1000 trails call- new changes

Acampingwewillgo wrote:
add that to the lame excuses about the Piss Poor Wi-Fi and how it was only available at the small adult lodge...just very frustrating.

I used to work in IT, and was involved in the project to put in wireless connectivity in an office building with 900 employees.

We had to add twice the number of hot spots the 'expert' contractors told us would do the job. We also had to upgrade the connectivity for the building to seven T-3 lines. It was amazing to us how much internet usage went up after adding WiFi to the building.

My opinion is that Bay Landing would require close 80-100 hot spots to provide workable coverage to the camping sites, the cabins and the activity centers. It would take two hot spots for the Adult center and four for the main building to provide reliable connectivity. - Say $150 per hot spot.

We learned the hard way that the hot spots and other infrastructure has to be build for the maximum possible load, not the average expected load.

(What is available at the Adult Center is in my opinion just a supplemental WAP from the property manager office, on a 56/128 kps dial-up quality phone line.)

Here is a listing of types of internet connectivity used for high usage locations

Business DSL -
256 kbps to 1.5 mbps connection - Shared line for 5 to 50 users.

Fractional T1 Line -
256 kbps to 768 kbps connection - Dedicated line for 5 to 20 users.

Integrated T1 Line -
128 kbps to 1.5 mbps connection - Dedicated line for 5 to 30 users plus voice lines.

Full DS1 / T1 Connection -
1.5 mbps connection - Dedicated line for 20 to 50 users. A T1 connection can also be used for point to point access.

Multiple T1 Lines -
1.5 to 6 mbps connection - Dedicated lines for 50+ users and/or high bandwidth applications. Multiple T1 lines can also be used for point to point access.

DS3 / T3 Connection -
45 mbps connection - Dedicated line for 100+ users and/or high bandwidth applications. A DS3 / T3 connection can also be used for point to point access.

OC3 Connection -
155 mbps connection - Fiber or dark fiber line for enterprise applications. An OC3 connection can also be used for point to point access.

OC12 Connection -
620 mbps connection - Fiber or dark fiber line for enterprise applications. An OC12 connection can also be used for point to point access.

To add the connectivity to a place like Bay Landing to support up to 50 users on-line with 15 of them streaming video - it would take a full DS1/T1 connection.

Such lines are only available in urban areas with high density populations. To have such a line at Bay Landing would require TT to pay thousands of dollars per mile to install the copper/ fiber optic line needed.

Campgrounds are normally in locations with very poor phone company infrastructure. Many are only able to get consumer DSL - not as good as the lowest option of Business DSL.

Another solution is to build a microwave relay system - which might require adding relay towers on other people's property between the campground and the phone company head-end station.

What TT is starting to do is allow contractor companies like Tengo to come in and pay the tens of thousands of dollars of up-front costs to add the hot spots, add a better than dial-up quality access line - frequently micro-wave. And we as users have to pay the fees that Tengo wants for usage.

WiFi isn't free. It can easily cost a campground over $1,000 per month for every hundred campsites. Also many times the infrastructure to provide WiFi from a good quality campground location simply doesn't exist.

All such problems are solvable - it just takes money. A lot more money than most people realize. Money that I personally would prefer TT to put into the campgrounds.

(Why does every TT campground I visit have several sites unusable with the electrical boxes covered? Then again - I wonder what it costs to have a qualified, licensed electrician come out to repair them. Do TT campgrounds even have the need for a full-time electrician on staff?)