This post has been in the “idea folder” since before I moved to McCall, and now it’s time to get it out there for
McCall Idaho's Elusive ISPs
“all” the world (some McCall folks) to enjoy.
The Issue:
It was far more difficult to obtain basic services in McCall than I had originally imagined. This was compounded by the fact that we needed to do this work remotely from Seattle, which meant that we couldn’t actually talk to anyone locally in McCall, which has proven to still be about the best way to do local research.
Got a guess at which local service was the most difficult for me to find by searching online?
High-Speed Internet!
Seemed pretty ironic to me at the time. Still does. To use a skiing saying, I didn’t go into this search with a snowplow either. I pulled out all the stops. Some examples:
mccall idaho internet
mccall idaho internet service
mccall idaho internet service provider
mccall idaho isp
mccall idaho broadband
mccall idaho high-speed
mccall internet
mccall broadband
mccall isp
mccall internet service provider
mccall id internet
mccall id broadband
mccall id high-speed
83638 internet
83638 broadband
83638 high-speed
83638 isp
Not to mention reversing the order of the different searches above.
I sure was able to find a lot of pages & sites created by 3rd parties looking to sell internet service to me in McCall despite the fact that they didn’t actually sell internet service in McCall. (I never said that lead-generation folks were lacking search engine optimization and marketing focus…) But these did me no good! I needed to know who the primary broadband service providers were in McCall — specifically for my address, so that I could compare speeds and prices. No luck.
Here’s the funny part. I ultimately learned that Frontier Communications provides DSL service because my parents bought an issue of the local weekly paper in McCall (The Star News), which contained a Frontier flyer in it. With time running out and no other hot leads, I went with Frontier. I’ve subsequently learned that Cable One also does broadband in McCall, but like Frontier, their site was nowhere to be found in my searches. So they didn’t even get shopped.
I think that it’s pretty ironic that the local garbage and electricity companies can be found easily with a local search, but companies providing high-speed internet service cannot. I realize that both Frontier and Cable One serve many, many locales — which would make it a bit more difficult to solve for each of their markets (relative to McCall’s Lake Shore Garbage company), but if they’re serious about attracting new customers, I’d say that organic search is an area that is extremely low-hanging fruit.
So, I’ve mentioned two Mccall ISPs, let me know if there are others! I’ve heard a dish company sells, service — they count, but I don’t think a dish is in the cards for us.
Oh yeah — and here are their sites.
www.frontier.com
www.cableone.net
-Scott
P.S. If you work at Frontier, Cable One or another ISP that serves McCall, feel free to contact me for some SEO work.
Hello Scott,
There is another ISP in McCall. CommWorld of McCall provides high speed internet service. Their site is currently getting reworked with SEO in mind. Hope to meet you sometime soon.
David
Thanks for the reply David. I did run across CommWorld now that you mention it. The current site looks familiar. But I think it was just today when I was doing a little last-minute research for this post. Good luck with that project — CommWorld should be sitting pretty relative to the competition when it’s done!
Cheers,
-Scott
It is now November 2010. I am having the same experience as Scott. Frontier’s web site is somewhat helpful, but it does not provide such information as cost or a complete description of the packages available (I’m shopping for a bundle of TV and internet service). I’m located outside of McCall’s city limits which may limit my options, but so far I can’t tell.
This is a helpful site. I can now look at Cable One and CommWorld. Maybe they provide better information.
Hello Scott,
I’ll be relocating to McCall from Denver before the 1st of the year. Any idea who actually provides the fastest download and upload speeds? I’m using Comcast in Denver currently and am able to attain up to 50 mbps download speeds and would like to find something comparable to that.
Regards,
Warren
Warren,
My guess is the only chance of getting anywhere near that speed up here would be from cable – so you’d have to live somewhere that is serviced by http://www.cableone.net/. I’d check with them if those kinds of speeds are a requirement and let that dictate where you live in town.
-Scott
Where I live, Frontier is still pretty much the only game around. If you’re going to be living in-town proper, there may be other options at this point. I’d check to see if CableOne is in your area.