Bridgemaxx Set Up To Overtake Idaho Falls Microserv?
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Microserv has been around for a long time. I remember signing up with Microserv (back then it was called ida.net) many years ago. They were one of the first (if not the first) to offer local dial-up access here in Southeast Idaho. Since then they have continued provide dial-up, DSL and wireless broadband service in the area, and also offer web hosting.
Their wireless broadband service has been a blessing to many residential and small businesses in the area. I believe they were pioneers, in a way, of providing wireless broadband service to homes where high-speed DSL internet service was not available - all doing it long before other larger cities had any type of wireless internet access available. And Microserv has continued to be a viable competitor for even land-line broadband service ever since.
Last week, however, I read an article about a new player in town. Rebecca Long Pyper from the up and coming River City Weekly (a local weekly newspaper giving the Post Register a run for their money) ran an interesting story about a new wireless broadband player in town that could threaten Microserv’s hold on the local wireless-broadband market and depending on how much business they take, could damage their business.
And it looks to me like Microserv is scared. They have already put up a comparison of their service to Bridgemaxx showing they’re worried about this new competitor in town.
I love Microserv. I was previously a customer of theirs and they provided great service at a great price, but as we know performance and marketing rule. Create a great product at a good price, offer good service, and get the word out – and you can succeed. Fail in one of those areas and you’ll go belly-up.
Now with tow wireless carriers in town there is a battle for market space, and I’m not sure the Southeast Idaho is big enough for the two of them.
It will be interesting to see how this battle plays out and if Microserv can stand up to this new competitor. It will be sad to see a good local company in trouble by an outsider. But at the end of the day it will depend who will have the better product, price, service, and marketing…
If you have any experience with Microserv or Bridgemaxx, please share your thoughts or experience with everyone.
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Comments
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3 
0 I use CableOne for my home connection and Verizon Wireless for my laptop elsewhere. Since the post asks for comments from those with experience with MicroServ or BridgeMaxx, hopefully others know they can comment too.
While I don’t have direct experience with either one, when I first moved here, I went with cable service because at the time it was faster and/or more reliable than the DSL and wireless satellite options offered where I lived previously. That may have changed since then but I haven’t stumbled on a compelling reason to leave the cable service. I know that MicroServ would be the best option depending on where I lived though.
That said, I do hope this is healthy competition and that both BridgeMaxx and MicroServ stay profitable businesses. The more options and businesses in town, the better it is for the area in general (unless we’re talking about those shady payday loan places). Due to the growth I’ve seen in the area just since I’ve been here, I think there is probably room for both as long as they’re not totally redundant.
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1 1 Isn’t BridgeMaxx just Teton Wireless under a new name? I’m pretty sure that BM bought out Teton a year or two ago. I had a couple of bad experiences with Teton’s service so I’m very dubious about BridgeMaxx.
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4 2 Teton Wireless sold the ISP business to Bridgemaxx (or DigitalBridge, not sure which one is more appropriate, but they are the same company, apparently). TW still does the TV part. Living out in the country means that we don’t have too many options. Basically it’s dish or dialup.
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4 0 I’ve used MicroServ’s high speed wireless for a couple of years. Their customer service is great! I got an almost immediate call back when I called for help/service. And, then they followed through with a customer satisfaction form. Previous to MicroServ, I had Teton Wireless. Customer Service was the pits. Their technicians weren’t much better than me when it came to trouble shooting — which was at least 2x a month. I haven’t had to call MicroServ but once since I signed on with them.
My only complaint about MicroServ was that I had to sign a 3 year contract, but my 3 years are almost up, and I’m not sure that I would change anyway.
I’ve compared prices with other services, and they all seem to be pretty comparable.
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5 1 I live outside IF city limits and I use DishNetwork for my tv and internet. These days satelllite prices are very competetive with cable and very reliable. Actually satellite is cheaper than cable and you get more stations is you’re looking for tv service only. Their also currently the only company that offers different packages of High Definition ONLY services. I’ve recently changed my package and love having all HD channels.
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5 0 I think there is room for both BridgeMaxx and Microserv to succeed. I have used both Cable One and Microserv in the past and I prefer Microserv. While internet on the go is great I think that a lot of people still have justifiable security concerns with using wireless internet. As far as southeast Idaho not being big enough for the two of them (Microserv & BridgeMaxx) that made me laugh. I think it’s big enough for more than 2 ISP’s. I probably would have read the original article if it were in the Post Register instead of the “up and coming River City Weekly”. When RCW proposed charging more postage for a paper once a week than I was paying for 7 days a week of the Post Register I declined their offer. I just don’t read RCW anymore. That’s 5 or 10 minutes of time saved each week for me. I went to their website and searched their archives to find the article. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had reduced their subscription price since it was last offered to me. Another thing I noticed as I perused the last several issues is that BridgeMaxx is a regular advertiser in RCW. Maybe Idaho Falls Magazine isn’t the only local publication featuring fluffy stories about their advertisers. Some of the wording of this article made me wonder whether the author has anything to do with either BridgeMaxx or River City Weekly. It reads a lot like a press release.
