The reality of broadband availability
A Federal Communications Commission map of broadband access in Burnet County.
A nationwide broadband map from the Federal Communications Commission shows most of Burnet County with 100 percent access to high-speed internet. That’s not 100 percent true, say many local internet users and county officials, who are working to get residents up to speed.
“We plan on partnering with private sector companies to get state funds so that they can expand into more rural parts of the county,” Burnet County Commissioner Joe Don Dockery told DailyTrib.com.
As a resident and internet user, Dockery knows firsthand the county does not have adequate coverage.
The commissioner lives southeast of Marble Falls, off of FM 2147 east, and uses local service provider Zeecon Wireless Internet. He pays $80 per month and gets roughly 7 megabits-per-second download speeds and 5 Mbps upload speeds, far less than the Federal Communications Commission’s new definition of “broadband speed,” which is 100 Mbps download and 25 Mbps upload.
That definition was adopted in March 2024, a change from the previous standard of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds set in 2015.
“I can send an email from my residence, and that is about it,” Dockery said.
He isn’t the only Burnet County resident with broadband blues.
Jeannie Cook lives with her husband at the corner of U.S. 281 and Texas 71 south of Marble Falls. The retired couple, living on a fixed income, pay Viasat satellite internet $120 per month.
“Despite paying this much, we cannot stream video content without severe buffering,” Jeannie Cook wrote to DailyTrib.com. “Subscribing to streaming video is out of the question. Every time there’s heavy rain we lose the connection. Last year, after strong winds, the satellite pole snapped. To have it repaired was about $150 and time without internet.”
Holly Morris works from home in eastern Kingsland as a clinical research nurse and needs reliable internet to do her job. She did not wish to share who her internet provider was, but she did say her bill is $180 a month and the connection is extremely unreliable. She has also had to purchase multiple signal boosters at $300 each to improve service.
“We live in Kingsland, and there’s people all around us who have options, but apparently where our house sits we don’t have them,” she said. “I work from home, and my internet is critical.”
At least 24 internet service providers are active in Burnet County, including fiber titans like Spectrum and AT&T and hyper-local operations such as VGI Technology and Nexstream.
Broadband service for residents of Marble Falls and Burnet is fast and relatively affordable. Spectrum offers its Marble Falls customers 100 Mbps speeds for $29.99 a month.
“The problems (with broadband availability) have a lot to do with different parts of the county needing different kinds of solutions,” said Herb Krasner, a member of the newly formed Burnet County Broadband Planning Committee. “Marble Falls is very different from Naruna.”
In 2022, as a concerned resident, Krasner spearheaded an effort to improve internet availability via Connected Burnet County. He has since merged the organization with the county’s endeavor.
A large part of his work centered on identifying the areas most in need of broadband in Burnet County, an effort made difficult when official state broadband maps released in 2023 showed the entire county had access to high-speed internet, which left it ineligible for millions of dollars in state and federal funding to upgrade service. Krasner and the Burnet County Commissioners Court actively challenged that assessment.
The state maps have since been removed from the Texas Broadband Development Office’s website due to their questionable accuracy.
The current nationwide FCC broadband map indicates the county does have holes in its broadband coverage but is still close to “100 percent.”
While Burnet County has no solid plan yet in place, its formation of the Broadband Planning Committee has opened up access to valuable consultation services from the Texas Broadband Development Office, which will help lay the foundation for bringing better internet access to residents.
“Hopefully, we can make some ground on this in the near future,” Commissioner Dockery said. “There is a lot of federal and state money out there.”
5 thoughts on “The reality of broadband availability”
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The real issue here is that a small group of liberals want (as usual) someone else to pay for their luxuries. In this case it is an increase in internet access speeds.
Internet Service Providers have a business model they must adhere to. They are in this business to make $$$. Not every home in Burnet County can get fiber or coax into their house. Many areas can’t be cost justified by the companies stringing up the wiring. Cows, goats and sheep make up a very large part of Burnet County. The last time I checked they are not good paying customers.
You can be assured this small, vocal group are going to make absolutely certain their homes are at the front of the line to get a potential upgrade in speeds. They really do not care if some areas are not eligible for faster download & upload speeds.
When I built my house back in 2017 I knew there was no fiber or coaxial cable in my area. I knew I would have to make due with satellite or wireless line-of-sight access. I settled on a 25Mbps X 5Mbps connection. As you well know, you very seldom get the bandwidth you purchase. In my case I bought a 25Mbps X 5Mbps that I pay around $90/month for. I’m usually good for 8 to 10 meg of download and around 4 to 5 meg of upload. With this connection I stream any and everything I want to watch through all of the name networks. I can send and receive hundfeds of emails a day if needed.
My point is that you don’t need 100Mbps or more of connectivity and we (taxpayers) should not have to be fleeced by others to get it.
A select few individuals are driving this Burnet County Broadband group/Connected Burnet County. They are crying for someone to pay for their homes to get their hands on federal or state dollars so they can write and post worthless blogs, post sunset pictures on the social media platforms and generally play around on the internet.
I’m all for students and businesses to have internet connections that allow them to study, learn and stay afloat. These dollars that are available should be earmarked solely for students, businesses, libraries and other truly necessary entities first and foremost.
If you truly want to make this work with the least impact to your pocketbook, everyone needs to call up the PEC and demand they roll out fiber-based internet access services. Electricity providers and Coops are sitting in the prime position to deliver these services. PEC already has poles and wiring into your house. Bandera Electric Coop over in Llano offers Llano folks fiber services (Gigabit level instead of Megabit) with free installation, no contracts, unlimited data, etc. Guadalupe Valley Coop (GVTC) down Hwy 281 around Spring Branch has 60,000 internet customers in their 13 county service area.
Isn’t our Burnet County Judge on the PEC Board of Directors in addition to his judge duties? Since this is not a conflict of interest why hasn’t he pushed hard for the PEC to further diversify their book of business like many other Coops have done? This is old technology that would more than satisfy the bandwidth needs. GVTC has been doing this since 2003. What is the PEC waiting for?
Quit asking our federal or state government for handouts with some sort of strings attached. Use your influence and get the PEC to fulfill their “Power of Change” marketing plan. Burnet County has been good to the PEC. It’s past time for the PEC to be good to Burnet County!
I am so happy to learn we will have a chance for cheaper internet. But, in the meantime please realize you have access to Starlink which is wonderful! Also $120 a month after you buy the equipment for $500. Just go online ro find out more. We’ve had Starlink for over 2 years without ANY problems.
I had to laugh when I saw that Burnet County had 100% broadband coverage. our area east of Marble Falls still has old copper wires for the land lines which are not reliable. Internet access for a long time was Hughesnet satellite, very slow and horribly expensive. Eventually Starlink came along and offered much better speeds and bandwidth, but still nothing like broadband in town. As a general rule, many third world countries have better internet that rural Burnet Country. I am sure it is all about the lack of profit in providing high speed internet to rural areas when there are greater distances and fewer people to deal with. It needs to be fixed right now.
VGI Technology can service all of the customers in the article. Please contact Edward Mota at VGI Technology and I will get you taken care of.
My Spectrum in Burnet is $81.41 each month. Spectrum $29.95 is for 24 months, then it goes up.