Internet service in the foothills (Lenoir, Rutherfordton: homes, buying, homeschooling)

[knit2purl1]

As we are continuing our research into buying property in about a year, we are trying to narrow down our area of interest. We love the area especially from Rutherfordton all the way to Wilkesboro, but must have good internet service - probably cable or fiber. Since we want to be rural on a few acres, it is more challenging. Finding out coverage without a specific address in mind seems like a state secret, but I did find this map showing availability of fiber internet (on what I believe is a competitor's site, so I did a screenshot).

Does this seem accurate and current to you? That internet connectivity (at least fiber) is much better around Wilkesboro than south of there? Any words of wisdom about improving service in other areas? I can already tell you that Hughesnet and Viasat are not being considered.

Many thanks in advance!

[GarnetAndBlack]

Wilkes Communications overlaid the entire copper network with fiber, I believe. They have pushed FTTH hard. The map is accurate in that aspect.

[knit2purl1]

Thank you for your reply. With all the talk of upgrading internet service for rural areas after the homeschooling and zoom meetings need the past two years, I was hoping there would be signs of that happening.

[GarnetAndBlack]

Skyline/SkyBest is more focused on the northwest corner and Johnson County TN but if you are in one of their service areas you’re also likely to be on fiber. They are expanding beyond their legacy copper footprint and installing fiber in new service areas as well.

[cowboy_wilhelm]

A lot of counties and municipalities are pursuing grants for the federal dollars to expand broadband infrastructure, but that will take years to implement from application, review, awarding, and final build-out. Keep in mind that "broadband" may mean as slow as 25 Mb/s download speeds in some areas.

Many areas probably have fiber on the phone poles or in conduit covering long distances, but you will probably find very few service areas that provide fiber into the home. The fiber backbone does seem to greatly improve reliability over copper.

I would focus on areas you know have cable. If you can get cable, you can get at least 200 Mb/s. Surprisingly, when searching my parents' address in Polk County, Spectrum offers up to 1 Gb/s cable speeds, so things are definitely improving. If you can be within a few miles of a town and off of a sorta "main road" and still find your minimum acreage and be rural, you will likely have decent internet. If you're on a gravel road that's off a road that's off a road that's off a road, you'll never have good wired internet.

And if you have the money, the providers will run cable/fiber/whatever to your house. I heard of someone that was also in Polk that didn't have internet to their very, very expensive property. The phone or cable company said they'd run the line, but the cost was something in excess of $10k. They wrote them a check and now have internet.

NC OneMap (from the NC Center for Geographic Information and Analysis) offers some broadband mapping resources, particularly this web map.

https://www.nconemap.gov/pages/broadband

[getatag]

Originally Posted by GarnetAndBlack

Skyline/SkyBest is more focused on the northwest corner and Johnson County TN but if you are in one of their service areas you’re also likely to be on fiber. They are expanding beyond their legacy copper footprint and installing fiber in new service areas as well.

Over here on Beech Mt we have Skyline/SkyBest fiber...... great service and not overly expensive.

[Dackelmom]

We live in the country,between Lenoir and Blowing Rock,Skybest put in fiber optic in our area last November,great service and fast speed! We’ve got Internet and TV combined for around $140 per month.

[knit2purl1]

Thanks everyone! very helpful.