Skip to main content

It might be pricey, but building your own broadband network might be the way forward

tennessee diy broadband network jasper
JasperHighlands
One of the most enduring frustrations for many people around the country is that while fiber optic broadband might get faster and faster in some hotspots, many people are left with poor offerings from monopolizing ISPs. In Tennessee, one resident is pioneering his own solution to the problem of poor upload and download rates: building his own service provider.

Tennessee has been at the center of of a brawl over the legalities of the way telecoms companies are currently protected to prevent the growth of public sector networks. Deciding he didn’t want to wait for the outcome of that protracted battle, John Thornton of Chattanooga decided to just go ahead with a DIY approach.

Spending more than $400,000 on the construction of his own fiber network, which links up with a nearby high-speed network in Stevenson, Alabama, Thornton is now offering a high-speed service to local residents. His new ISP is known as Hi-Tech Data, and it has a 100Mbps package available now for just $70 a month, or up to a gigabit for $80.

As well as offering high-speed Internet to residents though, the Hi-Tech Data development could prove to be a driving force for a change in legislation. By going to such outlandish personal costs, Thornton has shown the extreme steps that need to be taken to achieve decent download rates with the current system.

As it stands, Tennessee is one of 20 states that makes it difficult for new firms to develop telecom services by prohibiting the use of local taxes to aid in their creation. While the FCC has attempted to overturn these provision in the past, states like Tennessee sued to prevent it. As Ars Technica points out, the case is expected to go to appeal to see if those protections will remain.

But that’s something else Thornton wasn’t willing to wait for. He claims that high-speed Internet is not a luxury, but a necessity to compete in the national and international sphere.

“How in the world do we expect our children to be kept up to speed educationally when we don’t give them access to the speeds to keep up?” he said in a chat with Times Free Press.

Editors' Recommendations

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…
Best OLED monitor deals: Get an OLED screen from just $450
Marvel's Spider-Man running on the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8.

Shopping some of the best monitor deals is a good way to save on some extra screen real estate, but if you’re looking for something that can produce a stunning image you should turn your shopping cart toward the OLED monitors. OLED is one of the best picture technologies currently available, and it can create a lifelike image that makes interacting with games, presentations, and creative work much more immersive. The best OLED monitors can run pretty expensive, but that’s what OLED monitor deals are for. If you’re looking for superior picture quality and some ways to save, read onward for more details on the best OLED monitor deals taking place right now.
ViewSonic 15.6-inch VX1655 4K OLED portable monitor — $450, was $500

Getting into the OLED game can be both affordable and portable with the ViewSonic VX1655. It’s a 4K OLED display that’s made to function as either a laptop extension or something to pair with a tablet. It comes in at a super sharp 4K resolution and a refresh rate of 60Hz. This isn’t something you’d want to pair with a gaming PC, but it’s a great little display to keep with you if you do creative work on the run or want some extra screen real estate while working on a tablet at your desk.

Read more
Best monitor deals: Gaming, office, curved, OLED and more
Dell UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor Monitor

Whether you prefer to work at one of the best desktop computers, the best laptops, or anything in between, an external monitor can be helpful to add some extra screen real estate. One of the best monitors can even go a long way toward reducing eye strain and creating an immersive digital or gaming experience. While high end monitors can get quite expensive, there are always some impressive monitor deals to shop, and we’ve tracked them all down. Reading onward you’ll find what we feel are the best monitor deals, whether you’re shopping for 4K monitors, gaming monitors, ultrawide monitors, or more general monitors meant for all-purpose users.
Best monitor deals

The following deals represent a best-of of the deals below. They're selected to give a mixture of prices, styles, and levels of discount. If you don't see something you like, don't worry, as the following sections will have plenty more deals for you to choose from. However, this is a highly recommended place to start:

Read more
7 best Chromebooks for 2024: the best for every budget
Close up of the Chrome logo on the top of a Chromebook.

Chromebooks might have a hard time competing with Windows laptops and MacBooks, but that doesn't mean they don't have their place. We've reviewed hundreds of laptops over the years, testing for important qualities like performance, battery life, and display quality — and we've found that Chromebooks consistently excel at performance and reliability.

You can find Chromebooks from Google, HP, Lenovo, Acer, and many others, and we've dug through them to put together this roundup of the best Chromebooks on the market. They're incredibly accessible devices, and for the right person, a Chromebook can be the best laptop in terms of value.

Read more