Most people in Nevada County live outside the city centers. Combined with the varied terrain, and heavy forests. This makes finding a reliable and fast internet connection sometimes exceedingly difficult.
Broadband internet is currently defined by the FCC as 20Mbps down and 3Mbps up with latency of less than 100ms. More recently it has been mentioned by California as 25Mbps down and 25Mbps up with latency suitable for real time interaction. Only Fiber and Cable offer the latter. Fixed wireless, and occasionally LTE Cellular can offer the former. If possible, Fiber and Cable are the top choices for speed and reliability. There are many areas in Nevada County that do not have any internet options or can only access internet over unreliable high latency satellite, cellular or wireless connections.
Federal coverage map: broadbandmap.fcc.gov/.
This should be more accurate by the end of Summer 2020: www.benton.org/blog/cong…
California coverage map: www.broadbandmap.ca.gov/
There are currently many grants, and bills in the works to expand broadband into rural areas like Nevada County. Much of this is overseen by The California Public Utilites Commision (CPUC): www.cpuc.ca.gov/Communic…
Using this map www.broadbandmap.ca.gov/, you can see which areas are supposedly served, and what speeds you should get. You can also see which areas are eligible for two of these grant programs; the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) Infrastructure Grant, and the Connect America Fund Phase II. The CASF has a local presence through the Sierra Business Council called the Gold Country Broadband Consortium. Nevada County has a page with some of the projects they have worked on regarding to broadband
here: www.mynevadacounty.com/1….
Here is a PDF map of where internet companies are reporting connection speeds and availability. It’s pretty wrong, because ISPs report that they can serve the entire block if they server a single household: ftp.cpuc.ca.gov/Telco/BB…
From: www.cpuc.ca.gov/Broadban…
The rural digital opportunity fund is also in the works. There are may be some more grants coming with this bill too:
www.engadget.com/house-a…
Here are the broadband internet options available in Nevada County in order of speed:
Some info from: www.nevadacountyconnecte…
- Fiber Internet
- ATT ABF (AT&T Business Fiber) Shared
- ATT MIS (Managed Internet Service) ATT Dedicated Business Fiber (Available many places, but very expensive) ~$500/month for 10Mbps symmetrical up to 10Gbps
- Vast Networks vastnetworks.com Coverage map
- Comcast Fiber
- Race Communications race.com (Not built yet, says will come mid 2020)
SERVICE AREA: On Hwy 174 to Airport in Grass Valley - Nevada County Fiber (Not built yet)
SERVICE AREA: Banner Mountain
www.nevcofiber.com/
- Cable Internet
- Comcast (Xfinity)
SERVICE AREA: Grass Valley, Nevada City, Penn Valley areas - Comcast business
SERVICE AREA: same as above - SuddenLink
SERVICE AREA: Alta Sierra, parts of south county, Truckee areas
- Comcast (Xfinity)
- Fixed Wireless
- Digital Path
SERVICE AREA: Western Nevada County up to 5-Mile House - Smarter Broadband
SERVICE AREA: Some parts of Western Nevada County - Succeend.net
SERVICE AREA: (Lake Wildwood?) - exwire.com
SERVICE AREA: (Truckee?) - colfax.net
SERVICE AREA: Colfax & parts of Hwy 174 area to Grass Valley
- Digital Path
- Low Earth Orbit Satellite Internet
- Starlink (currently accepting beta testers)
- DSL (aDSL) or U-verse (aDSL2+ or vDSL)
- Third party ATT resellers
- Omsoft in Davis (Subcontracts to SonicNet)
SERVICE AREA: Grass Valley, Nevada City, Penn Valley, and Truckee areas
No data limits
- Omsoft in Davis (Subcontracts to SonicNet)
- AT&T DSL
- Copper from the main office (No longer available from ATT in many places)
- Digital Pair Gain from a fiber connected terminal
- AT&T Internet – U-verse (aDSL2+)
- Third party ATT resellers
- 4G & LTE Cellular Internet Hotspot
- Verizon
- Sprint
- AT&T
- T-mobile
- or third party resellers of the above networks… Check out all your options here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li…
- Geosynchronous Orbit Satellite Internet
(!low on list because of High Latency realtime interaction is delayed) - 3G Cellular Internet Hotspot (Average 600Kbps – 1.4 Mbps and up to 3.1 Mbps)
- Verizon,
- Sprint,
- AT&T,
- T-mobile,
- or third party resellers…
- 56K Modem over AT&T phone line
- other third party
- ATT
Here is a spreadsheet of the above data: docs.google.com/spreadsh…
Low income Internet programs:
- Comcast – www.internetessentials.c… $10/month
- ATT- accessatt.solixcs.com/#/… $10/month
- Suddenlink – www.alticeadvantageinter… $15/month
- Cellular Human-I-T hitconnect.org/sales/buy… $15/month
More Reading
Also check out this www.nevadacountyconnecte….
More reading: thesungazette.com/articl…