Yes — Next Step Communications installs home and business networking, structured wiring, Wi-Fi systems and Starlink across Boulder, Fort Collins and the foothill and mountain communities around both cities, from Gunbarrel, Lyons, Jamestown and Ward to Wellington, Laporte and Red Feather Lakes. Our service area runs from Cheyenne, Wyoming down to Fort Morgan, out to Evergreen and Conifer, and into south Denver — depending on the distance, a visit further out than that may include a travel fee. If you've searched "networking company near me" or "who installs Starlink in Boulder" and come up empty, this page answers the questions we actually get asked from both towns.

Does Next Step Communications serve Boulder and Fort Collins?

Yes. Northern Colorado is our core territory, and Boulder and Fort Collins are two of the areas we hear from most — between the two, they account for roughly a fifth of everything we're asked to quote in a given year. That includes the city proper in both cases, plus the surrounding towns: Gunbarrel and the Boulder foothills on one side, Wellington, Laporte and Red Feather Lakes on the other. We also cover the harder-to-reach pockets nearby — Ward, Allenspark, Jamestown and Lyons in the mountains west of Boulder — which is exactly the kind of terrain where a generic ISP installer won't go.

If you're outside either city and unsure whether you're in range, the honest answer is: probably. Our footprint stretches well beyond the Front Range's obvious names, and the fastest way to find out is to ask when you request an estimate rather than assume you're too far out.

Why do homes in the Boulder foothills and mountains struggle with internet?

Elevation and tree cover are the two things that make Boulder County's foothill and mountain communities different from a flat Longmont subdivision. Satellite services like Viasat and HughesNet need a clear, consistent line of sight to a fixed point in the sky — a stand of ponderosa pine or a canyon wall in Jamestown or Ward blocks that instantly. Cable providers like Comcast and phone-line services like CenturyLink or Conexion often simply don't run lines that far up the canyon, or the copper that does exist is old enough that speeds crater long before the modem does.

That combination — no reliable cable, unreliable satellite — is exactly why Starlink has become the default answer for so many homes in Ward, Allenspark, Lyons and the Boulder foothills. It doesn't need a line back to a central office or a cable trunk; it just needs sky. But a dish set on a porch railing or propped against a tree, which is how a lot of DIY installs start out, is still fighting the same obstruction problem it was meant to solve. A proper roof or pole mount, run through a weatherproofed cable path into a router placed where the house actually needs Wi-Fi — not wherever the box happened to land — is the difference between a connection that holds through a Front Range windstorm and one that drops every time the weather turns.

What about Fort Collins, Wellington, Laporte and Red Feather Lakes?

Fort Collins presents a different version of the same problem. Inside the city, most homes have Comcast or CenturyLink available, but older neighborhoods and larger lots still fight weak Wi-Fi coverage once you get more than a room or two from the modem — an off-the-shelf mesh kit from a big-box store often can't push a clean signal through older plaster walls or across a finished basement. Head just outside city limits toward Wellington, Laporte or further northwest to Red Feather Lakes and the picture shifts again: acreage properties, detached shops and barns, cabins set back in the trees, and enough distance between buildings — or between the property and the nearest cable or fiber drop — that a single router was never going to reach the whole property in the first place.

We see a mix of both jobs from this area: structured Cat6 wiring run through a home during a remodel so every room gets a hardwired drop instead of relying on Wi-Fi alone, and standalone Starlink installs for properties where cable never made it out to the property line — which is the case for a lot of Red Feather Lakes, where Starlink is often the only realistic option. Both start the same way — a walkthrough of the property to figure out where the equipment actually needs to sit, not just where it's convenient to drill.

Can Next Step install a Starlink kit I already bought?

Yes, and it's one of the most common calls we get. A lot of Boulder and Fort Collins homeowners order the dish directly from Starlink, get partway through the ceiling-tripod setup, and call us once they realize a temporary mount isn't going to survive a Colorado winter. We install customer-owned kits as a standalone service — no obligation to have bought anything through us. We also sell Starlink as a one-stop package (dish, professional setup and a free month of service included) for anyone who'd rather skip the ordering step entirely. Either way, a typical install takes one technician three to four hours: mount, cable run, router placement and a signal check before we leave.

Is my job too small to bother calling?

We hear this question — almost word for word — several times a month, usually from someone with a single Starlink dish or one problem room of dead Wi-Fi, worried that a "real" networking company only wants whole-house rewires or commercial contracts. There's no minimum job size. We carry parts for every current Starlink dish generation and take on single-room Wi-Fi fixes the same way we take on a full structured-wiring build for a new house. If it's worth a phone call to you, it's worth a truck to us.

What if I've already had a bad experience with another provider?

Competitor churn is a big part of what brings people to us in the first place — homeowners leaving Comcast, Viasat, Rise Broadband, HughesNet or Conexion after one too many outages, or asking us to redo a Ring camera or Starlink setup that a previous installer (sometimes themselves) got wrong. If that's you, the fix usually isn't a different brand of hardware — it's a proper installation: the right mount, cable run and equipment placement for your specific property, done once by someone who's seen the same terrain problem on the house down the road.

Frequently asked questions

Does Next Step Communications travel to Ward, Allenspark, Jamestown or Lyons?
Yes. These mountain communities west of Boulder are within our regular service area, and they're often where satellite and cable options are weakest — which is exactly where a proper Starlink or networking install matters most.

Do you sell Starlink kits, or only install them?
Both. We sell Starlink as a complete package with professional installation and a free month of service, and we install kits customers have already purchased on their own — there's no requirement to buy through us.

How long does a Starlink installation take?
A typical residential install takes one technician three to four hours, covering mounting, cable runs, router placement, and signal verification.

Do you work in Wellington, Laporte and Red Feather Lakes, or just inside Fort Collins city limits?
We cover Wellington, Laporte, Red Feather Lakes and the surrounding acreage properties as part of our regular Fort Collins service area, in addition to the city itself.

Is there a minimum job size?
No. We take on single-room Wi-Fi fixes and one-dish Starlink installs the same way we take on full structured-wiring builds for new construction.

What if I'm outside Boulder or Fort Collins but still in Northern Colorado?
Our service area runs from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Fort Morgan, out to Evergreen and Conifer, and into south Denver. Depending on the distance, a visit further out than that may include a travel fee. If you're unsure, ask when you request an estimate.

If you're in Boulder, Fort Collins, Red Feather Lakes, or anywhere in between and dealing with a dead-zone Wi-Fi problem, a Starlink dish that never got a real mount, or a property that just needs to be wired properly the first time, request a free estimate and we'll walk the property with you.