MANLY – The City of Manly has agreed to work with a new internet service provider.
At the city council meeting held on January 2, 2014, discussion was held regarding a recent request from internet service provider LTD Broadband. In November, LTD owner Corey Hauer asked the council to allow his company to place antennas on the town’s water tower. The council took the request under advisement at that time. LTD has grown rapidly in recent years, and has installed antennae on more than 100 towers in Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa area.
After several weeks of deliberations, on January 2, the Many City Council unanimously approved the request from LTD for internet service from LTD Broadband under the conditions of proof of current insurance and the equipment be placed on the city’s small water tower.
According to a document from Manly City Hall, LTD would offer a service for as little as $30.00 per month for 3 mbps (mega bits per second) with no hidden fees, no limits on data usage and no contracts. Data speeds are as fast as 10 mbps. Businesses and residences are charged the same monthly rate. LTD uses the “latest fixed-wireless technology.”
As an added enticement to the City of Manly, LTD offered the city free internet service to all city buildings in exchange for power (said to be only about $2 per month in cost) and space on the water tower. Customers will be given a small transmitter with an antennae that points to the water tower, in order to use the service.
Mr. Hauer told NIT on Tuesday that his business and his workers have been extremely busy due to outages from Verizon and other local internet providers closing up. He anticipates that internet service from LTD Broadband will be ready in Manly in the middle of February.
“We’ve been slammed,” Mr. Hauer explained. “All my workers have been getting overtime the last few weeks. Really moving into the Mankato area as well, now. We’ve installed 13 towers in that area in recent weeks.”
This sounds like the same type of internet access that Verizon uses. It wouldn’t hurt to have some more competition here.
Completely agree with Allen. Competition is always good. Competition essentially gets the consumer a better product at better prices. What ever did happen to the investigation into mason city getting a local public provider for cable and internet? The council approved researching but nothing has happened yet.
They should come to mason city and give mediacom some competition. The people that were appointed to the cable commission here, haven’t done anything since they were appointed. Competition helps the economy, and the users of the product. mediacom has had a monopoly in this town for far to long. But I’m sure it would be shot down by (our) council..