The Upper Hominy community is served by a small number of private companies that provide telephone, television and internet services. In North Carolina, the high-speed broadband network is not a public utility and high speed Internet access is not a regulated service. State law prohibits governmental units to own and operate broadband services available to their residents.
Because broadband access is not a public utility, our residents and local government limited authority over where, when, and how fiber or copper cable or coaxial cable is distributed. Therefore we have to rely on the competitive market place.
Upper Hominy is largely by Charter/Spectrum and ATT. Charter does not offer service in all areas of the valley. Some residents have the option to subscribe to SkyRunner wireless Internet access if there home location has a direct view of a SkyRunner wireless base station. ATT appears to only willing to provide wired Internet access to those home that already have the ATT Digital Subscriber Loop (DSL) service. The other option for Internet access is one of the satellite providers. Those service have a latency, the delay in the round-trip signal, of about 1/2 second, which make two-way real time communications and gaming applications less effective.
The Upper Hominy residents can have an impact on broadband services through speaking collectively with providers, mapping where services are and aren’t provided, monitoring the quality of service and being engaged in legal changes that might affect our area. Biltmore Lake residents can advocate for (a) comprehensive coverage, (b) a competitive market so every part of the community has at least two providers, and (c) high-value quality service.
Local Contact: Stagg Newman lsnewmanjr@yahoo.com, call 828-665-1531, 41 Pisgah View Ranch Rd.