Pictured: Antennas mounted on a silo at 3904 Harmony Church Rd., Efland
Network Build Continues
In July we mounted antennas on a silo in north Efland. This joins the Hillsborough tower and Cedar Grove Fire Department tower as access points to our network. We now have two fiber circuits into the county, connection to our datacenter, and wireless backhaul in service.
The Hillsborough Water Tank at 1120 Old Cedar Grove Rd is next up on our list. If you have a tall structure on your property and are open to allowing us to install antennas on it (especially in the Schley area), please email us back on info@openbb.net! Your assistance can speed broadband service to your area.
Initial Customer Activations
Open Broadband is currently turning up new broadband users in three areas:
– The Efland Cedar Grove Rd and Brookhollow/Bane Rd areas
– Hawkins Rd and Olin Rd areas
– The Poplar Ridge neighborhood
These areas are closest to our towers and we plan to activate as many residents from our signup list as possible before expanding outward. If you live in these areas but haven’t been contacted yet, stay tuned.
We are prioritizing activation of service for those who have never had broadband service (25 Mbps) before, although we have turned up a couple of customers who wanted to move off of cable. If you wonder why we are serving Poplar Ridge it is because they didn’t have a broadband option at all – surprising given how close they are to downtown Hillsborough. They were truly unserved when it comes to broadband availability.
Pictured: Areas where we’ve been activating broadband service
That’s Great, But When Will I Get Service?
This is the #1 question we receive, and this is how the process works:
Our staff goes through the waitlist, starting with those closest to the towers, and physically drives to each address and tests the signal level. This will determine if your address can receive service now. We do not make appointments for this part of the process. Please be advised that wireless propagation, even with our non-line-of-sight technology, does not reach everyone.
If the signal isn’t strong enough from the current network access points we will keep your spot on the waitlist and retest when the network expands closer to you. Don’t worry, we won’t forget you.
If service is available, we will contact you to schedule an in-home installation appointment. A team of installers will set up the system, attaching an antenna to the exterior of your house in addition to an interior gateway device.
Please be patient and we will contact you when we can schedule your address. We will provide as much advance notice as possible.
If your neighbors have not joined the waitlist, encourage them to do so.
Pictured: One of our home antenna installations in Orange County
This Is Going To Take a While, Isn’t It?
In a word – yes. We want to turn up as many customers as we can, as quickly as we can, but we need to do so in a manner that results in customer satisfaction. Our approach as described above is a bit systematic and designed to ensure the best service possible. In some cases we are having to be creative in extending our wireless signal to reach difficult to reach houses.
The incumbent phone and cable companies have had many, many years to deploy broadband to rural Orange County. We’ve turned up more broadband customers in these areas in the last 60 days that the incumbents have in their lifetime. Building a new network and activating customers takes time. We are very excited to be serving Orange County! We appreciate your patience and look forward to serving everyone possible.
Want to help speed up the installations?
We are interviewing local installers and are looking to hire entry-level installation representatives (see job description). Interested applicants should email a resume to info@openbb.net for consideration.
