“1 GIG Service” is Fiber Gigabit capable access (download and upload) over our state of the art fiber to the premise infrastructure. Gigabit Internet is Internet speeds up to 1000 Megabits per Second (Mbps). Due to overhead in the service, most equipment can only achieve 95% of this advertised speed, or approximately 950 Mbps.

As more cloud services become available, upload will become as important as download. Unlike other Cable Modem and DSL providers that can only offer minimal upload speeds, Ridgeville Telephone/RTECEXPRESS 1 GIG Service offers a full GIG service in both directions.

Gigabit speeds are up to 500 times FASTER than a base wired residential connection. The chart below shows the speed increase you will gain compared to your current Internet package.

Speeds can vary due to your computer/device/router’s processor speed and capabilities.

Only if you want to! Generally speaking, though, if you want to take advantage of the 1 GIG service, you will need to make sure your current router is capable of handling 1 GIG service, and has minimum wireless capability of 802.11AC.

Please note that you do not necessarily need a new router to achieve faster speeds. However, older routers are often limited to 100 Mbps on the Ethernet (wired) ports and much slower speeds over the Wi-Fi. If you have purchased a router within the last two years, your router might already be capable of achieving Gigabit Internet speeds! However, since not all routers are designed equally, it might be hard to determine just by looking at it. If you are unsure if your router is capable of Gigabit Internet speeds, please contact our office and one of our Customer Service Representatives can assist you.

As a second option for our customers, we are offering a “Managed Router/Wi-Fi” service. With a low monthly fee, this service will provide and manage all of the hardware, firmware, setup, and Wi-Fi issues that normally come with owning your own router.

Unlimited Data Tiers allow for unlimited data transfer throughout the month, with a fixed monthly cost for a specific bandwidth sized circuit (or “pipe” size).

Measure Rate Data Tiers are the allotted amount of data transfer on your Internet connection per billing cycle. Currently, Ridgeville Telephone/RTEC Communications “average” data usage per customer is around 6 GB per day. Your monthly costs are determined by how much data that you consume during any given billing cycle.

Think of it this way:

Being on the Internet is like purchasing water for your house. The size of the water pipe serving your house (maybe a 1 inch line) is equivalent to the size of the internet package you purchase – 10 Mbps to 1 GIG – the bigger the pipe, the more water (or data) that can flow through it. Also, a 1 GIG pipe serving internet to your house is more like an 8 foot pipe!

The Unlimited Data Tier does not care how much data (or water, in the case of your water service) you consume. The Measure Rate Data Tier is comparable to how many gallons of water are flowing through the pipe into your house, or how many “Giga-Bytes (GB)” of data is flowing into your house, and monthly billing is determined by that usage.

If you are a current Ridgeville Telephone/RTEC Communications subscriber, you can call our office to determine what your current usage is. To make a good determination of what tier you might land in during a billing cycle, we will ask you some questions about your Internet usage habits. Our Customer Support Representatives will also analyze your previous month’s Internet data usage. With this information, we will be able to help determine which probable Data Tier your household might land in.

Another option for our current customers is to log into their Smart Hub, and click on the “My Usage” tab, and you will be able to see your current and historical usage.

If you are not a Ridgeville Telephone/RTEC Communications subscriber, you should be able to get your monthly usage info from your current provider.

Ridgeville Telephone/RTEC Communications average data usage per customer is around 6 GB per day, so we have constructed tiers of usage to be able to provide the most bang for the buck for our residential customers.  Usage fees are an extremely fair and inexpensive, at approximately $0.10/GB, and as always, we will work with you to put you in the appropriate package, so you aren’t paying a bill that is outrageous or unfair.

Once on the 1 GIG Measure Rate Data Tier, our billing system will monitor your usage for the month, and bill according to the tier that you reach at the end of the billing cycle (start of month, to the end of month). Once you have reached 100% usage of a tier, you will automatically be bumped into the next tier. To keep the customer informed of where their usage is for any given month, you will receive email/text notifications once certain limits (50%, 90%, and 100% of usage) have been reached for each tier. Also, the customer will have access to their current usage through our SmartHub application (online account information).

We understand that metered usage isn’t for everyone and that some people just don’t like it. Rest assured, we aren’t changing any of the other internet packages to meter and they are staying unlimited for those that would rather have the comfort of unlimited over the speed experience of metered 1 GIG Service. The choice is always yours.