HCC Packages and Construction Updates
12/28/2023 - WCCBP - ~3 Minutes
Neighbors:
Recent Installation Progress
Last month (November 30th, to be exact), HCC had another great announcement for broadband: the first Jefferson County customer is live! A few dozen folks have received service since near Seamount and select areas on the Duckabush. Crews are quite busy getting the remaining conduit buried and driveway trenching done, and are making good progress toward the 2024 installation goal.
Projects north of Mount Walker in Jefferson PUD territory are a bit behind schedule, but JPUD is working hard to start installation in some areas next year. Read more on their website.
If you have not yet signed up, do it soon! Grant funds are first-come-first-served, and in some areas only the first 60% of families will get free installation. After that’s gone, other customers must pay to bring fiber from the road to their house.
Internet
Our earlier updates discussed how much Internet speeds you may wish to purchase, and we’ve updated them with Jefferson PUD’s new pricing. See our updated article here. As a quick recap, we recommend at least 100Mb of speed, and a gigabit (1000Mb) for families.
Phone
HCC and Jefferson PUD also sell phone service, which you can buy separately and without Internet. These services can connect to your existing phone wiring to fiber, so you can keep all of your phones. You can also subscribe to phone service without an Internet package.
You must also purchase a separate battery backup system to use your phones during a power outage. A UPS (battery) can cost less than $100 and can run your phone and Wi-Fi for multiple hours if the power is out.
If you already have a cell phone, your cell phone provider probably supports Wi-Fi calling, which is free. You can use your cell phone anywhere you have good Wi-Fi signal, including texting. We recommend Wi-Fi calling for most folks.
TV (HCC Only)
HCC also sells a TV service, called nexTV, which offers a satellite or cable-like experience. The service includes small TV boxes that you can install at each TV to watch live TV. You must subscribe to Internet to qualify for TV service.
nexTV works well as a replacement for your existing satellite service, but you should be careful to compare channel lineups and cost before switching. Since the fiber connection does not use your CATV lines, you can easily keep your satellite services.
You also have a choice in service. If you have a streaming device (smart TV, Aqpple TV, Roku, etc.) you can also easily subscribe directly to live TV streaming from a number of companies, including Youtube, Hulu, and DirecTV. If you have Netflix somewhere, you probably don’t need more equipment.
We recommend checking for the cheapest option using the service-finder tool Suppose TV . Most live TV packages that include local channels cost $70-125/month, and work with your existing smart TV or streaming hardware.
-Robert, Phil, and Jim