Las Vegas, NV- Last week, Sunit Patel, CenturyLink’s CFO, presented a clear picture of CenturyLink’s future to their investors at the Citi 2018 Global TMT West Conference. It was not an optimistic look into Centurylink’s internet speeds, and what they can do for rural Arizona:
“Instead of focusing capital on getting broadband speeds up to 10-20 Mbps, you would focus your money more surgically on areas that have higher population densities and better socioeconomic demographics that are in coexistence with businesses and where wireless infrastructure might be needed to get a better return on capital,” Patel said. “You would focus your capital on providing much higher broadband speeds than just offering 10-20 Mbps.”
In plainer language, while CenturyLink’s Arizona internet service accepted $500 million in government funding through the FCC’s Connect America Fund (CAFII) as reported by Fierce Telecom, Patel seemed to express that expansion of CenturyLink Internet Support coverage map into more rural areas would be dependent upon Tax-payers footing the bill, with CenturyLink appearing disinterested in investing their own funds. Because of this, Centurylink’s business and internet speeds, and internet support cannot truly support rural Arizona. Centurylink will continue to offer slow internet and upload speeds to rural AZ.
“The other area of broadband expansion would be in rural markets where federal funding is available for you to be able to utilize and offer more speeds,”
According to a report by Fierce Telecom’s Sean Buckley, “By accepting the 33 CAF II statewide offers, CenturyLink will be able to deliver up to 10/1 Mbps to locations in FCC-designated, high-cost census blocks that today can get at best between 1.5 to 3 Mbps speeds.” This is despite the 2015 change in the FCC’s definition of broadband which calls for a minimum of 25Mbps for wireline service to even be considered “broadband.”
It is here that Phoenix Internet enters the story. Phoenix Internet is a Fixed-Point Wireless Internet Service Provider founded in Phoenix in 1996, which serves the Valley of the Sun, as well as the Greater Wittmann, Tonto Basin & Payson areas offering both Business & Residential Internet services. In 2014, Phoenix Internet purchased a legacy provider, Wydebeam Broadband, which expanded our offerings considerably. Phoenix Internet is an Arizona local company; which doesn’t request or benefit from Federal subsidies to carry out our mission of bringing fast, reliable, quality, clear internet options for rural areas “Where Others Don’t.”
As the largest facilities-based Fixed-Point Wireless provider in Arizona, we’ve made enormous investments in our very own network centered at our headquarters in Phoenix’s historic heart and delivered to the rural & mountainous terrain where other providers are unwilling to invest their own money. We make the difference clear: We live here, we work here, we invest here. We are not DSL Internet and Not Cable Internet, we are PHOENIX Internet.