…with YouTube and Facebook for all.

February 18, 2011

High speed Internet connectivity has become so important in the last few years that it is considered an essential utility rather than a convenience. Just as if one’s electricity, water, or gas were to become unavailable, an Internet connection may cause hardship if it were suddenly to go down. Today’s Internet isn’t just for browsing: it’s for college courses, powering their home security systems, supplying their phone service, providing local news and severe weather updates, leaving self-indulgent 140 character summaries of ones activities …it’s integration with our lives has outgrown its original vision. As such, a high-speed reliable connection should be available everywhere.

Yet, it’s not.

“Government mismanagement!”, “Greedy tel-coms!”, “Anti-competitive business!” are all reasons I hear, but the actual answer is something people don’t usually consider.

There are several methods to deliver high speed Internet to your home or business, with each one having a delivery advantage and disadvantage. Some of the more common methods include:

DSL – “Digital Subscriber Line” consists of a high-frequency signal that is broadcast over a standard phone line. DSL comes in two varieties: “Line Share” and “Dry Loop”. Line Share means active phone service and DSL are being broadcast on the line at the same time. Dry Loop (also called Dry Pair or Naked DSL) means there is no active phone service, but you still have the DSL signal being broadcast over the line. Since the U.S. has had over a century to expand its phone network, DSL is widely available (in fact it’s one of TOAST.net’s most popular products ). Unfortunately the signal only has a range of about 3 miles it’s source. Also, some phone companies do not have the equipment or licensing to carry a DSL signal. These factors can make service availability spotty.
Cable – Cable Internet has been around nearly as long as DSL and is typically provided by your local cable TV provider. It is not as range limited as DSL, but it does tend to be more expensive. Also, most cable companies will not expand into new areas unless the customer pays for it. If you live in an outlaying area installation costs can run into the thousands of dollars.
Wireless – This includes WiFi, satellite, and cellular 3G and 4G connections. It’s available in more areas than DSL and cable, and it’s probably the easiest to set up as you just turn on your wireless device and it works. However, the connection tends to be slower and less reliable than a connection involving a physical line. Something else to consider is many of these plans have relatively low data caps on them, making sharing a single connection expensive or impractical for network connectivity.
T1/T3/Fiber- Very fast, very reliable, and very expensive. Pricing of these products puts it in the “businesses level only” range. Consumer level fiber connections are now available in select markets, but availability is limited to central areas of large cities. It’s still at the point where if someone in the office mentions “Hey! I qualify for a fiber connection!”, the typical response is “Lucky!”

So what’s a dial-up user to do? Why aren’t providers spreading their service to all those unserviced customers across the country? Smaller countries like Singapore, Japan, and especially South Korea (which, by the way, is the best Korea) already have standard 10.0Mb connections available anywhere. The U.S. struggles to get 1.0Mb to many areas. The main reason for this is something most people over look, a principle I call I.H.C.F.- “Internet Hates Corn Fields”.

The U.S. is a huge country. Not Canada or Russia huge, but it’s up there. Since it’s so large, edges of the country tend to house the largest cities, with sprawling undeveloped bald spots in the middle. You could say the U.S. is designed much like my head (I’ve still not accepted middle age). Since people flock to things like jobs, coastlines, and 45 minute traffic jams, population density tends to be highest in these areas. A high population means a lot of people that want to pay someone to maintain a network. Due to I.H.C.F., the Field of Dreams mantra “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t work with network construction.

Help is on the way (hopefully)! The Government recently finished is Map of Broadband Availability , which basically shows the haves and have-nots in the U.S.. The “have-not” areas are going to be targeted for the Obama Administration’s Wireless Broadband Initiative , which is supposed to supply funding for wireless networks in under-serviced areas. This means that you may finally be able to watch those forwarded “ Watch this guy suffer a crotch injury! ” YouTube links anywhere you go within the next few years. New advancements in cell tower miniaturization should make deployment easier for those involved, faster and less expensive deployments. Just cross your fingers that funding doesn’t get diverted to other programs like so many other hopeful initiatives (I’m talking about you “ Fund to Hunt for Radioactive Rabbit Droppings ” supporters).

So, high-speed Internet isn’t available everywhere yet, but at least the problem has finally been mapped out and a plan is coming together to deal with it. In the mean time, if your Facebook wall is loading too slowly, blame corn.

