October 25, 2026, RSM — They’ve been cutting up the streets for a few months now. It started with marking sidewalks and streets with chalk paint. Then out came the trenching machine, dozers, mini excavators, and hand shovels.
Today, they’re working on Ballantree.
Tomorrow, they continue progress, moving street by street until this area is fully covered with the orange cable that’s the perfect color for this time of year.
They should be in front of our house on Thursday and done with everything Friday, just in time for Halloween candy gathering.
Trenching, cable layout, nodes, all of the work that is required for infrastructure takes place at a daily pace that is, according to one of the workers, “ahead of schedule” in the latest RSM addition. Photos below show the work completed on Monday, October 26, 2026.
Cox has been the only game in town for years. I’m happy to see the monopoly coming to an end. Monopolies are never good for the economy in general. It’s better to have a choice, even if its only between the current Cox and the new Cityside.
The reviews of Cityside are mixed, just as they are for anything or anyone being reviewed. I’m leaning toward Cityside, and can wait pretty much as long as it takes to get the installation done.
I asked Chatman about the modems, routers, all the tech. Here’s the reply:
Cox currently has a gig speed, but it’s asymetrical.
Cityside Fiber uses a symmetrical network, meaning upload and download speeds are the same. Cox has fast download speeds, but their uploads can crawl at time. For anyone needing to upload data frequently, having a symmetrical system is preferred.
I asked one of the construction guys about the last “10 feet.” How do you get from that little junction box you insert into a yard, to the utility panel on the actual house? He said they dig another trench, very narrow, just enough to contain the cable. They have boring equipment, trenching equipment, whatever it takes to go under, around, or through an obstacle.
Most of all, everything is done with an eye toward longevity. Nobody wants to go digging in the street to uproot cable that’s already laid.
I’d say Cityside Fiber will become part of my network soon. TomGlanderDigital.com depends on ready access to the world.