In response to recent letters that discussed the quality of internet service in Ocala/Marion County, more residents wrote in to share their thoughts and concerns on this topic.
“We reside in northwest Ocala. If I had known the internet service is so poor, I might have picked another area. When looking at homes, we didn’t even consider that this would be a major issue. We’re retired, but there is no way we could work from home. We’re lucky to have any service. CenturyLink advised us that we were on the edge of the service area to even have service. I have had to add an additional internet service through satellite to power the TV’s, and I use CenturyLink for phones and the computer. This seems like service from the 1960’s. Ocala needs to grow with technology,” says Ocala resident Diana Hart.
“We here in On Top of the World only have one option for cable service. That is Spectrum. They advertise great service at a cheap price. A year after you sign, it goes up by almost 80%, and the speed goes down after a month. When you call their customer service, they come over and give a bogus story about your machine. We need more companies in this growing area. When I called AT&T, they said that they do not service this area. Why?” says Mike Kaye, Ocala resident.
“If you come down Locust Road behind Lake Weir High School, there is no coax/cable run to any of the houses, and the ‘fastest’ internet speed is 1.5 Mbps which is offered by CenturyLink. Yes, you read that right. This is completely unacceptable. Is this still 1995? Even T-Mobile or Verizon could put a cell tower back there and offer high-speed internet without running any cable. We don’t even have that option. I’m shocked that no fiber/cable company owns the rights to that area. I hope fiber/coax is run in the near future, especially with all the homes going up there now,” says Ocala resident Dan Venturini.
“We have Spectrum, which is the only cable internet service in the area. We have 400 Mbps speed. When it is functioning correctly, it is fine, but we pay dearly for it. We also have a CenturyLink central office about one-tenth of a mile from my house. CenturyLink has the fiber optics to bring it to individual homes, but they refuse to do it. They have the ability to do it and get lightning fast service. Just ask anybody with Verizon Fios. I am sick and tired of paying those high prices for Spectrum. Before we moved to Belleview, we had Fios and it was blazing fast for about $45 a month. CenturyLink needs to get off their duffs and put fiber optics in all the neighborhoods. Lower cost and better service, that works for me,” says Robert Lavallee, Belleview resident.
Would you like to share your thoughts with us? Share them in a comment or by writing a Letter to the Editor.