Blacksburg, Virginia, 12/09/2021

Shopping for certain people can be stressful, but especially when Christmas is right around the corner. Whether it's members of your family, coworkers or friends, there are so many options. Luckily, we've found a great guide of gift giving from The Verge! They have a wide variety of tech, gaming, and even fitness & wellness options. You can even narrow down your search by choosing a specific price range. Check out the guide in the link below:

https://www.theverge.com/22759813/holiday-gift-guide-best-tech-gadget-un...

In this 3-part series, we'll be checking out the best home security systems on sale today.

Blacksburg, Virginia, 11/15/2021

The final home security brand we're covering in this series is SimpliSafe. SimpliSafe is great for people who want a system that's the easiest and most straightforward to set-up and use.

SimpliSafe has a wide range of products, including indoor and outdoor cameras, motion sensors, smoke & carbon monoxide detectors, and temperature & water sensors. You can choose to build your own security system, or pick from one of their tailored bundles. SimpliSafe has multiple packages to choose from, depending on how secure you want your home to be.

Another perk of SimpliSafe's system is their 24/7 monitoring center. SimpliSafe's monitoring specialists use video footage to give authorities eyewitness evidence. That means if you're busy and can't get to your phone, SimpliSafe's team will review data and video evidence from the devices around your home to confirm that something actually happened, and can alert local authorities.

With WideOpen's quick and reliable fiber network, you can be sure your security system will never miss a thing.

To learn more about SimpliSafe and their products, visit https://simplisafe.com

- The WideOpen Team

We asked Warren Neily how things were going after his first year on WideOpen Blacksburg's fiber network. Warren’s property is the last house at the far end of our rural fiber network:

"Wide Open Blacksburg was a game-changer for us in Ellett Valley! We struggled forever with slow speeds from Verizon, including paying extra for “band-width boosters” that throttled down mid-month after the allotted megs were consumed. Forget Netflix—we couldn’t stream anything.

BUT Adding Wide Open Blacksburg changed things for us overnight.

Overall better EASE OF LIVING. Finally, we have speeds to allow today’s family to function. Now we ARE able to work remotely--which was not possible before due to speeds / buffering. Plus, the kids stream content all they wish—no fear of throttling or monitoring controls to “save it” for work hours.

VALUE – cost-effective AND better. We could see value immediately in what we paid, vs what we got/ or didn’t get before. The math was simple.

BONUS to Business… adding new Wide Open Blacksburg service helped increase our AirBnB revenues. WIFI, if listed as an amenity, requires a documented speed making mid-week bookings harder. We regularly received critical reviews about slow internet—but no more! Now it’s mostly 5-Star reviews mentioning “great farm-experience paired with a week of Zoom Calls”—that’s what it takes to support today’s working professional traveler!

Kudos to Wide Open Blacksburg—we are getting great service for a price we never thought possible on our rural, remote hillside."

You can check out Warren's beautiful Airbnb by visiting the link here: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/24334209?source_impression_id=p3_1636385601...

Google honored Mr. Kao on their homepage today.

“Kao founded the department of electrical engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1970 before moving to Roanoke, Virginia, in 1974. In the U.S. he worked as chief scientist and later as director of engineering at ITT Corporation, the parent company of Standard Telephones & Cables. During this period, several important patents related to fiber-optic technology were filed.”

Read more on Newsweek about how the ‘father of fiber optics’ revolutionized the way data is shared around the world: https://www.newsweek.com/google-doodle-charles-k-kao-physicist-nobel-pri...

In this 3-part series, we'll be checking out the best home security systems on sale today.

Blacksburg, Virginia, 10/27/2021

The second brand in our Home Security Series is Vivint. It’s a bit more professional than our last feature, and with that comes a higher price. However, if you’re looking for a great professionally installed system, this may be the one for you.

Vivint offers many standalone products; including their indoor and outdoor cameras, smart locks, and garage door opener to name a few. Those all work great on their own, but Vivint’s greatest strength is when all the products work together and can all be controlled from one system. Vivint makes home automation a breeze, especially considering that the entire system is installed by a team of professionals. That means you won’t have to worry about the best placement of the devices on your property. Included in the home security package is outdoor cameras, interior flood alarms, locks, thermostats, and lighting.

Vivint not only specializes in home security, but they also have a medical alert system for seniors. Included in the medical system is an emergency pendant that can be fitted on a necklace, safety alarms, 24/7 monitoring, and indoor cameras to keep check on loved ones when you’re away. And if you have a doctor or therapist coming by for a visit, you can provide them with a unique code that they can enter into the smart locking system for easy access to your home. To learn more about their medical system, visit the link here: https://www.vivint.com/medical-alert-systems

When you have this many devices working together to keep your home and loved ones protected, you need a network that you can always rely on. When you’re connected to WideOpen’s fiber network, you’ll always have peace of mind.

To get in contact with Vivint for a free quote, visit the link here: https://www.vivint.com/

Stay tuned for our next post.

- The WideOpen Team