Is it physically possible to have two different companies provide internet to the same house? So, for example, I could use one company’s connection and my roommate could use a different company/connection?
Sure, you can do that if you want.
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Normally, you should be able to do that. We do that at all of our business premises, at least 2 different connections.
For a private house, you should be able to do it, depending on where you live (if you are in the USA, I know many areas have only one ISP, for example), but you might have to pay to have the second line laid to the premises.
An alternative might be to use an LTE or 5G router for one of the connections - in Germany, I can get an LTE flat rate card for around 40€ a month, I got one for my daughter, until the Telekom managed to get around to laying a cable to her flat, she was using around 400GB a month, watching Netflix, YouTube & Co. over it.
Edit: For the USA, it might be possible to get Cable + ISP?
Currently 1 company is already wired from outside into the residence. Would the second company have to run additional wires from the outside to wherever their router would be located inside?
I see the answer to my second question in the post above.
Thank you.
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Indeed it is possible. I ran this configuration at my home address for several years.
Some ISPs will give you two separate lines to the same address - Verizon, for example, if you’re lucky enough to be in their FiOS footprint at least, will do this for a business account (but not a personal account).
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Yeah, you can get 5G home internet in the US for $40-$50/month.
Should have mentioned I’m in Canada. I think we have less ISP to choose from and it’s all more expensive.
it’s definitely possible; just with a lot of asterisks. For example, some buildings have deals with ISPs where all the tenants have to use 1 ISP. But I’m in Montreal, I’ve had 3 different ISPs at this address.
When I first moved in, there was fibre in the neighbourhood, but nobody in my building signed up. I signed up and they ran fibre to my apartment (drilled a hole in the wall and everything!).
Plus, it’s definitely possible because I’ve seen people who run business from their home, so they have their consumer grade ISP, and then had a commercial grade ISP wire them up. But obviously that’s expensive.
Here in Quebec there’s a handful of ISPs that are allowed to run on the bigger networks. Bell had to wire up my apartment for fibre but Bell aren’t the people I get invoiced by each month.
Where you live plays a big part of it. I know I am biased as I live in a big metro area. I feel like outside of the cities maybe things are much more bleak.