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New Business Broadband Plans!

By Mike Pawlecki • March 31, 2021

TOAST.net is excited to offer 4 new Business Broadband plans

New Fiber for Business Plans!

By Mike Pawlecki • March 11, 2021

TOAST.net is excited to announce 3 new Business Fiber Plans

New Residential Fiber Plans!

By Mike Pawlecki • January 12, 2021

TOAST.net has added two new residential Fiber Internet plans!

Switch to Universal Pricing

By Mike Pawlecki • August 14, 2020

This coming Monday, Aug. 17th, we will be switching to universal pricing -- one price for all DSL speeds (around $65) and one price for Fiber (around $90). So if anyone is thinking they could use one of our basic service plans, now's the time to order. For example: DSL - 12 Mbps for $43.95/month - Great for seniors on a fixed income. Plenty of speed for surfing the web, checking email, and streaming for 1 or 2 TVs. Fiber - 60 Mbps for $45.00/month - Awesome solution for just about any household. Note that fiber is a new technology and only about 20% of the country can get it. Check your address to see what service you qualify for and order by Sunday, 8/16/20! This is your last chance to lock in the speed and price of a great DSL or Fiber plan before they are grandfathered!

Google Meet

By Mike Pawlecki • May 20, 2020

Google Meet is now free for everyone. Check out TOAST.net's blog that tells you more about Google Meet usage at your home or office.

Work from Home (part 2)

By Mike Pawlecki • May 1, 2020

Google - Meet Meet is video conference software, similar to Zoom. To help businesses, schools, and people around the world navigate remote life, Google is making Meet free for everyone with availability rolling out over the coming weeks. See Google's blog post for details. SolarWinds - Take Control You may need to run applications off your PC or server at the office. In that case, SolarWinds makes makes an easy-to-use application that allows home users to remote desktop to their PC in the office. It's secure and doesn't require special hardware, a static IP, or VPN. We're offering this software free of charge for 90 days. Please contact us if interested.

Work from Home

By Mike Pawlecki • March 20, 2020

This week we've taken quite a few calls from companies asking how their employees and staff can work from home (WFH). We're happy to offer several WFH solutions to help organizations mitigate health risks to employees and customers. TOAST.net understands how important it is to keep your employees connected, productive, and safe during this unprecedented pandemic. Here are the services we have to help your business through this difficult time : Business Portal is a 'home page' for your browser that improves communication and efficiencies within your organization. It's a private Intranet that features company news, announcements, links to vendors and cloud apps, an employee schedule, and more! We offer this at no charge to our customers. Visit https://start.toast.net Google's G Suite - TOAST.net is an authorized reseller of G Suite, a cloud-based collaboration tool featuring Email, Calendar, Chat, Hangouts (video conferencing), and Drive. You can create files, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with just your browser (no software to install) and share these with fellow workers, customers, and vendors. More info Remote Desktop - an easy-to-use application that allows home users to connect to PCs in the office. It's secure and doesn't require special hardware or a static IP. We're offering this free of charge for 90 days. High-speed Internet for Home - We provide residential Cable, DSL, and Fiber Internet service . So you can pay for your employee's Internet connection on your business invoice. Please contact us if you're interested in any of these services. B est wishes to everyone to stay healthy, safe, and upbeat as we socially distance ourselves for a quick end to this situation. Note: Our customer support team continues to work their regular hours. We operate support teams in multiple locations and, while there may be some disruption at certain locations for a limited time, overall we do not expect any significant change in access to support.

Cut The Cord With Unlimited Data

By TOAST.net Internet • January 28, 2019

In the month after Christmas, we’ve seen a high demand for our Internet service with unlimited data. Much of it is from people wanting to use their new streaming device (Fire Stick, Roku, Chromecast, Apple TV, etc.) to cancel their expensive cable TV service. This is commonly referred to as “cutting the cord.”

Fiber Expansion

By TOAST.net Internet • December 17, 2018

TOAST.net is pleased to announce fiber Internet service in 12 new metro areas:

Start Page Updates

By TOAST.net Internet • December 12, 2018

Moved Facebook link from top bar to the Popular Sites section. Added Yahoo Finance to the Personal Finance section. Yahoo Finance is one of the largest business news web sites in the United States by monthly traffic.