Antelecom Wireless ‘high speed’ Internet (Rosamond, CA area)

Updated User Review, Feb 12^th  2007

General description: This is a 900 MHz radio-based system that utilizes a small ‘subscriber unit’ radio (and in our neighborhood a high-gain antenna) mounted on the roof of your house. For most subscribers in our area this unit communicates, via a relay unit located on the FM radio tower adjacent to Willow Springs Raceway, with Antelecom’s base station on Hauser Mountain south of Quartz Hill. (Comments below reflect only this configuration, active in the Rosamond, CA area. We have no data on users who use Antelecom for access via other radio nodes in other areas of the Antelope Valley)

Generally speaking, when functional it is providing download and upload speeds in the range 210 to 460kb/s (kilobits per second), which realistically is about 10 times dial-up speed.  Since all subscribers share the same radio channels, during periods of heavy use it is to be expected speeds could degrade noticeably. I believe for a higher subscription price they claim they can enable 'priority' access to guarantee a minimum speed, but one Skypark user who said they paid for this upgrade indicated they did not receive any noticeable benefit.

Cost: As of this writing, they will furnish and install the equipment for $179.90, which includes the first month of service. After that it is $34.95 per month. Installers arrive on schedule (way to go, guys!) and seem quite competent. Call Antelecom at 661-726-3516.

As of October 2006, there are around seven or eight installations at the Skypark. We have mixed (but generally unfavorable) reactions from several of these users:

Reactions from "Skypark" users:

“D” (email from Antelecom & browsing only) loves it, no complaints. Previously used Antelecom dial-up service.

“N” (email, browsing and Vonage VOIP telephone service) Various problems, but Vonage phone system proved unreliable on the system and was dropped after a month or so. Update 8/06:  Terminated Antelecom service due to continued unreliability.

 "B1"  (email, browsing)  Installed early September, working but very unreliable.  Locks up, requires re-boot frequently. When working, is sometimes extremely sluggish.

"B2"  (email, browsing)   Same type of complaints; highly intermittent service, lockups.

“J1” (email, browsing) Installed in April, not yet working to satisfaction. Antelecom states they are aware of problems and are working to correct. Update Sept. 2006: Quote: "sucks". Antelecom provided dial-up account as back-up, that having problems also.

“J2” (email from multiple ISPs, browsing, uploading of data for website weather & maintenance) Initially installed in January 2006. Was never totally satisfied, but it was so much cheaper than my previous satellite system I elected to live with it for a while. After an August 2006 complete failure vendor swapped out all equipment. Service was restored...to a degree... but still had significant problems. Sometimes works, sometimes not. (Update 10/7/2006...I give up, the system has become nearly unusable and I have terminated service. Too bad, it was a good idea that would have filled a real need)

Additional comment added Feb 2007: All but three of our users who utilized Antelecom’s Willow Springs relay point have now terminated service due to the problems enumerated above. However, we have discovered there are three or four installations within and near the Skypark that are set up to communicate directly with Antelecom’s Hauser Mountain primary node, which I believe operates in a different frequency band than the problematic Willow Springs relay. These users reportedly are quite satisfied with their service. If you are unable to get DSL service, this might be worth investigating.