Final Broadband Report as of September 2018.
Background
Reliable internet speeds have been and continue to be an issue for Town of Vermont residents who are serviced by TDS. Residents have, for quite some time, taken it upon themselves to contact TDS and express their dissatisfaction with the service being provided; however these efforts by individuals have yet to yield any results. To the contrary, TDS began stating outright to several residents that they have no intention of investing in improvements to the infrastructure in the Town of Vermont. In the summer of 2015, the Town Board identified that this growing issue needed a consolidated effort in order to produce results.
Residents have expressed concerns regarding the impact of slow internet on education for children due to the heavy use of online tools for homework and projects. Additionally, concerns have been raised regarding the impact to property values due to individuals not wanting to move out to the Town of Vermont because of the unreliable internet.
What Has Been Done So Far
To better understand the extent to which internet speed is an issue in the township, the Town Board first conducted a survey throughout August and September 2015 of internet speeds within the town. The responses indicated that residents serviced by MHTC do not typically have issues with their internet speed; however, the residents serviced by TDS do have issues with speed. The average download speed for residents with TDS who responded to the survey was 1.94 Mbps and the median download speed for responders was 1.47 Mbps.
Doug Meier, Town Board Supervisor, has been leading the charge on this issue on behalf of the Town Board and town residents. He engaged Congressman Mark Pocan’s office to assist with research into FCC grants and guidance regarding strategies to employ in order to have our issue heard. In October of 2015, the Town Board for the Town of Vermont passed a resolution of no confidence in TDS. Click here to review the resolution.
The resolution attracted attention from TDS leadership as well as surrounding communities and most recently the Dane County Board of Supervisors who passed their own resolution related to issues with internet service in rural communities within Dane County.
Click here to review the minutes from the meeting that Mark Pocan attended to discuss the internet issue with residents and the Town Board.
Latest News
- The Federal Communications Commission has made some changes so that rate of return service providers, like TDS, can now be eligible for funding. Additionally, an increase in the amount of funding is available.
- Continue discussions with TDS leadership regarding available funding sources, federal grants and their plans for improving service in our area. The current plan for improving service in our, when funding becomes available, would provide internet speeds of 10-20 Mbps.
- Some residents have made the choice to switch from TDS to satellite internet service; however this option may not be viable for all residents depending on how much data your household uses
Same problem in Town of Springdale and literally 2 miles from Epic – we had our house sold until the person could not get the speeds he needed for his business that cost us probably $25,000. City of Reedsburg (and I think Sun Prairie) are looking into community owned access- Ypsilanti has a system that shares unused Bandwidth (probably won’t work here since we don’t have bandwidth) I regularly need to buy thumbdrives to share files with my coauthors and merr.com out of Merrimac has a more reliable webmail with less crap than TDA. TDS by the way is offering rural providers near New Glarus and opportunity to opt out of their system so don’t be surprised if they try to freeze us out- need help in springdale I can probably find you some incensed TDS providers. This is an embarrassment and Walker sent the federal improvement money back!
Is there a brief update on the internet speed issue? I’ve noticed that there has been workers trenching and laying something (fiber optic?) along Hwy F.
I really appreciate all the effort that has been done with this. Thanks!
Hi Jim –
Yes, TDS has been upgrading the infrastructure in our area. They are awaiting additional funding to complete the upgrade so that we have improved broadband speeds in our homes. The hope is that this funding will be secured in the next few months and the work can be completed before the end of the year.
Hi,
Do you know when the upgrade will come to County Road J? I have called TDS many times, and I do not get any information from them. I checked their website, https://tdstelecom.com/networkupgrades.html, and entered our email for updates on the project, but so far I have not received any information. Thank you for your effort. Victoria
We do not have definitive timelines yet but are meeting regularly with TDS and will provide updates as we get specifics.
Thank you.
Any updates? I know they completed something on the corner at Amble…
We don’t have anything official, but a resident on Amble spoke with a worker last week who said it’s a “matter of weeks.” If we hear anything specific or official we will let you know.