New iVinton Rates have been set!
The board of the Vinton Municipal Utilities adopted several policies at their meeting on Tuesday, August 13th. The policy so many residents have been asking about are the policies related to service levels and pricing.
In addition to setting prices, the board decided to provide all residential customers who have activated an internet subscription within the next year and a half (December 30, 2020), with a free home wireless router and free set-up. The home WiFi package includes a wireless home gateway and testing by a technician to make certain there is excellent coverage throughout the home.
“The goal is to provide the best possible experience,” said Tom Richtsmeier, VMU General Manager, “and the board was concerned that customers would be disappointed if they hooked up a state-of-the-art fiber system to an outdated home WiFi router. Updating the home router would be a burden to customers, both in terms of time and money. This way, the customer gets a state-of-the-art WiFi router installed and set up for free, and they can keep it for free as long as they maintain their internet service subscription.”
The board also decided to provide free battery backup with any residential phone service. The battery maintains the phone and internet connection for several hours if power to the home has been disrupted.
Dave Fridley from FARR Technologies was on hand to provide the board with an update of the construction progress. According to Fridley, the cable crews have installed approximately 17,000 feet of mainline duct. The 14,000-foot mark was about half of all the mainline to be installed. The number of crews working in town will grow as contractors begin installing duct to homes and businesses.
iVinton is not yet prepared to take orders for services, but an updated iVinton website (www.ivinton.com) provides pricing for all the services the new municipal utility will be offering.
Curtis Dean from SmartSource Consulting is setting-up the web application that in a few days will allow residents to order the services they want online. When the site is ready, residents who have completed a site survey will receive an email with a magic link taking them directly into the account they created to register for the survey. Services and prices will be displayed, and customers will be able to choose what they want 24/7.
Richstmeier reported that progress is being made on getting the local service office at 412 1st Avenue up and running. Several employees have been hired, and the interior of the building will be undergoing minor alterations to remove carpet and extend the floor tile throughout the customer service area.
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I concur with Cristopher Sturtz’s comments on the rate structure for the iVinton project. In the end, VMEU must compete with the current service providers, and cost of service is one of the major factors in choosing an ISP. A rate that directly competes with Century Link’s DSL would bring in more customers.
The 100Mbps service will be $10 less than I currently pay Mediacom for the same data rate. I only increased my speed with Mediacom because I kept running up against their data caps. I think that many of us would be perfectly happy with lower speeds and no data caps.
We “cut the cord” for TV service about 5 years ago but would be happy to consider the iVinton service. However, the rates here seem too high. The basic service for $45 can be had for free just by putting up a small antenna in Vinton. Additionally, I can get the expanded service for $50 from HULU instead of the $86 iVinton will change.
I really hope that iVinton is successful. I think the board is trying to do the best job they can. Don’t take these suggestions as anything but helpful comments.
That said...I'm kind of disappointed in the prices being offered. Not in the "that's too expensive for (x speed)" sense, but rather in the sense that the absolute least expensive plan being offered starts at $70/month (plus who knows how much in taxes and fees on top of that). $70/month for 100mbps is a fair price, but if that's going to be the lowest cost plan offered...then the iVinton service is going to be too expensive for many people in the city to sign up for.
As nice as it would be to have a 100mbps internet connection (or even faster), I would be perfectly content with a "basic" plan of 40mbps...or even 25mbps, which would still be more than double my current internet connection speed. If there was an entry-level plan more in line with (or even lower if possible) the $45/month I'm currently paying with CenturyLink, I'd sign up.
But, as it is right now, iVinton has been priced out of reach of those of us who are low income, which is very unfortunate indeed.