GoAntigo Wireless Issues
I have heard a few complaints from locals who have requested wireless internet service from GoAntigo. It seems as though they just do not show up for installations, and are hard to get a hold of when help is needed. The few I have heard this from, have since signed up with other providers. I think this is just simply bad business. It saddens me that the City can’t seem to get this going right. I was relieved to see the article in the Antigo Daily Journal regarding a portion of the wireless being bought by Granite. I sure hope this means improvement in their business practices. I think it’s great to give options to those people who live outside of town and are unable to get DSL or Cable internet. I have heard great things about Computer Frontier, who also provides High Speed Wireless Internet. As with anything though, the more competition, the better the prices.
************UPDATE 12/19/08**********
GoAntigo has changed their site URL to: http://www.gwave-antigo.com/
*************UPDATE 04/11/09*********
GoAntigo has changed their site URL to: http://www.granitewave.com/
*************UPDATE 12/10/09*********
Looks like the City may be selling the broadband utility
as some here had predicted. Read the article in the ADJ
about it HERE.
…..
Tags: Antigo high speed internet, Antigo Wireless, GoAntigo, GoAntigo Wireless, GoAntigo.com, Granite internet, gwave
I know many people who belive the GoAntigo service was another horrible investment of taxpayer dollars. I have seen the city fail at running 3 utilities before wireless(water, sewer, and garbage), and this has me wondering why our City Administrator is gung-ho to spend my tax dollars on another failure. If there was an easily obtainable profit from this service, Verizon or Charter would already offer it. I would rather have seen this money spent on advertising in various industrial magazines(timber, woodworking, plastics, machining, etc…) offering free land in our industrial parks for any business willing to create industrial jobs in Antigo. Creation of industial jobs should be the primary job of our City Administrator, but he would rather spend our money on foolish pet projects.
Well put, Pablo.
Hey Pablo, interesting that you have watched three utilities fail since the ones you list have never failed. You have sewer and water utility which makes enough to cover its costs and put some away for improvements and expansion, which is exactly what it is designed to do. Take note, Public Service Commission regulates these utilities very tightly since they cannot fail. The garbage never failed, it actually made money back then, big money, enough to keep a whole landfill afloat and put away money for improvements and maintenance. The landfill was not a utility, and yes it failed, but that was because council members would not charge the going rate but charged much less and it did indeed fail eventually. Funny that you get your facts messed up but the funniest part about your whole response is about the City Administrator. If you ever depend on any government body to get you a job you are already going in the wrong direction. The job he does it not to get you to work, it is to increase our tax base by making industries come here, build here, employ here, spend here and bring others here. It is not even close to his primary job so I think you better think really hard before you make that comment in a public forum. The City Administrator runs the city, keeps you out of lawsuits (take a look at Wausau right now, they are learning a hard lesson) he is the CEO for the city not your personal employment agency. Business and industry come to him when they want to move here because he knows how to make it happen with loans, grants, and resources. Better yet, if I offered you land free but said you have to build a house so big by so big on it, and I would keep the mortgage on it until you paid for the land would you turn me down? If you skip out on the debt, I have a spanky building to put another business into and I am not out one dime. You take the risk. Silly monkey you are Pablo.
Interesting how you point out that that you think it’s “interesting that you have watched three utilities fail since the ones you list have never failed.” Yet just a few lines later you admit the garbage failed.
Hmmm????????????
You talk as if Pablo is just some low-life waiting for the city to fix all his problems, yet all he is stating is that the city needs to be concerned for this community as a whole, not just the products of.
Since, as you stated, the City Administrator is the “CEO” of the city, he should be making sure that in the coming years that there is city left to run, instead of financing useless projects.
The wireless internet was a great idea, look at all the businesses that have coming running into town since it started. Let’s see, there is Kwik Trip, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Arby’s, 10 more beauty shops, 3 more chiropractic joints, another place called Antigo Auto and the Corner Cafe.
This service was a great idea from the start and I don’t see why everyone is mad at it. There is no way that a company would of started something like this in Antigo. We are just a city that isn’t that big of a deal to most companies. So what did the city do?…they started it themselves. And now look other people and companies in the northwoods are starting to follow suit in trying to get a similar system up and running.
Also all of those industries that the DOAS should be bringing in will need some type of internet. As of right now fiber is the preferred choice. It is much more reliable and has less issues than copper lines. Plus in the end it is much cheaper and easier to manage. For any company now days high speed and reliable internet capability is a definite must for any business.
Since the original post was put up during the time the wireless company was being transfered over I have a feeling that kind of problem isn’t so bad anymore. Also Frontier is alright but I have heard plenty of complaints about them as well.
If the idea was a good one, then the City would not have cut their losses and sold it to an outside company.
It is never a “good idea” when it loses money.
I have delt with a Granite rep in a non-internet related way and found him to be very informative and pleasant to deal with when we questioned him about Granite.
I have not heard any complaints since they took over.
Yes, there was/is a need for those of us in the northwoods to have the technology to compete, but not at the expense of the tax payers. If there wasn’t enought profit for someone like Verizon to do it, why did we think we could make a profit with it???
Well there was a profit in a way. They where way ahead of schedule on how many people would of had the wireless service over a 5 year period. The thing is that the government can not run a system like this by themselves and they where going to have a 3rd party take care of the service anyways. But it ended up just being a better solution to just sell the wireless part over to them so that the city wouldn’t have to deal with the up keep such as billing and maintenance.
I honestly don’t feel we would of seen anything in the next 5-10 year from any company to do what the city has put in as far as fiber lines. Maybe even longer. So the city had to step up. Yes it was an expense to the taxpayers but if the taxpayers want to see the city to grow and be kept alive then this is one of the main keys that is needed. Also another option is to just use the Verison service but it is more expensive to have a dedicated copper type service to the speeds that larger businesses now require today.
Internet access is monopoly or duopoly or a heavily regulated industry. The middle mile connections from the local network to the Internet backbone may or may not be competitive depending on where you are. But the Internet backbone itself is extremely competitive. If you can get to a major Internet Exchange Point in the US or Europe, there are many providers offering extremely competitive rates for Internet Transit. Typically these services are priced on a megabit per second per month basis (Mbit/ s/ Month)…
As an early adopter of the wireless service, I believe that it was/is actually a good thing. I don’t quite agree with how the city spun it off, and in the long run, the wireless will benifit more people outside of the city an those in city. Yet, I keep the service because of the speeds. None of the service providers can offer me such a great UPLOAD speed.
The fiber broadband is a much better addition for the city. I know that many businesses have signed up for it. It offers very competitive rates, and great internet speeds (upload and download).
all in all…..wouldn’t it be nice if the city administrator let or got more big industry to come to Antigo???????
I keep hearing that from people. It’s a silly statement. Do you really think that the city is not trying to get industry? Do you think they are telling big industry not to come here?
After all, it’s not like there are any other towns tying to lure “big industry”. And with all the amazing amenities Antigo has to offer, why would any business choose to locate anywhere else?!
looks like the go antigo link in not working again!
Apparently, they have changed their url again, it is now: http://www.granitewave.com/
The link on the home page has also been updated. Thanks.