Vienna (WSYR-TV) -- Many of us take advantage of the Internet everyday, all day. But there are some Central New Yorkers who are still fighting for high-speed Internet.
Imagine being told you can’t get broadband Internet service even though neighbors down the road can, and a cable line runs right in front of your home. That’s what happened to Vienna resident Pete Rauscher.
Rauscher has enjoyed living in a quiet, country setting for the last decade, but as he’s watched his neighbors get high-speed Internet, he’s been stuck with dial-up and an air card through a cellular service.
“Sometimes [the Internet] will come right up and other times it’s slow,” Rauscher told NewsChannel 9.
Rauscher works on his computer and says it’s a necessity for his business.
"I have to use it everyday because I have to check and see how many people are still signed up with me,” Rauscher said.
Rauscher has tried for the last two years to get Time Warner to provide Internet service to him and about a dozen others on Dixon Road. Regulations though, only require a company to provide broadband service when there are 35 homes or more in one mile.
"The cable runs over the top of my driveway, so I really see no problem with supplying the service,” Rauscher said.
But Time Warner says that line is not a transport fiber to deliver services, but for network infrastructure. Providing Internet would require them to install another cable and would cost them upwards of $17,000, something they say isn’t economically feasible right now.
“I’d like to get the service…so do these other people,” Rauscher said. “It isn’t right that somebody within a mile of us has the same cable service, but we don’t.”
Last year, Time Warner added cable and high-speed Internet to two large areas of Camden, which is a mile or two from Rauscher. They tell us they will continue to re-evaluate expanding their coverage. Most of Central New York has broadband. To see a map of broadband services statewide,
CLICK HERE.
