Comment by lelandfe

3 days ago

Here in dense NYC, most apartments I've lived in have but a single ISP available. It's common to hunt for apartments by searching the address on service maps.

I'm pretty sure one landlord was cut in by his ISP, as he skipped town when I tried to ask about getting fiber, and his office locked their door and drew their shades when I went there with a technician on two occasions. The final time, we got there before they opened and the woman ran into the office and slammed the door on us.

That’s pretty common in apartments to have a single provider, especially in high rise ones or ones built before broadband was common. It’s unfortunate, but the cost of running wiring for multiple providers through old buildings can be prohibitive. The providers won’t pay to install it for a single unit. Other tenants might not like the disruption if they’re not going to use the new service. If you get a big enough block of tenants to pre-sign then it becomes a conversation more worth having for the provider and the landlords.