Most of Adams County Ohio has Access to High-speed Internet

SolTerra Communications is located in Adams County, Ohio, one of the most rural areas in the Buckeye State.  Obtaining affordable high-speed internet hasn’t been easy for many Adams County residents, but over the past year high-speed internet access has become available to most of the county’s residents.

According to information published by Connect Ohio, an organization devoted to improving internet access across the state, 88.24% of Adams County residents have access to high-speed internet.  Although that percentage is much lower in the rural regions of Adams County, most of the county can connect to networks with speeds of at least 3 Mbps to download data and 2 Mbps to upload. (See chart below for broadband providers in Adams County.)

Access to a network doesn’t guarantee reliability, competitive pricing or a choice of internet service providers.  Although internet availability has increased significantly over the past few years in Adams County, some areas have only one carrier, and a few areas still have no access.

Internet access is crucial to American society in the 21st century.  The way we learn, communicate and conduct our business all relies on our access to reliable and fast internet connection.  This is every bit as important as was access to electricity several decades ago.  It’s imperative that internet access reach all communities in Adams County so that the region doesn’t slip further behind the rest of the state in economic development.

DSL connections require customers to be no farther than 18,000 feet from a "switching" station.  Fiber-optic cables involve laying hundreds of miles of cable underground through rolling topography.  And wireless signals are often relayed from mountain tops so they don't reach down into the valleys below.  Getting broadband through a satellite is an option, but is considerably more expensive, offers limited service, and is many times unreliable.

Beyond the large-scale technological and economic challenges that all providers face when they are looking at expanding broadband service to more rural areas, Connect Ohio continues to promote high-speed internet coverage by providing research statistics and the knowledge of exactly where broadband coverage lags to the broadband industry with the hopes of expanding coverage.

                                                                                                                        Broadband Providers in Adams County 

April 1, 2014
COUNTY	PROVIDER	PROVIDER DOING-BUSINESS-AS NAME	PLATFORM	END USER	WEBSITE	MAXIMUM DOWNLOAD SPEED	MAXIMUM UPLOAD SPEED
Adams	AT&T Mobility LLC	AT&T Mobility LLC	Mobile Wireless	Both Residential/Business	http://www.wireless.att.com/	10 Mbps – 24.99 Mbps	3 Mbps – 5.99 Mbps
Adams	Cellco Partnership and its Affiliated Entities	Verizon Wireless	Mobile Wireless	Both Residential/Business	http://www.verizonwireless.com/	10 Mbps – 24.99 Mbps	3 Mbps – 5.99 Mbps
Adams	Frontier North, Inc.	Frontier North, Inc.	DSL	Both Residential/Business	http://www.frontier.com/	25 Mbps – 49.99 Mbps	3 Mbps – 5.99 Mbps
Adams	Hughes Network Systems, LLC	Hughes Network Systems, LLC	Satellite	Residential Only	http://www.hughesnet.com/	10 Mbps – 24.99 Mbps	1.5 Mbps – 2.99 Mbps
Adams	Skycasters	Skycasters	Satellite	Residential Only	http://www.skycasters.com	6 Mbps – 9.99 Mbps	1.5 Mbps – 2.99 Mbps
Adams	Southern Ohio Communication Services, Inc.	SOCS Wireless	Fixed Wireless	Residential Only	http://www.socs.cc	3 Mbps – 5.99 Mbps	1.5 Mbps – 2.99 Mbps
Adams	Southern Ohio Communication Services, Inc.	SOCS Wireless	Fixed Wireless	Business Only	http://www.socs.cc	10 Mbps – 24.99 Mbps	3 Mbps – 5.99 Mbps
Adams	Spacenet, Inc.	StarBand Communications	Satellite	Residential Only	http://starband.com/	768 Kbps – 1.49 Mbps	200 Kbps – 767 Kbps
Adams	The Ohio Bell Telephone Company	AT&T Ohio	DSL	Residential Only	http://www.att.com	10 Mbps – 24.99 Mbps	768 Kbps – 1.49 Mbps
Adams	Time Warner Cable Inc.	Time Warner Cable	Cable	Both Residential/Business	http://www.timewarnercable.com/	50 Mbps – 99.99 Mbps	3 Mbps – 5.99 Mbps
Adams	ViaSat, Inc.	ViaSat, Inc.	Satellite	Residential Only	http://www.wildblue.com/	10 Mbps – 24.99 Mbps	3 Mbps – 5.99 Mbps

 

Which state has the fastest internet speed? The winner is...

With an average speed of 13.7 Mbps, Virginia ranks the fastest internet speed, according to  Savingadvice.com.  Alaska comes in last place with an average speed of 7 Mbps.

Green represents faster Internet speeds, while red shows slower service.

A consumer’s exact internet speed takes into account factors such as location of service use, the broadband provider, the condition of the computer, the amount of computer memory, the programs running, add-ons, spyware, and viruses.

Broadview Networks created a map (see above) that shows which states have the fastest and slowest internet service using data from Akamai's "State of the Internet" report (PDF) released in June 2014.

According to Akamai, if a state has an average speed higher than 10 Mbps it counts as having "high broadband."  In all, 26 states achieved this status.

Akamai's report also looks at internet speeds around the world.  South Korea has the fastest service with an average speed of 23.6 Mbps.  The US ranks No. 10 worldwide with an average speed of 10.5 Mbps.

iWatch?

It appears that Apple has all principal players  lined up to make the i-Watch a reality and if the rumors are true, according to techradar.com,  it may be introduced at WWDC 2014  in June, but probably will not be available for sale to the public until September. The possible cost is yet undetermined, but a strong competition is already expected.

While nothing is definite, there is some speculation that the iWatch will come with a ramped up version of Siri and Maps. It may also be able to monitor a user's health or daily activity and other options are still being considered. So Watch for the iWatch!

More at http://www.techradar.com/us/news/portable-devices/apple-iwatch-release-date-news-and-rumours-1131043#articleContent .

Flash-Burn: Apple vs. Adobe

For years Apple and Adobe have been at odds over Adobe’s Flash Player.  You cannot natively view flash animations on Mac iOS, which includes iPhones, iPods and iPads.  What is at the root of this disagreement?  Apple says it’s a security issues.  The late Steve Jobs released a statement in April of 2010 laying out these reasons and citing Adobe’s software as “buggy”, “unstable” and “no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content”.

These stiff words were met with lots of criticism, with many of those critics accusing Apple of locking out Adobe to keep a grasp on their share of the app market.

You can read more details on this interesting debate here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_and_Adobe_Flash_controversy

Google Drive’s one deep …

Spring is just days away.  Soon the smell of grass clippings with be in the air, the sound of ball and bat will ripple across hundreds of ballparks around the world, but first Google decided to hit one out of the park on Monday.  DropBox offers 100GB of storage for $9.99, SugarSync  boats a full terabyte of space for $55/month, and Microsoft’s OneDrive offers 50GB for $25 per year.  Then Google began offering a terabyte of online storage for just $9.99 per month.

This is a significant swing and miss for Google Drive’s competition.
Check out this article at TechCrunch for more information.  http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/16/with-its-massive-price-cut-for-drive-google-goes-on-the-offensive/