New overhead cables in Wolfeboro

TCC · 02-27-2026, 03:08 PM

We seem to be seeing a lot of new overhead cable being put up around Wolfeboro. Anyone know what this as about?

Winilyme · 02-27-2026, 05:58 PM

NHEC fiber? That would include cable in the street, plus boxes on the poles for future cable connections to homes.

brk-lnt · 02-27-2026, 06:35 PM

Maybe it's an eruv.

TheTimeTraveler · 02-27-2026, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Winilyme

NHEC fiber? That would include cable in the street, plus boxes on the poles for future cable connections to homes.

Doesn't Wolfeboro Municipal Electric Department provide the power in Wolfeboro ?

TomC · 02-28-2026, 04:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheTimeTraveler

Doesn't Wolfeboro Municipal Electric Department provide the power in Wolfeboro ?

NH Broadband lists Wolfeboro as one of their service areas. The fiber is a completely different infrastructure, so apparently providing power to a community is not a business requirement to providing the internet...

https://www.nhbroadband.com/service-availability-map/

jeffk · 02-28-2026, 09:29 AM

Not only that it's unlinked to electrical service but, unlike for a cable company which has/had an exclusive contract for an area, multiple fiber providers can have cables present. I have both NH Broadband and Fidium access from my street. That means they run completely separate fiber cables, ect. for the whole source route. Their network infrastructures are completely independent of each other.

You could have Fidium running supply lines to an area one week and NH Broadband running their lines a couple weeks later.

Then, every time a customer wants to hook up to fiber, they come out and run fiber from the street to the house/apartment. That's a quick process but there are a LOT of houses. Lots of Rinse & repeat.

WinterHarborGuy · 02-28-2026, 09:38 AM

One of the trucks was Fidium. I’m glad to see the Breezeline monopoly in Wolfeboro winding down.

longislander · 02-28-2026, 09:54 AM

Quote:

jeffk
Not only that it's unlinked to electrical service but, unlike for a cable company which has/had an exclusive contract for an area, multiple fiber providers can have cables present. I have both NH Broadband and Fidium access from my street. That means they run completely separate fiber cables, ect. for the whole source route. Their network infrastructures are completely independent of each other.

You could have Fidium running supply lines to an area one week and NH Broadband running their lines a couple weeks later.

Then, every time a customer wants to hook up to fiber, they come out and run fiber from the street to the house/apartment. That's a quick process but there are a LOT of houses. Lots of Rinse & repeat.

On the Neck road in Moultonborugh, we've got Fidium, NH Broadband, and Spectrum. I've got all three connected and tried all three at the house. I've stayed with Fidium due to their symetrical speeds. They have been "faster" than the other two, consistently. I subscribe to 1 Gig. I can switch over any time and swap out the ONT/modem at any time ... and have.

jeffk · 02-28-2026, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by longislander

On the Neck road in Moultonborugh, we've got Fidium, NH Broadband, and Spectrum. I've got all three connected and tried all three at the house. I've stayed with Fidium due to their symetrical speeds. They have been "faster" than the other two, consistently. I subscribe to 1 Gig. I can switch over any time and swap out the ONT/modem at any time ... and have.

I love Fidium, WHEN IT IS WORKING PROPERLY, which is most of the time. However, I am about to have my second Fidium router replaced in about 6 months. Both were/are having WiFI issues. The first would allow connections but drop them within a half hour. This one is completely WiFi inaccessible however, my laptop is hardwired to the same router and it works fine.

Once things start going bad, it's a pain to reboot, try things, set up work arounds, and patch enough stuff together to get services functional. I am in a very poor broadband area so we depend on WiFi for our cell phones at the house. When the WiFi is down, calls may or may not get through. Forget about using your phone for other things like a web browser or even for messaging. It's a big mess. Right now I have to use my hardwired computer as a BlueTooth Hotspot for my wife's iPad so she has connectivity. I could do that for the phones as well but I'm concerned about reliable bandwidth with multiple devices.

All this because their routers seem to be unreliable.

Winilyme · 02-28-2026, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffk

I love Fidium, WHEN IT IS WORKING PROPERLY, which is most of the time. However, I am about to have my second Fidium router replaced in about 6 months. Both were/are having WiFI issues. The first would allow connections but drop them within a half hour. This one is completely WiFi inaccessible however, my laptop is hardwired to the same router and it works fine.

Once things start going bad, it's a pain to reboot, try things, set up work arounds, and patch enough stuff together to get services functional. I am in a very poor broadband area so we depend on WiFi for our cell phones at the house. When the WiFi is down, calls may or may not get through. Forget about using your phone for other things like a web browser or even for messaging. It's a big mess. Right now I have to use my hardwired computer as a BlueTooth Hotspot for my wife's iPad so she has connectivity. I could do that for the phones as well but I'm concerned about reliable bandwidth with multiple devices.

All this because their routers seem to be unreliable.

