Frequently Asked Questions

Welcome to Kiza Wireless!

Here are some answers to questions frequently asked about Kiza Wireless:

1. How do we deliver internet service to your home?

Kiza has 12 hilltop sites scattered around the valley. We typically mount a small 500mm dish on your roof (or a post) that points to one of our sites.

2. Where is Kiza based?

We live in Santa Ynez with you.

3. What areas does Kiza serve?

We only serve the Santa Ynez Valley and a few adjacent areas, with customers primarily in Ballard, Buellton, Los Alamos, Los Olivos, Santa Ynez and Solvang. See our pricing pages for an active client map to get a general idea of our current service area.

4. How long does it take to install?

Normally, it takes two to three hours to install the dish and run Cat 6 cable to a central location in your house.

5. Do you supply a wireless access point (WiFi)?

If you have an existing WiFi Access Point like an eero or Netgear router, you may use it. If you do not have one, we can supply a modern mesh access point at cost (an AmpliFi Instant is ~$108), or you may order one prior to installation.

6. How soon can you install our new internet service?

Please call Codi at (805) 325-5548 to get on the calendar. Normally we can schedule an installation for the week after ordering, usually on a Tuesday or Thursday.

7. How much bandwidth do I need?

Standard web browsing like email and social media uses surprising little bandwidth and is more than fine on our basic 10 Mbps plan. You can even stream video without a problem at that tier. Once moving to multiple devices streaming simultaneously or very large file uploads/downloads, you may need to step up to a higher plan. The FCC provides a useful breakdown of bandwidth usage for various applications here.

Bandwidth is also just a small slice of the pie when it comes to experiencing “fast” internet. Latency—how long it takes for a signal to get from your computer to its destination and back—tends to play a large role and can make high speed internet feel slow. Kiza is proud to have low latency due to our close proximity to clients, unlike a satellite beaming hundreds of miles above the planet, with upload speeds that satellite and Starlink cannot compete with.

If you aren’t getting the speed you expect, please keep in mind that various background services like cloud file syncing and background mobile app updates across all devices may be using data you’re not aware of. Similarly, using a device on WiFi as opposed to plugging in an Ethernet cable can lead to innacurate speed tests. If you have the option of plugging in to your home router via Ethernet, it will almost always provide better performance.

8. Security

Our dishes use powerful encryption to make sure your data is kept private, and unlike many large corporations, we never sell your customer data.

9. Maintenance Window

During our maintenance window, Kiza may push out security updates, firmware upgrades, and the like to our data center, hilltop, and customer equipment. We strive to minize user impact and usually schedule this between 3-5 AM; unfortunately, in-person hilltop access can be limited or even dangerous after dark, so occasional maintenance and repair work must happen during normal business hours.