rollout only
occurred in Phase 1
of Lowe's Farm (the
homes between
Woodcrest Lane and
East Broad Street)
and not all of
Lowe's Farm as we
had hoped. We know
this is extremely
frustrating for
Phase 2 homeowners
because this portion
of our subdivision
was built without
Charter Cable
or Broadband.
So when will U-verse
roll out to Phase 2
residents? This is
a good question and
unfortunately the
Board doesn't have a
firm answer. If you
call AT&T, their
standard response is
that they cannot
divulge when U-verse
will roll out to a
service area because
sharing such
information would
allow their
competition to rush
into a market with
discounted
promotions to lock
up potential U-verse
customers. That may
very well be one of
the reasons they
rolled out Phase 1
first, because they
will compete
head-to-head with
Charter
Communications
in Phase 1.
However, working
thru a couple
indirect contacts we
have at AT&T, there
is good reason to
believe that U-verse
will roll out to
Phase 2 residents in
the next 30 to 90
days.
Do we think that
Phase 2 residents
won't actually have
U-verse available to
them? No. During
the summer, AT&T
crews were spotted
in yards throughout
Phase 1 and 2
testing out the
lines and telling
inquisitive
homeowners that they
were there getting
things ready for the
U-verse rollout. We
wish we had better
news to share with
our Phase 2
residents at this
time, but
unfortunately we do
not.
Posted July 27, 2009
|
Q&A on Internet Access in Phase 2 of
Lowe's Farm
One of the most frequent questions the Board of
Directors receives from new homeowners is why high speed
internet service is not available in Phase 2 of Lowe's
Farm (see sitemap below). This page will
attempt to provide some historical perspective for you.
Please check back to this page periodically for any
updates.
When Phase 2 of Lowe’s Farm was developed, cable was not
installed. As a result, homeowners in Phase 2 don’t
have access to cable television and they also don’t have
access to Charter’s broadband internet service like
Phase 1 residents do. How could this have happened?
Here’s my take on this based on previous research. With
the deregulation of the cable industry in Texas several
years ago, cable franchise agreements migrated from the
local level to the state level. The intent of the
legislature was to make competition in local markets
faster and stronger because cable companies would only
need to obtain and statewide franchise agreement instead
of one from each city where they intended to operate.
The unintended consequence is that local governments no
longer had a franchise agreement with which to compel a
cable company to provide cable in new neighborhoods that
were built. Lowe’s Farm and Bankston Meadows (next to
us) are two such neighborhoods.
In 2007,
the Board was told by AT&T that DSL equipment would be
placed near our amenities center and that DSL would be
available for all Lowe’s Farm residents once the
equipment was installed. At the time, we were very
excited that we would finally have a solution for
everyone in Phase 2. Months later, after the equipment
was finally installed we were told that DSL would not be
available to Lowe’s Farm after all due to our cross
connect boxes being too far away from the DSL equipment
that was installed. Rather than invest in the
infrastructure to provide DSL to the Lowe’s Farm cross
connect boxes, AT&T indicated that they would instead
wait until U-Verse rolls out to Lowe’s Farm. The
current estimated date on U-Verse for Lowe’s Farm is
Summer 2009. The Board continues to keep in contact
with AT&T and will relay along any changes to their roll
out schedule.
So what is a homeowner in Phase 2 to do? For
television programming the most common options would be
rabbit ears or satellite TV. For internet access, there
are several options that we are aware of. Wireless
phone providers (such as Verizon) offer broadband access
cards for computers. Some satellite TV providers offer
high speed internet access thru their satellite dishes.
There are several local direct line of sight internet
providers (Air Canopy and Cool Access) who utilize a
fixed antenna on our rooftop pointed towards a repeater
mounted on a tower or structure. As it’s name implies,
you have to have direct line of site from your rooftop
to their repeater which might be difficult if you live
at a lower elevation in Phase 2. Some other common
questions:
Q:
Do the Broadstone Apartments have high speed internet
service?
A:
Yes, the Broadstone Apartments do have high speed
internet service compliments of the equipment that was
installed next to the Lowe's Farm amenities center in
2007.
Q:
Why do some homeowners who live along Crestview have
access to Charter Broadband even though Crestview homes
were built as part of Phase 2?
A:
Homes along the east side of Crestview have access
because Broadband was run in the back yards of all homes
on the west side of Woodcrest when those homes were
built during Phase 1 of Lowe's Farm. Thus, when homes
along the east side of Crestview were built in Phase 2,
those residents could have access to the Broadband cable
boxes that are in the backyards of the homes on the west
side of Woodcrest.
Q:
Can't I file a complaint with the FCC or some other
entity to force high speed internet to be provided?
A:
We are aware that several homeowners have filed
complaints with the FCC regarding the lack of high speed
internet service in Phase 2 and/or that DSL was provided
to the Broadstone Apartments but not to Lowe's Farm.
Our understanding is that the responses those homeowners
received from AT&T or Charter via the FCC complaint
process have been conflicting and/or pointing the blame
elsewhere.
Following are some previous postings which can also be
found in the Lowe's Farm News section of the website.
These postings were on the Lowe's Farm website at the
time we received information from the various parties
and relayed it along to our homeowners.
Written
By Paul Blevins, Lowe's Farm HOA President
Posted September 2008
AT&T Nears Completion
of DSL Project
January 31, 2008 . AT&T has installed a new switching station on our
western property line near the amenities center.
AT&T has indicated it will provide DSL internet
service for all of Lowe’s Farm although AT&T has not
provided us a firm date on when the service will be
available other than to say to look for availability in
the seconded quarter of 2008. Charter has still not
signaled any interest in providing cable service to
Phase 2.
AT&T Announces Plans to
Service
Lowe's Farm with DSL
September 26, 2007.
AT&T intends to offer high
speed internet DSL service to all areas of Lowe's Farm
late this year or early in 2008. AT&T plans
to upgrade that service to include digital
HDTV by the end of 2008. Charter
Communications currently services most of Phase I
of Lowe's Farm but has not committed to Phase 2.
