Altus Family Rejoices at Fast, Reliable, Affordable Bluepeak Fiber Internet Service
The Podoll family – (left to right) Justice, Missy, Dylan, Hudson, Mike and Devin – of Altus, Okla., have been “pumped up” for months waiting to connect to Bluepeak service.
(ALTUS, Okla.) – Oct. 24, 2022 – Mike Podoll’s shoddy internet service wasn’t just annoying, it was an issue disrupting his personal and professional life.
A resident of Altus, Okla., since 2010, Podoll works for a home healthcare company and took on a remote work role in February. According to him, poor internet service from Sparklight “absolutely” upset those plans, though.
“In the middle of the day, I wouldn’t work as much as I normally would because I would watch a spinning circle,” Podoll lamented. “I’d have to let everybody know during a meeting I might freeze, so they would need to be ready to jump in. It was to the point my Zoom was freezing several times a week and when you’re the one leading the meeting, that can’t happen.”
Things got worse when Podoll, his girlfriend Missy, and their four children would be in the house at the same time. Podoll counted several connected devices between them, from computers and gaming systems to tablets and phones, with many more smart home devices.
“If everybody had something going, somebody was being impacted,” he recalled. “A video game was lagging, or we couldn’t watch our TV show because it was buffering.”
What’s worse, they were paying for Sparklight’s top-tier one gigabit-per-second (Gbps) package. Their bill regularly cost more than $200 per month with data overages, Podoll said. In a last-ditch effort, he switched to T-Mobile Home Internet, a 5G fixed wireless internet service, in May. Five days of that service was enough for Podoll to see that wouldn’t cut it either.
“It’s just like your cell phone,” he explained. “You can be in your house, and it will say great and then you move one inch and it will drop to one bar. It worked through the weekend and then when I started working during the day, it didn’t work.”
With options lacking, Podoll said he was forced back to what he called Sparklight’s “monopoly,” paying for one Gbps and regularly getting less than one-tenth that speed at roughly 80 megabits-per-second (Mbps).
“The reliability and consistency were hugely lacking with Sparklight,” Podoll complained. “I just don’t understand how it got worse and worse and worse.”
Podoll’s frustrations with internet service in Altus are typical across the Sooner State. According to broadbandnow.com, Oklahoma ranks 46th in the nation in internet coverage, speed and availability. A Kansas City Federal Reserve study estimated 30 percent of Oklahomans have access to fewer than two wired internet providers.
That’s why Podoll was one of the first to sign up for Bluepeak when the fiber internet provider began connecting customers in Altus in late August. After using Bluepeak for almost a month, he called the service “amazing.” He adds, as a parent, he “100 percent” appreciates less complaining about the internet.
“Minimal to no buffering and no issues of kids saying the internet isn’t working or lagging,” he laughed. “I’ve been pumping my kids up about Bluepeak for three months. I kept telling the kids don’t worry, it’s coming.”
Bluepeak’s fiber is not only faster and more reliable, but also easier on the budget in these uncertain economic times. The one Gbps package Podoll chose through Bluepeak starts at $50 per month with transparent, all-in pricing, where the price on the website is the price on the bill. Bluepeak offers service to businesses as well, with speeds as fast as 10 Gbps and beyond. Customers get faster speed, equal upload and download speeds, and eero Secure, which provides whole-home WiFi and protects devices from online threats, ads and allows for customized content filtering.
Bluepeak aims to improve options for Oklahomans by expanding its fiber network to several Sooner State communities. According to Podoll, he has no reservations recommending Bluepeak.
“I have talked it up to any person I can grab their ear on,” he said. “The price for the quality of service is second to none.”
Bluepeak service is now available to Altus residents in the area west of the Altus City Reservoir and north of Tamarack Road. More neighborhoods will have access as construction moves east from there. Those interested can confirm service availability with their address or sign up for updates throughout the process at mybluepeak.com.
About Bluepeak
Bluepeak is building a faster, more reliable internet without the things that get in the way of great service — like red tape, hidden fees, and slow response times. Offering up to 5 gigabits of speed for residential customers and 10 gigabits for businesses, Bluepeak is a whole new ballgame — from internet to TV, to connecting every device in a home, to powering a business, Bluepeak not only provides the best fiber connections in the communities it serves, but also meets the growing needs for how its customers live. Visit mybluepeak.com to learn more.