Oh, and here’s the link to Microserv’s comparison between internet providers. The direct comparison to BridgeMaxx is at the bottom of the page. It looks like BridgeMaxx has more to worry about than Microserv.
http://home.ida.net/index.cfm?cat_id=15&fuseaction=categories
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3 1 Hi folks, it doesn’t look like any users of Bridgemaxx have posted, yet. I am getting 1942k down/ 445 up @ speakeasy which is better than qwest silver, anyway. And my grand total is $28 and change. I have no ugly antenna, just a little box on my table. It has not failed to work or been laggy yet. The big plus, of course is getting rid of Qwest service without having to run cable to my home, either. No more paying them just to use the line for another provider. And watch out for how cable ups the price after the first year. Another good feature: I can take it around with me, tho this is limited right now .
My overview: Works consistently, no muss no fuss, competitive price, good speeds, goobye landline.. And a little note: There are local shops, such as “Computer Geeks” listed on their flyers. This is the better option for getting the modem than Ordering it.
Good luck, bargain shoppers.
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1 1 Thanks for your input Baseball Bill. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for the price..
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2 3 At the Microserv comparison site
I see a lot of claims of superiority by Microserv without any substantial data to back those claims up.
So here is my take on these claims.
Number 1 shows 11 years in business to 1 year for Bridgemaxx.
11 years doing what exactly? I am certainly they were not providing wireless for 11 years and in that case why is this point relevant?
Technology changes and advances at such a pace that years of experience with a certain technology or equipment is sometimes worse than none at all. Especially if a company has large investments in equipment and inventory making adoption of new technology painful and expensive to integrate.
Local Service
To me this is a buzz word and nothing more. Microserv is local to Idaho falls yes but what about the areas they serve which are not so local such as the city of Teton, Alpine WY, or Mud Lake?
Guaranteed Speed
A book could and probably has been written on this subject alone. This is worthless PR and nothing more. No ISP these days guarantees speed to any but the highest paying customers. They may say they do but when push comes to shove the networks that many providers run simply cannot provide the speeds they “guarantee” to all the subscribers signed up. Sure maybe 80% of the time they can provide the speed you pay for but how that equates to guaranteed speeds is beyond me. My only explanation is this is blatant manipulation of the truth when companies know the masses have no clue how to even determine they are being lied to.
Tested Latency
Latency is all over the board with any provider. Sure it can be stable but many factors come into play which affect latency. Any claim of “our” latency verses “their” latency holds no weight without substantial data to show multiple tests under varied conditions. Once again we have a statement that sounds good but is primarily worthless.
Up and download speeds are much the same as latency arguments. Where is all the data to back up these pretty little claims? Or was this just one test made at the right moment?
E-mail addresses offered by an ISP are not a perk any more. In fact they almost serve as a tool to insure you will stay with a sub-standard provider because of the pain it is to change your address. E-mail is free from a million online services that come with you to every Internet provider so you don’t have to worry about changing addresses when you change providers.
Free Dialup account
This is a genuine perk that Microserv offers. How many people take advantage of dialup in today’s world, I don’t know but seeing as how it’s offered for free…I am guessing not many.
Installation costs are lower for Bridgemaxx and I would say that this of course reflects the newer equipment and business model that company is offering.
Cost for Bridgemaxx is less for commercial yet more for residential. According to the Microserv comparison site anyways I have not researched this yet. Maybe Bridgemaxx is trying to encourage business customers and try to steer clear of the intense bandwidth some home users demand on a constant basis. The last thing any ISP wants is a large customer base who is at home gaming on the computer or downloading the latest Brittany spears album.
Well that’s it for the comparison that Microserv put online. I dislike and distrust vague statements that reveal partial truths in order to prove something. In the end the truth is what it is and sometimes the misleading statements just lead to negative feelings. But then again when you have someone locked into a 3 year contract what is there to lose right??? Contracts for a service mean one thing people….and that is that you will likely want to change providers in the future and the provider want to make sure that you either cannot change or that it is pretty expensive to do so. This is universal and holds true for cell phones, home phone service, or whatever. If you call Microserv to cancel your contract you will probably hear the term 100% buyout. That means you are going to be told if you want to cancel your contract you have to pay every month that you would have had service. Now I don’t know that Bridgemaxx is any better but this is what I have heard from people who have had Microserv service anyways. Hopefully Bridgemaxx can learn from the shortcomings of the competition.
I hope those reading this can make a more informed choice or at least ask some important questions. And the receptionist or billing office won’t be able to answer the questions. Talk to a tech, take some notes on what is said and do more research if you’re shopping around. ESPECIALLY before you sign a 1 to 3 year contract. And novel as it may sound, maybe we as consumers should start demanding a clause in these contracts that deals with what an acceptable level of service is????? And hopefully competition with another provider can bring that sort of change.
