Township of Blairstown, NJ

Please go to the Planet Networks site at www.getplanetfiber.com to answer a few questions to help bring high speed internet access to Blairstown.

Probably the worst problem faced by our residents is the lack of adequate internet service. This impacts businesses, working from home, in home education, or recreation. As you are probably aware Service Electric Cable TV – NJ was purchased by Altice several months ago. Hopefully, those of you who are served by Altice will see improved internet services in the near future.

But, many areas of our township are served only by CenturyLink. CenturyLink constructed a $30 million upgrade to their system in northern Warren County over the past several years. I personally have experienced an improvement, if you can call it, from a 1.5 meg to 6 meg download speed. Wow!

Over the next several years, Planet Networks from Newton will be wiring many roads in the area for high speed (currently up to 1 gigabit fiber connections) internet service. Rates are: 175 meg up/down m$59.95, 300meg up/down m$74.95, 500 meg up/down m$89.95, & 1gb up/down m$109.95.

They are gauging interest in their service and are asking residents to complete a short survey at www.getplanetfiber.com. If much faster internet speeds sound intriguing, complete this survey.

Get your neighbors to complete the survey. If many homes in the same areas respond favorably, your area might be the first wired. Help bring high speed internet service to Blairstown!

But in the meantime, Planet Networks is offering very reasonable prices to connect your home to an existing Altice cable TV line bordering your property.

Many residents have complained to me that because of their home’s distance from the roadway, Service Electric CTV gave an exorbitant price estimate to connect. I’m not sure if Altice’s connection cost will be less than SECTV, but Planet Networks might be a cheaper alternative.

You can ask for a connection quote from Robert Boyle at Planet Networks at robert@planet.net. I have heard that homeowners in our area who have used Planet Networks to connect with Service Electric were at a fraction of the cost estimated by SECTV.