Why not purchase your own router?

jeffk · 02-28-2026, 10:35 AM

I had my own, a high end Nighthawk, but it also was having some glitches and they can't/won't diagnose issues with routers they don't supply. That is somewhat understandable. I switched over to their router because THEY OWN the problem. There is also NO CHARGE for a router with 1 GB+ service. I NEVER expected that their routers would be so unreliable. I expected that there might be configuration glitches that THEY would have to fix, and once set up properly, everything would work fine. That has been true ... until it wasn't. The tech will be in Monday morning and I will see what my options are.

longislander · 02-28-2026, 11:04 AM

Sorry to hear about the problems. We've been pretty much problem free. Been using since last year. I've got both ONT and router supplied by Fidium ... ADTRAN's.

A quick look online does indicate consumer issues;
Consumer-reported problems with Fidium Fiber's ONT (Optical Network Terminal) and routers/gateways (commonly Adtran 854-series or earlier models like Zyxel) center on reliability after power events, connection stability, and hardware limitations

10G Ethernet port failures
Failure to recover after power outages or storms

WiFi Complications with using your own router — Switching to a personal router (bypassing Fidium's) often causes daily connection instability, double NAT issues, port-forwarding problems (e.g., IP cameras inaccessible remotely), or DNS-related errors. Some users must reboot frequently or switch back to Fidium's hardware for stability and performance limitations

The most common issues consumers describe with Fidium ONTs and routers include hardware unreliability (ONT ports failing, connection dropouts), router quality problems, difficulty integrating third-party routers without MAC address workarounds, frequent outages or intermittent service, and poor support when problems occur.

02-27-2026, 03:08 PM	#1
TCC Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Wolfeboro Posts: 162 Thanks: 267 Thanked 80 Times in 33 Posts	New overhead cables in Wolfeboro We seem to be seeing a lot of new overhead cable being put up around Wolfeboro. Anyone know what this as about?

02-27-2026, 06:35 PM	#3
brk-lnt Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: South Down Shores Posts: 1,947 Thanks: 545 Thanked 570 Times in 335 Posts	Maybe it's an eruv. __________________ [insert witty phrase here]

02-27-2026, 05:58 PM	#2
Winilyme Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2019 Location: Ice in = CT / Ice out = Winnipesaukee Posts: 577 Thanks: 168 Thanked 324 Times in 175 Posts	NHEC fiber? That would include cable in the street, plus boxes on the poles for future cable connections to homes.

The Following User Says Thank You to TomC For This Useful Post:
coolyourjets (02-28-2026)

02-28-2026, 09:29 AM	#6
jeffk Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Center Harbor Posts: 1,246 Thanks: 216 Thanked 483 Times in 277 Posts	Not only that it's unlinked to electrical service but, unlike for a cable company which has/had an exclusive contract for an area, multiple fiber providers can have cables present. I have both NH Broadband and Fidium access from my street. That means they run completely separate fiber cables, ect. for the whole source route. Their network infrastructures are completely independent of each other. You could have Fidium running supply lines to an area one week and NH Broadband running their lines a couple weeks later. Then, every time a customer wants to hook up to fiber, they come out and run fiber from the street to the house/apartment. That's a quick process but there are a LOT of houses. Lots of Rinse & repeat.

02-28-2026, 09:38 AM	#7
WinterHarborGuy Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2020 Location: Wolfeboro Posts: 121 Thanks: 28 Thanked 61 Times in 38 Posts	One of the trucks was Fidium. I’m glad to see the Breezeline monopoly in Wolfeboro winding down.

02-28-2026, 10:35 AM	#11
jeffk Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Center Harbor Posts: 1,246 Thanks: 216 Thanked 483 Times in 277 Posts	I had my own, a high end Nighthawk, but it also was having some glitches and they can't/won't diagnose issues with routers they don't supply. That is somewhat understandable. I switched over to their router because THEY OWN the problem. There is also NO CHARGE for a router with 1 GB+ service. I NEVER expected that their routers would be so unreliable. I expected that there might be configuration glitches that THEY would have to fix, and once set up properly, everything would work fine. That has been true ... until it wasn't. The tech will be in Monday morning and I will see what my options are.

The Following User Says Thank You to jeffk For This Useful Post:
TheTimeTraveler (02-28-2026)

02-28-2026, 11:04 AM	#12
longislander Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Moultonborough Posts: 585 Thanks: 53 Thanked 107 Times in 82 Posts	Sorry to hear about the problems. We've been pretty much problem free. Been using since last year. I've got both ONT and router supplied by Fidium ... ADTRAN's. A quick look online does indicate consumer issues; Consumer-reported problems with Fidium Fiber's ONT (Optical Network Terminal) and routers/gateways (commonly Adtran 854-series or earlier models like Zyxel) center on reliability after power events, connection stability, and hardware limitations 10G Ethernet port failures Failure to recover after power outages or storms WiFi Complications with using your own router — Switching to a personal router (bypassing Fidium's) often causes daily connection instability, double NAT issues, port-forwarding problems (e.g., IP cameras inaccessible remotely), or DNS-related errors. Some users must reboot frequently or switch back to Fidium's hardware for stability and performance limitations The most common issues consumers describe with Fidium ONTs and routers include hardware unreliability (ONT ports failing, connection dropouts), router quality problems, difficulty integrating third-party routers without MAC address workarounds, frequent outages or intermittent service, and poor support when problems occur.