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3 0 I’m a student in Rexburg, and I’ve had Bridgemaxx since last November. At first, everything seemed great. I was getting close to the speeds I paid for and the connection seemed reliable enough. I was pretty satisfied with my investment.
Funny thing is, ever since the “money back guarantee” period was over, the service went to crap. It went in and out constantly, for hours (sometimes even days) at a time. I am a Web developer, and my family’s livelihood depends on the work I do on the Internet. Having a connection as unreliable as Bridgemaxx offers once they’ve secured their grip on your money is completely unacceptable to begin with, much less when your livelihood depends on the service.
We’ve lasted all this time with these farts in this service. We have a backup Internet connection that is _much_ slower, but it works almost all the time (and it’s free). Were it not for this backup connection, I would no longer be with Bridgemaxx.
This morning I woke up to find two emails in my inbox from Bridgemaxx… Apparently my bill hasn’t been paid by the automatic payment schedule I setup on their site. Now I can’t find anyplace to let me log into my account and verify the situation on my end. I’ve sent in several support tickets and waited in the phone queue for a good 20 minutes a couple times so far today. Absolutely nothing.
My advice: avoid Bridgemaxx if you have any sort of desire for reliable Internet. These people don’t deserve your patronage.
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2 0 Two points of clarification
1. Bridgemaxx is a product provided by DigitalBridge, which indeed bought the Teton Wireless name. Over a year ago.
2. Unlike Bridgemaxx the range of the Microserv network is not limited to the Snake River valley. (Arimo, Preston, Salmon, Island Park, Driggs, Jackson) Thier service comparisons have been up for quite some time. Nearly a year or more.
Is “Bridgemaxx Set Up To Overtake Idaho Falls Microserv?”
No, they both have clearly established markets with niche features. And a rural area such as this one are a benefit to wireless ISPs vs a densely populated metropolitan area. The potential market for each is rather large.
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2 0 “11 years doing what exactly? I am certainly they were not providing wireless for 11 years and in that case why is this point relevant?”
I’ve had wireless internet service from Microserv for 11 years at my home and I have several friends that have had it that long as well, so I guess that’s why that statement is relevant.
Also, how many “normal” home users would understand the data that you are saying should be there to backup whatever claims are being made, regardless of who is making them? A books worth of information would get read by which consumer?
“Technology changes and advances at such a pace that years of experience with a certain technology or equipment is sometimes worse than none at all. Especially if a company has large investments in equipment and inventory making adoption of new technology painful and expensive to integrate.”
I guess I’m not sure what your point is here, either. In the time I have given patronage to Microserv I have had my equipment upgraded at least three times (that I can remember). Each time was done at no cost to me, and I was told it was done so as to make it so I could connect to newer equipment they had installed on their tower end. Man they’re sure evil, aren’t they? Not to sound mean or anything but you sound bitter about something.
Contracts. I’m in a contract for my cell phone. I’m in a contract for my TV channels. Contracts aren’t new, and of course no one likes them, but that’s the beauty of it all - if I don’t like it, I don’t have to sign-up, and if I chose to do so and dislike the service at the end I can change to someone/something else. The fact that I’ve remained a customer for 11 years says something I think. And before you attempt to say something negative about 11 years of loyal service I should tell you that I have in fact tried BridgeMaxx. I didn’t quit Microserv to do so, as I wanted to know for certain if what I was getting was better or not, and I can tell you that running both, comparing them side by side, Microserv performed better for me AND I was able to try it in two different locations due to having to have living space in a local college town as well. I’ve tried it in Rexburg and in Idaho Falls, each location currently has Microserv despite having BridgeMaxx as an option.
Competition is good, but for me and my family, and with our experience with both companies, well… we’ll stay with the tried and true.
Thanks.
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3 0 I’ve been with Microserv since my first experience with the internet, I guess it’s been 11 years for me, too. I really have no complaints, and I like having tech support available here in town when I need them.
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I work in marketing, might explain some of my little quirks. I’m also a total geek.
I don’t think that Microserv has much to worry about.
From what I know about Bridgemaxx, their main demographic are the business folks on the road in the Idaho Falls, Blackfoot and Rexburg areas that will need access to a decent connection on their way. That being said, the signal that they’re shooting out works great for the purpose. For full-time at home internet, not so much. There just isn’t enough power in the portable wireless modems to advantage of the signal provided. The educated consumer will do their research and steer clear of the service, unless a permanent antenna installation option is provided.
As for printing the comparison ad and showing that there is a fear of the new competitor…it’s a hell of a marketing tactic. Put it all out on the table and give the customer a choice based on what you want to publish in your ad. It brings results. If you don’t give them a reason to go to you rather than the competition, or get away from your competition based on advertised reasons…you have less of a chance to obtain a customer for your product.
Add to that the Microserv coverage area and the competition that they already have in town, and a company selling wireless portable internet in Idaho Falls isn’t much of a threat (from my perspective).
I’ll have to ask around and see what the case is. Dig into it a bit more. Valid question!