My Rant of the year: Dial up, and Central KY...

[C0RR0SIVE]

So, due to the NEAREST town getting full cable access the past 5 years, dial up subscribers to MSN, AOL, and People PC have declined, a LOT, most of my local area has at least DSL.

I happen to live on a road, on the only 3 mile section on it, that can't get DSL, nor Cable, today we recieved a letter from MSN, both via Email and regular mail stating they will be removing ALL dial up servers at the following phone numbers on May 3rd, and that we would have to call xxx-xxx-xxxx numbers to continue our service.

They proceeded to list the local numbers, all two...

I was like, ok, time to move to AOL, or People PC, found out, they had already pulled there access numbers.

So, my ONLY option, WHAT SO EVER for internet, is now Satelite. Joy, a 120MB cap...

I hate how 99% of the homes in america can have high speed internet, yet, most, like me, still can't get anything unless it is satelite. I honestly think they factor in a highly capped connection such as satelite into the 99%....

I have been pushing Time Warner, and AT&T to run lines out to this part of my county, but, most people here, have already gone satelite with two year contracts, thus no other company can make up costs quickly enough to do so.

Time Warner will, run a line to me, for $17,000 but if they did that, it wouldn't be just for me, it would be for all the others between the current drop, and my home that would be allowed on that drop...

The joys of internet and being in BFE....

 

[wafflehammer]

yea...west virginia is the same way. so many places with only dial up and if you have any hope of higher seepds you have to use satellite. I don't get it though..I don't fully understand DSL but doesn't it use the phone line? so shouldn't you be able to have DSL anywhere phone lines are? I know it can only go for a certain distance before the signal drops...but still, I'm sure it's possible or something :\

 

[patonb]

I think the line has to be a certain spec or grade to run the dsl.

 

[overlord20]

Well at least they didn't skip your house completley... My parents live in the middle of nowhere. We finally get dsl up our road and bam. The house before us (on same side of road) can get it. The house after us can..(same side) but yet we are on the wrong side of the road... WTF?

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

I have a few friends that has happened to, internet all around them, let no drop on there lot.

And DSL is just a phone line, but I think a DSL connection requires like two pairs, which means double the lines per home. One reason DSL don't exist much of anywhere is because the signal degrades incredibly quickly compared to Cable, it degrades just like regular old dial up, but instead of analog signals, it uses digital signals on the wires.

The phone company ran new lines and WAS going to install DSL 4-6 years ago, but that dream hasn't come true.

But, I just now got it installed, a bit over 12 hours from the time I placed the order, to now, but still, it's a bit absurd for them to have such a low cap... I have almost nearly maxed it out...

 

[overlord20]

I think there is a larger cap with 3g net from att lol

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Actualy, no, they have a 5GB monthly cap, so does Sprint, and several other cell service providers, with hughesnet it's about 15GB monthly.

I will say this though, I got a automated phone call from them today giving very good detailed instructions on how to set my account up with them fully via the modem. It appears the modem is always in communication with them and has all the tools they would let me download on the modem already, such as a cap monitor and so on... Rather nice ya ask me, better be nice for what I am paying >_>

 

[hikaricloud]

I think they thought 3G had a larger cap because you said "120MB" in your first post...lol.

yea...west virginia is the same way. so many places with only dial up and if you have any hope of higher seepds you have to use satellite. I don't get it though..I don't fully understand DSL but doesn't it use the phone line? so shouldn't you be able to have DSL anywhere phone lines are? I know it can only go for a certain distance before the signal drops...but still, I'm sure it's possible or something :\

I know a big problem here in Hampshire County was the old copper wiring. The condition of the lines determines the line quality, and the old copper wiring impeded DSL for a while. Frontier never can seem to get their heads out of their rear ends...

Speaking of which, who do you use down in Logan? And did you hear about Frontier buying out Verizon landlines? Dark times lay ahead indeed...

 

[wafflehammer]

Verizon has control of a lot of it(what I use). Then comcast is the next highest, however their service sucks big time :|

And yes, I've heard all about that...Every other state/area that has agreed to the buyout has already suffered so I don't even see why they have made it this far in our area :|

Like you said though, the lines run in the area are in horrible shape and their placement is just terrible. The majority of phone/power/internet lines are above ground , ran along telephone polls that are on the sides of mountains and junk like that. They never get serviced and the only time they even get touched is like during huge storms (like this winter where the majority of the state didn't have power for like a week) and even then they just sort of patch the lines and leave it at that.

Maybe some day the companies will stop worrying about their pockets so much and upgrade everything. More than likely it'd make them a bigger profit anyway so I don't see why they don't do it....

 

[95BlackGA]

My mom just got highspeed internet at her place... 220kb/s. She gets up to 500 if it's a GREAT day.

I've been living where I can have access to highspeed internet, and if I have the choice between Cable or DSL, I choose DSL. Unless the Cable is supported by Fiber optics. Cable gets too congested. With my DSL services, I have never had a drop in speeds. I've had 1.5mb (DSL), 8mb(Cable), 10mb(Cable), 25mb(Cable), 2mb(DSL), and 6mb(DSL) connections. Funny thing is, I get better speeds with they 6mb DSL than I did with the 25mb cable connection.