LEC is on my last nerve

[Orion]

I was all excited this week. The phone company had been touting that they now offered 12meg download speeds for DSL. So seeing as how I've been stuck on 3meg for what's seemed like forever, I figured if they now offer 12, maybe, just maybe I might be able to get the 6meg.

I called on Monday, and the little dude said, Sure no problem! We can have you on 6meg's by the end of the week! I had to have a new DSL modem, so they sent that out, got it Friday. Hooked it up, set it up. No change. Super.

So after 5 calls into the broadband support line and over 4 hours of my life that I'll never get back, someone calls me back and finally confesses that they can't provide 6meg to my house. She tried to BS something about pins not being in the right order. Right. If the DSLAM is fed by fiber then what's the problem! The problem is the LEC is to cheap to upgrade the equipment probably. We don't live in town, not a dense group of population out here so I'm guessing they just don't see the money in it. It's not the distance, as I only live 6/10ths of a mile from the DSLAM.

I've put up with this crap for the last time. The cable company offers 10mb/1mb for $44.95 a month. I'm calling Monday morning to see just how quick I can get them out here to install. This is what sucks about living in a small town, no choices! One company for DSL, and one for Cable. Still, at least the cable co. appears to be making the effort to keep up with the 21st century (gotta love franchise laws). Now the only day I'm looking forward too is the day I can call the phone company and tell them to shove our phone and DSL.

/rant off just needed to get it off my chest

[Big Vine]

You'll love cable internet!
Good job on the rant...nicely done...

BV

[Pure]

Yeah man for the extra money cable is the way to go. I love mine an can't wait to get the wireless router up n running.

[Orion]

I've always been a big proponent of DSL in my area for several reasons, one of them being that the Cable Co. has always been such jerks about everything around here. We got Sat. TV about 5 years ago and never looked back. They do offer the naked services, so I can just get the internet from them thankfully and nothing else. I love my DirecTV way too much to change that.

It's sorta which devil do you go with? Heh, I'm going to go with the fast one We really don't need a LAN line either. For goodness sake between my wife and me we've got 3 blasted cell phones.

I could very easily live on 3meg service, but to me it's the whole principal of the matter. For whatever reason, we aren't high on the totem pole for upgrade's out here, so I'm going to tell them I'm not going to put up with it the best way I know how, with my wallet. And at the end of the day, I'll end up with faster internet, and save at the least $20 each month.

I wish I was in a Verizon FIOS area though, heck I'd love AT&T UVerse mmmmmmm...fiber.


EDIT: And thanks for the boost of confidence guys. I just hope that after 3 company name changes that the broadband service is better than the video service was years go lol.

[Orion]

Ok, the 10download and 1 upload was $55 a month, not $45, I miss read it. Still cheaper, and faster

I've got it on order. The dude on the phone said they were showing the soonest open time a tech could be here was Sept. 5th! lol. But he did say that I could go to the local store and ask about any cancellations and see if I can't get it done any sooner. I'd like for it to be done sooner, but I guess I can wait if I have too.

Oh I can't wait to give the phone company the big boot. Treat me like crud and I'll kick your behind out da door.

[brian1973]

I changed from cable to DSL about ayear ago. I wish I had never done that. Cable is so much better IMO.

[Orion]

Originally Posted by brian1973

I changed from cable to DSL about ayear ago. I wish I had never done that. Cable is so much better IMO.

Would you care elaborating some on that? What was better about cable that you like? From the sound of it I'm guessing you HAD to change ISP's and it wasn't something you wanted to do.

The biggest thing that I'm worried about is reliability. I rely on the internet for my work (email/tickets/whatnot) and without broadband, I'm limited to company provided *gasp* dialup. I can do my work email, but that's it. I can say that about DSL, it was rock solid here. If cable is the same, I'll be the happiest guy

[brian1973]

My DSL is much slower than cable ever was, I commonly have to reset my modem because I have limited or no connectivity a problem i never had with cable. When we have heavy storms the DSL routinley goes out due to outdated phone lines. I had the same problem when I was living in ohio for a while and on DSL, IMO cable is much more reliable and faster.

[Pure]

Being a telecommunications technician I'm pro DSL it's sad that the market has gone the way of cable being the preferred infrastructure. If they wanted it to DSL could smack cable's a**. Meh like you said it's a matter of who is the bigger evil. We just canceled our cable TV due to crap performance on the cable end, but the internet and phone connections are rock solid.

[Orion]

Cool, thanks for the input brian. It sounds like either a problem with the QOS to your house, or a problem with the DSLAM/CO in your town. The problems you described are not the norm with DSL. I maybe need to reset once a year, and then we reset our router at the same time if we're having connectivity issues so hard to say what's causing what. When we first got DSL when we lived in town, our DSL would go out every time it rained. After talking to a friend on mine, I called into the wonderful tech support and told them, and they had a tech come out and since then it was rock solid. Never had that problem here at the house.

Meh, I agree totally Pure. Pound for pound DSL could put a smack down, IF a company was willing to invest in the backbone. lol, I guess this is just another of the pains of living in the rural part of a rural town