Many of our Front Range and Mountain Clients ask what their internet and cellular options are for their future home or business locations. In areas like Evergreen, Conifer, Idaho Springs, Coal Creek Canyon, and surrounding areas in Colorado, there are no guarantees of service. Commercial areas tend to be well served, but if you office out of your home or a remote location, it could be a bit more difficult getting good coverage. There are a number of online resources like BroadBandNow that can help narrow down your options, but caution: mountain locations can be very hit and miss, and should always be verified with the actual provider.
For example, in my home in Evergreen, we were on the very end of the Centurylink DSL line in that area, so while we had service, it wasn’t particularly fast or reliable. Comcast mailed us something monthly claiming service to our area would be coming soon, but in 17 years at that house, it never actually happened.
The main providers in Denver’s front range mountain community are:
CenturyLink: 866-541-3322
Comcast (Xfinity): 800-391-3000
There is also a popular service in the area called Rise Broadband (formerly Wispertel). It’s a fixed wireless system that bounces signals from ridge to ridge and has great coverage at high reliability, but at the compromise of slower speeds.
Rise Broadband: 855-650-3314
Viasat and HughesNet are your satellite options if you go that route – those are available everywhere but there are pros and cons to satellite. With good sky exposure, certainly an option worth exploring.
Viasat: 866-610-5755
HughesNet: 855-809-4498
All of these companies of course have websites and other ways to reach them, however, my advice is to make sure you speak to a real human being to confirm coverage for a specific site because of the hit and miss nature of specific locations in the mountains.
As far as cellular, it can be spotty for all carriers because of the line of sight nature of cellular. Verizon seems to work where AT&T doesn’t and vice versa, so it can be very localized. I haven’t heard anyone having much luck with Sprint/T-Mobile in the front range mountains, but that is ever-changing to be sure and technology is constantly improving. Virtually all carriers offer a mini cellular connection that runs calls through your wi-fi at home, so as long as you have internet, then you have cell service at home. We had this setup and it was very reliable (as long as the internet was connected anyway).
There’s always a solution – the trick is finding the most affordable option that meets your needs.
